Michigan 28, Akron 24 Comment Count

Ace

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This afternoon in front of a late-arriving, non-sellout crowd at the Big House, Michigan faced off against an Akron team that went 1-11, 1-11, and 1-11 in the last three seasons, started the year with a 38-7 loss to UCF, spent last weekend getting outgained and nearly outscored by FCS James Madison, and is considered the worst team in the FBS. This was a game to work out the kinks in the playbook, get in some good reps for the backups, and give a good show for the fans who probably paid $5 for a ticket from their friend who likes to sleep in on Saturdays.

OR NOT.

At first, it looked like all would go as expected; Michigan forced an Akron punt on their opening drive, and after Fitz Toussaint rushed for a two-yard loss, Devin Gardner completed five consecutive passes, capped by a 48-yard toss to Devin Funchess, who outran the entire Akron secondary en route to the end zone.

Concern started to grow when Michigan's next drive netted zero yards. The first quarter ended with the score at 7-3, Wolverines; surely, Michigan would pull away any time now.

Then Brendan Gibbons missed a 45-yard field goal to start the second quarter, snapping his streak of 16 consecutive makes. After the defense forced a three-and-out, the Wolverines drove deep into Zips territory, only for Devin Gardner to fumble away the possession on a speed option—a play in which Fitz Toussaint had a clear touchdown if Gardner would've pitched. The defense again picked up the offense, as Blake Countess intercepted a Kyle Pohl pass and returned it all the way to the Akron 20-yard line. Any time now...

Three plays later, Gardner forced a pass into coverage that Akron's DeAndre Scott intercepted easily. The Zips were able to mount a plodding drive that oozed into Michigan territory; after taking a delay of game on fourth-and-one, however, Robert Stein's 45-yard field goal clanged off the left upright. Any time now...

Two plays later, Gardner threw the ball to a well-covered Jeremy Gallon; Akron's Justin March came away with the interception. Luckily for Michigan, only 29 seconds remained on the clock. Stein's 55-yard attempt with 0:05 left in the half went wide left, and the Wolverines were happy to kneel out the clock and regroup at halftime. Any time now...

The second half began inauspiciously, with the Wolverines gaining just one yard on three plays before a Matt Wile punt. Akron's ensuing possession went 75 yards in eight plays, ending in a 28-yard touchdown from Pohl to a wide-open Zach D'Orazio, who went unmolested up the seam as the linebackers failed to get depth on their drops and the safeties couldn't close the gap. Akron 10, Michigan 7. ANY TIME NOW...

Devin Gardner bounced back from his turnovers and gave U-M fans a brief respite from PANIC on the next possession, scoring on a 36-yard inverted veer keeper—for seemingly the first time all day, Michigan got great blocking up front, and Jeremy Jackson guaranteed the score by wiping out three Akron defenders downfield. The defense held up their end, too, forcing another three-and-out, and the Wolverines took a 21-10 lead when Jehu Chesson took his first career reception on a crossing route, broke through a few (poor) tackling attempts by the Akron secondary, and jetted into the corner of the end zone. After Michigan came up with another stop, disaster averted, right?

Wrong. Two plays into the fourth quarter, Al Borges tried to set up a screen pass on third-and-9. Facing heavy pressure, Gardner sidearmed a horribly ill-advised throw directly into the arms of Justin March; as noted earlier, March plays for Akron. He waltzed 27 yards untouched into the end zone. ANY TIME NOW...

Michigan's next drive went nowhere, and Wile didn't help matters by booting a 35-yard punt—not even among his two worst on the day—to set up the Zips on their own 39. A 43-yard pass from Pohl to L.T. Smith set up Akron at the Michigan seven. The Wolverines caught a huge break two plays later, when Pohl threw a play-action pass right to Jarrod Wilson (above, Upchurch). Wilson smartly took a knee in the end zone, giving Michigan the ball on the 20. Time to run out the clock, yes?

