The Crier

Football Team is Not in the Clear Just Yet

Michigan is 2-0 in the Big Ten, but don’t hold your breath over the Big Ten Championship.

Lloyd Cargo · Sport · Oct 01, 2007

My only hope going into this weekend’s game at Northwestern was that Mike Hart wouldn’t rush for more than 138 yards – or rather, we wouldn’t need him to. He didn’t (ending with 30 carries for 108 yards) and he now sits an easy 31 yards from becoming Michigan’s all-time leading rusher at home next week against Eastern Michigan.

So that’s the good news.

The bad news is we struggled to handle Northwestern, or as much of the Big Ten knows them, Northworstern. Sure, a victory is nice any way it comes, and I’m almost tired of criticizing such an underwhelming squad. Almost. But none of the action we’ve seen over the last few wins has suggested that many Michigan fans’ hopes of a Rose Bowl berth via winning the Big Ten are anywhere near reasonable.

Sure Wisconsin looks like the worst team to be ranked number 5 in the AP since… well, FUCK. Sure Michigan State’s perennial collapse is imminent. Penn State already has had theirs, Iowa sucks again, and Indiana isn’t going to challenge anyone. That still leaves an unfathomably good Ohio State team, a Purdue team that our defense matches up terribly against, and a hard-charging Illinois team led by Juice Williams that will surely cause us fits.

Still, it wouldn’t matter if Tom Brady came back to Ann Arbor and donned the Maize and Blue again with the predictable game-calling Carr and DeBord insist on sticking with.

At least we’ll have Chad Henne back as an easy target for blame. As maligned as the Senior is, our offense looks much better with him behind center. Like every other fan I’ve loved Ryan Mallet’s enthusiasm and passion, but watching Henne’s performance versus the freshman’s on Saturday ought to eliminate all debate over who should be starting this year.

Still, it wouldn’t matter if Tom Brady came back to Ann Arbor and donned the Maize and Blue again with the predictable game-calling Carr and DeBord insist on sticking with. Zone left (1), zone left (2), obvious passing situation (3), punt (4) is getting really old, really fast and once we aren’t able to simply overpower teams, it’s going to get really ugly.

Having a healthy Henne back will open up more for Mario Manningham and the always-impressive Adrian Arrington, but when the coaching staff is hardly capitalizing on the mismatches they’re already generating, it doesn’t exactly inspire optimism. This was supposed to be the year an unstoppable offense carried a mediocre defense – and while the defense has lived up (down?) to their mediocre expectations, the offense has been inexplicably stoppable.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably be saying this every week, but Mike Hart deserves better.

Eastern Michigan ought to be a blow-out this week, but you know what? So was Appalachian State. I’m not too confident our offense is capable of putting anyone away in the first half, not even Eastern. I don’t think we lose this game, but I don’t think we dominate it either. And for all of those Michigan fans that see us running the table… keep dreaming. I’m almost looking forward to the heartbreaking loss that’ll seal the deal on pushing Carr and company out of town and initiating a national coaching search (count me in on the Jeff Tedford bandwagon), but really, I’m not that callous. I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably be saying this every week, but Mike Hart deserves better.