By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Once again, at game's start, they were a threshing machine. On their first possession they drove 56 yards in six plays for a touchdown and, on their second, they drove 37 yards in 10 plays before settling for a field goal. On their third they drove once again, this time 52 yards in nine plays to another touchdown, and now the Wildcats were up 17 on No. 14 Michigan with just under two minutes gone in the second quarter.
This was late Saturday afternoon at a rockin' Ryan Field and here the 'Cats, coming off a loss to Akron and then their bye week, appeared poised for the upset that could resurrect their season. But now the plot turned and, like that, it was deja vu all over again.
"We didn't finish the job. The past few weeks, that's been the story," the quarterback Clayton Thorson would say after the 'Cats fell to the Wolverines by three.
"We're up, then the second half we don't finish the job. It's a 60 minute game, not a 30 minute game. We've got to do that better."
It was a heralded Michigan defense that visited Evanston on this Saturday, a defense that had been dented for 24 by Notre Dame in the Wolverines' season-opening loss to the Irish, but had surrendered just 33 in their routs of Western Michigan and SMU and Nebraska. It featured a pair of pre-season All Americans, the defensive end Rashan Gary and the middle linebacker Devin Bush, and it was limiting opponents to an average of just 240.2 yards per-game, the best in the Big Ten and fourth best in the country.
The 'Cats, in stark contrast, would confront them without the running back Jeremy Larkin, who had retired after being diagnosed with cervical stenosis, and with an offensive line that was beat up and undermanned. Starting guard Tommy Doles would not play at all and starting tackle Blake Hance would play very little, yet early on these contrasting story lines mattered little. The line held, and the rushing game got some yards from John Moten IV and Solomon Vault, and when the first quarter ended Thorson was eight-of-nine without a sack.
Now, at the start of the second, he found Flynn Nagel on a slant for nine and then Vault burst up the middle for nine more. Three plays later an interference call set the 'Cats up at the Wolverine seven and here was wideout-and-former-high-school-quarterback Riley Lees, as Larkin had previously done, taking a direct snap and carrying it to the three. Moten, on the very next play, went for the final three and the 'Cats were up 17, a deficit Michigan had never overcome in its three-plus season under Jim Harbaugh.
But now, against a NU defense that had given up little, it began the comeback that would do just that. "I don't think it was adjustments they made," safety Jared McGee would later say when asked about the change.
"I think early on we did a good job of stopping the run. Their offense a lot of times is geared to running, running, then hitting play action. We caused them to switch up their game a little bit and do a lot more drop back passing. That's what we wanted. But we weren't able to make the plays we needed to once we got them to change to that style of play."
That style now produced a seven-play, 79-yard drive that cut the 'Cat lead to 10, and that is just where it stood still when they received the second half kickoff. But now, in the final 30 minutes, the Wolverine defense would finally play up to its outsized reputation, and here the numbers tell the story well enough. In the first half Thorson would go 10-of-14 and suffer but one sack; in the second he would go six-of-13 and suffer five. In the first half the 'Cats held the ball for 16:17 and the Wolverines, for 13:43; in the second the 'Cat held it for a mere 9:02 and the Wolverines, for 20:58. In the first half the 'Cats managed to collect 146 yards of total offense; in the second it was held to just 56. In the first half the 'Cats would put up those 17 points; in the second, for the third time this season, they would put up none.
"I don't know if they had any adjustments we hadn't seen. Actually, I know they didn't," Thorson would later say when asked about that. "We just have to play better in the second half, that's really what it is. We come out and play well in the first half, put ourselves in a really good spot. Then in the second half we give it all back to them."
"They got stops in the second half. So credit them," said Fitzgerald. "They're really good. This may be the best defense we've played in awhile. Our guys didn't shy away from the fight. We just didn't make plays down the stretch."