Well, not quite. Fitz Toussaint started the drive with a 16-yard run, but his two ensuing carries netted a lone yard. After Gardner's third-down pass to Gallon came up just short of the sticks, Wile shanked a 22-yard punt. The Zips went on an 11-play march down the field, and after getting stuffed twice at the goal line, scored the go-ahead touchdown when they spread the field—Pohl rolled right and found receiver Tyrell Goodman all alone. 24-21, Akron. 4:10 left on the clock. Full-blown PANIC.

Gardner went back to what he'd done best all game, run the football, taking off for a 35-yard gain to move Michigan into Akron territory on the next possession. He found Gallon on the sideline for a 20-yard gain on the very next play, and Michigan got another first down when Gardner's throw to Jake Butt in the end zone drew a pass interference call. Toussaint found a big hole on the left side of the line and took advantage for a two-yard touchdown on the next play. 28-24, Michigan. 2:49 left. Now was the time, yes?

Well, kinda. First, Pohl found Jerrod Dillard for a 24-yard gain, and the Zips moved into Michigan territory two plays later when Blake Countess jumped offsides on a blitz. A 19-yard run by Conor Hundley on third-and-five gave the Zips a first down at the Michigan 27. Despite a holding call moving them back ten yards, Akron kept pushing downfield, with Pohl finding Smith all alone at the 11-yard line after escaping the pocket. Another pass to Smith gave Akron a third-and-one on the Michigan two as the clock ticked down to 0:15. An ill-advised toss play to Jawon Chisholm moved the ball back two yards; the Zips burned their final timeout. Fourth down, five seconds left, ball on the Michigan four.

Greg Mattison dialed up a heavy blitz, and Pohl's desperation pass found only fieldturf, perhaps helped by a missed holding call in the Michigan secondary. The time had finally come, with zero seconds on the clock. Michigan 28, Akron 24, The Horror II narrowly avoided.

In the end, Michigan outgained the worst FBS team outside of Georgia State by seven yards—seven very critical yards, as it turned out. Gardner's 248 passing yards and 103 rushing yards were offset by his four turnovers, including his second pick-six in as many games. The offensive line struggled to open up holes against a very small Akron defensive front. The defense, for their part, allowed far too many passes over the middle and couldn't muster a good pass rush until the game's final play; they gave up big plays, too, as both Raymon Taylor and Jourdan Lewis were beat for big gains over the top.

"This is an embarrassment," Taylor Lewan said after the game. Even with the victory, there's no argument here.

Comments

ohioNblue33

September 14th, 2013 at 5:47 PM ^

Just don't know what to think. If Hoke teaches the d line the he needs to teach them better and the players need to play better. The oline is horrific. Gardner looking like Denard. Turnover city. Pissed!

True Blue Grit

September 14th, 2013 at 5:49 PM ^

To me is that we came out  after the half without the sense of urgency to play better and the coaches did not make other adjustments.  The first half poor play should have been enough to get this team motivated.  Why it wasn't is the most disturbing thing.  

Reader71

September 14th, 2013 at 7:03 PM ^

Offensively, we were much better in the 2nd half. We scored 18 points after a first half of 10. We ran the ball quite a bit better, even though our line is the worst I've ever seen at Michigan. Gardner threw an INT for a TD, but we were better in the red zone, where we had two turnover in the first half.

Defensively, we were probably worse, bit I blame quite a bit of that on the offense not giving them a break. Too many sudden changes via turnover, not enough long, steady drives. Both of our 2nd half drives were of the fewer than 10 play variety.

For the record, we sucked, but I don't think anyone can say we weren't better in the 2nd half.

CompleteLunacy

September 14th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^

If better means less turnovers, I suppose. More points too. But it also featured a crippling pick 6, several 3-and-outs (or near 3-and-outs), and a complete inability to ice the game away. Against Akron. I guess it was marginally better than half one, but that's still not saying a lot.

gvsulaker19

September 14th, 2013 at 6:19 PM ^

I can agree that this near fiasco would definetely full under the "Horror" category.

