Penn State Recap, Illinois Preview

So, the Michigan Wolverines kept there losing streek going with another horrible performance on the road against the Penn State Nittany Lions. I have a hard time understanding why the offense was so slow out of the gate yet again this week just like the last few weeks before seemingly scoring whenever they want in the second half of the games. This week’s defensive performance and game plan by defensive coordinator Greg Robinson finally made me say out loud he should be fired. There is absolutely no reason he should be on this staff anymore. He doesn’t even go out and recruit and from what it looks like is that time spent staying at home isn’t going into setting up a better game plan on Saturdays. I give him the benefit of the doubt that he has had a huge turnover the last couple of years with players leaving and getting injured, but that doesn’t let him off the hook for the 3-3-5 getting beat by some walk on quarterback that nobody in the stadium even heard of until then. To have no pressure all game in the backfield and having the best player on the field Craig Roh playing outside linebacker dropping back in coverage all night is the dumbest thing I have ever seen before. Coach Robinson please go back to 4 down lineman with Roh on the edge and maybe blitz a few more times, instead of leaving the 4 true freshman naked in the secondary and a quarterback all the time in the world to finally find somebody open. This game was just an embarrassment for the Michigan faithful to watch.

            I have been pretty patient and thought it was the right thing to do bringing this staff back for another year. It will be very hard to convince me that if they lose the next two ballgames and don’t make it to a bowl game. Things won’t be any easier on defense with the only experienced corner J.T. Floyd out for the season with an injury to his ankle that he sustained at practice. It is just another bump in the road Rich Road explained, as they haven’t even been tackling in practice. The player in front of J.T falls during drill and J.T. falls over him and gets injured. That is a great example of how the last few weeks have been going. They also need to get Mike Shaw back being part of the offense and a healthy Mike Martin who has only played a few series the last two weeks. The season still can be salvaged and so can the coaches jobs, but this is starting to even wear on me and look grim for a few people on the staffs future.

            I will briefly go over the game or at least until I can’t stomach thinking about it anymore. Going into this game I thought for sure that Michigan would win on the road after what Illinois did to Penn State the week before. Denard once again played great running for 190 and passing for 190, only 20 yards away from being the only quarterback ever to run for 200 and pass for 200, three times in a season. Denard started a little slow and got knocked out of the game again that led to Tate not moving the ball. A big penalty slowed a drive that only netted a field goal, even though it was nice to see them able to kick a field goal. The first half was just awful to watch, Michigan couldn’t score while Penn State wasn’t having any problem with Royster running the ball all over the place. Penn State seemed to pick up about every third down and the defense couldn’t get off the field. This Penn State team was the worst third down team in the conference and the Michigan defense made them look like Peyton Manning was on the other team. The game seemed to come down to at the end of the half Jeremy Gallon having the ball bounce off his head and go out of bounds at the 2, leading to Michigan being conservative and having to punt, and Penn State being able to score and go up by 18 points at the end of the half. So, with the penalty on second down at the 4 yard line and settling for a field goal and not tying it up at 14 -14 was the start of the slip and then giving up two touchdowns at the end of the half in the final 3 minutes was just too much for the Wolverines to come back from.

Michigan made a great second half run after giving up a field goal and being down by 21 points at the beginning of the second half. The offense seemed to be more aggressive and let Denard do more things with the ball then they did in the first. Just being down by 21 they didn’t have the time to come back with. The Wolverines made it a 7 point game with 9 minutes to go and of course couldn’t catch a break. On the kick off a horrible late hit call was made giving Penn State the ball at the 50. So after only picking up 1 first down they were already in field goal range to close the game out.
            This was an awful game to lose going back home to play a better then expected Illinois team. Illinois seems to have a very good team with a much better defense then what was expected. I thought this Illinois team was a couple years away from being as good going into the season this year, but after watching their games against OSU, Mizzou, and Purdue they seem to be in the spot Michigan wanted to be. This looks to be one of Illinois last difficult games with their schedule being fairly easy to close out the season. Their young quarterback has played very well for a true frosh and the defense has been much better then anyone could have expected. I for one have been getting really pissed losing to Illinois, since I have a hard time figuring they have as much talent as Michigan does on the field, and I have a hard time thinking the Zooker is a better coach then Rich Rod ( even though Zook has been to more Rose Bowls then Rich and even the highest paid coach in the conference Ferentz).

            Illinois has a speedy quarterback Nate Scheelhaase that Michigan will have to put pressure on to keep this game winnable otherwise people will be thinking that Scheelhaase is the next Steve Young. The Illini will give most of their carries to the workhorse Mikel Leshoure; he seems to be a back that has his one or two big runs that Michigan will need to limit. They have a couple good receivers in A.J. Jenkins and Florida transfer Fayson. Illinois has the speed and talent to break any play deep. Pressure and contain will be the most important to stopping this from happening. Illinois isn’t having the best year throwing the ball, but the Michigan defense is the perfect cure for that since Michigan will be starting 4 true freshmen in the secondary and will play up to 8 on defense. They do run the ball very well with Scheelhaase and Leshoure and that is where the game will be decided. If Michigan limits the big plays and can force Illinois to limit the third down pick ups Michigan has a very good chance.

This game comes down to Michigan being able to score early and in the red zone, one of the huge Illinois defensive strengths is their red zone defense. If so I expect Michigan to win 35-31 at home, if not another 10 point loss since that seems to be what has been happening lately. Yes, I do understand I have picked Michigan to win every week, with the offense they have they should never be out of a game and that is why I think they can get back on track this week. This is a very big game for moral going into a winnable game at Purdue. Its time to be bowl eligible again and for my soon to be ex friend Butter Crunch Bruning to leave me alone, I cant take anymore of the House Juice Williams anymore after he ran all over Michigan a couple years ago in the Big House. It’s now Denard Robinson’s time to retain that title.