Michigan football is 5-1. That was about my expectation at the beginning of the year. I expected Michigan to lose one of the Notre Dame and Michigan State games and win the rest. So, despite how much it sucks to lose to Michigan State, I am completely satisfied with Michigan’s results through six games.
Now, I know people are going to point to 2009 and predict an imminent Michigan collapse. But, I don’t quite see it that way. Sure, Michigan lost yesterday in ugly fashion. But, the loss resulted from unforced, correctable mistakes. The sky is not falling. Denard Robinson struggled yesterday. It was bound to happen. But, WHY Denard struggled is a whole different story.
The Offense
Watching yesterday’s game, it was quite clear to me that Michigan knew that Michigan State was going to sell out to stop the run. Michigan threw the ball more as a result. Denard made the right reads in the passing game. He and his receivers just failed to execute. On the first drive, he threw late into the endzone resulting in an interception. He did the exact same thing later in the game. On both plays, he had an open receiver. On the second drive, Denard missed a wide open Darryl Stonum in the endzone. Michigan settled for 3 points. That is 18 points left on the board due to missed throws.
Denard Robinson started only his sixth game on Saturday. He has made those throws in the first five games. Maybe he was nervous on Saturday, maybe he just had a bad day. Everyone has bad days. The encouraging part to me is that the errors were not caused by the defense but rather a few poor throws to open receivers. That is correctable. Denard is as hard a worker as you will find. He will get into the film room and correct his mistakes.
The Defense
I was actually encouraged by some of what I saw from the defense yesterday. The offense lost the game, not the defense. When the offense controlled the ball in the first half, the defense played relatively well. They fell apart when the turnovers piled up. Two of MSU’s big plays came when the back-ups were in for a couple plays. There’s several glaring issues with the defense.
Tackling has to improve. Stop trying to hit the guy with the ball and start tackling. The missed tackles continue to plague the defense. They are often in position, but they need to finish the plays.
Get Obi Ezeh off the field. He is horrible and he was directly responsible for both of Michigan State’s long runs. I hate calling a specific player out, but Obi has to be replaced. His replacement can’t possibly be worse. My solution? Move Jordan Kovacs to MLB. Put Marvin Robinson at safety. Kovacs is one of the best players on the defense and he can tackle. Kovacs lacks safety speed, but he’ll be fine at linebacker. Marvin has the safety speed. If you don’t do that, just do something. Obi Ezeh provides no value to this team, whether it be in the present or in the future.
Outlook
So what does all of this mean? We are who we thought we were. I said at the beginning of the year: Michigan will be successful this year if they control time of possession and limit turnovers. The defense is not good enough to put them in bad position. The offense is awesome, and it’s only going to get better. Control time of possession and stop turning the ball over and all will be fine. I still see 8 wins like I did from day one.
