Tag: Denard Robinson

Michigan 31, Air Force 25

Denard Robinson rushed for 218 yards and threw for 208, accounting for 4 touchdowns (image via Sporting News)

The officials were terrible. Terrible. Air Force’s first touchdown should have been called back for illegal procedure.  Quarterback Connor Dietz tossed to A-back Cody Getz, who beat everyone to the edge.  In the meantime, the wing started moving forward  prior to the snap like he was in the CFL and chopped down safety Jordan Kovacs, who was responsible for the pitch.  Without that forward momentum, Kovacs – Michigan’s best open-field tackler – very well could have stopped Getz before the goal line.  Later in the game, Air Force converted on a key third down when both the quarterback and the running back – who were in a shotgun formation – started moving to their right before the ball was snapped . . . and a slot receiver was already in motion.  So three  guys were moving prior to the snap, and the play was allowed to stand.  Those were obvious, blatant non-calls and each one could have had a significant impact on the outcome of the game.

Devin Funchess is the new Junior Hemingway. The freshman tight end is listed at 6’5″, 229 lbs.  I expected him to look skinnier than he does, but he’s fairly solid looking and showed an ability to stretch the field a little bit.  He caught a 29-yard wheel route and a leaping 30-yard touchdown, totaling 4 receptions for 106 yards and that TD.  Jump balls aren’t going to work with most receivers on the roster, but this guy could be Denard Robinson’s savior.

These are not the droids you’re looking for.  Forget what you saw the defense do yesterday.  Yes, it was ugly.  Michigan allowed 290 yards rushing and 127 yards passing, but Michigan won’t see another triple option offense this year unless they meet Air Force or Georgia Tech in a bowl game.  The defensive line won’t see cut blocking like this, the outside linebackers and safeties won’t have to be as disciplined, etc.  I know yesterday was frustrating and too close for comfort, but it’s also mostly irrelevant to the rest of our opponents.

The cornerbacks are scaring me. Raymon Taylor was very, very weak in run support.  I’m not a huge fan of J.T. Floyd in run support, either, but Taylor looks to avoid contact with blockers whenever possible, and that’s a bit scary.  Now I’m going to go back to forgetting what the defense did.

The offensive line has taken a step backward.  The absence of David Molk is noticeable, and I still wonder whether it was a good idea to let Rocko Khoury walk instead of getting a fifth year.  Starting center Elliott Mealer’s snaps have been good, but he’s much slower than Molk.  Meanwhile, Michael Schofield looked much better at left guard last year than he does at right tackle.  The offseason was rife with talk about how Schofield looked so great at right tackle, but I’m just not seeing it.  Some people mentioned how Fitzgerald Toussaint looked rusty, but it wasn’t Toussaint – it was the offensive line allowing so much penetration.  He had nowhere to run at all.

Dennis Norfleet wants to eat.  When Norfleet jumped in front of Drew Dileo to steal a kickoff return, I sort of felt bad for Dileo.  Dileo’s body language indicated he wasn’t too happy about it, either.  Norfleet got hit after a short return, but then he bounced off and turned in a nice play.  He had 3 returns for 77 yards yesterday, an average of 25.7 per return.  The kid is going to be exciting to watch for the next few years.

BREAKOUT PLAYER JERALD ROBINSON! He had 1 reception for 10 yards.  Departing seniors have been calling for him to explode for the last two seasons, and now he has 1 career catch.

The linebackers will be awesome for years to come.  Jake Ryan had 11 tackles, including a nice tackle on the second-to-last play, and a leaping pass breakup on Air Force’s final pass attempt.  Overall, he had an excellent day.  Sophomore Desmond Morgan made some nice plays at times, freshman Joe Bolden made 10 tackles, and freshman James Ross made a couple nice plays.

