By H. Jose Bosch
On Saturday I went into the game expecting the Spartans to win a shootout. By halftime I “knew” Michigan State would win by more than a field. And by the end of the game I found myself thinking, “Is Michigan State really that bad?”
While I rooted for the Wolverines and wanted them to win, I never thought Michigan actually had a chance. And any rational thinking fan should’ve thought the same thing.
Saturday proved the Wolverines still have a long way to go but it wasn’t all bad. For starters, Tate Forcier is the real deal. He still has room to put on some muscle, he’s very raw and he must learn to slide or go out of bounds and not risk his body on every single run. But, if he’s making these kinds of plays as a true freshman with a bad offensive line, imagine what he will do his junior or senior year when the line should be better?
Michigan should also be given credit just for coming back late in the game. Yes, heart and determination can be very overrated and when you look at the stats, the Wolverines had no business being in the game but they were given the opportunity to come back and tie and they took it.
Bad defense or not, it was impressive to see them do this during their first road game, which happened to be at one of their biggest rivals.
The bad, however, far outweighed the good. The offensive line was atrocious. MGoBlog points to two scenarios: the injury to Molk has hurt the team far more than anyone anticipated OR Mark Dantonio prepared for this game so obsessively, the Wolverines really had no chance to compete.
I think it’s a little of both. Without Molk we’ll probably have to get used to a few low snaps a game and at least one during a very important drive. And the reshuffling of the line doesn’t help chemistry. Dantonio is also a nut case and I wouldn’t be shocked if he went to Captain Ahab-esque obsession for the Spartans’ game plan for Michigan.
MGoBlog believes the Iowa game will be a fair barometer for the line. If that’s the case, the Wolverines are in trouble. The Hawkeyes’ defensive line will probably shred the Wolverines apart based on the one game I’ve watched (Iowa at Penn State).
Defensively we already knew the secondary was terrible. But what we didn’t know is that the linebackers would also epically fail. Allowing Kirk Cousins to have 10 ypc is pretty pathetic. It got to the point where my dad and I could call when Cousins would be able to step up and then scamper for some yardage.
I’m not sure what Greg Robinson is doing with the defense, but to anyone who thought his previous coaching pedigree was proof that he’d improve the defense, I say you are very, very wrong.
Overall, nothing shocked me on Saturday, except for Michigan’s final drive. (And even that shouldn’t have been shocking considering State’s propensity fo choking in the clutch). I’m neither upset nor happy with the performance. To me, Michigan played par for the course. We really didn’t learn anything new.
Forcier is the team’s best player and continues to grow into a leadership role; the secondary is about as strong as Obama is on healthcare and the offensive line still can’t quite gel together.
Expect the same strength and issues to either doom the Wolverines at Iowa or help them pull off an improbable win.