Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

I usually watch Michigan games alone.  It has been that way since I graduated college and left the communal atmosphere that makes one feel a part of the school and the games.  Being an alumni just isn't the same.  The love is there, but the camaraderie is missing.

Of course, the last few years didn't help that much.  I spent 2007 as a holdout in one final semester, most of my friends graduated and moving on with their lives, me clinging to my student tickets and the only thing that ever made sense to me: going to school.  The next two years I lived in East Lansing with a house full of MSU fans, who, while generally rational, enjoyed watching my in-game nervous twitching, tantrums, and manic depressive behavior too much for my comfort.  I spent many Saturdays in my room alone.  Last year was my first away from the Midwest, and living with a friend who couldn't have cared less about college football in any form, it was easy to find solitude in which to watch games.

In any case, the last four years of Michigan football, combined with my already nervous disposition, have driven me away from football as a communal experience.  I've become a college football hermit.

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This year things are a little different.  I have more friends in the area, one of them a good college friend and one of only two people outside of my father who I go to to talk Michigan football.

I also don't have the Big Ten Network at home.  This has driven me find places outside the comfort of my house to watch games     something I'm not entirely comfortable with.  It has also driven me to sports bars more often than I would have liked.  Most games so far this year this  have been fine.  I watched the EMU game in an empty bar in Mio Michigan, I watched the SDSU game early in the afternoon in a half empty Buffalo Wild Wings that was just quiet enough for me to worry out loud and crack jokes to the others at my table, and I watched the Minnesota game at a friend's apartment as he got ready to watch the MSU game at 3:30.  All three cases were low stress.  Games were never in doubt, and I never had cause to flip out*.

Saturday night for the Northwestern game a few of us decided to go back to BWW.  I got there early and found a table right under a screen already tuned to the Big Ten network.  The Virginia Tech game was in the final minute (living in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, this is overwhelmingly the favorite team despite the a heavy military presence) and the whole place had a great college football buzz, different cheers erupting from corners of the bar, everyone closely following a game, and occasionally the majority of the place hooting and hollering at the game in Blacksburg.

Then the Tech game ended and the crowd started to thin out just as my blood pressure was rising.  The beginning of the Michigan game quickly went from ideal to, well, less than ideal.  You already know that part.

As the second quarter started the mood in the bar changed.  It was a UFC fight night, and slowly the place started to fill up with people waiting for the fight.  Pretty soon our TV got changed one of the under card fights and we had to track down the nearest manager to get BTN back, but not without hearing that no matter what, at nine o'clock the big screens were all going to be turned to the fight, and we would have to make due with a smaller TV tucked away  in a corner somewhere.  Over the noise of the patrons was the juke box playing just about everything I don't want to hear during a Michigan game with the exception of In The Big House     thank god for small miracles.

I don't know what your thoughts, dear reader, are on MMA fighting.  Whether you fancy it the sport of gentlemanly combat between well-trained chiseled Adonises, or a brutal Romanesque spectacle that excites only the basest instincts of meat heads and forearm tattoo enthusiasts** is immaterial.  What is most egregious in this writer's mind is the fact that on a football Saturday, with a handful of great college games available, the sports bar's main interest was showing an MMA fight.  Don't even get me started on the fact that the ALCS was shown on one TV, tucked away almost directly behind a large pillar***.

The crowd and the noise and the infuriating string of interceptions was too much, and by the time Pat Fitzgerald was lobbying for two seconds to be put back on the clock     all the while I couldn't tell what the hell was happening     I made up my mind.  The prospect of watching the second half of Michigan's return-to-earth game in a packed bar cheering for blood was too much.  I called a friend that I knew had BTN, asked if we could head over, and by the midpoint of halftime we had paid our bills and left.

*(Contrast this to the Notre Dame game, which I watched alone in my room in a depressed funk, then state of charged ecstasy.)

**(Seriously, I'm usually not one to stereotype, but by the fourth person who walked past in an Affliction t-shirt with some ridiculous forearm tattoo, I knew something was up and the congenial college football atmosphere had taken a turn for the worst.)


***(Like watching a game at old Tiger Stadium.  Am I right, folks?  Am I right?  I'll be here all night.)

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I guess where I am going with all of this has less to do with the external environment of watching football than the things going on in my head (although to be fair, I am never going to watch a Michigan game in BWW again as a matter of principle.  Your boneless wings may be tasty and your large glasses of beer cheap, but you insistence on deifying MMA fighting is an outrage, but I digress).

