Wolverines knock off Gophers 34-10
Manningham broke open the game for Michigan
Photo: MGoBlue.com
Mario Manningham has been put to good use over the past 4 games. Likely the top receiver in the country, he wasn’t thrown to very often in Michigan’s first four games. In those games he caught 19 passes and one touchdown. Here are his receiving stats over his last four games.
| Game | Receptions | Yards | Touchdowns |
|
Northwestern |
10 | 123 | 1 |
|
Purdue |
8 | 147 | 2 |
|
Illinois |
9 | 109 | 2 |
|
Minnesota |
5 | 162 | 1 |
|
TOTAL |
32 | 541 | 6 |
Michigan struggled to move the ball early on. Part of that was due to a short passing game that doesn’t really fit the strengths of the quarterbacks Michigan recruits and the other reason was Mike Hart’s backups don’t get much playing time. The Wolverine offense was also generous about turning the ball over, even though the playcalling was pretty safe. The Wolverines lost two fumbles, one of which was returned by Dominique Barber on a 41 yard return.
The Wolverines started to move the ball when they threw deeper passes that took advantage of freshman signal-caller Ryan Mallett’s strong arm. The key play on their first scoring drive was a 22-yard pass to Adrian Arrington to give Michigan a 1st down at the Minnesota 31 yard line. The Wolverines ground game would pick up 6 yards on the next two plays and following an incomplete pass KC Lopata kicked a 42 yard field goal.
The Wolverines would follow up that drive with another deep pass that set up another field goal. This time Ryan Mallett connected with Mario Manningham for a 44 yard completion. After the Wolverines once again gained 6 yards by rushing the ball twice and throwing an incomplete pass on 3rd down KC Lopata drew the Wolverines to within 4 points by kicking a 26 yard field goal.
Those deep passes helped to loosen up a previously stout Gopher run defense. On the next drive Brandon Minor ripped off consecutive 16 and 12 yard rushes. Mallett would hit Manningham for a 24 yard completion and Minor would complete the drive on a 2-yard touchdown rush to put the Wolverines in the lead for good with a 13-10 lead.
The Wolverine offense stagnated for much of the third quarter as the team went back to the same run run dink and dunk punt playcalling. With the Gophers still in the game by only being down by three points, Michigan called Super Mario’s number again. On a drive with about 5:30 left in the third quarter, Mallett hit Manningham with a 48 yard reception. That play gave Michigan a first down at the Minnesota 23 yard line. Two plays later Carlos Brown scored a 5 yard touchdown to give the Wolverines some breathing room with a 20-10 lead. They all but officially put the game away when Mallett connected with Manningham on the next drive for a 40 yard touchdown pass.
Carlos Brown provides the run game with a homerun threat
Photo: MGoBlue.com
The vertical passing game finally opened up the running game and as a result Carlos Brown ripped off the longest touchdown run Michigan has scored in over 10 years. On the drive following Mario Manningham’s TD catch, Michigan used a fullback who was able to take the middle linebacker out of the play. Justin Boren also got a great block and it looked like Carlos Brown was never touched as he took off for an 85 yard touchdown run.
Here are the grades for the coaches.
Ron English: A. Only Ohio State gave up fewer points to the Gophers. If not for that fumble Minnesota returned for a TD the Wolverines would have held them to 3 points. The defensive line has been very solid and the secondary is showing signs of improvement. I think English has a good chance to be a very good defensive coordinator. Sure, he’s had some bad showings at the end of last year and the start of this year. But he’s only in his second season so I think there’s reason to expect him to become even better.
Mike DeBord: B. I just don’t understand why the Michigan offense tries to run the ball on first and second down so often early in games when it hasn’t worked. A dink and dunk west coast type of offense makes sense when you have a weak-armed QB like Jeff Garcia. Michigan recruits big, immobile signal-callers who have cannons for arms. They also have receivers like Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington who are tough to cover in open space but easier to contain on shorter routes. Putting one and one together it makes sense for Michigan to call longer pass routes that play to their strengths and also help to open up the run game. So I like it when they run the real west coast offense like they did at times this afternoon.
Lloyd Carr: A-. Carr has done a remarkable job getting his team to regroup after losing their first two games of the season. There are areas that can be criticized and I’ve done that, particularly regarding special teams play. How KC Lopata didn’t win the place-kicking position prior to the start of the season is simply unfathomable. He’s converted 8 of 8 field goal attempts. The Wolverines will have two tough road games before they head into the season finale against Ohio State, but there’s reason to think they could head into the OSU game with a perfect Big Ten record with a chance to claim the conference championship. That’s impressive.
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