2E - The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - Fall 2005
SPORTS
'M' comes
up short in
Pasadena at
Rose Bowl
By Sharad Mattu
JANUARY 5,2005
Daily Staff Writer
PASADENA, Calif. - When its regular season ended,
Michigan's Achilles heel was clear. Mobile quarterbacks
such as Michigan State's Drew Stanton and Ohio State's
Troy Smith had given the Wolverines fits with their ability
to scramble and throw.
Texas quarterback Vince Young is made of the same
mold, and, since it was announced on Dec. 5 that Michigan
and Texas would square off in the Rose Bowl, the Wolver-
ines knew that to win they would have to contain him.
But in the end, four weeks of preparation made no dif-
ference.
Young put together a performance for the ages - run-
ning for 192 yards and four touchdowns to go along with
180 yards passing and a touchdown - and Dusty Mangum
kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired to give Texas a
38-37 win.
The ball deflected off safety Ernest Shazor's elbow and
just missed linebacker Prescott Burgess outstretched arms,
but Mangum was able to eke the ball over the crossbar.
"We knew this game would come down to defense,"
Burgess said. "Defense wins championships, and we just
weren't able to get the job done."
The defensive struggles overshadowed a strong show-
ing by Michigan's offense. The Wolverines were led by
senior Braylon Edwards, who caught 10 passes for 109
yards and three touchdowns and set Michigan's all-time
record for career touchdowns receptions with 39.
Sophomore Steve Breaston, who took on an increased
role because junior Jason Avant was out with an injured
knee, caught a 50-yard touchdown pass and consistently
gave Michigan a boost in field position, returning six kick-
offs for 221 yards.
"I had a month off instead of a week," Breaston said,
who missed time with multiple injuries. "I had time to
heal, and it really paid off."
Freshman quarterback Chad Henne, who finished the
day 18-for-34 for 227 yards and four touchdowns said:
"We had a great game plan and great preparation coming
in here. And that's what had the offense clicking today."
Michigan held a 31-21 lead entering the fourth quarter,
but Young saved his best for the final 15 minutes, throwing
and running for a combined 150 yards.
The Wolverines limited Texas running back Cedric
Benson - this year's Doak Walker Award winner - to
just 70 yards on 23 carries, but Young did just enough to
give Texas the win.
"We put in hours and hours and hours of preparation
for Young, and to lose the game because of it really hurts,"
Watson said. "He's a great player. Great players make
great plays. He made great plays, and we just didn't."
The final quarter's first score came on third-and-
goal from the 10-yard line, when Young spun away
After battling injuries for the duration of the regular season, sophomore Steve Breaston exploded in the Rose Bowl game
against Texas in the absence of junior Jason Avant.
from a seemingly sure sack by defensive end Pat
Massey and ran down the right sideline to put the
Longhorns within three.
It was one of many third-down conversions for Texas.
For the game, the Longhorns converted 12-of-17, while
Michigan converted just 6-of-14.
After a Michigan field goal extended the lead to six,
Texas struck again in under a minute to take the lead.
After completing two passes for 46 yards, Young escaped
to the left sideline and sprinted untouched past six Wol-
verines to give the Longhorns a 35-34 lead.
With just five minutes left, Breaston returned the ensu-
ing kick 52 yards to the Texas 43-yard line.
From there, Michigan registered one first down before
kicker Garret Rivas booted a 42-yard field goal to give
Michigan a 37-35 lead with 3:04 left.
On the deciding drive, Texas relied on Young and its
running game, passing the ball just once. A 14-yard run
by Young gave the Longhorns the ball at the Michigan 30-
yard line, and Texas ran the ball five more times to set the
stage for Mangum.
Michigan had two timeouts remaining for the entire
drive, but elected to use them back to back in the final sec-
onds to ice Mangum.
The Rose Bowl marked Texas's first appearance in a
BCS bowl game. After being excluded in the top four bowl
games for years, the Longhorns vowed to show the country
that their presence was long overdue.
The Wolverines (9-3), on the other hand, are dealing
with their second consecutive Rose Bowl loss. Last year
they lost to co-national champion Southern Cal 28-14, but
this year's game may have hurt more because they felt that
if they had just one more chance on offense, they would
have won.
"I know we would have won this game," Edwards said.
"We were getting first downs and pretty much scoring at
will. If we had gotten the ball one more time, we would
have won it."
Blue defense
cannot match.
running QB
P ASADENA, Calif. - On the first night of the new
year, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said it best:
"You score 37 points and it should be enough."
Over the first 125 years of Michigan football, 99.9 percent
of the time that point total was enough.
In the program's first 1,152 games, Michigan lost just once
when scoring more than 31 points - a wild 54-51 defeat at
Northwestern in 2000.