Denard Robinson continues to destroy mediocre defenses.  It was a blast watching Denard Robinson yesterday as he demolished the Falcons’ defense, but it wasn’t unexpected.  This is what he does to so-so defenses (see Bowling Green, UConn, UMass, Indiana, Eastern Michigan, etc.) and occasionally to good defenses (see Ohio State circa 2011).  A guy who’s faster than Usain Bolt (not really) ought to run away from a bunch of Air Force Academy cadets, and Robinson looked fairly comfortable in the pocket.  If Michigan continues to struggle blocking for the running backs, Robinson is going to need to replicate this performance many, many times this year.

Hail to the Air Force Academy.  I’m sort of glad that Air Force put up a good fight.  My father and grandfather are veterans, another close family member graduated from the Academy, and I have a strong appreciation for those in the military.  They don’t deserve to be embarrassed anywhere, including on the football field.  They should be proud of the way they played on Saturday.

Video: Robinson, Roundtree interviews – Air Force week

Michigan vs. Alabama Awards

Devin Gardner’s only reception was this 44-yard touchdown (image via MLive)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Devin Gardner.  Gardner played quite a bit against Alabama, but Michigan needs to keep finding ways to get him the ball.  He almost made a few nice plays, and while I know “almost” doesn’t do much for the final outcome of the game, the potential there is obvious.  He had 1 catch for 44 yards and a touchdown, but has the speed to get downfield and the leaping ability to go up and over almost any defensive back.  Most teams Michigan plays won’t have a 6’1″, 200 lb. cornerback like Dee Milliner to knock the ball out of Gardner’s hands.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Thomas Rawls.  Alabama was superior to Michigan in almost every way, and it didn’t help that the offensive line had a rough day.  But Rawls didn’t do a single impressive thing the entire game.  He had 6 carries for 9 yards, danced too much, and for a big back, he sure did get lambasted by strong safety Vinnie Sunseri.  Rawls might be able to run over the Air Forces, UMasses, and Minnesotas of the world, but it looks like he’ll struggle against teams like Alabama, Ohio State, and Michigan State.  Fitzgerald Toussaint is clearly a step above the other running backs on the roster.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . James Ross.  Ross wasn’t ready for the physicality of Alabama, but he showed some good instincts and speed in the game.  He should be able to hone his skills in the next couple games and be an asset when it comes to the Big Ten schedule.  He got snaps at both inside linebacker positions and has already surpassed upperclassmen Brandin Hawthorne and Mike Jones.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . T.J. Yeldon.  Alabama’s best running back in Saturday night’s game made just about everyone on Michigan’s defense look silly.  Michigan won’t see many guys like him this year.  Perhaps the closest approximation will be Michigan State’s Le’veon Bell, who is just as strong of a runner but probably not as fast.  The whole defense played poorly on Saturday night, including such stalwarts as Thomas Gordon, Jordan Kovacs, and Jake Ryan.  That’s more due to Alabama’s excellence, though, so I’m not sure that anyone really deserves to see his playing time diminish.

Play of the game . . . Denard Robinson’s 71-yard bomb to Jeremy Gallon.  Gallon torched the defense and Denard Robinson hit him with an almost perfect throw to get down to the 1-yard line.  Robinson has often struggled to beat defenses over the top unless he puts the ball up for grabs, so this was a nice play that Robinson, Gallon, and other receivers can hopefully replicate several times this season.

MVP of the game . . . Jeremy Gallon.  Gallon had 4 receptions for 107 yards.  Two receptions came on bubble screens where he made a couple guys miss; one was the aforementioned bomb; and the other was a nice leaping catch near the right sideline.  He and Robinson seem to have developed a nice chemistry.

Alabama 41, Michigan 14

Alabama’s Dee Milliner returns an interception after a pass interference penalty clean play

That was somewhat expected.

Alabama is good.  They’re not the national champs for nothing.  Nobody in his right right mind thought Michigan would win this game (although 63% of this site’s voters picked Alabama to lose), but I did expect a little better showing than that.  The Wolverines aren’t as bad as that game made them look, but it certainly wasn’t the kind of showing Michigan wanted to put forth in the nationally televised opener.

