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Todd Worly said...

Overall, you couldn't have drawn up a much better game for Senior Day. Michigan pulled away late in the first half and never looked back.

Offensively, I thought the coaching staff did an outstanding job of identifying and then exploiting Iowa's weaknesses. Throughout the week, I'd been discussing Iowa's struggles with rushing the passer and their below average play at safety. The Wolverines made both position groups look terrible today, and kept after it until the game was out of reach. Michigan ran the ball enough to keep Iowa honest, but clearly realized they could throw all day on the Hawkeyes, and Gardner had a huge day.

This may qualify as nitpicking, but I think it's worth saying. I wasn't a big fan of of all the new looks Michigan showed early in the game on offense. In general, I think you want to establish your primary game plan early in the game, and then throw in some twists and turns as the game develops. It ended up working, but I did think it was overly risky to start the game off like that, as if it hadn't worked, Michigan may have had trouble establishing rhythm and confidence on offense.

Defensively, I thought Iowa was able to make the Wolverines pay for their lack of a passrush for much of the game. Jake Ryan is by far Michigan's biggest threat off the edge, and I'd like to see that look more often in passing situations. I honestly thought Michigan's best defense today was the Wolverine offense. The Wolverines moved the ball at will on Iowa and scored touchdown after touchdown. That kept Michigan's defense fresh, it kept Iowa's offense off the field, and it forced Iowa's offense to begin pressing to keep up.

The biggest play of the game, IMO, was when Iowa had scored to tie it at 7, and Michigan had the ball 3rd and 17 out of field goal range. Iowa's offense was in a rhythm at that point, so if the defense could have forced a punt, you never know where the game might have gone from there. Instead, Roy Roundtree was wide open behind the defense for a touchdown.

That set the trend for the rest of the day, as Michigan also converted on money down three more times in key situations - twice on 4th and 1 for touchdowns, and once on 3rd and 10 at the end of the half for a touchdown. Whenever there was the potential for a momentum swing in Iowa's favor, Michigan made the play, and Iowa didn't.

A little more nitpicking here, but I also wasn't a big fan of Hoke playing so many defensive starters late in the game. The game was out of reach, so it didn't make sense to expose those guys to a possible injury in garbage time.

Moving forward, whether or not the Legends Division crown is still up for grabs by the time the ball is kicked off, next week's game is enormous. We'll dissect the matchup much more throughout the week, but it should be a great game.

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Todd Worly said...

Yes, and handing it off to Denard and having him run an option, the triple reverse, etc. Just seemed like Michigan threw a ton of new stuff in in the first quarter, and against a better defense, that could have backfired. Sometimes I think teams at all levels get carried away with various tricks up their sleeves rather than just taking advantage of mismatches and executing.

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WillyWolverine said...

I see your point especially about the option, triple reverse, etc... I did like Denard and Devin both getting snaps at QB though. Our run game is horrible without Denard taking snaps in the shotgun and believe that we really need that to be part of our offense if we are going to be truly balanced.

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Todd Worly said...

Yes, and handing it off to Denard and having him run an option, the triple reverse, etc. Just seemed like Michigan threw a ton of new stuff in in the first quarter, and against a better defense, that could have backfired. Sometimes I think teams at all levels get carried away with various tricks up their sleeves rather than just taking advantage of mismatches and executing.

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Todd Worly said...

Yes, and handing it off to Denard and having him run an option, the triple reverse, etc. Just seemed like Michigan threw a ton of new stuff in in the first quarter, and against a better defense, that could have backfired. Sometimes I think teams at all levels get carried away with various tricks up their sleeves rather than just taking advantage of mismatches and executing.

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