It is almost like a John Carpenter trilogy:

 

Appy State was the original "Horror"

 

Toledo qualifies as "The Horror II"

 

This game would have most certainly made it as "The Horror III: The Season of the Zips".

 

Today's contest was extremely frustrating to watch. It brought me to wonder: Did Michigan just not prepare very well for this contest? I mean, I can see the mindset: Beat ND in a thriller, facing a team that has won 3 games in 3 seasons(!). Said opponent was rolled by Central Florida and went toe-to-toe with some guy named James Madison.

So, was practice time spent working on future opponents? Did the 2nd teamers/back-ups get more reps than usual because of foreseen blowout? I don't know.

I will say that Bowden has assembled a good coaching crew around him. The Zips SHOULD get better, but I was thinking 2-3 years from now. And when I mean good I mean MAC-LEVEL good, not beat Michigan good.No way should Akron have kept this game this close.

CR7

September 14th, 2013 at 6:34 PM ^

Said this in the live blog but Mattison should forfeit his game check. He called a shocker and I still see no point in lifting the nose against spread teams. Soft coverage against MAC-letes, not disguising blitzes and generally being out-coached. Terrible.

Elmer

September 14th, 2013 at 10:16 PM ^

You bring up a good point, our defense is lousy at disguising blitzes.  Another issue is after the QB clearly identifies the blitz and changes the play, we are not capable of switching our defensive call.  Not impressed with Mattison in this area so far this year.

BlueFordSoftTop

September 14th, 2013 at 6:38 PM ^

Our guys haven't played before 2:30p in regular season until today. They appeared droopy as heck. Either there was a well-attended party or an X Box tournament last night, else somebody please tell the coaches to disable the in-room porn cable henceforth. I wasted an entire afternoon watching the game when I had only anticipated a single quarter being necessary.

Catchafire

September 14th, 2013 at 6:39 PM ^

Al Borgess is trying to FORCE his Pro Style Offense, when obviously we are NOT there yet no matter how many flashes of awesome we see.  We do not have the receivers and we do not have the running backs for his Pro Style Offense.  As a result, Gardner was placed in too many 3rd and long scenarios and out of his comfort zone.



I'm not mad at Borgess for doing this because we want to keep our QB healthy, but after Gardner leaves, we are going to be a little screwed if the passing or running game fails to improve.



The Defense is solid, but I don't want to have to depend on them to win us the game like they did today.

EnoughAlready

September 14th, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^

The defense gave up over 400 yards.  To Akron.  Akron had drives where they marched up and down the field.  Devin Gardner made terrible passes that resulted in 3 INTs.  Just run the ball?  Are you kidding?  By halftime, Toussaint had like 9 runs, and 5 of them were stopped behind the line of scrimmage.  The O-line is mystifyingly bad right now.  Borges adjusted as best as he could, calling some QB runs to loosen up the defense.

The criticism of Borges on this site has reached the level where it's reflexive, unthinking, automatic.  The defense barely pressures the AKRON QB; the AKRON RBs look great against Michigan; Michigan's D gives up long drives all day; the offense scores 28 points...

And the reflex is...BLAME BORGES FREE MY PEOPLE BORGES GO HOME!!1!

ThoseWhoStayUofM

September 15th, 2013 at 3:19 AM ^

We do not have the offensive line to run power.  We're running a pro-style offense that runs zone stretch plays.  Why are we willing to compensate in that regard but not just run a full-on spread?  I saw Devin Gardner execute the read option and veer plays pretty successfully today.  One of few things he actually did successfully... but Borges doesn't really like doing that so we shouldn't do it guys?





What...??!!

snoopblue

September 14th, 2013 at 6:49 PM ^

Just an awful game. I hate Al Borges. It's Akron, after the first INTs, go to 2-3 TE sets WITH a fullback and just run the ball out of the I. Play action? Sprinkle it in! DEBORD WHERE ARE YOU!?!

