Northwestern Beats Michigan 21-14 in Terrible Weather

By Sean · Sunday, November 16, 2008 · 8:30 PM |  Share | 1 Comment 

I don’t know what was worse on Saturday: the weather or Michigan. The weather was probably worse than any other game I had previously attended. Granted, I have only been going to games since 1997, but I can’t remember a game I was at where it rained, snowed, and was windy and cold all day long.

Even as bad as the weather was, it was just as painful to watch Michigan play. The offense struggled to move the ball and finish off drives, and the defense seemed to forget how to play at times. Although Michigan did block a punt to score its second touchdown, Martavious Odoms let a punt bounce off of him, which led to a Northwestern touchdown. Also, Michigan failed to score after an early interception, as a K.C. Lopata field goal was blocked.

All around it was just another bad game for the Wolverines. They did look good every once in a while, but most of the time I just scratched my head and wondered why they seemed to regress so much since last week. Yes, the conditions were terrible, but Northwestern was playing in the same weather as Michigan. Unlike Michigan, Northwestern managed to pass the ball successfully, at least on two drives, and ultimately won 21-14 as a result of a couple passing touchdowns in the third quarter.

1st Quarter

• On the third play of the game, C.J. Bacher was intercepted by Stevie Brown, who returned the interception 25 yards to the Northwestern 8-yard line.
• With a touchdown only 8 yards away, the assumption was that Michigan would pound it into the end zone on the ground. After all, the weather sucked, so why risk passing the ball? Well, on first down Michigan followed that thinking and ran the ball for 2 yards. On second and third down, though, Nick Sheridan threw two passes that were both nearly intercepted. Even though Michigan didn’t score a TD, they still had a chance to take an early lead on a field goal. Unfortunately, that would not happen, either. K.C. Lopata’s kick was blocked, keeping the score at 0-0.
• Michigan’s defense didn’t come up with another turnover, but they did cause Northwestern to go three and out. Just as we have seen countless times this season, though, a mistake on special teams put Michigan in a tough situation. Martavious Odoms let the punt bounce off of his leg, and a Northwestern player recovered the fumble before sliding out of bounds. Just like that, it was Northwestern’s ball at the Michigan 39.
• Regardless of the turnover, Michigan should not have allowed Northwestern to score on the ensuing drive. NU was faced with 3rd and 18 and decided to play it safe by running the ball on a draw. The conservative call turned out to be a good one, as Stephen Simmons got by one tackler and avoided another to run into the end zone for a 21-yard TD, putting NU on top 7-0.
• After the two teams traded punts, Michigan’s offense finally put together a scoring drive. The drive was successful mainly because of the running game. Nick Sheridan started it off by running for 8 yards, and then Carlos Brown went for 4 more. Odoms did catch a pass for a gain of 8, but he fumbled the ball out of bounds. Brown got the ball on the next two plays on only managed to pick up a single yard, bringing up 4th and 1. Brown again got the handoff and ran for 3 yards to move the chains.

  Following the first down run, Brown carried for 11, Sheridan for 3, Brown for 17 more, and Michael Shaw even got into the game and ran for a few. Finally, to cap off the drive, Sheridan ran a draw for 3 yards and a touchdown to tie the game at 7.

2nd Quarter

• Following a Northwestern punt, Michigan put together another solid drive. This time, though, they were unable to cap it off with a touchdown. Instead, it ended on 4th down. The Wolverines got all the way down to the NU 26 thanks in part to a 24-yard pass to Greg Mathews and a 17-yard run by Carlos Brown. A 7-yard pass to Darryl Stonum made it 4th and 3 for Michigan, and since the conditions were so bad, a field goal wasn’t a viable option. Michigan decided to go for it, and a Nick Sheridan pass was incomplete.
• The defense stepped it up in a big way following the turnover on downs. C.J. Bacher was sacked for a loss of 6, and Stephen Simmons went nowhere on back-to-back runs. On 4th and 16 from the 20, the special teams unit came up with the biggest play of the game for the Wolverines. Michael Williams blocked Northwestern’s punt, and Ricky Reyes, a walk-on receiver from Dakota High School, picked the ball up and went 3 yards for the touchdown. Michigan led 14-7, which is what the score would be at halftime.