In the program's first 35 bowl
games, Michigan never lost when
eclipsing the 20-point mark.
But in Michigan's 36th bowl
game (game No. 1,153 overall),
played on the first day of the
program's 126th year, the Wol- GENNARO FILICE
verines threw a 37-spot on the
scoreboard ... and fell one point The SportsMonday Column
short of Texas. JANUARY 5, 2005
The Longhorns racked up 444 yards of total offense and
38 points, leaving the Wolverines' defense (and defensive
coordinator Jim Herrmann) exposed in front of a national
audience for the second game in a row. This porous Pasadena
effort was far from what anyone expected back in August.
At the outset of the season, the defense was supposed to
carry the Wolverines. With offensive question marks at quar-
terback and running back, logic dictated that the Wolverines
would go as far as Herrmann's 11 would take them. This was
supposed to be the best Michigan defense since the Charles
Woodson-led group of 1997 and possibly the fastest 'D' ever to
don the Maize and Blue.
In the first half of the season, Michigan's defense struggled
with consistency - the unit's play differed from half to half.
The Wolverines lost their first nonconference away game for the
fifth straight year by giving up 21 points to Notre Dame in the
fourth quarter. The next week, San Diego State came into the
Big House and put a scare into the Wolverines, scoring 21 first-
half points, only to be shut out in the game's final 30 minutes.
But, for the most part, Michigan's erratic defensive play
was overshadowed by its ability to produce turnovers (the
Wolverines forced an astounding 19 turnovers through their
first four games).
Then, as the season went on, the takeaways rapidly decreased,
and the defense showed its true (and unsightly) colors.
In the season's final four games, Michigan forced just two
turnovers while giving up an average of 458 yards and 33
points per game. The most disappointing aspect of this col-
lapse was Michigan's inability to make adjustments toward
stopping a running quarterback. And this is a problem that
reaches much further back than just a few months.
Going back to 1998 - when Syracuse's Donovan McNabb
dominated the Wolverine defense in Michigan Stadium - Her-
rmann's squads have struggled when facing a mobile quarter-
back. Over the years, the Wolverines have just never found an
answer, failing to contain players like Iowa's Brad Banks and
Minnesota's Asad Abdul-Khaliq.
This problem erupted in three of Michigan's last four
games this season against Michigan State, Ohio State and
Texas, whose quarterbacks combined to rush for 462 yards
against the Wolverines. Before Michigan State's Drew
Stanton dislocated his shoulder in the second quarter, he
had rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown. Damon Dowdell
added 36 ground yards in the second half. Ohio State's Troy
Smith had a career day against the Wolverine 'D' - on top
of throwing for 241 yards and two touchdowns, Smith broke
Michigan's back by rushing for 150 yards and a score. But the
coup de grace came in the Rose Bowl.
Although Herrmann had almost a month following the
Smith debacle to prepare his defense, the Wolverines looked
completely overmatched against Longhorn quarterback Vince
Young, who launched his 2005 Heisman campaign by running
for 192 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries.
Each year, more and more teams incorporate mobile quar-
terbacks into their offenses, and Michigan remains a deer in
these teams' headlights - unable to figure out a way to halt a
chugging signal-caller.
And this inability to adjust may cost Herrmann his job.
Defending the mobile quarterback may not be the defense's
only problem, but this flaw - which really defined the 2004
season - may just be the last straw.
Herrmann coached the nation's No. I defense in his first season
(1997) and won the Broyles Award, as the national assistant coach
of the year. But since that year, Herrmann has failed to assemble
a consistent, top-notch unit comparable to an offense that seems
to be national-championship caliber every year (sans 2001).
Michigan has the talent for an effective defensive squad,
and Carr hinted at this in his post-Rose Bowl fuming.
"We have to play better defense, and that is something that
we have to address," Carr said. "We've got a lot of outstand-
ing players that have the ability to do great things and win
championships."
If Carr believes his defensive players are legit, then it's
only natural to infer that he plans "to address" the man in
charge of the players.
This is an unusually strong statement from Carr, a coach who
normally addresses the media with a slew of generic and innocu-
ous cliches. But it's not hard to understand his frustration.
Because, at the end of the day, "You score 37 points and it
should be enough."
STATE
Continued from page 1E
sent Cobb, who finished with a career-high 205
yards rushing, straight up the gut. But Michi-
gan's defensive line got a great push, and senior
Roy Manning tackled Cobb for a two-yard loss.
Rayner converted a 23-yard field goal to send the
game into a second overtime.