I guess I have been spoiled as a fan.  I have for the most part stayed away from sports bars, avoided hostile fan bases (never once going to see Michigan play an away game other that the '07 Rose Bowl, which don't get me started on that), and been able to crawl inside a cocoon of self loathing and defeatist cries at every wrong turn.

Are other people miserable to watch Michigan football around, or is it me?  I'm afraid to answer that.
This game was no different.  I like to joke that the repeated blows of the last few years have hardened me to the failures of my alma mater, that I have become numb to incompetence and defeat.  This is a lie I tell myself so I feel better during all those hours I'm not actively freaking out about Michigan football.  I'm not numb to defeat, I find defeat in everything and constantly expect the worst.

This game was no different.  I spent the entire first half miserable about the failure of Denard Robinson to throw to his receivers, the failure of the defense to stop the Northwestern speed option, and the failure of Al Borges to stop calling The Most Surprising Waggle In History.

I wonder if this is it.  If I have been broken.  Have I wound myself too tightly in the success and failure of this team?  Do I not give the coaching staff enough credit when it comes to subtle in game adjustments and fixing player mistakes during the game?  Will every October bring a feeling of impending doom, as if it is only a matter of time before the other shoe falls and I end up pouring over recruiting rankings and repeating, "next year, next year" to myself like a crazy person?

I don't know the answer, but I certainly hope not.  This game is too much fun to take too seriously, and the players on the field work too hard to judge on the basis of wins and losses.  I would still think the world of Denard Robinson if he threw three more interceptions in the second half.  It would still be an honor to have Jordan Kovacs on the team even if he kept missing tackles on the option that led to touchdowns.

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I know the cosmos doesn't care how I watch football and whatever higher power is up there has more important things to worry about than some neurotic 26 year old fan getting too worked up over things he can't control.  But it still feels like this season so far has been about healing the fan base.  Slow first halves give way to strong finishes.  Early mistakes are corrected during the game.  The impending October collapse is shaken off as Denard Robinson settles himself in the pocket and leads the team to four touchdowns on five drives in the second half.

I have no illusions of this team going undefeated.  It could very well lose next week to Michigan State.  But I am starting to get more comfortable with the idea that sometimes a loss is just a loss, and not a sign that the universe is unraveling at the seams.

But don't ask me my thoughts on that next Saturday.

Baby steps.

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Now, what you are really here for: actual football talk.

Bullets:

• I don't know if I have ever seen an athlete capable of a greater range of play than Denard Robinson.  Between everything that happened last year, and the two comebacks this year, we have seen Denard at his absolute best, absolute worst, and everything in between.  This time we must make no excuses. Denard was just flat out bad in the first half Saturday.  Some interceptions are great plays (look at the INT Nebraska had against OSU late in their game), some interceptions are lucky bounces (Brandin Hawthorne nods knowingly), and some are just putrid throws that are completely inexcusable.
• That being said, Denard was pretty friggin' awesome in the second half.  He looked like a new quarterback.  He was patient in the pocket and on target with his throws.  If we get that Denard the rest of the season we win every game.  We won't get that Denard the entire rest of the season.  It has become a matter of how long he shows up.  Some games we don't need him (EMU, SDSU), some games we only need him for a quarter (ND, WMU), and some games more like a half (NU).  You can bet we will need three quarters of Good Denard if we want to beat Michigan State this weekend and Nebraska/Illinois/OSU in the future.
• The running backs were quiet, but one thing I really enjoyed was seeing Michael Shaw get a chance to play.  It grew increasingly obvious that the only way we would pick up yards on NU was to get the ball outside the tackles     a Mike Shaw specialty.  I still like the Fitz/Vince one two punch, but it is nice to know we can go to the well and change up the strategy if need be.  Shaw only finished with 25 yards, but he did it on just six carries (4.2 ypc) and got a touchdown out of it.
• Junior Hemingway was back in a big way, and goddamn can that man high-point a ball.  Any other receiver and I would call that first jump ball a product of luck (I'm looking at you Roy Roundtree, and also the CB that didn't turn around to see the ball almost hit him in the helmet), but with Junior the jump ball is more of an art.  In basketball some guys just know how to rebound; they understand innately how to get position under the basket, what angle to expect the ball to carom off the rim at, and when to jump.  Junior is exceptionally good at doing this on the football field.  I bet he is one helluva IM basketball player.
• I would like to kindly ask Al Borges to stop running The Most Surprising Waggle In History, but I'll be damned if the thing didn't work a couple times.  Sure, Denard's first throw was inches away from being of the hair-pulling variety, but the offense converted a couple times.  Still, it is pretty bad when I can announce every I-form tight play as The Most Surprising Waggle In History to the room and be right 90% of the time.  Who wants to bet Michigan State isn't fooled.
• Taylor Lewan, you got lucky on this one.  Savor it, because it isn't happening again.
• I hoped the offense would do a bit better than 3.6 ypc against Northwestern, but I will chalk that up to the Wildcats being a stout run defense team, and not our offense being ineffective running the ball with anyone but Denard in games against anyone but Minnesota.  We will know for sure next week.  Michigan State has a pretty damn good front seven.
• Speaking of pretty damn good front sevens, I liked the way the defensive line and linebackers got after Persa and the Northwestern running game.  It is important to keep in mind the injuries to Mike Trumpy and Dan Persa (who wasn't 100%), but I thought NU did a great job integrating Kain Colter into the game plan, and the defensive line did a great job disrupting things once it got its footing.
• Other than the speed option.  This is troubling, especially because the two toughest opponents left after Michigan State are all teams that can and will spread the field and look to exploit defensive breakdowns with quick option plays.  Persa picking apart the defense through the air was one thing, but the fact that the speed option picked up yards nearly every time*.  Also, the tackling on the speed option looked 2010-esque.  Even Kovacs whiffed on one tackle, leading to a touchdown.  By far the worst aspect of the defense all day.  This same rant could be used to bemoan being bubble screened to death, but Mattison did a good job covering the slot in the second half and slowing that down.
• Other than that missed tackle, Kovacs had another good day, and Thomas Gordon was good as well, especially on his strip and fumble recovery.  Two good safeties?  Something about that just doesn't seem fair.  I didn't know teams could do that.
• Blake Countess.  Yeah, I know he got beat by a step on the long pass in the second quarter, but other than that he looks very solid out there.  I am excited to see how this develops.
• Big Will Campbell also had a nice sack late.  I haven't watched the entire game replay yet to try and pinpoint his contribution (trying to play the 5GB torrent I downloaded was pretty much akin to pouring molasses on my two-year-old laptop) but rumblings from around the blogosphere are positive.  (Insert burned red shirt rant)
• It was nice to see the defense as a whole step up so much in the second half after allowing 24 points and looking almost completely helpless in the first half.
• One last note: 14/17 on third down.  I was shocked when I read that stat on Sunday.  It really puts Denard's interceptions into perspective.  If he wasn't stopping the offense, nothing else was on Saturday.  One of the best third down percentages I can remember against a team with a pulse.

*(The one time it didn't: fourth and one.  However, this was a speed option run to the short side of the field with a visibly slowed Dan Persa instead of Kain Colter.  The Michigan defense blew the play up, but the play call did not put NU in a position to succeed.)

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Last week I said we couldn't learn anything at all from the Minnesota game.  This week I'm still not sure what we can take away specifically about the offense or defense.

However, the one thing I did learn is that it will be hard to count this team out with all the play makers on it.  Now that there is a coaching staff that's adjustments are more than switching stuffed animals at halftime, this team can finally start growing into something better week by week.

I'll probably still be a nervous wreck, though.

Don't Let the Lights Get In Your Eyes

In the hours after the game Saturday night I wandered around my house with a stupid grin on my face, half drunk and not really sure what to think.

My roommates threw a birthday party for one of our friends that evening during the game.  My contact with the party consisted of disgruntled trips to the keg during timeouts in which I would try to avoid any and all contact with others, and a few occasions where one or more of my friends would come into my room and check on me.  It is good to know that my mental state during Michigan games is so out of whack that those closest to me feel the need to monitor my well being.

Yet as I walked around after the game the party had largely died down to a few smaller groups of people talking or half playing some drinking game.  The couches were taken up by a few people who went too hard too fast, and the keg was still circled by those that had yet to squeeze all they could from it.

People casually asked me about the game.  My answer was always the same: a rush of emotions would ride in on the first words and pretty soon I was just spewing up an unintelligible series of exasperated praises and foreboding signs of impending doom.

"Denard was soooo bad in the beginning, but that fourth quarter, oh man, and those fades, they were just, how did he throw that with that guy there?"

