Iowa 24, Michigan 21

Tag: Graham Glasgow


24Nov 2013
Uncategorized 43 comments

Iowa 24, Michigan 21

Brennen Beyer returns an interception 7 yards for a touchdown (image via Times Union)

This happened because of three guys. In my opinion, this game came down to the absence – literally and figuratively – of three players. First of all, Michigan middle linebacker Desmond Morgan (0 tackles) left the game in the first quarter due to what was rumored to be a concussion, which would be at least his second in college. Then weakside linebacker James Ross (6 tackles) left the game in the second half, although it’s unclear what that injury was. And Devin Funchess (1 catch, 2 yards; 1 carry, 10 yards) might as well have been out due to injury, because he was completely useless. He dropped four passes by my count, and he can’t block. So the Wolverines were without their two leading tacklers, which suggests it wasn’t a coincidence that the Hawkeyes were able to turn on their running game in the second half. Michigan’s defensive line is solid but unspectacular, and what helped them rank #13 against the run going into this game was their technically sound linebackers. When you’re left with sophomore Joe Bolden (4 tackles) and freshman Ben Gedeon (3 tackles) as your two inside linebackers, that’s a recipe for struggles. Iowa running backs Damon Bullock (1 for 8), Jordan Canzeri (9 for 40), and Mark Weisman (10 for 45) had a total of 20 carries for 93 yards after halftime, helping Iowa to hold the ball for 18:23 of the second half.

Games are won in the trenches. I know this is an old adage, but it’s true. And it’s frustrating to watch Michigan get beaten so badly up front in every single game. I’ve said it over and over again, but Taylor Lewan and Michael Schofield aren’t dominating like they should, and the interior linemen can’t get any kind of push ever. They say that even the best linemen in the NFL win just over half their battles, and that’s what separates them from the other guys; well, Michigan’s guards and center aren’t close to winning half their battles in the run game. It’s an abomination. Michigan’s running backs combined for 17 carries and 35 yards in this one, with a long run of 9 yards. The offensive line allowed 11 tackles for loss. That sounds really bad, but that’s been the norm – the Wolverines are averaging 10.5 tackles for loss allowed this year. For comparison’s sake, Michigan has a pretty good defense and averages 5.7 TFL’s a game.

Devin Gardner might retire. Gardner had one of his least effective performances this year, going 13/28 for 98 yards, 2 touchdowns, and giving away the game-clinching fumble; he also ran 10 times for 12 yards, despite only getting sacked once. He’s lost a step, he’s running tentatively, and he just looks downright scared of taking more of a beating at times. After the game, he was reportedly favoring his right arm. Obviously, Michigan needs him if they have any hope of beating Ohio State next week, but with his diminishing health and the sorry state of the offensive line, I would not be surprised at all if Gardner doesn’t finish next week’s contest.

Graham Glasgow snapping mistake? Check. I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen a college center with as many snapping issues as Glasgow. With the exception of the Northwestern game last week, Glasgow has had a snapping error every week. This week’s blunder was a snap infraction on a 1st-and-Goal from the 4-yard line in the fourth quarter that pushed the Wolverines back to the 9. After an incomplete pass and a nothing run, Gardner bailed him out with a touchdown pass to Gallon.

Good grief, Jeremy Jackson is terrible. Usually I try to stay objective, so this is an angry rant I’m allowing myself near the completion of a frustrating season. Senior Jeremy Jackson’s one late wide-open catch for a first down does not erase the fact that he should not be on the field. Like, at all. Ever. The final straw for this rant came yesterday when I saw him standing around not blocking anyone while Devin Gardner was getting tackled. He can’t run, he can’t jump, and he can’t block. The guy is a preferred walk-on at best, or maybe a Division II athlete. I never understood* why he was offered by Rich Rodriguez in the 2010 class, and his performance over the last four years has only solidified those feelings. Da’Mario Jones, Dennis Norfleet, and Joe Reynolds are all better athletes, and you could probably get a better blocking effort out of walk-ons Bo Dever or Blaise Stearns, just to name a couple. I actually have some respect and empathy for Rodriguez, but one look at that 2010 class makes me want to vomit. The guy took 27 players in that class, and after you list the top three (Jake Ryan, Devin Gardner, Jibreel Black), you start to get in the murky territory of trying to rank Jackson, your holder/fifth receiver (Drew Dileo), your journeyman defensive back (Courtney Avery), your journeyman tight end/defensive end/linebacker (Jordan Paskorz), or your weed-loving suspended punter (Will Hagerup). Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. Erm . . . uh . . . yeah, Jeremy Jackson. He’s bad.

