28Nov 2012
Highlights: Ohio State 26, Michigan 21
buy antabuse online buy antabuse online no prescription
 |
| Denard Robinson broke these tackles in his way to a 67-yard touchdown |
Let’s see more of this guy on offense . . . Denard Robinson. Robinson carried the ball just 4 times in the second half. If the coaches aren’t going to trust him to throw the ball at all, then he needs to run it. Michigan has no runners who are capable of being dynamic except Robinson. I would like to see Robinson make a full-time switch to running back for the bowl game, because Fitzgerald Toussaint has a broken leg and the other guys just can’t do the job. Robinson won’t play quarterback in the NFL, so it’s not like he needs the stage of the bowl game to show off his skills.
Let’s see less of this guy on offense . . . Vincent Smith. This goes hand in hand with the usage of Robinson, but Smith can’t be an every-down back. The Michigan coaches should have learned that by now. Al Borges tried to slam him up the middle with a weak interior line, and Smith went nowhere. Throw him some screens and run the inverted veer with him, but don’t line him up in the “I” and expect to gain yards on the ground.
Let’s see more of this guy on defense . . . Frank Clark. Clark was in the doghouse during the offseason, and he’s not the most disciplined player on the field. But Clark is superior to Brennen Beyer in almost every other way. The kid bats down passes, puts pressure on the quarterback, and makes plays. Unless the coaches are still working out the issues of Clark’s off-season troubles, Clark needs to be the starting weakside end.
Let’s see less of this guy on defense . . . Joe Bolden. I’ve said it before, but Bolden’s just not ready for these big-time games. He took a couple bad angles on Saturday and missed some tackles. I do believe that he’ll be a solid player in the future, but the game’s just moving too fast for him right now. He’s a perfect example of why freshman linebackers should redshirt.
Play of the game . . . Denard Robinson’s 67-yard touchdown run. While the Wolverines trotted out Robinson at quarterback with a minute and some change left, it seemed as though Michigan was going to be happy with the status quo going into halftime. He couldn’t beat Ohio State with his arm and everyone knew it. He took the snap, went left, and gained a chunk of yards. On the next play, he took the snap, faked a handoff, and then gave three blockers time to get out in front of him to the right. He burst past his blockers, withstood two Buckeye tacklers who tried to crunch him between themselves, stumbled, and then outran everyone for a 67-yard touchdown that put Michigan up by 7 points. Of course, Ohio State drove down and kicked a field goal before the half, but that was still a four-point swing in the right direction for Michigan.
MVP of the game . . . Jake Ryan. Ryan didn’t score any touchdowns, but he filled up the stat sheet on the defensive side of the ball and did a good job of mostly hemming in OSU quarterback Braxton Miller. Ryan finished the day with 9 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 2 forced fumbles. Michigan still had a chance to win the game because the defense kept them in it, and Ryan was the best defensive player on the field.
 |
| Here’s some Kate Upton to make you feel better. |
I told you so but I wish I didn’t. Last week I railed against the usage of Denard Robinson, saying that using Denard so much last week a) set him up to get injured, b) might limit his effectiveness against OSU, and c) took away the element of surprise of using him in the backfield and at receiver. People responded by saying that they were glad Michigan used him because it would give Urban Meyer trouble preparing for this week’s game. How did that go for you? Denard tweaked his elbow injury last week and didn’t throw even once this game. Michigan also ran very few plays with Robinson and Devin Gardner on the field, running a very vanilla and predictable offense. I guess all that stuff last week was just for fun.
WTF. There’s really no excuse for the play calling in the second half, and that falls on both Brady Hoke and Al Borges. People want to fire Al Borges, but the head coach has to step in and call shenanigans on the crappy play calling. Now I’m not suggesting that either one get fired, but you can’t separate the two entities. As the head guy, Hoke is responsible for the calls that are made by his coordinators. Michigan tried running the ball up the middle with Vincent Smith – which has been a terrible idea for years – and generally went into a shell on offense. There was no element of surprise, and all the plays and counter plays that were opened up last week by Robinson’s utility were apparently erased from this week’s playbook.
Derrick Green, come on down.
Outside of Fitzgerald Toussaint, Michigan’s running backs are terrible. Thomas Rawls has no vision, lacks speed, and isn’t as powerful as a short yardage back should be. Vincent Smith is gone anyway, and while I always liked him as a third down-type back, plugging him in for short-yardage plays against OSU was a poor decision. You simply cannot expect him to gain yardage when Michigan’s interior offensive line is this bad. He did okay running outside on the inverted veer plays, but good grief, Borges has to put him in a position to be successful. Even fullback Stephen Hopkins comes in for some criticism here, because he missed two key blocks and generally looked like he didn’t understand his job. Michigan needs running backs in a bad way, and I don’t see game-breaking ability in either DeVeon Smith or Wyatt Shallman. The coaches need to bring in a bunch of backs and let them improve through competition.