"Ugh, the defense.  Got pushed around all night, no pressure.  But the turnovers.  And, yeah, Floyd and Wood did whatever they wanted.  But the turnovers!"

"Hemingway.  HEMINGWAY!"

It is a day and a half later and I still don't feel any different when I think about the game.  I watched the highlights a few times Saturday night, then a few times Sunday night as well.  It still doesn't feel real.  Bullets?

• It has been interesting to see the internet reaction on the subject of Denard's first three quarters.  I will admit that I haven't been the most consistent in my thinking.  During the game it was along the lines of, "Oh noes, Gardner?  Too soon?" but after the game it was simply standard fare doom and gloom about how the offense is never going to do anything again and the fourth quarter was an anomaly that only proves that God really doesn't like Notre Dame that much      or if she does, it is in a very Job-like way where dragging an entire fan base through the equivalent of football hell is supposed to be an endearing test of character.  (Yes, Notre Dame fans, God is a woman, and she wants to see how much you love her.  How much do you love her?)  As it stands now I think the offense is just very limited.  If teams stack the box and force Denard to pass, things will be shaky.  Everyone knows he is capable of making plays down field with his arm; he has made plenty of them over the past year.  The problem is that everyone knows he isn't yet capable of making those plays consistently.  Now, if he makes a good read and pass somewhere around two-thirds of the time or more (like the 4th quarter) this offense can still be very good. If he can't even do it a tenth of the time (like the first three quarters) the offense is going to end up just north of 2008 depths.  Obviously the answer lies somewhere in between.  Just where lies in the hands of Al Borges, who is going to have to adjust his game plan based on what he saw.  No more waggles out of I-Form or straight dive plays out of two back sets.  More zone-read and Denard head fakes.  This offense needs to be more shotgun based, and needs to at least keep the option of Denard running viable on every play so that defenses have to account for more possible outcomes and play tenative.  
• However, the problem of the offense doesn't just fall on the shoulders of Borges.  Denard was just plain bad at throwing the ball for the majority of the game.  He completed only four passes over the first three quarters, of those there were:  1. A five yard pass to Smith on a 3rd and 7 that was obviously Mike DeBord hacking in to the offenses' headset for one more disappointing third down playcall; 2. The Hemingway touchdown that was all Hemingway going up to get an under thrown fade; 3. An 11 yard pass to Kevin Koger over the middle on a good move to step forward out of the collapsing pocket; 4. The 77 yard crossing route that Robinson threw with his feet wrapped up by a ND defender.  For the record that is one meaningless check down, one unspectacular pass turned into a spectacular touchdown by the receiver, a savvy pass to Koger to get a third down conversion, and a nine out of ten difficulty throw to Hemingway (this is a ten out of ten).  Four for 15 in the first three quarters, and of those throws, only two were really properly placed.  The other eleven passes were incomplete or intercepted.  Robinson looked shaky with ball placement in week one, and sure enough when the pass defense was ratcheted up a notch this week he found it even harder to hit receivers in ever tightening windows.  If he can't settle down over the next month and improve his accuracy this offense is going to be much too easy to stop.
• There is still no running back.  I didn't know Toussaint was injured for the game (I was constantly talking to no one in particular as I sat by myself asking, "where the hell is Fitz?"  It would have been nice to see if he could have found any success where the other backs failed.  After last year and his performance last weekend, I am about ready to close the book on Stephen Hopkins as a viable #1 running back.  He can be a very good blocker, and will have some use as a big back if he controls his fumble problem, but otherwise the offense needs to be put in someone else's hands.  Is the answer Shaw?  Who knows.  He certainly didn't look very good on his two carries.  Unfortunately, it seems clear that no matter how much Borges and Hoke want it the other way, Denard is still our only effective running back and will need to be deployed accordingly.  More shotgun please.
• The offensive line looked overwhelmed at first glance.  I don't know how they will grade out upon closer inspection, but there weren't many holes to run through.  Robinson had a few big runs, but the backs were completely bottled up.  Denard did have plenty of time to throw, but I think that was part of Notre Dame's strategy (Pressure with four and make him throw over top of linebackers.  It worked).  This week's UFR will be an interesting read.  I can't imagine our O-line does anything more than break even.
• The lone bright spot outside of "Denard-fourth-quarter-whaaaaa-mode"?  The receivers.  Hemingway was spectacular on all three of his catches, and he has clearly staked claim as the big play receiver on this team.  Also, while I was ready to see Jeremy Gallon's role increase this year, I did not imagine it would be so pronounced.  The touchdown that he caught was on a great adjustment by him to get back to the ball before the defender could react, and getting free on the final drive to run the Wolverines into scoring position was arguably the play of the game as Michigan has no chance of going for the win if it doesn't get into the red zone there and set up a reasonable throw to the end zone.  Also, nice to see Roundtree not need to get warmed up for the game winner.  For a player with a history of drops it is nice to see him make such a great catch in a big moment.
• The defensive line was the most disappointing part of the defense for me.  Rees never really saw pressure, and Notre Dame never really had trouble picking up yards on the ground.  There were a few key TFL's and stuffs on short run plays, but that infuriating draw play that Wood ran six or eight times for almost ten yards a pop was troubling to see.  Mike Martin and RVB have been solid so far, but they need to be transcendent to make up for the help they aren't getting.  Craig Roh is all but absent when he needs to be a game changer off the weak side edge, and the walk-on duo of Heininger and Brink has been barely noticeable .  This unit really needs to come together in the next three weeks.  It was nice to see BWC make a couple big plays.  Any contribution he makes at this point will help immensely with the lack of quality depth on the line.
• The linebackers seemed to be effective, but a second glance at that should help me better make up my mind.  It is nice to see Brandin Hawthorne step up at WLB.  It would be nice to finally find a permanent starter for the position.
• Together, the front seven did stuff Notre Dame on three third-and-short rushing attempts late in the game.  The defense may bleed yards, but these are the kind of clutch plays that make up for it.
• I'm not sure what to think of the way the secondary played.  Michael Floyd got half ND's yards, but no touchdowns.  JT Floyd got beat a couple times, but probably made a good decision latching on to Floyd on what would have almost surely been a TD, and, hey, an INT for your troubles.  Kovacs is Kovacs, and that has lost all pejorative "walk-on-ish" connotation and just means: Kovacs is good at what he does and we should want more of it.  Avery is still just an undersized sophomore, and sometimes plays like it.  Woolfolk needs to stay healthy already.
• Special Teams = no crippling mistakes = A+.
• I shouldn't shortchange the special teams just to be snarky about the last two years.  Matt Wile did a very admirable job filling in on punting duties.  The coverage teams made a few good plays to drop Irish returners for a loss.  Gallon had a big punt return in the fourth quarter to set up the first go-ahead touchdown.  And last but not least: we didn't miss a single extra point.  It's the little things, everybody.

