Michigan Escapes Indiana 36-33

They will call it an ugly win. And it certainly was. But Tay Odoms was smiling.

Down 33-29 in the final moments of the fourth quarter the sophomore slot receiver Martavious Odoms made the game winning score Saturday on a 28 yard touchdown pass reception from banged up Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier to give the Wolverines (4-0) the victory 36-33. Surprisingly, this was Martavious Odoms’ first touchdown reception as a Michigan Wolverine.

Kudos to the Indiana Hoosiers (3-1) and their head coach Bill Lynch. The new Pistol offense is improving each week for them and Michigan's defense served as a nice practice dummy to work on. Indiana came to Ann Arbor with a creative game plan: attack Michigan’s corners and the middle of the field with a mixture of short and long passes, and as for running the ball, just employ a full frontal assault on Michigan's center line and linebackers with isolation runs up the middle and to the outside. This approach worked well on Saturday against a soft, malleable Michigan defense. Want the evidence? Hoosier tailback Darius Willis shredded Michigan for over 152 yards and two touchdowns, including an 85 yard jaunt. Indiana outrushed (197 yards to 149 yards) and out-passed Michigan (270 yards to 223 yards) in this football game, and had fewer turnovers and penalties as well.

Michigan’s read spread option offense had previously been averaging 287 yards rushing per game, but Indiana’s defensive front seven halved that output on Saturday. The Wolverines also lost 3 fumbles, threw one interception and generally looked out of sync with several players replacing injured starters on both sides of the ball. Yet the Hoosier defense still struggled to prevent three Michigan scores on the ground and two through the air, including a 2 point conversion run by Forcier early in the 4th quarter.

For the second straight week tailback Carlos Brown lead the team on to victory with solid contributions and big plays, with 83 yards rushing, 61 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns. Banged up senior tailback Brandon Minor tacked on another 50 yards rushing and one TD as well.

Freshman quarterback Tate Forcier seemed off in this game, but did his best to continue his spot-on imitation of former Wolverine quarterback Rick Leach in this game. Forcier hit on 11 of 21 (52%) passing attempts for 184 yards, 2 touchdown chucks, 15 yards rushing and 1 touchdown run plus a 2 point conversion run. Forcier also just happened to be behind the game winning TD pass again. However, for the third straight week, Forcier threw an interception (1). He was also sacked twice for -7 yards and appeared to have injured his shoulder in the game. Denard Robinson led Michigan on one touchdown drive (Minor TD) and was 2 of 3 for 39 yards passing and contributed 24 yards rushing.

Next week Michigan travels to East Lansing for it’s first road game of the season against cross-state rival Michigan State (1-3). Following last year’s 3-9 finish, and Saturday’s close win over overmatched Indiana, Rich Rodriguez and the Wolverine team are looking past no one this season. The Spartans are currently ranked last in the Big Ten standings despite a strong signing of recruits in 2008 and high pre-seasons praise and accolades from the local Michigan and national press. Despite the 1-3 start in 2009, it’s worth noting that 2 of MSU’s losses were by a total of only 5 points (CMU by 2 pts, Notre Dame by 3 points). The Spartans currently lead the Big Ten in offensive yards per game (439) and are 4th in scoring (33 pts/game). They lead the conference in total passing yards (1,283) and in first downs per game (24).

Being 4-0 is the best Michigan could have hoped for to this point of the season. The past victories provide this young Michigan team much needed confidence. But the Wolverines must make no mistake, Michigan State on the road will be the toughest opponent they've faced so far this year. This game will be a key determining factor as to how good the 2009 Michigan football team intends to be and how far they might go.

Eagles Taken Down by Carlos Brown

Michigan's Carlos Brown Taking It Downtown
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

The Michigan Wolverines struggled early with Eastern Michigan on Saturday. But gradually, over the course of 60 minutes of play, Michigan's meat-grinder rushing offense wore down the Eagles with several big rushing plays and an improved second half defensive effort to defeat the Eagles (Hurons) 45-17 with over 107, 903 fans in attendance.

Michigan's 28 point margin of victory against EMU on Saturday was the most decisive for a Wolverine football team since a 2007 victory over Notre Dame 38-0. It was also the offensive highest point total achieved to date by Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, and the second highest point total for a Michigan offense since the 2007 victory over Purdue 48-21.

Eastern Michigan kept the game respectable in the first half, closing the gap to 17-24, aided by the running of both quarterback Andy Schmitt and a fleet-footed tailback named Dwayne Priest, who had 91 yards rushing and 1 TD.

But Eastern simply had no answer for the Wolverines' own rushing onslaught. Eight different Michigan players carried the football on Saturday and half of them found the end zone at least once. By game end, Michigan had tallied 380 yards on the ground. The Wolverines were sparked by spectacularly quick runs from senior tailback Carlos Brown who had 187 yards in just 13 carries and two touchdowns, including a 90 yard TD jaunt in the second quarter.

Defensively, Michigan struggled to stop Eastern Michigan's ball control offense in the first half. The Eagles matched Michigan in first downs achieved (17). Most astonishing was that the gamestrategy of EMU head coach Ron English had managed to keep Michigan's explosive offense on the bench for 40 minutes of the game. Michigan worked to make the most of their few opportunities, scoring 45 points in the remaining 20 minutes of ball possession in the game. Michigan's defense gave up 3.7 yards per carry, but kept EMU's passing game under wraps most of the day, surrending 15 catches for only 106 yards. With Schmitt and Priest, Eastern Michigan accumulated 285 yards in total offense against the Wolverines - an average outing for the Eagles thus far this year. Wolverine defensive coordinator Greg Robinson emphasized some key read adjustments at halftime. His players responded by shutting out EMU on the scoreboard in the second half.

The hero of Michigan's last two games, quarterback Tate Forcier, was slightly off Saturday, hitting on only 54% of this throws for a meager 68 yards. Michigan's second quarterback, Denard Robinson was 0 for 4, and threw two interceptions. Robinson eventually redeemed himself via two electrifying touchdown runs of 13 yards and 36 yards in the second half.

By vanquishing EMU on Saturday, Rich Rodriguez and Michigan have already tied last year's win total of three. Also, at 3-0 Michigan is one of only 5 remaining teams in the Big Ten that is undefeated. Penn State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa are all 3-0.

Some other items of interest:

• After 3 games Michigan leads the Big Ten in scoring, averaging 38 points per game compared with 18.7 points per game this time last year

• After 3 games Michigan leads the Big Ten in rushing with 812, and is basically tied for first place in the conference with Purdue in total yards per game (439 yards per game).

• After 3 games, Michigan has yet to lose a fumble in 2009. By game 3 of 2008, Michigan had already lost 6 fumbles and had 3 interceptions.

• After 3 games, Michigan's total defense is currently ranked 9th in the Big Ten giving up 359 yards per game on average. In scoring defense, Michigan is currently ranked 5th giving up only 19.3 points per game.

• Michigan moves up from 25th in the AP poll to 23rd this week following the win over EMU.
  

Next weekend Michigan faces it's first Big Ten opponent in unbeaten Indiana (3-0) in Ann Arbor for the annual homecoming game. Michigan has not lost to Indiana since 1987 in Bloomington 10-14 when Bill Mallory was the coach for the Fightin' Hoosiers. The last time Michigan lost to Indiana in Ann Arbor was a 20-27 defeat to arguably the finest Indiana Hoosiers football team ever, the 1967 Big Ten Co-Champion.