Tag: Devin Gardner

Iowa 24, Michigan 16

Stay inbounds! (image via MGoBlue.com)

Well, that was boring.  I remember when Michigan was completely devoid of big plays.  The year was 2008.  That year sucked.  In two of the last three games, Michigan has been unable to create big plays offensively (MSU being the other).  That bodes unwell.

Have I mentioned that J.T. Floyd isn’t very good?  Freshman Blake Countess is the best cornerback on the roster, and it’s not even close.  Countess had 6 tackles and was credited with 1 pass breakup, although it seems to me he had at least 2 of them.  Iowa targeted star wide receiver Marvin McNutt frequently, and Countess either had tight enough coverage to prevent a completion or was close enough to tackle immediately. Floyd, not so much.  Hopefully another corner steps up in 2012, because Floyd just isn’t getting it done.

Have I mentioned that Denard Robinson isn’t very good?  Denard’s final passing numbers: 17-for-37, 194 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, and 1 lost fumble.  He’s throwing the ball right now like he’s just hoping that his receivers will be spectacular.  In the fourth quarter, he chucked numerous bombs down the field to receivers who were well covered . . . and even if they weren’t well covered, the passes fell harmlessly to the turf somewhere around the Nebraska border.  Roy Roundtree knocked Iowa cornerback Shaun Prater on his ass, streaked down the field wide open, and Robinson wasn’t even close to completing the pass.  We should all be hoping for a second-year bump in Robinson’s performance next year, because counting on him to win the game with his arm is like counting on Mike Sorrentino to win Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.

On a positive note, the defensive line is coming along.  After last week’s solid performance, the defensive line once again had a good game, producing 13 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks.  Iowa had a good day running the ball with Marcus Coker (29 carries, 132 yards, 2 touchdowns), but the troubles stopping the run seemed to come from the linebackers.  The Hawkeyes seemed to take advantage of freshman Desmond Morgan, who looks good at times, but when it comes down to it, he’s just a true freshman.  There’s a reason that true freshman linebackers don’t often start.

The coaches have turned Denard Robinson into a divining rod for the sideline.  I want to keep Denard Robinson healthy as much as the next guy, but this whole “run out of bounds whenever you’re within spittin’ distance” thing is getting ridiculous.  Especially when nobody else is capable of making big plays because Michigan a) can’t block or b) can’t catch Robinson’s errant throws, then by golly, get upfield and stop searching for the sideline.  I know he’s being coached to do it because the coaches and Robinson have said as much, but it’s virtual nonsense.  Robinson’s most effective running play this season has been the quarterback sweep, which by definition is run toward the sideline; if he’s supposed to get out of bounds whenever he nears the sideline, then the coaches are removing a huge threat.  Robinson’s speed makes defensive players take bad angles; in other words, flowing defenders aim too far upfield.  That’s how cutback lanes develop.  Let the kid play.  If he gets hurt, Michigan is screwed.  But if he plays like a porcelain doll, Michigan is screwed, too.  At least go down swinging.

Is this a football or a Shake Weight?  I don’t understand why Denard Robinson and Devin Gardner both carry the ball away from their bodies with one hand.  Tate Forcier had this problem and Michigan paid dearly for it.  Last year Robinson always carried the ball in his inside hand, which cost Michigan dearly against Ohio State (and other games).  The fact that both Michigan quarterbacks are getting away with this behavior makes me think that it’s poor coaching.  Don’t get me wrong – this team is much better coached than the past few iterations.  But this is an area that needs to be shored up, and soon.  It’s somewhat understandable that Gardner is doing it, since he’s raw and only a sophomore/redshirt freshman, but Robinson is a junior and a two-year starter.  There’s no excuse for his lack of ball security.

Is the above picture . . . a) an excellent way to get ripped, or b) the worst way to hold a football?  Trick question: it’s both!