Overall, Michigan's performance was a perplexing mix of incredible plays pulled from a grab bag of defensive breakdowns and poor offensive execution, that is hard to put into perspective given the obvious question: how good is Notre Dame anyway and how much did the team beat itself?

The answer to the first question, I think, is simple.  This Irish team is long on talent and coaching, short on execution.  The Irish have put up two straight 500 yard games on play averages of around five yards per rush and eight per pass.  Michael Floyd is obviously a huge load at receiver, and so far Rees has shown the ability to air it out to receivers for touchdowns (five).  Cierre Wood has two 100 yard games so far and two touchdowns, and the offensive line is big and experienced.  But these big yardage totals don't amount to much because turnovers halted promising drives and set both Irish opponents up for scores.

Is this a top-10 offense?  No, but it is capable of moving the ball on most defenses with the weapons it has, and should be able to get this team to eight-ish wins if it's propensity for turning the ball over is curbed to reasonable levels.

The defense is much trickier to figure out.  It stoned USF, but USF isn't a good offensive that was protecting a huge lead for a big portion of the game, and once the Irish made it close USF was able to quickly score again to re-extend the lead.  Then the Irish defense shut down the Michigan offense for three quarters only to switch to full on panic made and give up four touchdowns in the fourth quarter.  Real answers come next week when Notre Dame faces an offense that won't spend three quarters self-immolating before waking up and jamming a games worth of offensive execution into 17 minutes of game time.  The Spartans are deep and balanced at the skill positions and should be a should present quite a challenge to the Irish defense.

