Michigan Must Learn Five Basics To Right The Ship This Week

Two-a-day practices in August, offseason conditioning, the basics. What do they have to do with this week's Ohio State-Michigan game? Simple, Michigan must do the little things correctly. With six straight conference losses and a bowl birth on the line, Michigan must return to the basics.

1. Run Blocking

In the six straight conference losses, Michigan has averaged, 1.0, 4.3, 2.8, 2.6, 4.9, and 2.2 yards rushing respectively in those six losses. That is just not good enough to get the job done. The Wolverine offensive line must be consistent in getting off the ball and getting good blocks on the Ohio State front seven. If they can do this, they will take some pressure off of the passing game.

2. Pass Blocking

In the six straight conference losses, Michigan has given up three, one, five, four, five, and two sacks respectively. This is outrageous! Michigan's offensive line must hold up at the point of attack. This is going to be an especially tall order this weekend with an Ohio State defense that is, without a doubt, tops in the Big Ten.

Give Tate Forcier time to throw the ball. How on Earth are you supposed to move the ball when you get sacked that many times in a game?

3. Tackling

Whether on a run or a pass, Michigan must do a better job of tackling this week. Missed tackles have led to huge plays for opposing offenses. It is a good thing they do not keep stats on missed tackles because that would probably be the most embarrassing of any of the statistics out there.

4. Get off the ball

Whether on Offense or Defense, the Wolverines will need to beat the Bucks off the ball every single snap if they have a hope of getting a win in this game.

5. Capitalize in the Red Zone.

Michigan went 2-4 in the red zone against Penn State, and a disgusting 3-7 in the red zone against who? Illinois. That's right. Michigan has been good in the red zone withstanding those two games, but they will need to put the ball in the end zone each time they are in the red zone.

6. Convert on Third Down

Okay, so we all know that a team is not going to convert on third down every single time. Hopefully, they can keep it close to a 50/50 chance, but that is not what Michigan has done at all during this six game conference skid. In the six games they have gone, 7-16, 3-11, 3-15, 5-14, 8-14, and 6-15 on third downs.

Only one game against Purdue (a two point loss) was over 50 percent on third down. Punts kill momentum and getting shut down on the offensive side of the ball puts a lot more pressure on the defense as a whole.

X Factors

Michigan's ability to keep Terelle Pryor at bay and keep Ohio State's offense off of the field will be a significant factor in this game. For Michigan to win, they will have to bail out Forcier who will be under heavy pressure all day.

To bail him out, I think that Michigan will have to run the ball for 200 yards. Something they haven't done all year (except against Delaware State, and who wants to call that a contest?).

A December Bowl awaits Michigan if they can somehow get by this juggernaut known as the Bucks. Michigan may not be playing for the Roses but it is always fun to ruin Ohio State's season.

Go Blue!