I 8A - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Once again, Robinson a one-man show for Michigan Eve son coi on the coordir saw ou agree. But Ro upbeat Wh came o third q ing 24 to find now. t' a qua we'fe 1 chance it's goi someth Rob alread the-ga Robins beat N had q ning d The Saturd ed for offens started was pl Com poor t admit From Borges lem wh bit off. rushin The ter: 22 interce cit. "He Michig isn't t inson's break lame m Add still le nuance By TIM ROHAN pressure packed game like that, Daily Sports Editor with a lot of stuff going on, it's easy to forget about the little ry time Denard Robin- things." mes off the field, he gets It didn't help that the running phone to tell offensive game was non-existent thanks nator Al Borges what he to a less than ideal push up front ut there. Sometimes they combined with a stout Notre Sometimes they disagree. Dame 3-4 defense. Three running binson's always the same: backs combined for 10 yards on and just going. the night. Like Robinson through en the junior quarterback the air, there was no rhythm on ff the field at the end of the the ground. luarter with Michigan los- Had Michigan not run just -7, Borges said: "I'm going 89 plays in its first two games - out if you're a quarterback when the team usually runs 70 m going to find out if you're per game - Borges would have rterback or not. Because been more concerned with his losing, and if we have a running game. to get back into this thing, "I'm trying to find something ng to be because you make here," Borges told Hoke in the hinghappen here." first half. "I'm trying to find inson's teammates had something to get us off." y witnessed the take-over- Once Michigan fell behind, me, take-no-prisoners Borges and Hoke knew it would on that single-handedly be hard to get any momentum otre Dame last season and with their running backs. So it luarterbacked game-win- was up to Robinson, and specifi- rives before. cally, his arm. Robinson that finished "We sputtered so bad in the ay's game having account- first half of the game," Borges 98.7 percent of his team's said. "Now, they're salty on e was far from the one that defense --I don't want to not give I the game. That Robinson them any credit. It became real aying too fast, too excited. evident very early in the game, sing off the field after a based on the configuration of hrow, he was the first to their defense, that they were not that his footwork was bad. , going to let Denard run the ball his seat in the press box, outside. , too, recognizes the prob- "They had that happen to them en Robinson's throws are a a year ago. And they.were set up It's either poor footwork or that they were going to force him g the throw that's to blame. to beat them throwingthe ball, or result in the first quar- running the ball inside. So you've yards, one first down, one got to take your shots and when ption and a 14-point defi- you get your opportunities, your bombs have to land." 's excited all the time," said Robinson calmed down and Yan coach Brady Hoke, who figured out his footwork. Then oo concerned with Rob- came the bombs - a 43-yard excited start. "I'd rather pass to Junior Hemingway in a bucking bronco than a the second quarter, a 77-yard tare." pass to Hemingway in the third, ed Borges: "(Robinson's) another 45-yard pass to Heming- earning all of the little way in the fourth, a key 27-yard es of the offense, and in a pass to Kelvin Grady, and then 4 4 MARS5A MCCLAIN/Daily Junior quarterback Denard Robinson tallied 446 yards of offense against Notre Dame after totaling 502 against the Fighting rish in 2010. the 64-yard toss to a wide-open Jeremy Gallon to set up the game-winning touchdown. In all, Robinson averaged 30 yards per bomb completed. As he hit more of them, the perimeter opened up and Rob- inson was able to take off more, finishing with 108 yards on the ground. "Offensive football is about getting in sync - running repeti- tive, successful plays, gaining confidence and starting to feel it," Borges said. "It's like a hot three- point shooter. He gets one, gets another and the rim starts look- ing big. Well, the rim didn't start getting big until the end of the game." By then, Borges's West Coast offense may have been unrecog- nizable - he now calls it a hybrid, mixing in the spread offense too. Borges started calling plays Robinson would be comfortable with, which usually means play- ing out of the shotgun, where the running backs really couldn't be featured. So the game turned into Robinson versus the Fighting Irish. Every person in Schembechler Hall will praise Robinson's unique ability and, in the same breath, recognize that he alone isn't enough, saying Michigan can't win with just one guy. At times it sounds like this: "When you have Denard Rob- inson on your team, 30 seconds is plenty of time to score a touch- down," said fifth-year senior Ryan Van Bergen of the game's final drive. "He can run 100 yards in under 10 seconds, so we don't need to worry about 30 seconds being on the clock." But other times, it sounds like this: "The best teams don't depend on one player," Borges said. "Yet, they have that one player that can win for them. I mean, Terry Brad- shaw, Franco Harris, John Stall- worth, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice. "There's never been one guy. There's always been - someone else has to do something. I worry a little bit about that. But I know when push comes to shove, I want the ball in his hands." That hasn't changed. The offense has. But just like last year, the question persists: who can be counted on to help Robinson? Robinson started slowly, made some mistakes in the middle and was near perfect at the end. The three interceptions really bother Borges. When Hoke was asked wheth- er Robinson's game was catego- rized as good or bad, he saidboth, saying Robinson saved the game but made-bad decisions at times. Ultimately, Borges did find out what kind of quarterback Robin- son is - a winner, even though it wasn't pretty. "As you learn the offense bet ter and understand what you're doing better, it starts to flow," Borges said. "Remember when I told you, there's going to be grow- ingpainsinthisthing- hopefully they're not excruciating growing pains. And so far, we've had some. ... You'll get to the point that you want to get, if you're just patient. 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