Iowa is tough at home.  I predicted at the beginning of the year that Iowa would beat Michigan, and I should have stuck with that prediction yesterday.  Iowa is always a fundamentally sound team (as is Michigan State), and those kinds of teams give Robinson trouble because he’s someone who takes advantages of opponents’ mistakes.  Iowa stayed gap sound defensively and for the most part (except when Prater fell down) didn’t allow Michigan’s big-play receivers to get behind them.  Kudos to Iowa for being well coached and disciplined . . . on the field, anyway.

Michigan 36, Purdue 14

Fitzgerald Toussaint had a career best game with 170 yards and 2 touchdowns

Fitzgerald Toussaint is hitting his stride.  Finally healthy after two years of long-term injury issues, Toussaint is showing what he can do.  He had 20 carries for 170 yards, including a spectacular 59-yard touchdown run (Michigan’s longest run of the year).  He’s averaging 6.1 yards per carry on the season.  Perhaps the best part of Toussaint’s game is the way he finishes runs.  Despite not being particularly big, he always seems to churn his legs for an extra couple yards after contact.  His yardage total was the best by a Michigan running back since Michael Hart had 215 against Eastern Michigan back in 2007.

Where have you gone, Michael Shaw?  In this, his senior season, Shaw is on pace for his fewest career carries.  His career low is 42 (in both 2008 and 2009), and despite being mostly injury free this season, he has only 22 carries through eight games.  Shaw has been a big play guy this year and is averaging 6.4 yards per carry, but for some reason, the coaches haven’t put their faith in him.  Even freshman Thomas Rawls (13 carries) is getting almost  as many carries as Shaw, and Rawls probably should have redshirted with so many guys ahead of him.

Mike Martin finally showed up.  Martin had 7 tackles and 2 sacks on the day, one of them for a safety (which probably should have been negated due to grabbing Purdue quarterback Caleb TerBush’s facemask).  He’s been a little bit of a disappointment so far this year with his lack of production, but maybe this is a sign of things to come for him.  Eight games into the season, Martin only has 28 tackles and 2.5 sacks, so 25% of his tackles and 80% of his sacks came in this one game.

Not a fan of the Denard/Devin combo this time.  At some point Devin Gardner needs to run the base offense, whether Denard Robinson is in the game or not.  It seems like Robinson is usually used as the decoy rather than the ballcarrier in the two-QB formations, but defenses are ready for it at this point.  They know that when Denard is in the game, something funky is going to happen.  So instead of committing fully to the distracting part of the play, everyone stays home, watches for the double pass, etc.  To catch a defense truly off balance, offensive coordinator Al Borges needs to line Robinson up at running back or wide receiver and actually run a base play out of that formation.  Hand the ball off to him in the I-formation, throw a slant or a hitch to him, etc.  The halfback pass from Vincent Smith might have worked if not for the fact that Robinson was in the game and the defense was being extra careful.

Maybe Matt Wile should still punt.  On 12 punts this season, Will Hagerup is averaging 34.8 yards per punt and has put four of them inside the 20.  On 14 punts this season, Matt Wile is averaging 41.1 yards per punt and has put four of them inside the 20.  Hagerup had a good season last year and looked like a potential All-Big Ten punter, but he’s been disappointing so far this year.  Michigan is averaging just over three punts per game, so the difference between the two is around 21 yards of field position per game.

Desmond Morgan looks good.  He seems to be steadily improving after looking lost early in the season.  Morgan earned the start over Brandin Hawthorne (whose tackling efforts in the MSU game were disappointing) and responded with 9 tackles to lead the team.  I thought it would take Morgan a little more time to adjust to playing linebacker in college, but here he is starting as a true freshman.  High school quarterbacks just seem to catch on a little quicker.

Courtney Avery’s game of firsts.  Speaking of high school quarterbacks, Avery got his first career interception when he caught a deflected pass, and Avery got his first sack (well, half of a sack, shared with Craig Roh) when he helped chase down a scrambling Robert Marve.  That interception gives Avery a share of the team lead in picks, since nobody else has made more than one.

