The State of Wolverine Football: Week 4
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by user Juanito
Largely as expected, Michigan followed up a resounding victory over Notre Dame on the road with a ho-hum performance against the Wisconsin Badgers at home. Some things have improved while others continue to cause problems for the Wolverines. While there is reason to celebrate the positives to date, there are still negatives that need to be addressed.
Defense
The Positives
After a third of the season, the defensive line continues to excel, playing with a fire and drive not seen in almost a decade. LaMarr Woodley has been nearly flawless through 4 games recording a team-leading 5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery which he returned for a touchdown to seal the victory at Notre Dame. However, Alan Branch, in a much more difficult position on the interior of the defensive line, has perhaps been even more impressive than anyone on the line. Branch has made himself a staple in opponent backfields, often pressuring quarterbacks in passing situations and occupying multiple blockers in running situations. This has freed the linebacking corps as well as his fellow linemates to hold all contenders to date to an average of just over 20 yards per game rushing.
Prescott Burgess has emerged as a solid linebacker in both pass and run defense. His willingness to stay in his lanes has forced many running backs back into the teeth of the Michigan linebacking corps. In addition, his two interceptions against Notre Dame, with one touchdown and another near touchdown were instrumental in keeping Notre Dame down. He followed up his performance with a solid effort and a near pick-six against Wisconsin. David Harris has been easily the most solid linebacker for Michigan, leading the team in tackles and almost always in the appropriate place in every situation.
The secondary, which had shown the most weakness early, showed marked improvement against both Notre Dame and Wisconsin. Leon Hall was able to blanket Jeff Samardzija to a mere 30 yards on four receptions. Morgan Trent, although perhaps now irrelavent for the next few weeks due to a rumored wrist/hand injury, had looked to have nailed down the other starting job at corner with a very admirable performance to date. Both safety positions, early liabilities with misplays and poor angle play, have improved their coverage and have also improved in their run support.
Most of all, coaching has impacted the attitude of this defense. Ron English calls his defenses without the hints of fear present in the gameplans of his predecessor. His players seem to have taken his attitude and confidence onto the field with them, playing with anger and what seems like contempt for opposing offenses.
The Negatives
Mental mistakes. For a defense playing as well as it has, there is still a propensity for missed assignments and blown coverages. So far, few have been capitalized upon, but as the weeks go by, and opponents have more time to find weaknesses, this could become a serious issue. In the Wisconsin game, three were glaringly obvious, the first of which resulted in the only Badger touchdown of the day. Dave Harris, a normally solid defender against the pass, missed his assignment, allowing P. J. Hill to take a short pass down the sideline for a 29-yards and the score. It is essential that everyone maintain their assignments and continue to do so, even in broken-play situations. More mobile quarterbacks, most notably Drew Stanton, Drew Tate, and Troy Smith will be much more likely to capitalize in the broken-play scenario.
The second noticeable problem is blown coverage assignments in the secondary, most notably when safety help should be present and is not. Notre Dame was nearly able to capitalize on this but for Rhema McKnight not being able to hold onto a sure reception for a possible touchdown. The front four has disrupted quarterbacks enough that other instances of these breakdowns have either not had time to materialize or have gone unnoticed by quarterbacks scrambling from the pocket. Again, as the season progresses, the likelihood of this being exploited by a more mobile quarterback or on a play when pressure does not reach collapse the pocket increases. By my count, at least four times Badger receivers were left uncovered due to the lack of safety help for a blitzing corner.
Finally, one play has worked multiple times against the Michigan defense for medium chunks of yardage. The middle screen to the tight end away from the pass rush has been used effectively by both Notre Dame and Wisconsin. The only positive is that neither team chose to employ the tactic more than once. Offenses often choose a tactic of misdirection against a defense the over-pursues. While over-pursuit has rarely been the case, when it is, plays similar to this can and will hurt.
Offense
The Positives
The offensive line, while obviously not dominant, has continued its solid play allowing Mike Hart, Kevin Grady, and Brandon Minor to continue a solid ground effort. While it doesn't appear any of them will be having 200-yard performances except against a terrible front seven, they continue to eat up yardage and clock controlling both the ball and time of possession.
Chad Henne continues to be solid but not spectacular. His touchdown-to-interception ratio is a mere 7 to 4 and his completion percentage is 59 percent. However, it has been the placement of his passes that has been most impressive to date. In the past two weeks, the emergence of a dangerous deep threat has forced defenses to not only contend with a solid rushing game but also the threat of the big play. In addition, the number of passes that are high or behind receivers seems to have declined immensely from previous seasons. Continued, such solid performances will be essential to winning difficult games including against Michigan State and Iowa at home as well as Ohio State and Penn State on the road.
