Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines' Loss to Michigan State

Losing a football game is one thing. Getting manhandled before, and after, the whistle is another. 

Michigan State displayed its superiority in every phase of the game by defeating Michigan for the fourth straight time on Saturday, 28-14.

Sure, Michigan made a game of it by closing to within seven points midway in the final quarter, but a quarterback sack on a 4th-and-1 from the Spartan 9-yard line realistically ended Michigan's chances.

The Spartans were the aggressors all day, controlling both lines of scrimmage. taking receivers out of their patterns and making life miserable for quarterbacks Denard Robinson and Devin Gardner. 

Michigan State also showed little regard for the rulebook. The Spartans were penalized 13 times for 124 yards, including four personal fouls and a punch to Taylor Lewan's facemask.

Give the Wolverines credit for not openly retaliating.

It was that lack of aggressiveness that defined the regime of ex-coach Rich Rodriguez. Brady Hoke has promised a tougher brand of football is coming to Michigan. 

Let's check this week's letter grades to see how long it's going to take: 

Quarterbacks

Denard Robinson had a tough Saturday. Not only did Michigan State curtail both his passing and rushing stats, he was slammed as usual by the media.  My friend Drew Sharp over at the Free Press was less cordial than the Spartan pass rushers. 

"For the second straight year," Sharp said, "the Spartans took all the Heisman Trophy talk regarding the Michigan quarterback, crumbled it and deposited it into the nearest trash can."

That's funny, I don't recall any Heisman talk emanating from the Michigan locker room.

Sure, Robinson has tough days playing in an atmosphere when his offensive line is reduced to rubble. But remember he's only 6'0", 195 pounds (or less), and has been having a tough time throwing the football. For some reason, he was a much better passer a year ago.

He certainly did get bounced around pretty good by the Spartans, but he expects to be in the lineup after the bye week.

"Our training staff is one of the best in the country," Robinson spoke at the post-game press conference. "I know they’re going to get me back.”

Grade: C+

Running Backs

Running backs? One bright spot was Vincent Smith, who reeled off 35 yards in his first two carries. Those helped Michigan set up Denard Robinson's 15-yard adventure for a 7-0 Wolverine lead.

Unfortunately, Smith managed only two more yards the entire day in a total of eight carries. Smith, who's recently been a weapon as a pass receiver, had no catches for the day.

Fitzgerald Toussaint, who's major assignment was to help pick up Spartan blitzers, carried the ball twice for seven yards.

This type of performance is exactly what Hoke isn't looking for. But there's more blame to go around.  

“Well, to get it out of our running back group, we have to get it out of our front first." Hoke said at the press conference. " I think there’s some opportunities we missed a little bit, but at the same time I don’t know how much movement we got consistently at the line of scrimmage.”

Grade: C-

Receivers

Between the wide receivers having trouble getting open and the quarterbacks not having much time, receptions this season have been limited.

Roy Roundtree's 34-yard touchdown catch which brought Michigan within seven points with 9:49 remaining could have been huge. But a subsequent stop inside the ten and a Robinson interception ended the day for Michigan.

Roundtree, who had 72 receptions a year ago, has only 12 this fall, including the game winner against Notre Dame.

Jeremy Gallon, who was far down the depth chart during the spring, leads the team with 20, after snaring three at Michigan State.

Junior Hemingway with three and Kevin Koger with two brought the total to 12.

Grade: C 

Offensive Line

Last season, Taylor Lewan, David Molk, Patrick Omameh and Mark Huyge comprised 80% of the offensive line. This season, the same four linemen are back.

Last season, Michigan allowed only one sack to the Spartans, Saturday Michigan allowed seven.

Granted there are many variables to enter into the reasons why, but for once this group isn't getting any better. 

Other than Denard Robinson struggling for 42 yards and Vincent Smith posting 37, Michigan's running game was non-existent.

Sure, we expected growing pains with the new coaching staff, but must it hurt so bad?

Grade: D-

Defensive Line

With the exception of running back Edwin Baker, the defense as a who did a good job against the Spartans. Michigan held All-Big Ten quarterback Kirk Cousins to 120 passing, and the entire Spartan team to 333 total yards. 

Their longest rush was 25 yards and their longest reception was only 16.

But the Spartans were able to move the chains as their offensive line was able to impose its will on Michigan's outmanned defensive front.

The Wolverines were no match for Baker who carved up the Wolverines for 167 yards on 26 carries. 

Craig Roh, Mike Martin, Will Heininger and Ryan Van Bergen all seemed to fight an uphill battle against the tougher Spartans.

Roh and Heininger continued to show improvement as they each had two tackles for loss. But there will still disappointment in the end. 

"They executed their game plan and pretty much that’s what we practiced," Martin said. "I just don’t think that on our side of it, we did what we needed to do.”

Grade: C+

Linebackers

It was a quiet day for the Michigan linebacking corps. Kenny Demens led the group with five tackles, freshman Desmond Morgan had four and Brandin Hawthorne had three.

Cam Gordon, who missed the first six games of the season due to a back injury, made his first tackle against Michigan State. Still missing from the lineup, however, is Brandon Herron.

Grade: B- 

Secondary

With 9:36 to go safety Jordan Kovacs made a key fumble recovery at the Michigan State 32. For a split second, Michigan thought a comeback was on  “Yeah, the whole game we thought we were going to win until the two zeros were on the clock," said Kovacs, who accounted for six tackles. 

Thomas Gordon led the secondary with eight tackles while Blake Countess had six and J.T. Floyd four. 

While no one played spectacularly, Michigan held Cousins to 13 completions and only 120 yards.

Countess gets more and more playing time each week. With a little more experience, he'll be a solid cover-corner.

Grade: B 

Special Teams

Will Hagerup was forced to punt seven times, but the sophomore was able to land four of them inside the 20 and another into the endzone for a touchback.

Michigan failed to try a field goal all day. On the game's first drive, the Wolverines marched the ball down to the MSU 22. Instead of a field goal, Drew Dileo's three-yard run on a fake kept the scoring drive alive. 

Due to the blustery conditions, Michigan also passed on field goals of 53 and 49 yards.

Grade: B- 

Coaching

We're now at week seven of Brady Hoke's first season. There have been bright spots and some not as bright. 

Michigan, at times, has shown uncanny ability to make halftime adjustments on offense and defense.

But in it's first game with rival Michigan State, the Wolverines were hopelessly outmanned.

The Spartans controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage, and what's worse, Michigan had no answer for Michigan State's pass rush.

Midway through the fourth quarter, and Michigan trailing by seven, a critical missed assignment botched a critical fourth down play. 

Here's a question about strategy. Three times during the game Michigan faced a fourth down inside the Spartan 40. Sure the weather was lousy, but not once did the Wolverine go for it or try a long field goal. 

Overall, the offensive line has has shown relatively little life, while the defensive front has only recently displayed a pulse.

The 2011 edition of the Michigan Wolverines are at a crossroads. Will they continue to be dominated by the Big Ten toughies, or will they right the ship and upend teams like Nebraska and Ohio State down the stretch?

Grade: C+

Intangibles

While several Michigan players expected a physical game from the Spartans, you wonder if Michigan was really ready for it. 

Maybe it's just that the majority of this group is not accustomed to smash-mouth football.

“I mean, we knew what type of game this was going to be." said nose tackle Mike Martin. "It was going to be a tough, physical game, and coach talked about keeping our poise and composure as a football team. So I think we did a good job on that side of it, and we just have to do a better job with taking coaching and executing what the coaches tell us to do.”

Grade: C