I’ve had about enough of J.T. Floyd.  He seems to talk a fair amount of smack for not being very good, and he could very well be Michigan’s fourth best corner.  I would take Blake Countess, Courtney Avery, and a healthy Troy Woolfolk over Floyd.  Floyd’s poor tackling effort late in the game cost Michigan seven points when he stood and danced with O.J. Ross while Ross waited for some help from a Boilermaker blocker.  After the two danced for what seemed like an hour, Floyd got blocked and Ross slipped into the end zone for a touchdown.

I’ll take 7-1 at this point.  Michigan has already matched last year’s win total with four games to go.  It’s a pretty tough four-game stretch as far as the Big Ten goes, but all four games are winnable.  The two most dangerous remaining foes, Ohio State and Nebraska, have had their own issues.  Regardless, this team is on the right path and seems headed for some good November games.  I like the direction Michigan is headed.

Michigan at Michigan State Awards

Devin Gardner (#7) scrambles, but to no avail. (image via MGoBlue.com)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Devin Gardner.  I’m not saying more as in he should be the starter, but I do like what Al Borges is doing with Gardner.  I don’t typically like two-quarterback platoons, but Gardner is a more skilled passer than Denard Robinson.  He made some gaffes on Saturday (getting sacked on fourth down, making an illegal forward pass, etc.), but he also threw some nice balls and made some plays with his legs.  People keep saying that Robinson is a threat to go all the way on every play, but if opponents put eight or nine decently talented guys in the box, Robinson won’t have any running room.  And until he proves that he can beat a team with his arm, Michigan needs to work in a passing threat.  Personally, I’m enjoying the plays when Gardner is at quarterback and Robinson lines up in the backfield or at wide receiver.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . the second tight end, whether it’s Steve Watson or Brandon Moore.  If the offensive line isn’t going to get a push and if Michigan can’t run it out of the I-formation, then I think the Wolverines need to get their best eleven on the field.  Junior Hemingway, Roy Roundtree, and Jeremy Gallon are all playmakers, and Kevin Koger is valuable in a lot of ways with his speed, athleticism, blocking, and leadership.  Those four players plus some combination of Denard Robinson, Devin Gardner, Fitzgerald Toussaint, Vincent Smith, and Michael Shaw need to be on the field the vast majority of the time.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Cam Gordon.  Gordon returned to action this week after a nagging back injury caused him to miss the first six games of the season.  In his stead Jake Ryan has made a name for himself as a playmaker at SAM linebacker, but Ryan does have his flaws; he’s prone to both making and allowing big plays.  Ryan has to get quicker at reading offensive plays, maintaining the edge, and using his hands to disengage from blockers.  Gordon might not be an immediate upgrade, but perhaps he can help.  It was clear against MSU that Ryan’s other backups aren’t legitimate options in big-time games.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Brandin Hawthorne and J.T. Floyd (tie).  On one Keshawn Martin touchdown, Hawthorne made a half-assed attempt to tackle him at the pylon and tried to shoulder Martin out of bounds rather than wrap him up.  A good, fundamental tackle would almost certainly have stopped Martin at the 1-yard line, although a touchdown almost certainly would have been delayed rather than prevented altogether.  On the other Martin touchdown, J.T. Floyd made a half-assed attempt to stick with him and jogged behind the play, even though he clearly had Martin in man coverage.  Those weren’t cases of being beaten physically – they were examples of players not playing hard and giving 100% effort.

MVP of the game . . . Will Hagerup.  Nobody had a great game offensively or defensively for Michigan, but Hagerup did a solid job of punting on a very windy day.  He only averaged 31.9 yards on seven punts, but four of those pinned the Spartans inside their 20-yard line, and three of them put the green and white bronze at or inside their own 10.  Despite being unable to get any kind of offensive flow or defensive momentum, the Wolverines hung with MSU in the first half largely due to the field position battle.

Play of the game . . . Denard Robinson’s touchdown run.  After dropping back to pass, Robinson was almost sacked.  But he yanked himself away, tucked the ball, and scrambled to the left, picking up a nice block by Kevin Koger before squeezing inside the pylon.