Let’s end on a high note. (Not that kind of high note, Hagerup.) So how about Blake Countess, Raymon Taylor, and Brennen Beyer picking off those terrible throws from Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock? Let’s be honest – those picks were more about Rudock being bad than Michigan having great coverage, but these Michigan cornerbacks are better playmakers than we’ve had in a while. For a little while – the J.T. Floyd years, basically – Michigan struggled to make any plays at cornerback, and the notable plays from defensive backs had to come from the safeties. Taylor’s still afraid to tackle running backs, but overall, I like where Michigan’s headed in the defensive backfield. And kudos to Beyer, who has made some steps forward this year and tallied his first interception and first touchdown.

Just kidding. What does this mean for the Ohio State game? Probably doom.

*Of course, I know Jeremy Jackson was mainly offered because his dad is the running backs coach. Also, aliens.

16Nov 2013
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Mailbag: Offensive line and Al Borges

Thunder,

As a regular reader of “Touch the Banner,” I want to thank you for
the continued great effort/product you deliver . . . and today, ask
you some questions about the continuing poor performance of the
offensive line.
 


1. Too often seems to be confusion about blocking assignments, true?
 


2. While I appreciate the long readiness curve for offensive lineman
(both mentally and physically), shouldn’t U-M be able to get by reasonably
well with two senior tackles (including an All-American) and some highly
touted (albeit young) recruits? The guys who are in their 2nd year should
be further along, right?
 


3. For young lineman, isn’t it easier blocking out/forward than side-to-side?
Seems that prevailing offensive philosophy promotes these lineman being
on their heals more than being aggressive – is this accurate?
 


4. Personally, Borges just doesn’t seem to be getting the results . . .
and he is responsible for COORDINATING, not just sitting in a box
calling plays. He doesn’t seem up to the job. Your thoughts?

Thanks for any insight you can provide. 


Go Blue!
 


Best,
 


Jim

 1. Yes, the problems up front are more about mental mistakes than physical ones. Even with the young guys in place, Michigan has good size up front. And while their strength may not be up to par with fourth- or fifth-year guys, the physical disparity should not be that significant if that’s all it was. If you’re the same size as your opponent but a little bit weaker, you should still not be giving up 7 sacks a game or rushing for -69 yards over a two-game stretch. The mental side of playing offensive line is what’s killing Michigan right now.

2. The youth on Michigan’s interior is sometimes blown out of proportion on the internet, although perhaps it’s not commented on enough by the broadcast crew each Saturday. There should probably be a happy medium in there somewhere. Senior left tackle Taylor Lewan has done a very good job this year from whistle to whistle; the problem for him has been stuff before the play (false starts) or after the play (the MSU nonsense). Senior right tackle Michael Schofield is apparently being looked at as a possible second round pick, but I have a hard time believing that he’ll be selected that high; he’s so-so in the run and the pass, not dominant at either one.

The biggest problem, obviously, has been from guard to guard. Michigan has a bunch of guys playing out of position. It’s a line in disarray. I’m giving Kyle Bosch a free pass because he’s a true freshman and shouldn’t be playing, anyway. But redshirt sophomore Graham Glasgow is a tackle or a guard playing center, who can’t snap the ball, make proper line calls, or block the correct defender on a consistent basis; he’s in over his head, and you can tell by the look on his face in the huddle – the game is moving too fast for him. Redshirt freshman Erik Magnuson is a left tackle playing right guard; the scouting report on him coming out of high school was “good pass blocker but needs to be more physical in the run game.” You do not take a guy who lacks physicality and put him at right guard if you want to run over teams. That’s the type of guy you hear about in year four or five when people say, “He’s really improved over the past couple years and become a good run blocker.” The other guy worth mentioning here is redshirt sophomore Jack Miller, who was brought in to be a zone-blocking center but tried to become a hybrid zone/power center before getting sent to the bench. Miller seems to be more mentally ready for playing center, calling protections, etc., but he loses ground too often. If you look at the pros and cons of Glasgow vs. Miller, I think Miller gets the nod after seeing both in action this year . . . but neither player is ideal.