Michigan State had the initial drive that time
around. After a 15-yard completion from Damon
Dowdell - who played the entire second half
after Spartan starter Drew Stanton dislocated his
right shoulder on a second-quarter hit by LaMarr
Woodley - to Agim Shabaj, Michigan State rode
Jason Teague into the endzone, giving the junior
the ball three straight times. The Wolverines tied
the game at 37 with a five-play drive that ended
in the corner of the endzone on a third-and-goal
touchdown grab by an outstretched Jason Avant,
who had dislocated his finger earlier in the game.
In the third overtime, Michigan had the first
possession. On third-and-nine, Henne found
Edwards wide open over the middle, and the
senior scampered into the endzone for a 24-
yard touchdown.
"They were trying to decide who was going to
take me," Edwards said "Toward the end of the
game, they were manning Roderick Maples up,
so whenever Hayes was on me, they would switch
and put Maples back on me. So I think Hayes was
expecting Maples to come over and he didn't, so
they were probably a little off guard."
Following two sub-par games, Edwards put
his name back in the Heisman Trophy race with
11 catches and 189 yards for three touchdowns.
Most of Edwards's production came in the fourth
quarter and overtime.
"I knew what number they were going to
dial, and I knew I had to answer the call,"
Edwards said.
After a spectacular two-point conversion catch
by Tim Massaquoi (by NCAA rules, teams must
go for two after the second overtime period),
Michigan held a 45-37 lead.
Michigan State couldn't do much on what
would be its final drive, and again shot itself in
the foot with a big offensive pass interference
penalty on tight end Eric Knott. On fourth down,
Dowdell made one last heave to the endzone, but
senior Markus Curry broke up the pass intended
for wide receiver Aaron Alexander and the cel-
ebration began.
"We just kept fighting," junior safety
Ernest Shazor said. "Coach Carr kept telling
us we could do it, and we believe in coach
Carr 100 percent."
The Wolverines received another stellar per-
formance from Mike Hart. The true freshman
rushed for 224 yards and a touchdown on 33 car-
ries, becoming the first Wolverine ever to rush
for 200 yards in three consecutive games.
"I thought Michael was outstanding," Carr
said. "When you think about the first back in the
history of Michigan football to run for over 200
yards three consecutive games, and he's just a
new arrival, that's special."
Hart left the game in overtime, but according
to Carr he should be ready for Michigan's next
game against Northwestern. "He got a bruise on
the thigh, and I think he'll be fine," Carr said.
Michigan State took a 17-10 lead into halftime,
behind Stanton's fine first half-- the sophomore
completed 10 of 13 passes for 95 yards and ran
for 84 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries
before he was hurt. The Spartans extended their
lead to 20-10 early in the fourth quarter with a
19-yard field goal by Rayner.
HUNT
Continued from page 1E
plays, we're not standing here," Carr said.
After a quick stop, Michigan had 3:13 to save its season. It needed just 14
seconds. After hitting running back Mike Hart on a screen pass, Henne threw
to Edwards in the corner of the endzone again. With another leaping catch, the
game was tied.
"If it's in his area, you know he's going to catch it," Henne said.
When the game got into overtime, it seemed like it was certain that Edwards
would have a say in the game's conclusion. After all, he got the Wolverines into
overtime in the first place. And that's what happened in the third overtime. Henne
saw Edwards open coming across the middle of the field, so he threw it to him.
Edwards then jetted through four Michigan State defenders for the game-winning
touchdown. The Wolverines had past perplexed the portion of the crowd that didn't
leave when the game was all but over. Even Carr, whose disputes with Edwards in
previous seasons have been well documented, became his biggest advocate.
"I said several weeks ago, I think he's the best football player in the country,
and I believe that," Carr said. "Braylon Edwards made plays today that I don't
think anybody else can make."
It's clear that the Wolverines would have lost if Edwards didn't snatch the
game away from the Spartans. Until Edwards' catches turned the game around
in the fourth quarter, the Wolverines were quickly headed towards defeat. When
Michigan State was up 17-7, Michigan was lucky that the score was not 28-7. And
the Wolverines weren't even able to move the ball down the field.
That's why the game seemed so bleak. With the way the offense was
going - even when Michigan scored a field goal to make the game 27-13
and recovered the ensuing onside kick - it didn't look like Michigan had
the firepower to score one touchdown, much less four to win the game in
triple overtime.
The Wolverines needed a superhuman player, and they got Braylon Edwards.
"When we fell behind, we knew we were going to have to pass the ball to
make any sort of comeback," wide receivers coach Eric Campbell said. "And
he made great catches."
He also solidified his Michigan legacy.
I bet you're all glad he came back, huh?
Bob Hunt can be reached at Gennaro Filice can be reached at
bobhunt@umich.edu gfilice@umich.edu
I
I