22 Jan 11 Michigan Football vs. UMass Revisited: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Mike Shaw had a career day, rushing for 126 yards and 3 TDs.Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesThe GoodMike Shaw's coming out party? He carried the ball 12 times for 126 yards and three touchdowns!What's most interesting is that he only had 11 yards in the first half. If he can put together four quarters the way he Reebok Chicago Bears #6 Jay Cutler Realtree camo Jersey
played the second half, Michigan's running game might finally come back to life.As for Denard Robinson, would you expect any different? He did commit his first turnover of the year, coming on his first pass of the game. To his credit, it was tipped, but the pass was ill-advised.Robinson quickly atoned for his first-quarter error by throwing 10-for-14 for 241 yards and two TDs. Oh, and he also rushed for 104 yards on 17 tries and an additional TD.Denard Robinson is the dual threat. He finished with 345 yards, and the Denard show rolls on.How about No. 22, Darryl Stonum? The guy only had three receptions, but man did he make them count, including a short pass that he quickly turned into a 66-yard touchdown catch-and-run. He finished the game with 121 reception yards.The offensive line is still doing very well. It is one of the most veteran and talented units on the team, and as UMass tried to contain Robinson, they helped open up Shaw's career-best game. Hopefully they can continue their stellar performance.Michigan put forth a classy reaction to the news that UMass' band director passed away two days earlier. The band, known as the "Power and Class of New England," received a roaring, standing ovation from a half-full Big House around 30 minutes before kickoff after performing for the first time without George Parks at the helm.Jordan Kovacs strip and subsequent fumble recovery. Yep, 'nuff said.The BadCraig Roh and Mike Martin. This is sort of a limbo between good and bad because Roh and Martin are very frequently in the backfield. Unfortunately, they always seem to be a step too late to get a sack.The inability to get the quarterback down (and give him copious amounts of time in the pocket) is killing the team's secondary.Include coach Rich Rodriguez's decision to attempt a field goal after a drive stalled as "The Bad"-worthy. Tisk, tiskhe should know better by now.The referees were awful. Now, I disdain this argument for poor play, but at least two of Michigan's drives were killed by blown or missed calls.The first of the two calls that stick out in my mind is a late hit on Robinson somewhere toward the beginning of the game, in which a UMass defender went for a hit after the whistle was blown and Robinson was out of bounds. The referee nearest the action threw the flag, but the ref across the field apparently said no, and they decided there was no foul.The second was a pass interference call that was thrown on Michigan. Kyle Havens took a strike at the end zone but was far off target, and the ball was uncatchablenevertheless the refs called pass interference and kept the Minutemen's drive alive.Finally, after Michigan forced a UMass turnover, the offense rushed onto the field and snapped the ball. The referees actually stopped the play after Robinson snapped the ball to review the previous play. Luckily, the ruling on the field stood, and Michigan got the ball.UMass absolutely owned possession, leading Michigan by more than 15 minutes. UMass had the ball for 37:38 and Michigan for 22:22. This didn't give our team's weak and worn-down defense much time off the field.It would appear Michigan's strength of schedule is weakening. Before the season started, UConn and Notre Dame looked like quality opponents, but after Temple's two-touchdown defeat of UConn and Reebok Dallas Cowboys #82 Jason Witten Realtree camo Jersey
Notre Dame's overtime loss to Michigan State, Michigan's ranking is starting to look slightly lofty.In fact, sportswriters acknowledged that and moved Michigan down a spot despite winningalways a strange phenomenon.The UglyMichigan's secondary, which was torched for the third (arguably only second) straight game. The blame should be a little dispersed on this one, though; after all, had Roh and Martin capitalized on their frequent trips to the backfield, then Havens likely wouldn't have had as much opportunity to pass.Also, after you get an interception, it's a good idea to avoid fumbling it. I don't fault Cam Gordon too much for that, but UMass gained a ton of yardage after Michigan intercepted and then UMass recovered the fumble.Missed tackles/poor tackles. There's not too much to say here. Havens should have been sacked about 10 times, but he wasn't, and missed tackles (or people trying to arm-tackle) allowed him to get the ball off way too many times. He was pretty good at throwing on the run too.Michigan's D-line was not at its best. I was impressed with the D-line's play the previous two weeks, but it seemed every first down the Minutemen would gash the Michigan line for 4-5 yards. It's not that hard to move on 2nd-and-5, so the line needs to tighten back up.Special teams. Good lord that's got to be the worst part of the team. Our kickoff coverage is terrible, as UMass frequently got to the 35-yard line when we kicked, we had one of our punts blocked, and we've still only made one field goal all year. It would appear that we're not getting to the catcher when we punt very quickly, as the punt returner is averaging about 11 yards gained from our punts.Actually, the defense on both teams was pretty offMichigan and UMass racked up 967 yards of offense and 79 total points. Pretty crazy, and not in a good way.Why we shouldn't worry...that muchI can think of many games where 20-plus-point favorites have come in and either allowed the game to be uncomfortably close or lost, then went on to complete a decent season.Take Ohio State last year: In their opening game against Navy, they were an 18-point favorite and the game came down to the final seconds, as OSU held on to win by four.Ohio State was more than a 20-point favorite over Purdue last year and lost. So why should Michigan not be worried? Well, despite the Wolverines' lack of success when coming into the game as the overwhelming favorite, they still did go on to win the Rose Bowl. (Don't take this out of context, I am in NO way saying Michigan will be anywhere near Pasadena this year.)Michigan built up a nice 42-24 cushion only to watch it evaporate. While somewhat worry-inducing, you can take slight reprieve that it wasn't all the defense's fault. The two TDs that brought the score within five came because (1) UMass blocked a punt and capitalized on it, and (2) Cam Gordon fumbled away an interception to UMass.The game could have easily ended 42-24 and people would not be as hysterical about it as they are now.The take-home messageEveryone knew it Reebok Dallas Cowboys #9 Tony Romo Realtree camo Jersey
was ugly. Rich Rod, pleased with a win, but visibly disturbed with the manner that it happened, said it was the "quietest winning locker room he's ever been in."The players knew it, the fans knew it, and Rich Rod knew it.Even when the team ran over to the student section after the game they were unenthusiastic. Usually, a win means the athletes sprint over and jump up into the stands to the waiting, open arms of the student body. Everyone laughs, smiles, and sings The Victors.Instead, all we saw was a quick singing of The Victors and the players lethargically meandering to the locker room. It was lackluster.Roh did give us a glimmer of hope, though:"We were terrible on defense,'' Roh said. "We just didn't look like we were prepared to play and we didn't make adjustments during the game."I promise you'll not see another game like that from us again.''Let's hope Roh is right.