Concluding the answer to question #2, I think Michigan has a decently talented crew of linemen who are playing out of place and being asked to do too much. If I were Michigan’s coaching staff, I would at least attempt to see what it looks like with Lewan at left tackle, Schofield at left guard, Miller at center, Glasgow at right guard, and Magnuson at right tackle; that way you have a strong side with Lewan/Schofield, a better general at center, and Glasgow/Magnuson playing their more natural positions.

3. Young linemen do a better job of blocking forward/out (gap or man blocking) than zone blocking, because zone blocking requires timing and an understanding of defenses that takes time to develop. Most high school teams don’t run zone the way that colleges do, and especially when you have a dominant lineman, you use him to crush down one side of the line while you run right off his butt. Zone blocking became all the rage because it allowed smaller, more athletic, but less dominant blockers to double-team and “just get in the way” to allow runners to pick an alley. But high schools that produce 6’5″, 300 lb. linemen don’t need that kind of tactical advantage.

I’ve taught zone blocking to high schoolers, and I’ve taught gap blocking to high schoolers. The zone concept is easier in theory but ten times more difficult to put into practice because you’re taking guys who are normally very aggressive and teaching them to take an angle bucket step, read the defender, and then react appropriately by double-teaming, taking over a block, or going up to the next level. Rather than saying before the play “I’ve got that guy,” now these guys have to say “I’ve got this guy, this guy, or that guy, depending on what they do when my buddy snaps the ball.” Unless you teach zone exclusively or almost exclusively, it’s going to be very tough sledding.

4. I was really frustrated with Borges during the Nebraska game because of his insistence on running the ball when it clearly wasn’t working for the second week in a row. I mean, Michigan hasn’t been able to run the ball consistently all year, but Michigan State stops you with their defense . . . fine, they do that to everyone. When Nebraska’s 85th-ranked rushing defense stops you and you still keep slamming your head into the wall, I start to have questions about your willingness to adapt.

All that being said, I think Michigan fans have to accept that what is being put on the field is bound to be unsuccessful much of the time. I suggested a lineup change above that I believe would help, but that won’t instantly make Miller, Glasgow, and Magnuson great football players. When three-fifths of your offensive line is overmatched mentally and physically, there’s not a whole lot you can do as a play caller to mitigate the problems.

My suggestions for Borges would be to concentrate on one type of run play (zone or power) but not both, develop more play action off your best run play (currently the inverted veer), throw more screens until defenses stop blitzing, roll or half-roll Gardner, throw more quick-hitting passes, and resort to an occasional or full-time no-huddle to prevent defenses from having so much time to key in on formations, personnel, etc. Of course, Al Borges knows a ton more about football than I do, so he probably doesn’t need my suggestions. But as an offensive coordinator, that’s how I would try to get around my weak offensive line.

11Nov 2013
Uncategorized 16 comments

Michigan vs. Nebraska Awards

Cameron Gordon (image via AP)

Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . a fifth receiver. Assuming the top four guys are Jeremy Gallon, Devin Funchess, Jehu Chesson, and Drew Dileo, I don’t care who the fifth guy would be. It could be Fitzgerald Toussaint, Dennis Norfleet, Da’Mario Jones, Jake Butt, virtually anyone. Hell, put Blake Countess out there at receiver a little bit and see what he can do. Michigan needs to spread the field laterally instead of packing everything in tight. With receivers packed in tight, that makes it a lot easier for defenses to blitz, stop the run, etc. If you spread the field wider, you can see the blitzes coming and you prevent so many guys from coming and confusing your offensive line. Go five-wide a few times, give the offensive linemen one-on-one matchups, and see if something develops. Even if one of the young interior linemen gets beaten, Gardner is a good runner and can create some things on his own. Right now teams are green dogging against Fitzgerald Toussaint, so even if he stays in, it’s an extra protector against an extra blitzer. That doesn’t give Michigan a statistical advantage.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Graham Glasgow at center. Glasgow was a better guard than center, and I’m not sure that’s saying much. Bad snaps can destroy an offense, and Glasgow has been a poor snapper ever since he was inserted against Minnesota. He has been good for at least one fumbled snap per week and numerous other snaps that look slow, throwing off the timing of the offense. In the last two weeks, Glasgow has botched three shotgun snaps, all of which have resulted in big yardage losses, including a -20 yard play against Michigan State and a -10 yard play against Nebraska. Jack Miller was a poor blocker, but his snaps were spot on and more consistent. I have to wonder if Glasgow’s poor snaps (sometimes they’re low, sometimes they’re high, sometimes they’re right in the chest) are affecting Gardner’s thought process prior to the snap.

Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Cameron Gordon. Gordon was tied for the team lead in tackles with 8, forced a fumble that was recovered by Chris Wormley, and sacked Tommy Armstrong for 13 yards. It seemed like Gordon lost snaps once Jake Ryan returned from his torn ACL, but with the hand injury to Keith Heitzman, SAM linebacker Brennen Beyer has been moved back to defensive end. Gordon is one of the best athletes on the defense at 6’3″ and 237 lbs., and he’s a guy who can cover, rush the passer, and chase plays to the sideline.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . freshman defensive backs. I still see freshmen out there every week, and it seems like they’re always getting Michigan beaten. On a 26-yard catch and run by Nebraska wideout Kenny Bell, Channing Stribling missed a tackle, Dymonte Thomas missed a tackle, and then redshirt junior Josh Furman got blocked and blocked and blocked. Junior Delonte Hollowell started the spring game and now can barely get on the field. The freshmen are overmatched right now. I’ve never been a huge fan of Hollowell, but he is feisty and physical and probably would have been better prepared to tackle Bell on that play.

Play of the game . . . Devin Funchess’s screen catch and run. There aren’t many options, but Funchess took a high pass over the middle, tipped it to himself with one hand, stepped through a tackle, and ran 23 yards up the sideline before getting pulled down. He also ran an end around for 5 yards. Both plays were fairly impressive plays for a guy who’s a “tight end.”

MVP of the game . . . Cam Gordon. There’s no great choice here, but Gordon made 8 tackles, had Michigan’s only sack, and had the only forced turnover (the other turnover was a muffed punt).

10Nov 2013
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Nebraska 17, Michigan 13

“Devin Gardner Runs for His Life” would be a good subtitle for the 2013 season (image via Monroe News)

Goodbye, Darrell Funk. Okay, I’ve been wishy-washy on Funk’s place on the staff, but this game sealed his fate, in my opinion. For the second week in a row, Michigan allowed 7 sacks. For the second week in a row, Michigan had negative yards rushing (-21 this game after -48 last week). These are the types of performances that get guys fired in the middle of the season. I’m not necessarily suggesting that will happen, because Brady Hoke is a very loyal guy and Funk’s father just passed away. However, the final straw for me was in the fourth quarter when Nebraska lined up defensive end Randy Gregory at inside linebacker over right guard Erik Magnuson. Michigan slid the protection left, matching up right tackle Michael Schofield on Gregory. Schofield promptly made about a 3% effort to pick him up, allowing Gregory to have a 6-yard running start on an overmatched Fitzgerald Toussaint. Sack. When your fifth-year right tackle can’t handle a slide protection, that’s probably all you need to see. The current situation on the offensive line reminds me of when Jay Hopson was Michigan’s linebackers coach and we saw guys like Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton regress. I would be surprised if Funk returns in 2014, and if a move is made earlier, the Wolverines do have former Michigan left tackle Adam Stenavich on staff as a graduate assistant.

Graham Glasgow at center equals a broken record. In each week since Glasgow was moved to center, Michigan has suffered from at least one bad snap. In this game there were two – one that sailed up and one that rolled back to Devin Gardner. Even the snaps from under center seem a hair slow. Glasgow is not physically or mentally capable of playing center at this point. He’s just not. Those of you who were complaining about Elliott Mealer and Jack Miller playing center, this is what you get. I think people take the snap for granted, but college players are capable of being bad at snapping . . . and it’s extremely detrimental.

Michigan’s defense is still pretty good . . . It was frustrating that Michigan lost to a team that was missing so much offensively, but the Wolverines were consistently in bad field position once again. Michigan’s inability to drive the ball on offense makes the opponent’s job a whole lot easier. Nebraska’s first scoring drive went 9 plays for 44 yards; the next went 8 plays for 56 yards. The drive at the end of the game went 14 plays for 75 yards, but that’s one long drive in the whole game. Overall, Nebraska averaged 3.0 yards/carry and star running back Ameer Abdullah was held to 3.9 yards/carry.