Michigan 42, Northwestern 24

Is it just me or does Michael Shaw look like a prototypical football player?  Here he scores on a 2-yard touchdown run.  (Image via MGoBlue.com)

This first bullet almost called for the backup QB.  Not permanently, of course.  But if Denard Robinson continued in the second half the way he played in the first half, I would have been asking for Devin Gardner to get a shot.  Gardner has played well in his increasing role, and Robinson threw three horrible interceptions in the first half.  Robinson’s first half looked like this: 10/18 passing, 178 yards, 2 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, and several of those completions were bad throws where his receivers saved him (the bomb to Junior Hemingway, the TD to Steve Watson, etc.).  In the second half, Robinson redeemed himself on 7/8 passing for 159 yards with zero touchdowns and, most importantly, zero picks.

Mike Shaw provided a little bit of a spark.  Neither of Michigan’s first two running backs had much of a day.   Fitzgerald Toussaint had 14 carries for 25 yards and couldn’t punch the ball in on two goal line opportunities.  Vincent Smith had 3 carries for 8 yards.  It looked to me like Shaw’s speed was too much for the Northwestern defense.  He beat the Wildcats to the edge a couple times, rushing 6 times for 25 yards and 1 touchdown, plus making 1 reception for 12 yards.  I was impressed with the Wildcats’ rush defense and tackling.

That’s not the Dan Persa I remember.  I think Michigan got a little lucky that Persa still has his Achilles on his mind.  It seemed like there were a few opportunities for Persa to run where he decided to throw the ball instead.  He completed 32/44 passes, but a lot of those were bubble screens that were essentially sweep plays and easy completions.  Other than one 39-yard bomb over Blake Countess, the Wolverines kept everything in front of them.

Kenny Demens had his best game of the year.  Demens hasn’t been as productive this year as I expected, but he’s still been a solid player.  This game was his best, though.  He had 10 tackles, including a sack, and did a good job of chasing down wide receivers and crossing routes in space.  A lot of middle linebackers (Obi Ezeh, for example) would have been left in the dust or would have missed the tackle on those smaller players, but Demens is so strong that if he gets his hands on someone, that person is going to the ground.

Michigan needs to review the option.  I was somewhat surprised that Northwestern didn’t run more option.  They had quite a bit of success with it in the first half, and I thought Michigan did a poor job of defending it.  They didn’t have guys in position to make plays, they were tentative when they got there (Jake Ryan), or they just failed to square their shoulders and make the tackle (Carvin Johnson).  The bubble screen was effective and it’s a safer play, so maybe that’s why the Wildcats didn’t run the option as much.

Congrats to Steve Watson.  Watson stuck around for five years, played tight end, outside linebacker, defensive end, and now tight end again . . . and finally caught his first collegiate pass on a 9-yard scoring play where he adjusted well and got his hands underneath the ball on a poor throw from Robinson.  That had to be exciting for him.

The defensive line is improving.  I wish William Campbell weren’t already a junior, because that kid is close to turning into a player.  He’s going to have only one year as a starter at Michigan, despite the fact that he was totally unneeded in 2009 and Rich Rodriguez wasted him in 2010, too, by burning his eligibility at defensive tackle and then flipping him to guard halfway through the year.  Overall, the defensive line had 14 tackles and 2 sacks.

It’s horn-tootin’ time.  Okay, not really.  My predictions from Friday weren’t close to being 100% accurate, but I did say that Persa would have 325 total yards (he had 326) and that the final score would be 38-24 (it was 42-24).  I keep forgetting to review my predictions in these wrap-up posts, so here’s where I do that.  On the other hand, Denard didn’t carry the ball 12 times (more like 25), Jeremy Gallon didn’t score on special teams (but he did on offense!), and Northwestern’s running backs didn’t average 2.5 yards a carry (more like 5.5).  Also, there’s a picture of Denise Milani wearing a tight dress, so I think that was a good move on my part, too.