Brady, find a god damn headset and put it on.

dragonchild

September 14th, 2013 at 10:45 PM ^

It was Akron.  The O-line merely existing had more than enough meat to just push past them.  We did it against CMU, did you forget?  We kept scoring points with reserves on zone stretches even though Borges wouldn't exploit the safeties completely selling out on it.  Why would it work against CMU and not against Akron?  It's the same line.

The kids didn't have their goddamn heads in the game.

ThoseWhoStayUofM

September 15th, 2013 at 3:37 AM ^

It was a complete and total institutional collapse starting from the head coach, to the coordinators, to the position coaches, all the way to the players.



Hoke did nothing to light a fire under his kids' backsides when they were loafing and not executing at all.

The coordinators looked like they took the week off.  There wasn't even a semblence of a gameplan.  There was no halftime adjustments at all.  

The position coaches failed ot motivate the players throughout the week.

The upper-classmen leadership was nonexistent.  Gallon didn't score once, Fits decided he was going to forget all forms of pass protection fundamentals, Devin Gardner threw beautifully placed passes into the opposite teams hands and forgot that throwing the ball away is a legitimate and viable option when the play breaks down... there was no communication on the sidelines.  Senior captain Taylor Lewan completely failed to even attempt to motivate the rest of that line to play with passion after meeting a little adversity.  Freshman Jehu Chesson outscored Sr. Jeremy Gallon.  Matt Wile had 4 punts for an average of 33 yards per punt.



This is Akron...

alum96

September 14th, 2013 at 7:04 PM ^

Michigan has holes.  Every team in the Midwest has holes.... inclusive of Ohio.  Michigan has a solution to the holes it has, and its name is Devin. When Devin plays like Vince Young 2.0.  That was last Saturday.  When he plays like Denard 2.0 those holes become exposed.  That was today.  It really comes down to that.  When Devin is on we can win any game on our schedule.  When Devin is off we can lost (most? any?) games on our schedule.  I dont expect a worse game from him this year than this. I expect 1-2 more games like ND, preferably in November when we most need it.  We are not Alabama NOR EVEN CLOSE (key point) where an average Devin means we beat good teams.  A.J. can be average for Alabama and they can still win.  It is as simple as that.



The OL is what it is - throwing Bryant in there might help one spot but thus far it has been just ok against MAC level schools, and frankly got trounced in the interior by Nix... no issue there, he is a top 15 pick.  But Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington are going to rip it apart again and Devin is going to need a "ND game" to help Michigan stick around in that game.  Heck NW and MSU D-lines are going to cause major issues for this OL ... Nebraska just sucks on defense so not them.



As for the defense any deficiences in the back 7 can be helped by the front 4.  We just dont have that much talent there or what is there is young.  Frank Clark is a paper dragon.  Heitzman's offer sheet is all MAC teams and also rans like Indiana in the Big 10.  He is a Purdue type player who STARTS at Michigan.  Which means no one is better than him at that position.  (yes I know I know - Jake Ryan and his offer sheet but for every 1 Ryan you get 20 guys who well, are equal to their offer sheet).  Maybe Taco and Mario and those guys will one day be studs but not today.  That is your defensive ends.  Your tackles did ok, esp Black today.  I thought Washintgon would be better overall - he has been on and off.  Pipkins, I don't know - I will wait for Brian's analysis.  But whatever the individual grades this DL has been gashed by both CMU and Akron in the run game and cannot create a pash rush with 4 guys.  Why? Because apparently a lot of players are of MAC caliber or lower Big 10 caliber i.e. Purdue/Indiana.  That's reality and no amount of "coaching" is going to fix that in 5 weeks.  If you want to blame FUNK for the OL blame HOKE AND MATTISON for the DL - otherwise your criticism is unfair.  You want FUNK fired for OL deficiency but you gloss over the DL deficiency?  Then you are not facing the reality.  