Finally, in the receiving corps, a clear number one receiver has emerged and did so on the biggest of stages. Mario Manningham, a sophomore wide receiver, has become the favorite deep target of Chad Henne. His speed as well as committment to solid route-running has resulted in his being open behind defensive backs on a regular basis over the past two weeks. Against Notre Dame, he had three touchdown receptions, and he followed that up with two touchdown receptions against Wisconsin. Also emerging in the receiving corps is Adrian Arrington. After a very difficult season last year in which he was injured and rarely saw the field, he is beginning to gain confidence and has made some important catches on both the sideline and over the middle, the latter being something that had been missing from this offensive unit.
The tight end waggle has returned and, combined with the solid running game, will continue to be a very effective, if not under-used, tool. In addition, the tight ends have improved in their run and pass blocking, contributing in ways other than pass catching alone.
As for coaching, Mike DeBord does not seem to be content to sit on late leads, the bane of the fans of this team for many years now. He continues to test opponents' secondaries deep, even after interceptions, showing confidence in his personnel as well as those on the defensive team. Also, taking note of the types of plays being used so far, one could take away from this that perhaps there are still parts of the playbook that have yet to be showcased, perhaps being saved for games later in the season.
The Negatives
Two problems have continued to plague the offense in each of the games so far. The first can only be described as stone-handed receivers. The most egregious offender has been Steve Breaston although Manningham has had the occasional drop of the easy pass as well, most recently costing his team a turnover in the first quarter against Wisconsin. To anyone watching him play, Steve Breaston is a playmaker, but he is not, nor will he ever be, a number one or even number two type of receiver, let alone a deep threat. He doesn't have the necessary hands. From this perspective, it becomes clear that he is being played in the wrong position on offense, playing to his weaknesses instead of his strengths. Breaston is most dangerous and effective when given the ball on a safe play call, such as a screen, reverse, or shovel pass, and allowed to make something happen. He is elusive and quick and can squeeze out of situations most receivers cannot. That is why his continued use in the traditional receiver role is disconcerting. This is something easily fixed, but it does not appear to be obvious enough for the change to occur. This is something that is on the coaches, but the inability to secure easy passes is squarely on the shoulders of the wideouts.
Secondly, third down conversion is a major weakness for this offensive unit. The Wolverines did not convert a third down until the third quarter against Wisconsin and ended the contest a woeful 2 out of 13. Against Notre Dame, they were only slightly better converting 4 out of 13. In conference they rate 10th with a 33 percent conversion rate, a number skewed by the success had against Vanderbilt in the opener. They have been bad here and the coaching staff has taken notice. Coach Carr said in his Monday press conference that 3rd downs would be a major focus in practice this week. That number will have to improve to escape the next four contests unscathed and to have a chance at Ohio State to end the regular season.
Special Teams
The Positives
As poorly as Breaston has played at the receiver position, his kick-returning skills have once again emerged, making him a danger on every change of possession. Twice on Saturday he was one tackler away from taking a kick the distance, in stark contrast to weeks previous where he seemed sluggish or even leary.
Garrett Rivas continues to shine, making all of his field goal attempts in the previous two weeks, and all but one of his extra point attempts. Notre Dame was able to pressure up the middle after Michigan second touchdown in South Bend, and Rivas kick was again low. However, he has been putting more air under the ball on attempts since, and has not had a low line drive since, much to his credit.
The punting duties are still being shared by Ross Ryan and Zoltan Mesko. Ryan is solid and consisten with yardage while Mesko has been erratic at times. Mesko, however, has showcased his leg on a couple of occasions, and could win the job outright with a complete game performance. It was his punt in the second quarter against Wisconsin that was muffed by the return man because he was back-pedalling at the time he caught it. This allowed the Wolverines to tie the game heading into halftime. Ryan has handled kickoffs and has been solid. There have been no kicks out of bounds, several touchbacks, and a general positive field position for the Wolverine defense after many kicks.
Some members of the kick coverage team have shown including Stevie Brown and LaTerryal Savoy making superb tackles, Savoy's coming in the open field. The mistakes that were present in the first two contests have, for the most part, been lacking in the latter two. Average return yardage has dropped allowing Michigan to often keep its opponents bottled in their own end of the field. Overall, this unit has gone from shaky to pretty solid in two weeks' time.
The Negatives
There aren't many negatives to speak of. Kick coverage can always improve as both Wisonsin and Notre Dame each had one relatively decent return against the unit. The coaches continue to address the issues and must continue to have this team focus on things it has already succeeded at so that they do not go from strengths to weaknesses at an inopportune and costly time.
Rivas must continue to keep from driving his kicks low and put air under them so that the rushing line cannot simply raise their hands and have the ball hit them. He has shown in each of the past two games that he can do so effectively and still hit each kick solidly.
Date
Wed 09/27/06, 5:57 pm EST