3rd Quarter

• Michigan opened the second half by going three and out, and Northwestern wasted little time in turning this game upside down. NU started with great field position after Zoltan Mesko’s punt went only 7 yards since it was partially blocked. C.J. Bacher proceeded to complete two passes to Ross Lane for gains of 20 and 10 yards, putting the Wildcats at Michigan’s 10-yard line. After a sack and an incompletion, it was 3rd and goal from the 17 for NU. Bacher dropped back to pass and hit Ross Lane yet again, this time in the end zone for a touchdown.
• Just like the last sequence, Michigan went three and out, and it didn’t take Northwestern much time to score. On only the fourth play of the Wildcats’ next drive, C.J. Bacher completed a pass to a wide open Eric Peterman, who ran into the end zone untouched for a 53-yard touchdown. There was blown coverage by someone on this play, but I’m not exactly sure who since Peterman got by the entire secondary to put Northwestern on top 21-14.
• Michigan and Northwestern went three and out on the next three drives.
• Northwestern drove all the way down to Michigan’s 31-yard line before their next drive stalled. The Wildcats decided to take a delay of game in order to punt the ball away, and the punt was downed at the 4-yard line.
• Steven Threet came into the game for Michigan and initially only handed the ball off. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since Carlos Brown did run for 13 yards on one carry, giving Michigan a much needed first down. Threet did have to put it in the air on 3rd and 8 a few plays later, though, and the pass was incomplete.

4th Quarter

• Northwestern got the ball back and also picked up a much needed first down. However, Bacher was picked off by Donovan Warren three plays later after a pass went through a receiver’s hands. Warren ran to the left side of the field after he made the interception and had lots of room to run. He sprinted by everybody and appeared to score a game-tying touchdown, but there was a problem. An official blew his whistle and ruled that Warren stepped out of bounds at the Northwestern 44-yard line, even though a replay showed that his foot didn’t appear to step on the white line.

  Since the play was blown dead, it couldn’t be reviewed, meaning Michigan was sort of screwed out of a touchdown. Is that an excuse for why they lost? Absolutely not, but the referee should have let the play happen. That way the play could have been reviewed and the call could have been corrected if it needed to be. Instead, Warren’s INT went for only 15 yards rather than 59, and Michigan still trailed by a touchdown.

• After the interception, Michigan did manage to move the ball down to the Northwestern 23-yard line after runs by Steven Threet, Carlos Brown, and Michael Shaw. One of Threet’s carries was a QB sneak on 4th and 1 to move the chains. On 3rd and 12, though, Threet wasn’t quite as lucky. He overthrew a wide open Mike Massey and was intercepted by a diving Jordan Mabin in the end zone.
• Michigan came up with a defensive stop and had another chance to tie the game. They once again moved the ball into Northwestern territory, mainly because of Greg Mathews at first. Threet found Mathews three times in a row by running the same exact play (a quick pass to Mathews at the line of scrimmage) to gain a total of 13 yards. Mathews then caught a pass for a gain of 8 a couple plays later, setting up 3rd and 1 for the Wolverines. Threet kept the ball and did pick up the first down, but he went down with an injury and didn’t return to the game.

  Nick Sheridan came in and picked up a first down on 4th and 2 by running for 12 yards. Four plays later it was 4th and 13, and this time Michigan was unable to keep the drive alive. A pass by Sheridan was incomplete, and Northwestern got the ball back with 2:19 left in the game.

• Michigan quickly forced Northwestern to punt and took over with 1:46 left. The Wolverines had to go 58 yards to tie the game, but they unfortunately went nowhere. Nick Sheridan threw four straight incompletions, allowing Northwestern to get the ball back and take a knee a couple times to win the game by a score of 21-14.

Michigan had many chances to win this game and just didn’t execute offensively. Defensively, Michigan forgot how to defend the pass for two drives in the third quarter, and that was the difference in this game. At this point there’s not much else to say other than this isn’t a good team. The sooner Tate Forcier and Shavodrick Beaver get to Ann Arbor the better, and perhaps the sooner some changes are made defensively the better, especially with the secondary.

This is now officially the losingest season in the history of Michigan football. Never before has Michigan lost 8 games in a single season. That is, until now. In order to prevent a 9th loss, Michigan will have to upset Ohio State in Columbus. This may reflect how bad things have got, but I just hope they can keep it respectable next Saturday. A win would be amazing, but let’s be realistic. The chances of that happening are beyond slim. Hell, the chances of us even containing Terrelle Pryor are beyond slim. He’s just like Purdue’s Justin Siller, except he is about a thousand times more talented.

Kickoff for “The Game” is set for Noon ET on ABC. It will probably be ugly, but look on the bright side: Saturday will be the last time Michigan plays this year, meaning we no longer will have to watch the ugliness that is the 2008 Wolverines after this game. Obviously I wish we still had to watch them in a bowl game, but since that is not the case, I am just glad that this season is almost over.