. . . but Nebraska was beaten up offensively. The scary/sad thing is that Nebraska was missing its starting quarterback and the two starting offensive guards, plus right tackle Jeremy Sirles got injured mid-game and wide receiver Kenny Bell wasn’t 100%. Michigan is mostly healthy on offense (aside from Amara Darboh, who was supposed to start at wide receiver, and backups like Russell Bellomy, Joe Burzynski, and Drake Johnson) but still can’t produce. An unhealthy Nebraska offense produced 17 points. A healthy Michigan offense produced 13. That leads me to this.

The offensive play calling was terrible. Nebraska blitzed the hell out of Michigan for the vast majority of the game, and Michigan ran . . . two screens. Two screens in 32 minutes of possession against a blitzing defense? One problem appears to be that Al Borges only has two screens in the play book – the throwback screen to the tailback and the middle screen to Devin Funchess. If you want to beat a blitzing defense, you have to screen, you have to hit hot routes, and you have to spread the field laterally. That sounds like a spread offense, doesn’t it? Instead, Michigan ran up the middle and tried to hit deep routes for most of the game. Brady Hoke and/or Al Borges has a basic philosophy of packing things in tight and overpowering the defense, but Michigan isn’t capable of that right now. Almost every shotgun/pistol formation for Michigan involves at least one tight end, tight stacks, tight bunches, etc. Go four- or five-wide and try to get rid of the ball quickly if they blitz; throw it deep if the opponent doesn’t blitz or can’t get a pass rush. We’ve established what Michigan can’t do; now let’s try something different.

Michigan did absolutely nothing with two turnovers. The commentators mentioned that nobody had turned the ball over, and they said that the first team to create a turnover might win the game. Hah. Cam Gordon forced a fumble from Quincy Enunwa, and Dennis Norfleet recovered a Jordan Westerkamp muff. Those were the only two turnovers in the game, and they resulted in a total of 3 points for Michigan; those 3 points came after Norfleet’s recovery, some terrible offense, and a Brendan Gibbons field goal that bounced off the right upright and through the goal posts.

Maybe we broke Devin Gardner. There are a lot of factors in Michigan’s failures over the past few weeks, but ever since Gardner started taking care of the ball, Michigan’s offense has taken a nose dive. After his two early picks against Penn State, Gardner has thrown 6 touchdowns and 1 interception. Aside from the offensive explosion against an Indiana team with no defense, Gardner has been sacked 14 times in two games and refuses to try to fit the ball into traffic most of the time. It’s almost as if he over-corrected and now refuses to take risks. Other than a bad throw to Jake Butt – on which it looked like Gardner expected Butt to come back to the ball instead of cutting in – Gardner didn’t take risks putting the ball in the air against Nebraska. There has to be a happy medium somewhere in between flinging 10 interceptions and getting sacked 14 times.

13Oct 2013
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Penn State 43, Michigan 40 in four overtimes

(image via Penn Live)

Michigan deserved to lose. You win when you deserve to win, and Michigan didn’t deserve to win. From the offensive play calling to the offensive line’s incompetence to the quarterback’s decision making to the defense’s inability to get pressure and cover short passes to the special teams’ inconsistency, Michigan didn’t deserve a victory. Penn State didn’t play their best football, either, but they looked less incompetent.

The coaches have lost confidence in Devin Gardner as a passer. There was a time when Brady Hoke and Al Borges would have let quarterback Devin Gardner air it out in a game like this, but instead, they chose to curl up into the fetal position – almost literally – and try to luck their way into a victory. Despite averaging just 2.8 yards/carry on fifty-four  rushing attempts, Michigan turned overtime into mostly an unproductive rushing effort. Michigan ran for 1, 1, 0, 3, -3, 8, 0, 0, and 7 yards in overtime, with that last 7-yarder coming on a Gardner scramble. The biggest offense came in the first overtime, when the play call/execution resulted in Gardner running from the 23-yard line on the left hash to the 23-yard line on the right hash on 3rd-and-8, presumably in an effort to “center” the ball for kicker Brendan Gibbons. Gibbons’s subsequent 40-yard field goal was blocked by defensive tackle Kyle Baublitz.