Al Borges deserves some blame, but not much.  Michigan wasn’t going to be able to run the ball in this game.  I predicted that Michigan would rush for fewer than 100 yards; the final tally was 69, despite having one of the most electrifying players in the country at quarterback.  Yes, Denard Robinson probably could have run the ball more, especially before he got dinged up.  Would it have made much of a difference?  Probably not.  Where Robinson really could  have made a difference was in the passing game.  He had lots of open receivers early in the game, but he’s just as erratic as ever in the passing game.  He kept throwing deep (inaccurately), and completed just 11/26 passes.  The offensive line did a decent job of pass blocking, but if Michigan has to rely on Robinson to win the game with his arm, they’re going to struggle.

I hope Fitzgerald Toussaint and Frank Clark enjoyed watching that on TV.  Toussaint erased any chance Michigan had of putting together a decent running game by drunk driving.  Vincent Smith is what he has been for several years, and that means he shouldn’t be a featured running back; he ended the game with 13 carries for 33 yards, and 22 of those yards came on one play late in the game.  Thomas Rawls rushed 6 times for 9 yards and looked very slow in the process.  Meanwhile, Clark probably would have struggled just like the rest of the defensive line, but he would have given Michigan another guy to rotate in there and get a bit of a pass rush.  SAM linebacker Jake Ryan had to play a little too much defensive line, and he got manhandled in the process.

Injuries were terrifying.  Blake Countess left the game after one series on defense because he got hurt on punt coverage.  Taylor Lewan left the game late with a knee injury. And Denard Robinson inexplicably tried to tackle Dee Milliner with his throwing shoulder, which caused him to leave the game looking like he would miss a chunk of time.  Including Toussaint, that meant that Michigan was missing its #1, #3, #4, and #9 most important players at various points, according to my preseason countdown.  Michigan should be able to weather the storm if these are short-term injuries, but maybe not if any of them last long.

Eddie Lacy who?  Everyone was talking about Alabama running back Eddie Lacy before the game, but he didn’t impress me at all.  He’s big, and that’s about it.  The most physically impressive running backs on the roster were true freshman T.J. Yeldon (11 carries, 111 yards, 1 touchdown) and junior Jalston Fowler (8 carries, 67 yards).  I don’t think Lacy will be holding onto that starting job for long.  Of course, all three made Michigan’s defense look silly when combined with the Crimson Tide offensive line.  All of Michigan’s defensive backs struggled to tackle, even stout safeties Thomas Gordon and Jordan Kovacs, who are normally sure tacklers.

Special teams yay.  Matt Wile boomed every kickoff deep into the endzone, allowing zero returns.  Will Hagerup averaged 51.3 yards per punt, including a 62-yarder.  Dennis Norfleet returned 8 kickoffs for 177 yards (22.1 yards per return) and looked like a potential star as a returner.

Burned redshirts. I’m not in a tizzy about any of these guys playing, but so far LB Joe Bolden, WR Amara Darboh, TE Devin Funchess, FB Sione Houma, LB Royce Jenkins-Stone, RB Dennis Norfleet, DE Mario Ojemudia, DT Ondre Pipkins, CB Terry Richardson, LB James Ross, TE A.J. Williams, and FS Jarrod Wilson have burned their redshirts.  That’s 12 members of the 25-man class of 2012.  At least a couple more will probably play before the end of the year.

Referees were bad, but it doesn’t matter.  Michigan didn’t lose the game because of the refs, but there were some obvious holds, hands to the face, personal foul-quality hits, etc. that weren’t called against Alabama.  I’m not sure how Dee Milliner didn’t get called for illegal contact/pass interference when he shoved Roy Roundtree out of bounds and then picked off Robinson.  Meanwhile, Taylor Lewan alone cost Michigan 30 yards in penalties with a personal foul, a holding call, and a false start.  He might as well be a redshirt freshman again.

Michigan is going to be fine.  As long as none of those injuries last long, the expectations remain the same.  Alabama didn’t expose anything that we didn’t already know to be true.  The defensive line is going to be a question mark against good offensive lines; Denard Robinson isn’t a consistent passer; the offensive line lacks depth.  If you’re surprised, you haven’t been paying attention.

2012 Season Predictions

This is always fun.  Take a look at my 2011 predictions.