Thursday cte Adibgurn B itlU PORTS sports. michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily. com 8A Offense needs to stay on theid By Stephanie Wright Daily Sports Editor This season, Michigan has played as if it were re-enacting a chapter from Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cit- ies." It's been the best of times in the first half and the worst of times in the second. In six games, the Michigan offense has put up 118 points in the first half, and the Wolverines have trailed at half- time just once. But it's a different story after the intermission, when Michi- gan's offensive output has decreased by more than 50 percent. The Wolverines have scored 51 points in the second half, including just 10 in the third quar- ter. But when their 55-point showing against Eastern Michigan is removed, they have scored just 31 after halftime. "We start our games great - going down the field on our first drive and playing strong in the first quarter - but we're inconsistent," tight end Tim Massaquoi said. "We don't start the second half the same way we start the first half. It's a lack of consistency that has hurt Michigan." But just looking at total points scored disguises the fact that some of those points have been put up by the defense and special teams. Of the 10 points Michigan has scored in the third quarter, just three have come courtesy of the offense. Those points came off a 38-yard field goal from placekicker Garrett Rivas against Notre Dame. Wide receiver Steve Breaston returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown last weekend for the Wolverines' only other third-quarter points this season. The picture is brighter in the fourth quarter. Michigan has scored 41 points in the final frame this year, all of which were put up by the offense. In all, the Without sports, where would we be? Remember those ESPN ads that centered on what life would be like without sports? Well, I think about that quite a bit. Sports don't seem to mean as much to me nowadays compared to when I was a kid, and it doesn't really have to do with tragedies like Hurricane Katrina or the Sept. 11 attacks. Those things obviously put life into perspective, but, more than anything, sports have come to be a form' of entertainment, not life and death. Basically, they are something to keep my mind off a term paper or an upcoming exam. I stillM like them a lot, but I won'tM pout like a baby after a VEN loss. The I think about this because it's my mom's birthday in a couple days, and I don't really know what to get her. She doesn't want anything, but maybe she doesn't really need much either. She has sports and my dad. To be honest, it's not as if she likes sports very much. The only inter- est she has is to ask in a meek voice if the Michigan football team won - which hasn't been the case too often lately. She always apologizes, like she had some impact on the outcome. Really, she just thinks it kills me to see them lose, and it does hurt. Sports aren't really her bag, but I guarantee she appreciates their worth. While growing up in the land of 10,000 lakes, sports were more than just a hobby for me. And thankfully, for my mom's sake, I embraced them from the beginning. It kept her sane, and brought my dad and me together. To me, that's what sports are really about - father and son bonding over a game of catch. I was reminded of this when wide receiver Steve Breaston talked at Big Ten Media Day in August of his dad getting mad at him for falling in a river when he was young. I'm certain most everyone here fell, got hurt and scared their parents when they were young. So just because most us aren't Division I athletes, we all have something in common - sports can bring a fam- ily together, even if we scare our folks. Lost in the confusion of class, partying, girls and everything else - sports are a great unifier. In my rambunctious youth, I didn't have much regard for anything but having fun and getting wild - kind of like your stereotypical frat boy. For example, after having surgery when I was 3 years old, the doctors told me to take it easy for a couple days. But within two hours, I was building a fort made of pillows and jumping from the top of them like the "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Mary Bess could only watch in horror as she thought every stitch in me would pop out. TT Nothing could keep me GONI under control - except A E I MIKE HULSEBUS/Daily Sophomore Mike Hart and the Wolverines have been outscored 53-51 in the second half so far this season. Wolverines have scored 63 more points on offense in the first half than they have in the second. No one on the Michigan offense seems to have an explanation for the unit's second-half problems. Mas- saquoi attributed it to a lack of focus, but he wasn't sure why it continued to happen. I But one major effect of the offense's struggles to score late in the game - or even to stay out on the field - has been extra pressure on the defense to stop opponents. Even though the defense has given up its share of big plays in crunch time - most recently Minnesota tailback Gary Russell's 61-yard run in the fourth quar- ter last week - its struggles have result- ed, in part, from the offense's inability to put together long drives. Michigan has lost the time-of-possession battle in each of its last two losses. Minnesota held the ball for six minutes more than the Wolverines, but time of possession hurt Michigan most in its loss at Wis- consin, when the Badgers held the ball for more than 20 minutes in the second half alone. It's impossible to know for sure, but the inability of Michigan's defense to contain Wisconsin tailback Brian Calhoun as the game progressed might have stemmed from fatigue. Against the Gophers, the Wolver- ines' defense was on the field for 91 plays, which coach Lloyd Carr says is 25 to 30 more plays than he would like to see. Michigan didn't run an offen- sive play in the second half until there was just six minutes remaining in the third quarter. "Part of that ... was the fact that our defense made a great stop (and held the Gophers to a field goal) after a long kickoff return that gave Minnesota great field position," Carr said. "Then Steve Breaston ran the kickoff back, and our defense had to go right back out." But the Wolverines still allowed the Gophers to string together a 13-play, 61-yard drive that took more than six minutes off the clock in the middle of that frame. "Considering our inability on third down to keep drives alive, the number of plays that our defense was on the field and the fact that Willis Barringer and Brandent Englemon went out of there, I give our defense some credit there," Carr said. But odds are, the defense's effort alone will not be enough to reverse Michigan's fortunes. Balls for my dad because he would join in on the fun. Most of my earliest memories deal with sports and my dad. When I was five, we used to play baseball on our cul-de-sac. I would hit; he would pitch. I had aspira- tions of being like Kirby Puckett, and he would help me as much as possible. One day, when I was just raking like a young Albert Pujols, I took a particularly violent swing. The line-drive shot headed right toward my dad's crotch, and boom, he was on the ground. He spit out a couple obscenities, and I was really scared - figuring my young life was over. The wrath of a high-pitched swear word never terrified my chubby self so much. As I tried to sneak away without letting my frightened laugh- ter be seen, my dad stopped me and said, "Just do it like that every time" while patting my head. He was cool, despite me trying to castrate him with a baseball. Finally, as I got older, I calmed down, but sports still kept me from making my mom go crazy. Coming from a Catholic family, we usually went to church on Sun- days. But during baseball season from fifth grade to junior year of high school, my dad and I had an excuse not to go - we could go to the fields and play baseball. Just like on the cul-de-sac, he tossed them, and I knocked them as best I could. Once other players See VENEGONI, page 9A 0 o eea ve :: ?: ;;>., >;. ~.>::. COQ o . 0 0p 0 We provide all training - first time officials welcome , Very flexible scheduling A Uniforms provided and yours to keep Train starl A Earn $8.15 per hour!!! tonig e Learn great new plays for your teams . Officiate tournaments nation wide ing is ht! All clinics are held at the Intramural Sports Building. Please attend all meetings; new material covered at each. Football: October 19th, 20th, 24th, 25th 7PM