Michigan Runs Over Eastern Michigan in 45-17 Win

By Sean · Sunday, September 20, 2009 · 8:26 PM |  Share | 2 Comments 

Photo by AP/Carlos Osorio

My biggest concern for Michigan heading into yesterday’s game against Eastern Michigan was the possibility of a letdown after last week’s big win over Notre Dame.  It helped that Eastern Michigan was the opponent, but Michigan still had to be focused and ready to play in order to win in blowout fashion.  The final score, 45-17, reflects that Michigan did end up blowing out EMU, but it did seem like there was a hangover effect from last week during the first half.  Michigan’s defense struggled quite a bit at times, leading to the offense not having the ball for very long.  Michigan led 24-17 at halftime, which was a definite disappointment.

Michigan got things turned around in the second half, allowing the game to finally become an actual blowout.  The defense made great adjustments and shut out the Eagles in the second half, and the offense continued to play extremely well, racking up 380 yards rushing in all.  The passing game had some issues, but it didn’t matter very much when you consider that Michigan ran for 9.7 yards a carry.  It was Michigan’s best team-wide rushing effort since the Houston game in 2003 (U-M ran for 392 yards) and it was the difference-maker against Eastern Michigan, as the Wolverines went on to win 45-17

1st Quarter

• Eastern Michigan got the ball to start the game and had to punt after moving the chains once and then failing to convert a 3rd and 13.  The punt only went 23 yards, as it was short to begin with and hit an EMU player to give Michigan even better field position.
• It looked like Michigan was going to go right down the field and score after Carlos Brown easily ran for 30 yards on the first play of the drive.  Brown was barely brought down at the EMU 21, though.  Following an incompletion on first down, Brown picked up 4yards on a run.  Forcier was tackled for a loss on third down, forcing Michigan to kick a field goal.  Jason Olesnavage nailed it from 37 yards out, giving Michigan a 3-0 lead.
• The Eagles put together a decent drive that ended with a 43-yard field goal to tie up the game, but Eastern Michigan never should have even been in field goal range.  EMU did move the ball into Michigan territory with a 22-yard run on 4th and 1 from their 34, but the next play was a complete gift from the referees.  Andy Schmitt lobbed a pass downfield in the direction of Johnny Sears, a cornerback who was playing some offense for EMU.  Boubacar Cissoko made a nice play and nearly picked off the pass, but Sears, doing his best to keep that from happening, interfered with him to make sure there was no interception.A flag was thrown and the crowd cheered since everyone assumed it was offensive interference.  Boy were we all in for a shock, as the referee announced that the penalty was on Cissoko.  I’ve seen my fair share of terrible calls over the years, but this one is at the top of the list.  Cissoko didn’t even appear to touch Sears, and it really seemed like this was the easiest offensive interference call a ref would ever have to make.  Somehow, though, Cissoko got called for the penalty, which put EMU in field goal range.  The defense stood tough and didn’t allow Eastern to pick up another first down, so the field goal was essentially allowed to happen because of the penalty.
• The proceeding kickoff went out of bounds, again giving Michigan good field position.  The Wolverines took advantage by pounding it down Eastern Michigan’s throat.  Carlos Brown got the drive rolling with runs of 6 and 14 yards, and then Brandon Minor took over for a few plays and ran for 13, 5, and 3 yards.  Tate Forcier completed a pass to Kelvin Grady for a gain of 11 on 3rd and short, and after losing 4 yards on the next play, Brown went for 9 to score a touchdown.