I typically like Pat Fitzgerald, but . . . he seemed like a bit of a weirdo during his halftime interview with Jeannine Edwards.  He was all rubbing his head and using strange vocal inflections.  I guess that’s what adrenaline does to some people, but he seemed a little high strung.

Taylor Lewan false started but nobody called it.  Lewan has been penalty-free so far this year, I believe, but he should have been flagged for jumping the snap.  He probably won’t be so lucky next time, and I’m guessing Michigan State’s coaches will alert the refs to look for that next week; Lewan did it a bunch last year, too.

Speaking of the referees . . . Michigan got lucky a few times on Saturday night.  Brandin Hawthorne’s interception looked like an incomplete pass to me (his hands were under it, but I thought the ball clearly moved when the nose hit the ground), Jeremy Ebert’s fumble was about as close as it gets (I think it was a fumble but probably wouldn’t have been overturned if he had been called down in the first place), and Jordan Kovacs probably should have been called for a facemask (his right hand was okay, but it looked like his left hand pulled on the bottom bar).  Of course, Northwestern was holding the s*** out of Michigan’s cornerbacks and safeties on those bubble screens, so maybe the penalties evened out.

Michigan vs. Minnesota Awards

Didn’t you dummies watch the Notre Dame film?  What else is there to do in Minnesota but watch film? (image via AnnArbor.com)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Thomas Rawls.  The freshman running back (10 carries, 73 yards) is yet another runner who looks better than Stephen Hopkins.  The lower Hopkins goes on the depth chart, the better off Michigan will be.  Fitzgerald Toussaint (11 carries, 108 yards, 1 touchdown) looks like the best back, Vincent Smith is a solid change-of-pace and third down back (5 carries, 27 yards; 3 total touchdowns), and Michael Shaw (8 carries, 60 yards) ran the ball well on Saturday, too.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Hopkins.  It was necessary for #33 to play almost the entire way because starting fullback John McColgan missed the game due to injury.  McColgan has developed into a better blocker this year than he had been previously, and I think he has some value when running out of the I-formation.  Hopkins made a nice catch out of the backfield for 28 yards, but I’m hoping McColgan can return when the schedule gets tougher.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Blake Countess.  The freshman cornerback looks to have surpassed sophomore Courtney Avery.  He’s a decent enough tackler and has better coverage skills than Avery or redshirt junior J.T. Floyd.  Countess had 2 pass breakups and 1 forced fumble to go with his 5 tackles.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Troy Woolfolk.  For goodness’ sake, let him have a week off.  For the fifth week in a row, Woolfolk left the game due to injury.  He’s got a tweaked ankle.  I know he wants to play and I commend him for it, but everybody and their mother knew that Michigan didn’t need Woolfolk to beat Minnesota handily.  The coaches had a chance to rest him against Minnesota so he would be available for the two tougher offenses coming up the next two weeks – Northwestern and Michigan State.  Now he’s still injured, Northwestern looms as a snake in the grass that could rise up and bite the Wolverines, and Michigan State follows with its dangerous passing game.  There won’t be another possible opportunity to rest him until possibly Purdue, three weeks from now.

Play of the game . . . The most exciting play of the game was Devin Gardner’s scramble and run.  He bootlegged right into a defender, ran out of an arm tackle, reversed field, juked two defenders, gained about 4 yards up the sideline, and then churned his legs for another 2 or 3 yards after the defense caught up to him.

MVP of the game . . . It’s a tough choice between Denard Robinson, Vincent Smith, and Fitzgerald Toussaint.  I’m going to go with Smith, who didn’t have a monster day numbers-wise but had a hand in three offensive touchdowns.  His day included 5 carries for 27 yards and 1 touchdown; 1 pass reception for 28 yards and a touchdown; and 1 halfback pass for 17 yards and a touchdown to Drew Dileo.  On top of that, he made a heads up recovery of a Devin Gardner fumble late in the game.