Iowa game

Stanzi was the Manzi in Ann Arbor on Saturday leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to a 38-28 rolling of the Wolverines. With penalties and turnovers dooming the first half for the Wolverines preventing them to get anything on the scoreboard early was too much for the youngsters. Taylor Lewan was the first half drive killer as he had 3 penalties on 3 different drives that moved them backwards and stopped all momentum. You can’t have those mental errors when you are playing a better team and putting the defense out on the field with a short field to protect. Iowa proved that with a steady game plan and experience they will take those mistakes and turn them to a positive for them. Every time Michigan screwed up, Iowa turned that into points. Michigan did rally late and another turnover inside the 15 was huge and halted another scoring possession. After going the first five games with only 1 turnover and now having 7 in the last two games just shows what can’t go on if they expect to win. I don’t have a lot to say this week as too everyone that watched the game knows how it went down and what Michigan did wrong for the second straight game against a better opponent.

            Michigan proved that they can move the ball against anyone gaining over 500 yards against a tough Iowa defense, most of that came when they opened up the offense with Tate Forcier. After center David Molk went out of the game with an injury they put Denard behind center and totally changed up the play calling and that isn’t Denard’s style of game. Denard later would be knocked out of the game and Tate did a decent job at trying a late rally. I still am not a Forcier fan due to the debacle that went on this summer. Yes, he proved he can still play quarterback fairly well, but it led to the burning of Devin Gardner’s redshirt and on the last pass of the game showed with the lack of time with the receivers he isn’t on the same page as Roundtree cut off the route and Tate threw his second interception. I still hope Devin redshirts next year as he has the best tools of all the quarterbacks and is the future. I found it nice that the crowd supported Tate when he came in, but also a little nervous that so many people want him in the game after Denard had played really well so far. Tate is the best throwing weapon on the team, but he is still in my doghouse. The offense seemed to limit Denard for some reason, and when Tate came in they let it go.

            I have never in my life seen special teams as special as what Michigan has now. It is worse then any junior high team in the country. There has to be a player that can kick the ball. To look clueless every time they kick a field goal knowing there is no chance of it going in or being able to keep a kick in bounds is ridiculous for a Big 10 program. Two times in a row the Michigan kicker kicked the ball out of bounds at the end of the game giving Iowa the ball at the 40. These free yards isn’t at all good for the defense, they have enough trouble stopping somebody for going 80 yards. Then on the field goal, to have it blocked and everyone except Tyler Sash stand around confused is just embarrassing. I really think I am going to practice and walk on before the next game, I surely can kick the ball in bounds anyways, and field goals can’t look any worse.

            I can say the one and about only positive thing I saw was that this team unlike last years team showed no giving up. They tried to turn it into a game again and came close to doing so. This shows me that this team will show up and try hard the remainder of the season. With a bye week coming up hopefully they can clear their heads and heal their bodies. It sounds like Rich Rod had a come to Jesus meeting with the team as he made them have a full practice on Sunday to go over the mental mistakes. The team does get Monday off from football activities and will start things back up on Tuesday. This should help iron out any of the issues and I can promise you that this team will come back playing hard after their bye week this weekend. I expected Michigan to lose some of these games against better opponents when the schedule came out and I am still very pleased to be 5-2 and on path for a bowl game. For a report from the Iowa side of the ball your man J-Call should help get you get that fix.