So did the Irish beat themselves?  The defensive collapse didn't help much, but some of that credit goes to the Herculean effort of Denard Robinson to get his team back in the game after a sloppy first three quarters. The bigger Irish implosion was once again turnovers.  Consider:

• Second Quarter: Rees intercepted after zoning in on Michael Floyd and losing track of Kovacs dropping into a zone beneath Floyd.  Two plays later Hemingway proclaims "your touchdowns are now touchdowns," and the Wolverines get their first score.
• Second Quarter: Rees intercepted on the goal line, again locking on to Floyd and trying to squeeze the ball in between three defenders, one of whom picks it off.  Deprives ND of a back breaking 24-7 lead in the first half.
• Fourth Quarter: Rees fumble on Michigan seven yard line.  The ball slipped out of his hand while he was preparing to throw.  Michigan doesn't turn this into points, but the Irish give up at least three points and probably seven.

Of the three Irish turnovers listed (there were five in the game) one of them set up a Wolverine touchdown and two removed a chance in or near the red zone      a three score swing away from the Irish.  More frustrating for Irish fans is that these were not great plays by the defense.  Rees' three turnovers are two interceptions where he zoned in on Michael Floyd and didn't notice an underneath defender, and a fluky fumble during a throw in the red zone.  These are all things that can and will improve as Rees gains confidence.  If the Irish are still turning the ball over like this in week eight then either Lane Kiffin has a voodoo doll of Tommy Rees that he had made after last year's ND/USC game, or God really does want to know how much Irish fans love her.

It isn't that I am ignoring Denard Robinson's fourth quarter performance in this rambling mess of a reaction piece, its just that I don't know where to start, and for someone trying to analyse and classify a game, this is a scary juncture.  I just don't know, man.

Starting at 2:13 remaining in the third quarter Robinson threw 11 passes in the fourth quarter for 279 yards and three touchdowns (while scoring a rushing touchdown after a Hopkins fumble):

1. Seventy-seven yard crossing route to Junior Hemingway while he, Robinson, was being pulled to the ground by a Notre Dame lineman.
2. Fifteen yard swing pass to John McColgan on second and 15 following a sack the play before.
3. Fourteen yard fade to Jeremy Gallon for the first touchdown.
4. Forty-five yard jump ball to Junior Hemingway when the offense was backed up to second and nine at its own ten yard line.
5. End zone interception.
6. Incomplete pass.
7. Twenty-seven yard corner route to Kelvin Grady.
8. Twenty-one yard screen pass to Vincent Smith for the go ahead touchdown with 1:12 left on the clock.
9. Incomplete pass.
10. Sixty-four yard pass to Gallon on a wheel route to set up first and ten at the Notre Dame 16 yard line with eight seconds left on the clock.
11. Sixteen yard fade to Roy Roundtree for the winning touchdown with two seconds left in the game.

Denard Robinson led eight meaningful drives before the final two minutes of the third quarter.  Five ended in punts, two ended in interceptions, and one ended in the only touchdown of the first three quarters.  Not one drive lasted longer than four plays.  

Beginning just before the fourth quarter, Robinson led five drives before the end of the game.  Four ended in touchdowns scored by Robinson, two went for over 80 yards, and the other two went for over 40.  The longest drive was five plays.

And this is where I fall short when trying to explain just what Denard Robinson did on Saturday, because the difference between the first eight drives and the last five is more wide and unexplainable than anything I have ever seen from any football player in my lifetime.  I list the numbers for scale and perspective, but they are so out of whack with anything I am used to that it is jarring.

Fifty-nine yards through three quarters, 279 yards in the fourth quarter.

Two interceptions and one touchdown through three quarters, three touchdowns and an interception in the fourth quarter.

The story of Denard Robinson's fourth quarter against Notre Dame is the story of two quarterbacks that we very likely won't see again this season.  Two samples taken from opposite ends of the dilithium spectrum.  One ineffective and pinned under an offense that asks too much of his lesser talents while minimizing the things he does best, the other elusive and explosive and capable of creating a big play out of thin air every time he touches the ball.  This was a quarterback struggling mightily and then in a snap controlling a game like a puppeteer.  We were treated to the very highs and lows of the Denard Robinson experience at Michigan.  There was plenty of freshman Denard who struggled to finding receivers, who looked wore down and out manned by a defense that was clearly focused on containing him in the pocket, and missed a number of throws.  And just when all hope seemed to be lost, when Robinson was just about to be wrapped up for a sack in the backfield that would have pinned the Wolverines inside their ten yard line on second and long      effectively ending any real hope of a comeback given how the game had went up to that point      out stepped the action hero to star in the less plausible sequel to last fall's blockbuster.  The odds were greater, the enemy tougher, and there was even a sidekick this time.  The rest may as well have been scored by John Williams      it certainly felt cinematic.