Play action bulls***. Here’s the part that perhaps irked me most about the play calling in the second half. Borges kept calling play action passes when there was clearly no threat of running the ball. That doesn’t work against teams who aren’t stupid, and the Buckeyes are a lot of things – cheaters, ugly, arrogant, etc. – but their defense is always well coached. When Devin Gardner turns around to give play action fakes, he’s diverting his attention from the coverage and sometimes he’s limiting himself to throwing to half the field. The linebackers and safeties weren’t biting on play action fakes to Vincent Smith because Smith gets tackled by a stiff breeze, so there’s no tactical advantage. But again and again, Gardner wasted time by running around with his back to the defense and pretending like the Buckeyes gave a s*** about the 5’7″, 175 lb. running back. Just drop Gardner straight back or roll him out.
Carlos Hyde played well. I actually thought Michigan’s interior defense would hold Hyde down pretty well, but Michigan’s defensive ends and play calls seemed so concerned with Braxton Miller that they unclogged the middle a little bit. Hyde got downhill and broke a few tackles, but there were several occasions where he got to the second and third levels without being touched. Greg Mattison seemed to call more 4-3 Over defensive fronts than normal.
Freshman frustration. I do not like seeing guys like James Ross and Joe Bolden out there in games like this. It was somewhat inevitable, I guess, because of a lack of depth, but today is an example of why you need depth at linebacker. Bolden in particular got out of position a couple times and allowed some key gains, and Ross got caught inside on a Braxton Miller run. Both of those guys have high upsides, but freshmen are freshmen. Next year the Wolverines should be able to go two-deep with experienced guys at every linebacker position, so we should see even more improvement in the linebacker group.
Mike Jones and Brandin Hawthorne exist in bad ways. I was not a fan when Rich Rodriguez recruited Jones and Hawthorne, and they have worked their ways down the depth chart. Jones incurred a 15-yard penalty for a late hit in this game, and Hawthorne has made similarly poor plays this season on special teams. It’s not a coincidence that Ross and Bolden passed those guys for playing time. Hawthorne will graduate after this season, and I would not be surprised to see redshirt junior Jones depart with a year of eligibility remaining.
This was Gardner’s worst game. Gardner was visibly frustrated at a couple points, and it showed in his play. Especially in the second half, it looked like he was trying to throw pinpoint passes instead if letting it fly. He’s always had a slightly awkward throwing motion, but he just didn’t seem to be following through with his normal verve. That’s somewhat understandable for a kid playing quarterback in such a big game for the first time, which is why it would have been helpful to have Robinson ready to throw the ball. Robinson had his best quarterbacking performance against these Buckeyes last season, so limiting him to 10 touches seems like a bad idea. Gardner finished 11/20 for 171 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception, and he took 4 sacks despite the absence of John Simon, OSU’s best defensive lineman. There was nobody to take the pressure off of Gardner – Robinson out of the backfield, Toussaint, Borges – and thus it was left on his shoulders to try to make plays when there none to make.
The better team won. I argued with people all week who said that Michigan was the better team but that the Wolverines played a tougher schedule. The bottom line is that any of us would rather be 11-0 than 8-3 coming into the game, regardless of who was on the schedule. The Buckeyes ran the ball well, threw the ball well, and played pretty solid defense except for a couple huge plays (Robinson’s 67-yard touchdown, Roundtree’s 75-yard TD reception). The bottom line is that Michigan replaced David Molk, Mike Martin, and Ryan Van Bergen with Elliott Mealer, Quinton Washington, and Craig Roh, respectively, all of which are steps backward. I fully believe that an influx of talent is coming with Hoke’s recruiting classes, but right now Michigan has a deficit that will take some time to fix.