The offensive line is/was a mess. All-American left tackle Taylor Lewan left the game in the second quarter with what looked like an injury to his left side, perhaps a hip or a rib. He was replaced by right tackle Michael Schofield. Left guard Chris Bryant was presumably replaced for poor performance after some poor blocking; in came walk-on guard Joey Burzynski. Redshirt sophomore Graham Glasgow was playing left guard two weeks ago and has had several mental mistakes in his two games at center. Right guard Kyle Kalis took a senseless 15-yard penalty and was replaced for a short time by Burzynski before returning. The right tackle for the second half was redshirt freshman Erik Magnuson. Another walk-on, Erik Gunderson, also saw significant playing time in certain packages. Overall, by the end of the game, the only guy in the same spot as two weeks ago was Kalis. Meanwhile, running backs Fitzgerald Toussaint and Derrick Green were swarmed in the backfield the entire game, totaling 30 carries for 28 yards.

Offensively, the lone bright spot was Devin Funchess. Tight end Devin Funchess had his second consecutive 100-yard game with 4 catches for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had a couple key drops, but a tight end with 263 yards and 3 touchdowns in two games is pretty impressive.

Damn freshmen. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but a huge chunk of this loss falls on the shoulders of freshman cornerback Channing Stribling and whichever defensive coach was responsible for putting him in there. At the end of regulation, Stribling entered the game and was beaten on two long passes by the average Brandon Felder and Penn State standout receiver Allen Robinson. On both occasions, Stribling had chances to knock down or intercept the passes, but he mistimed his jumps and/or misjudged the ball, failing to get even a finger on either pass. The game was just moving too fast for him, which is why I hate having to play so many young players. In a year or two, those will be picks or knockdowns for Stribling. The same thing goes for Jake Butt’s failure to catch a back shoulder fade from Gardner in overtime; Butt showed his hands too early and failed to plant and go up for the ball. Instead, he settled for trying to catch it with his momentum going away from the ball and into the sideline. Both of things contributed to linebacker Mike Hull being able to bat the pass away at the last second despite not turning around for the ball.

Michigan can’t run the ball, and that’s not going to change. At this point in the season, I feel pretty confident in saying that nobody but Gardner will be able to run the ball effectively. Gardner even carried the ball 24 times, and he’s not going to hold up with that type of responsibility on his shoulders. I hate to say this, but Michigan needs to ditch the runs from under center and become a team that throws the ball 40-45 times a game. They need to get creative with their screen game, including bubbles and slip screens; they also need to find a way to get Dennis Norfleet on the field in regular packages and incorporate him into the offense, both as a scatback third-down replacement for Toussaint and as a slot receiver.

Despite the 43 points, I thought the defense played pretty well overall. Nine of those 43 points came in overtime. Additionally, two of Penn State’s touchdowns came after Gardner interceptions, which gave the Nittany Lions the ball on the 14- and 20-yard lines, respectively. They ran the ball 44 times for 85 yards (1.9 yards/carry) and 2 touchdowns, from the 1- and 2-yard lines, respectively. Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg completed 23/44 passes for 305 yards and 3 touchdowns, but he was also sacked 4 times and intercepted twice, while a large chunk of that yardage (79) came on the final drive in regulation when they beat Stribling.

Frank Clark is coming on. Clark had 3 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 1 pass breakup, and 2 fumble recoveries, one of which he picked up and ran 24 yards for a touchdown. He’s had a little bit of a fire lit under him after the first couple games of the season, and hopefully that fire stays lit. After barely showing up on the stat sheet early, he’s now sitting at 15 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, 1 pass breakup, 5 quarterback hurries, 2 fumble recoveries, and the aforementioned touchdown return.

What does this all mean? Well, I don’t think Michigan has a shot at winning the Big Ten this year. They’ve been playing with fire all year in close games with Akron and UConn, not to mention Notre Dame or the closer-than-it-should-have-been game against Minnesota last week. It finally bit them in the butt. The closest thing remaining to a team Michigan should  beat easily is Iowa, but they always seem to play Michigan tough, especially in Iowa City. Michigan also has Indiana’s number over the years, but the Hoosiers can put some points up on the board (41.7 points/game). Michigan State is going to feast on Michigan’s running game, Nebraska’s tough, Northwestern is good when healthy, and Ohio State is probably going to crush us. This is probably going to be ugly down the stretch.