2nd Quarter

• Eastern Michigan fought back with an 11-play, 6:14 drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown run by Andy Schmitt.  Schmitt faked a handoff and ran into the end zone untouched.  The bootleg fooled Michigan’s defense, allowing Eastern Michigan to tie the game up at 10.
• Michigan quickly moved the ball down the field again, this time through the air initially.  Martavious Odoms made a tremendous catch for a gain of 26 yards, and Forcier found Junior Hemingway for a gain of 7 a couple plays later.  Facing 3rd and 1, Michael Shaw got the ball and made a great cut move to find open field and run for 22 yards.  He ran for 7 yards on the next play and then went for 2 more to score a touchdown, giving Michigan the lead once again.
• Michigan’s defense finally forced a three and out, but Eastern Michigan pinned the Wolverines deep in their own territory thanks to a 53-yard punt.
• The poor field position didn’t make a difference to Carlos Brown, as he took a handoff on the first and only play of the ensuing drive and sprinted right up the middle and past the defense for a 90-yard touchdown.  Just like that Michigan now had a two-touchdown lead, and it looked like the floodgates were about to burst open.
• Eastern Michigan went three and out again, and Michigan brought in Denard Robinson on the next drive for the first time in this game.  Robinson looked good on an 11-yard run, which came after he threw the ball too high for Greg Mathews on a screen.  Michael Shaw lost a yard on first down, but Robinson appeared to move the chains when he hit Martavious Odoms for a gain of 20.  The play was reviewed, however, and it was ruled an incomplete pass.  Odoms bobbled the ball and never gained possession inbounds, according to the refs.  It looked like he managed to finally gain possession when he still had a foot down inbounds, but the refs didn’t see it that way, which meant it was now 3rd and 11.  Robinson threw a pass downfield intended for Odoms, but it was underthrown and picked off by Eastern Michigan.
• Starting their drive from the Michigan 36, EMU decided to run the ball down the field.  Every play on this drive was a run, and Michigan couldn’t stop the Eagles at all.  Dwayne Priest eventually ran into the end zone with ease from 5 yards out to make this a 7-point game.
• Michigan got the ball back and nearly made a crucial mistake.  Tate Forcier was sacked and fumbled the ball, but thankfully Steve Schilling fell on it.  Carlos Brown ran for a gain of 14 on the next play, and a 4-yard completion to Martell Webb made it 4th and 1.  The crowd desperately wanted Michigan to go for it, but being at their own 40, Michigan opted to punt the ball away and take their 24-17 lead into halftime, which they did after EMU took a knee.

3rd Quarter

• Michigan and EMU traded punts for the first four drives of the half before U-M finally got something going.  Tate Forcier ran for 21 yards on 3rd and 4 to keep the drive alive.  Forcier then found Martavious Odoms for a gain of 7, and then Michael Shaw ran for 18.  A Shaw run for no gain and a false start made it 2nd and goal from the 13.  Michigan decided to use some trickery to score and ran a reverse with Odoms, who picked up a couple good blocks and ran into the end zone for a touchdown.
• Michigan’s defense continued to shut EMU down in this half, this time forcing a turnover.  Obi Ezeh blitzed on 3rd and 6 and got a piece of Andy Schmitt’s pass.  The ball went right to Craig Roh, who made the interception despite still being engaged with a blocker.  The pick gave Michigan the ball on EMU’s 21.
• Forcier was under pressure and took a big hit just as he got rid of the ball.  He went down in pain and looked to be hurt pretty badly.  The crowd was in silence until the student section started chanting “Forcier” over and over, but he was still on the ground, which was scary, to say the least.  Eventually Forcier made his way off the field, and it turned out he only bruised his ribs.  He would return later in the game, but Denard Robinson came in to finish this drive.  He actually finished it only two plays later by running past defenders for a 13-yard touchdown to put Michigan on top 38-17.

4th Quarter

• Eastern Michigan started moving the ball for the first time in the second half and put together a 15-play, 8:47 drive.  The Eagles got all the way down to the 2-yard line, which is when Michigan really stepped it up defensively.  Dwayne Priest was tackled for a loss of 3 on 3rd and goal, making it 4th down from the 5.  Andy Schmitt had a man relatively open near the pylon, but the pass was sort of dropped, giving Michigan the ball back.
• The Wolverines went three and out, but they got the ball right back when Andy Schmitt fumbled on the very next play.  He dropped back to pass and his knee buckled or something, causing him to drop to the ground.  The ball came loose, but I thought it was after Schmitt was already down.  The referees ruled it a fumble, though, and Brandon Graham fell on it to give Michigan the ball.
• Vincent Smith came into the game and picked up 10 yards, and then Denard Robinson showed off his speed again.  Robinson ran to the right and simply sprinted by the defense, going 36 yards for another touchdown.  Michigan now led 45-17, and the game was basically over at this point.
• Following an Eastern Michigan punt, Denard Robinson threw another interception.  He threw what looked like a nice pass downfield, but it was a little off target and a tad underthrown.  Roy Roundtree could have done a better job of preventing the defender from making the interception, but then again, he had two guys on him and had to come back for the ball, putting him out of position to do that.
• Eastern Michigan went three and out and punted the ball away with around a minute left, allowing Mike Cox to run the ball a couple times.  He turned his first run into a 24-yard gain after he managed to stay on his feet despite a hit, and then he ran for 7 yards on the last play of the game.

Michigan got off to an extremely slow start defensively in the first half, but Greg Robinson made some adjustments at halftime that worked.  Eastern Michigan didn’t score any points in the second half and in general struggled to do anything outside of one drive, which allowed the offense to eventually turn this into a blowout.  Speaking of the offense, the running game was simply outstanding.  The passing game didn’t do a whole lot, but like I said earlier, it really didn’t need to.  Michigan could have just run the ball every single play and probably would have scored just as many, if not more points.

Next week Michigan starts Big Ten play by hosting Indiana.  It is also Homecoming, and the game will get started at noon on ESPN2.