Wolverines lull Nittany Lions to Sleep
Mike Hart proved to be elusive to the Nittany Lions
Photo: MGoBlue.com
If Lloyd Carr was a mad scientist like Dr. Frankenstein he’d be hard pressed to come up with a better prototype for Mike DeBord’s somnambulant offense than Mike Hart. The feisty running back keyed Michigan’s 14-9 win yesterday with 153 yards on 44 carries and 1 touchdown. The 44 carries was a new career-high for the senior tailback and he also set a Michigan career mark with his 23rd game of rushing for 100 or more yards. He’s 53 yards behind Jamie Morris for second place all-time in career rushing yardage. He also made some key blitz pickups to buy Ryan Mallett more time in the pocket.
Ron English’s defense once again excelled against a traditional offense led by a pedestrian signal caller. The Nittany Lions only managed 270 yards of total offense and Anthony Morelli fumbled at the Penn State 14 on the Nittany Lions’ second drive, which resulted in Michigan’s first touchdown. There must be something in the water in Schembechler Hall that prevents Wolverine defensive coordiantors from coming up with effective ways to stop dual-threat quarterbacks as Jim Herrmann and Lloyd Carr both struggled with these types of offenses when they guided the Michigan defense. Fortunately Morelli didn’t pose much of a threat on Saturday afternoon.
Safety Jamar Adams made several big stops in the passing game for Michigan and had possibly his best game while sporting the maize and blue. Brandon Graham proved once again to be a difference-maker as he forced the Morelli fumble that resulted in Ryan Mallett’s 10 yard touchdown scamper on 2nd down. Linebacker coach Steve Szabo has done a nice job with John Thompson and Chris Graham as both players look much more confident, although the true test will probably come when the Wolverines face the Fighting Illini on October 20th.
After one game into the conference slate the Wolverines have remained relevant in the conversation on which team will win the conference championship. The #10 Nittany Lions were seriously overrated but that doesn’t take anything away from Michigan’s biggest win of the season. It simply is what it is: a win against a quality conference opponent that could jumpstart the Wolverines as they head into the heart of a conference schedule that doesn’t feature a team that is currently ranked until a November 10 meeting with the Badgers in Madison. Speaking of rankings a friend of mine texted me to ask if/when I thought Michigan would be ranked. I wrote him back that it would probably be a month but rankings are irrelevant as the Wolverines have their sights set squarely on a Big Ten title.
This season is starting to look more and more like the 1998 season when Michigan dropped their first two games against Notre Dame and Syracuse. The Wolverines went on to win their next 8 games to set up a Big Ten championship matchup against the Buckeyes. During that 8 game stretch Michigan played only two teams that would finish the season with a winning record: Penn State and Wisconsin. Both PSU and Wisconsin look like two of the better teams in the conference this season so the Wolverines look to have taken care of one of their main contenders.
Ryan Mallett looked decent, particularly when you consider he was facing a very good linebacking unit and secondary in Penn State. His most impressive trait is his ability to keep his cool and make plays when he starts to feel pressure in the pocket. His ten yard touchdown run was obviously not a designed quarterback run and he made a couple big throws on 3rd and medium or long.
1st quarter: completed 18 yd pass on 3rd and 10 to Adrian Arrington at 0:33 left in quarter
2nd quarter: completed 14 yd pass on 3rd and 9 to Mario Manningham at 1:14 left in quarter
3rd quarter: completed 12 yd pass on 3rd and 13 to Adrian Arrington at 10:38 left in quarter
3rd quarter: completed 6 yd pass on 3rd and 5 to Adrian Arrington at 4:13 left in quarter
4th quarter: completed 9 yd pass on 3rd and 5 to Greg Matthews at 12:00 left in quarter
4th quarter: completed 12 yd pass on 3rd and 11 to Greg Matthews at 4:48 left in quarter
4th quarter: completed 5 yd pass on 3rd and 4 to Mario Manningham at 3:32 left in quarter
Playing against a pretty solid defense, the Wolverines converted 55.5% of their third downs. They only converted 7 of 15 against Appalachian State and 7 of 19 against Oregon. Many people thought Michigan would have no chance yesterday with Chad Henne out of the lineup. As it turns out Lloyd Carr could have a quarterback controversy on his hands as Mallett has done a better job thus far at doing the thing a quarterback needs to do in a Mike DeBord offense: convert 3rd and medium or long. Those are the times when your quarterback is going to get blitzed. Mallett so far has shown an impressive ability to deal with the pressure; Henne has not.
With that here are the grades for the three main coaches.
Mike DeBord: C-. The running game was going to have to carry Michigan and it largely did. However the offensive coordinator put Mallett in far too many 3rd and long situations. The good news is the true freshman came through and produced. Michigan missed out on an oppotunity to score points at the end of the half by screwing around before making a half-hearted attempt to get into their two minute offense. It resulted in a Ryan Mallett interception to more or less end the half. The offense should have a chance to flex its muscle by scoring 17-21 points against severly overmatched opponents like Northwestern and Eastern Michigan - unless of course the defense gives them prime field position all game like they did in the Notre Dame game.
Ron English: B. The defense gave up just over 100 yards rushing to the Nittany Lions but held them to less than 300 total yards and three field goals. The Wolverines will face two spread offenses over the next two weeks but hopefully they won’t be as good as Appalachian State. Hard to believe I’m saying those words in regards to a Michigan defense but there you go.
Lloyd Carr: B-. The team doesn’t look as aimless and confused as they did during the first two weeks of the season. So the head coach deserves credit for getting that squared away and for refocusing the team on the pursuit of the conference title. Special Teams could cost Michigan a game as the field goal unit is mediocre at best. And the inability to decide if the team wanted to go into the two minute offense just before the half was an all-too familiar scenario.
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DeBord owes Mallett (and probably Arrington) a steak dinner for bailing out his poor playcalling.