Still, despite their offensive inefficiency, the 'Cats clung to their lead behind their own defense, which here was proving as tough as a cheap cut of beef. It stiffened when the Wolverines drove to a first-and-goal at the 10 and held them to a field goal midway through the third quarter. Again, as that quarter moved toward its conclusion, the Wolverines drove, and once more the 'Cat D stiffened and held them to another field on its final play.
Now, five minutes into the fourth, it was still the 'Cats by four, but again Michigan began to drive and soon enough it faced a second-and-10 at the 'Cat 28. Here its quarterback Shae Patterson, who had been forced to scramble the previous two times he had dropped, got the protection he needed, and he delivered a laser just outside the right hash toward the tight end Zach Gentry.
There were 'Cats cluttering Gentry's neighborhood and one of them, the corner Montre Hartage, made a play of the ball, but he missed and Gentry collected it and now the Wolverines were set up with a first at the 'Cat six. "They just hit us on the seam," McGee would say of this play. "We've just got to, when the ball's up in the air like that, we've got to do a better job of having the attack mentality. We have to take the mindset of the offensive guy and go on the offensive and try to take the ball out of the air. But he (Patterson) did a good job of putting the ball in a position where only his receiver could catch it."
Still, on first down, the defense was stout, holding Wolverine running back Karan Higdon to a yard. But then, on second, it broke, and Higdon waltzed in untouched.
"We had a breakdown in communication," Fitzgerald would say of this play. "They went into an unbalanced formation. We actually practiced it this week. That's what's really disappointing."
"It was a simple zone play," said defensive end Joe Gaziano, who was a full-blooded warrior throughout this one. "They motioned to a wing. We just didn't get the calls in we needed to be able to execute. I normally would fit inside the split zone. But I went upfield on the defense we were in. It's one of those plays we'd really like to have back. Without that touchdown it makes it a more interesting game. I'm going to be lying in bed trying to sleep tonight thinking about that play."
The 'Cats would go three-and-out on their next possession and then, after Michigan bled the clock, this game would end, fittingly enough, with Thorson getting sacked. Once again, as he himself would soon say, they didn't finish the job.
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Once again, at game's start, they were a threshing machine. On their first possession they drove 56 yards in six plays for a touchdown and, on their second, they drove 37 yards in 10 plays before settling for a field goal. On their third they drove once again, this time 52 yards in nine plays to another touchdown, and now the Wildcats were up 17 on No. 14 Michigan with just under two minutes gone in the second quarter.
This was late Saturday afternoon at a rockin' Ryan Field and here the 'Cats, coming off a loss to Akron and then their bye week, appeared poised for the upset that could resurrect their season. But now the plot turned and, like that, it was deja vu all over again.
"We didn't finish the job. The past few weeks, that's been the story," the quarterback Clayton Thorson would say after the 'Cats fell to the Wolverines by three.
"We're up, then the second half we don't finish the job. It's a 60 minute game, not a 30 minute game. We've got to do that better."
It was a heralded Michigan defense that visited Evanston on this Saturday, a defense that had been dented for 24 by Notre Dame in the Wolverines' season-opening loss to the Irish, but had surrendered just 33 in their routs of Western Michigan and SMU and Nebraska. It featured a pair of pre-season All Americans, the defensive end Rashan Gary and the middle linebacker Devin Bush, and it was limiting opponents to an average of just 240.2 yards per-game, the best in the Big Ten and fourth best in the country.
The 'Cats, in stark contrast, would confront them without the running back Jeremy Larkin, who had retired after being diagnosed with cervical stenosis, and with an offensive line that was beat up and undermanned. Starting guard Tommy Doles would not play at all and starting tackle Blake Hance would play very little, yet early on these contrasting story lines mattered little. The line held, and the rushing game got some yards from John Moten IV and Solomon Vault, and when the first quarter ended Thorson was eight-of-nine without a sack.