I thought the LBs would be better because of CMU - today they didnt flash against MAC talent.  A few nice plays here or there but one wonders if the lack of DL coverage causes them a lot of issues - i.e. they have to do too much to cover for the DL weakness.  The secondary I dont think is the issue - if you have a DL it covers up weaknesses in DB.  There are 3 big powers in the Midwest folks - compare the DL's of the 3 powers - one has Nix and Tuitt, another has Spence and Washintgon (and that team lost guys like Simon last year who was an All Big 10 stud)... and we have.... (crickets chirping).  Folks it is not all coaching, right now we dont have the talent at some key positions and the ghost of Tom Landry is not going to fix that.  We HOPE the talent is there in the younger crew but right now it is not ready for prime time. 



So it all circles back to the first portion of this long winded piece - it will fall on Devin Gardner being Vince Young 2.0 to have a 10 win type of season since there are major issues in our trenches.  



Last point, everyone is overlooking the horror that is our punting game.  The punt returns scare me each time Northfleet is out there but that side is at least somewhat ok; the kicking game? Horrid.  Wile is costing us 10-15 yards on almost every punt of field position... he has shanked 1-2 kicks every game.  He had one very good punt this game...one.  When we are playing MSU which lives on defense, or Nebraska which lives on offense or OSU or NW he will cost us a game or 2 since 3 pts means the world in those games.  Today he cost us 3 points in the 1st quarter with his shank... All YSU had to do was get 1-2 first downs and they had a FG.  We didnt care at the time because LOL ITS AKRON, but at the end of the game his shank opened a window to lose.  1 or 2 first downs from the other team's own 25-30 means nothing, 1-2 first downs when your punter sucks and shanks it means a FG opportunity.  Don't forget this while we skewer everyone else.  THat is all.  /rantanalysis

UM Indy

September 14th, 2013 at 7:02 PM ^

we were going to get better decisions with Devin at QB. I'm not seeing it. I see a guy who thinks he can make something out of nothing every play. I also see a guy who has almost immediate pressure when he snaps the ball because of this O line. Hell, we had to go with QB draws to gain any rushing yards ... against Akron. I guess the worst part is I naively thought we had gotten back to the point where we slapped MAC teams silly without too much trouble and moved along. Apparently not.

The Geek

September 14th, 2013 at 7:10 PM ^

offense, defense and special teams. Devin looked so sharp early in the game, but when he gets pressure he still makes poor decisions. I am not jumping off the bandwagon, but hopefully he gets this worked out before November 3rd. We were lucky to win today.

BlueDragon

September 14th, 2013 at 7:35 PM ^

Now, we are going to become Alabama. I don't see that happening for a few years. In between is going to be a long, painful transition.

This team is more worrying than 2008 and more disgraceful than 2007. I hope they have lots of stairs to run and 5AM workouts this upcoming week.

War Daddy

September 14th, 2013 at 7:44 PM ^

He still lacks experience, but he has all the tools to be a great QB. Today's game should be a wake up call. He has a great attitude, and I think he'll learn from his mistakes and improve. I don't know why so many posters are so down on him, he's still only started how many games now? Garder and Borges shoulder most of the blame for the performance today, but most of the issues are very fixable. 

EnoughAlready

September 14th, 2013 at 7:49 PM ^

The offense gained over 400 yards and put up 28 points.  Exactly how is that failure?  The defense gave up over 400 yards and three scores.

If you score 28 points, your offense has done its job.  But no; on this blog, the first and last impulse is...Blame Borges Uber Alles Blame Borges!!1!

jabberwock

September 14th, 2013 at 7:52 PM ^

needs to spend more time coaching & less time shopping at Tim Hortons.

They were woefully unprepared in every aspect of the game today.

Both lines, offensive skill, d-backs and ALL of special teams.  

This is not the result of a key star player or two having a bad game, and the Zips didn't actually play lights out either.

Michigan was bad everywhere, and that can only be on the coaches.