M&GB Features
Monday Morning Quarterback Faults Borges More Than Denard
Having not yet read any of the post-game reaction to Saturday’s 28-14 loss to Michigan State, I’m guessing that there is a lot of frustration among the masses about how the Wolverines played. I’m also guessing that a lot of people are blaming Denard Robinson for the loss because of his performance.
While going 9-of-24 for 123 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and 18 carries for 42 yards and a touchdown are not great stats and are not typical of his usual performance, Denard is not completely to blame. NO ONE should be questioning whether or not he should still be the quarterback, and NO ONE should be clamoring for a two-QB system along with Devin Gardner. I’ll discuss why below.
Monday Morning Quarterback Likes Second Half Adjustments
This week’s game against Northwestern was about what I expected: a close game for three quarters before Michigan pulled away for the win. All in all, Michigan completely dominated the second half. In fact, the defense didn’t give up a single point and came up with two big turnovers, and the offense scored almost every time it touched the football.
It was really a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Michigan offense seemed to get away from the things it had been successful with in the first five games: Denard Robinson in the shotgun, running the zone-read and using that to help set up the play-action pass. Not deep passes, but short, quick passes which gave Denard the ability to get rid of the ball quickly and not force him to sit in the pocket while trying to look down field to make a read.
Monday Morning Quarterback Needs Denard to Stay Healthy
Well, it wasn’t pretty, but it was exactly what I predicted in my Friday Pick’em prediction. Actually, I shouldn’t say it wasn’t pretty, because the Michigan offense was a lot crisper than it was in the first two games. But shouldn’t that be expected? This was the third game of the year and it was against Eastern Michigan.
The Michigan offense did a lot of good things on Saturday, including establishing a running game using the zone-read as a base play, using play-action pass off of the run, and at some times getting Denard Robinson out of the pocket and allowing him to create plays with his feet.