Now, at the start of the second, he found Flynn Nagel on a slant for nine and then Vault burst up the middle for nine more. Three plays later an interference call set the 'Cats up at the Wolverine seven and here was wideout-and-former-high-school-quarterback Riley Lees, as Larkin had previously done, taking a direct snap and carrying it to the three. Moten, on the very next play, went for the final three and the 'Cats were up 17, a deficit Michigan had never overcome in its three-plus season under Jim Harbaugh.
But now, against a NU defense that had given up little, it began the comeback that would do just that. "I don't think it was adjustments they made," safety Jared McGee would later say when asked about the change.
"I think early on we did a good job of stopping the run. Their offense a lot of times is geared to running, running, then hitting play action. We caused them to switch up their game a little bit and do a lot more drop back passing. That's what we wanted. But we weren't able to make the plays we needed to once we got them to change to that style of play."
That style now produced a seven-play, 79-yard drive that cut the 'Cat lead to 10, and that is just where it stood still when they received the second half kickoff. But now, in the final 30 minutes, the Wolverine defense would finally play up to its outsized reputation, and here the numbers tell the story well enough. In the first half Thorson would go 10-of-14 and suffer but one sack; in the second he would go six-of-13 and suffer five. In the first half the 'Cats held the ball for 16:17 and the Wolverines, for 13:43; in the second the 'Cat held it for a mere 9:02 and the Wolverines, for 20:58. In the first half the 'Cats managed to collect 146 yards of total offense; in the second it was held to just 56. In the first half the 'Cats would put up those 17 points; in the second, for the third time this season, they would put up none.
"I don't know if they had any adjustments we hadn't seen. Actually, I know they didn't," Thorson would later say when asked about that. "We just have to play better in the second half, that's really what it is. We come out and play well in the first half, put ourselves in a really good spot. Then in the second half we give it all back to them."
"They got stops in the second half. So credit them," said Fitzgerald. "They're really good. This may be the best defense we've played in awhile. Our guys didn't shy away from the fight. We just didn't make plays down the stretch."
Still, despite their offensive inefficiency, the 'Cats clung to their lead behind their own defense, which here was proving as tough as a cheap cut of beef. It stiffened when the Wolverines drove to a first-and-goal at the 10 and held them to a field goal midway through the third quarter. Again, as that quarter moved toward its conclusion, the Wolverines drove, and once more the 'Cat D stiffened and held them to another field on its final play.
Now, five minutes into the fourth, it was still the 'Cats by four, but again Michigan began to drive and soon enough it faced a second-and-10 at the 'Cat 28. Here its quarterback Shae Patterson, who had been forced to scramble the previous two times he had dropped, got the protection he needed, and he delivered a laser just outside the right hash toward the tight end Zach Gentry.
There were 'Cats cluttering Gentry's neighborhood and one of them, the corner Montre Hartage, made a play of the ball, but he missed and Gentry collected it and now the Wolverines were set up with a first at the 'Cat six. "They just hit us on the seam," McGee would say of this play. "We've just got to, when the ball's up in the air like that, we've got to do a better job of having the attack mentality. We have to take the mindset of the offensive guy and go on the offensive and try to take the ball out of the air. But he (Patterson) did a good job of putting the ball in a position where only his receiver could catch it."
Still, on first down, the defense was stout, holding Wolverine running back Karan Higdon to a yard. But then, on second, it broke, and Higdon waltzed in untouched.
"We had a breakdown in communication," Fitzgerald would say of this play. "They went into an unbalanced formation. We actually practiced it this week. That's what's really disappointing."
"It was a simple zone play," said defensive end Joe Gaziano, who was a full-blooded warrior throughout this one. "They motioned to a wing. We just didn't get the calls in we needed to be able to execute. I normally would fit inside the split zone. But I went upfield on the defense we were in. It's one of those plays we'd really like to have back. Without that touchdown it makes it a more interesting game. I'm going to be lying in bed trying to sleep tonight thinking about that play."
The 'Cats would go three-and-out on their next possession and then, after Michigan bled the clock, this game would end, fittingly enough, with Thorson getting sacked. Once again, as he himself would soon say, they didn't finish the job.