Last year after the Notre Dame game I compared Denard to Barry Sanders.  I talked about how much joy there was in watching a player unlike any other that had ever suited up for Michigan in the past.  Seeing a young kid who busted his ass to win the starting quarterback job, and then played the position so well that it left everyone slack-jawed at whatever in the hell just happened.  After years of being ground down by sports, suspicious and cynical about athletes, coaches, and leagues, Denard Robinson gave me that little bit of perspective to remember why I loved the game in the first place   It showed through every time he grinned like a slightly embarrassed kid trying to play it cool but failing while in front of the press or laughed with teammates on the sideline.  He loves the game of football.  When you spend a lot of free time obsessing over the minutia of college football that is wholly out of your control and absorbing abuse from rivals on message boards, something as small and genuine as a guy smiling really wide because he is just so happy in the moment can go a long way toward helping you understand that this thing we cheer for is in a way both more and less serious than we believe it to be.

Thus we are back to the place where I look for answers.  Where Denard's fourth quarter against Notre Dame hangs in the air out of my grasp      just a kid playing the game that he loves      and I reach for it to try and grab on tight and see where it will lead in the future.

As I walked around my house after the game Saturday night, it kept coming back to me: that actually happened.  I didn't dream it or make it up.  The Michigan Wolverines had actually won a game against Notre Dame from a 17 point fourth quarter deficit.  I walked from room to room trying to find anyone who was still there and in some sort of shape to have the kind of party that I had missed earlier in the night while I sat nervously in a closed bedroom shouting at a TV and slamming keg beer during commercial breaks.  Everyone was either passed out or gone home, what remained were drunken heads dragging tired and inebriated bodies to chairs and beds and an deep sleep.

I ended up back in my room, alone, watching highlights of the game, all the while laughing and doing double takes trying to figure out what just happened.  Trying to come up with a theory of just what to expect from Robinson the rest of this season.  What quarterback shows up next week?  For the MSU game?  For OSU?  How does the offense change to fit Robinson in the coming weeks?  Does the team adapt?  These are important questions that I felt needed to be answered.

I sit here two days later, and it still isn't clear  Won't ever be.  

One thing is, however: Denard Robinson just about lost the game.  Then he went out and won it.  This year I understand just what he is capable of      I have seen it with my own eyes        

Absolutely anything.

On Saturday, we got everything we needed.  The rest we will have to wait.

Incomplete Thoughts From an Incomplete Game

Good to have you back, TWolf. (Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com)

Had I known the game itself wasn't going to make it to the fourth quarter I might have had a little more of a sense of urgency in the hours before the game.

Instead of tuning in for the beginning of the game I spent most of the first quarter driving to a friends house where I was going to spend the next eight plus hours stuffing my face with junk food followed by cheap domestic beer.  I was running late because this was the first Saturday in months that I decided to actually accomplish something in the morning instead of laying around like a worthless pile of skin, and I was relocating because I was being exiled from my house due to a huge half-marathon that was shutting down all the roads in my neighborhood the next day, thus interfering with my commute to work Sunday morning.

I missed Western Michigan's entire first drive (probably for the best) and walked in just in time to see the Wolverines attempt a fourth and short to keep the long drive alive in the end of the first quarter.  From there the game was all over the place with weather delays, technical difficulties, and eventually, an early and somewhat anticlimactic end.  After re-watching the game this morning     courtesy of the indescribably awesome Boys n da Pahokee on the mgoboard     this is what I saw:

Half Full or Half Empty? Secondary

If you want a full fledged preview of this year's team, you are in the wrong place.  Your first stop should be MGoBlog or your local newsstand for a copy of this year's Hail To The Victors (also written by Brian from MGoBlog).

Hopefully the secondary isn't glass number 3.

Over here at Dreaded Judgement, we (the royal we of course, lets keep these Lebowski references going) like to deal more in abstract scenarios.  How could things turn out?  What should send the majority of the fan base scurrying under the nearest rock, and what possibilities are there for large scale improvement?

To answer these questions, I will try to look at each position group individually and give one reason for overjoyed optimism and one for suicide inducing pessimism.  This Half Full/Half Empty series will touch on all of the position groups by this Saturday, when we will start to get a real idea of where we stand.  With that said, lets start with the bad news...

The Secondary.