Rush Offense vs. Ohio State Rush Defense
Michigan is the #36 rushing offense in the country with 195 yards/game, but the rushing offense is perhaps in a dire situation. Starting running back Fitzgerald Toussaint (514 yards, 5 touchdowns) will miss the rest of the season with a lower leg injury, which leaves the running back duties to Thomas Rawls (240 yards, 4 touchdowns, Vincent Smith (27 carries, 76 yards, 2 touchdowns), and Justice Hayes (16 carries, 83 yards, 1 touchdown). The numbers don’t look too bad, but most of Rawls’s yards have come in garbage time and he has struggled against decent teams. The wild card is Denard Robinson, who started at running back last week and – mostly from the quarterback position – has rushed for 1,044 yards and 6 touchdowns, good enough for the 15th-most yards in the nation despite missing 2.5 games due to injury. He’s clearly the best running option, but he may not be able to run Michigan’s full complement of plays. The Buckeyes have the #17 rush defense and have given up just 117 yards/game. Defensive tackles Johnathan Hankins and Garrett Goebel don’t get a ton of penetration, but they are space eaters who have combined for 8 tackles for loss. Defensive end John Simon and linebacker Ryan Shazier have each made 14.5 tackles for loss, and Shazier has improved significantly since last year, when he played as a freshman. The Buckeyes should be able to handle Michigan’s interior offensive line, so the Wolverines will have to attack the edges and through the air.
Advantage: Ohio State
Pass Offense vs. Ohio State Pass Defense
Michigan has been improving incrementally in the passing game and now sits at #95 with 201 yards/game; quarterback Devin Gardner has been the impetus for that rise, and he threw for 314 yards and 3 touchdowns against Iowa last week. Wide receivers Jeremy Gallon (34 catches, 617 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Roy Roundtree (25 catches, 461 yards, 2 touchdowns) have stepped up their games recently, and tight end Devin Funchess has been a productive red zone target. The Buckeyes are #84 in pass defense (250 yards/game), but #28 in pass efficiency defense. Simon has made 9 sacks and Shazier has made 4. Meanwhile, cornerback Travis Howard has 4 interceptions on the season, although 3 of them came in the Buckeyes’ first two games. Michigan will have to pay extra attention to Simon and roll Gardner out to get him on the edge, but Gardner should be able to find some success with crossing routes and play action.
Advantage: Michigan
Rush Defense vs. Ohio State Rush Offense
The Wolverines give up 151 yards/game, good enough for 51st in the country. However, that stat has been dropping since a couple rough outings early in the year. The middle of Michigan’s defense has been stout, but starting defensive tackles Quinton Washington and William Campbell have combined for just 3 tackles for loss. They don’t get consistent penetration, but they do hold their ground pretty well, which allows the inside linebackers to flow to the ball and make tackles. Teams can gain yards running the ball, but usually in small increments. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes have the #9 rushing offense and gain 245 yards/game, with quarterback Braxton Miller running for 110 yards/game and running back Carlos Hyde pretty close behind with 91 yards/game. They like to run the option with Miller, who is very adept at pulling the ball out of Hyde’s belly and making things happen on the edge. Michigan should keep Hyde pretty well in check early, until/unless Miller starts to gash them. Miller is also very adept at tucking the ball and scrambling, which hurt Michigan last year; that will continue to be an issue, because the Wolverines don’t really have the athletes at defensive end to keep Miller hemmed in.
Advantage: Ohio State
Pass Defense vs. Ohio State Pass Offense
Michigan is #1 in overall pass defense (152 yards/game), but #30 in pass efficiency defense. Free safety Thomas Gordon and cornerback Raymon Taylor each have 2 interceptions to tie for the team lead, but nobody in the secondary is known as a true ball hawk or a shutdown player in coverage. The linebackers are pretty solid in coverage, but Michigan lacks a strong pass rush. Defensive end Craig Roh has 4 sacks, outside linebacker Jake Ryan has 3.5, and safety Jordan Kovacs is next with 2. The Buckeyes are the #100 passing offense with 180 yards/game and they’re #57 in passing efficiency, but they still have dangerous players on the outside. The Buckeyes abused Michigan’s back seven in last season’s matchup, although that was a different offensive system and they had DeVier Posey. Wideout Corey Brown (52 catches, 574 yards, 2 touchdowns) is more of a possession guy, but Devin Smith (28 catches, 555 yards, 6 touchdowns) has some explosive abilities and might be just as good as Posey was. Poor quarterback play has prevented Michigan from getting beaten too badly on the outside, but I’ve been dreading the moment when it would hurt Michigan; there’s a very good chance that the Wolverines’ shortcomings on the outside will be exposed on Saturday. I don’t think Taylor and his counter J.T. Floyd will be able to stick with Smith for the entire game, and Michigan’s safeties are just so-so in coverage. The Buckeyes will run the ball a lot, so they probably won’t sit back there and throw 50 times to win, but they’ll get some big plays through the air.
Advantage: Ohio State
Roster Notes
Predictions
A Look Back . . .