28 - October 29, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com SPOrTSMON DAY COrMN Borges, Beilomy and offensive predictability INCOLN - Al Borges is no fool. The Michigan football team's second-year offensive coordinator is an avid history buff by night and a kingpin of quarterback developmentby day. He groomed future NFL first- round draft picks Cade McNown at UCLA and Jason Campbell at STEPHEN J. Auburn. NESBITT The jour- neyman coach Borges came to Ann Arbor with Michigan coach Brady Hoke 22 months ago tasked with perhaps his big- gest challenge yet: Transitioning the Wolverines from the spread offense back to its pro-style roots while still catering to the skill set of dynamic quarterback Denard Robinson, a speedster built for the spread. That duality birthed what Borges dubbed the "hybrid pro-style offense," a temporary mish-mash of shotgun, sweeps and I-formations that nobody is built for. And nobody is built to watch it, either. It's been a painful split between elation, when Robinson slings a perfect screen or dodges between defenders, to anxiety when he tries to settle in the pocket, tries to set his feet and be a regular quarterback. Has it worked? Sure, it's worked some. Michigan has managed a 16-5 record since Borges took the reins of the offense. But it's hard to ignore that something isn't there. Michigan has failed to score a single touchdown in three games this fall - losses to Notre Dame and Nebraska and a victory over room at halftime to regroup. His first drive of the second half followed the same pattern: Rush, pass, pass. So did the next one. And the next one. And the next one. That sequence spanned the entire third quarter, when the Michigan defense was somehow keeping game within a score. That "unpredictable" rush-pass- pass pattern is only unpredict- able if you've got the defense over-guessing on Bellomy like on a multiple-choice bubble sheet. (I've had like six 'C's in a row, so this one can't be a C, right?) Gee dangit, it was a C every time. The fourth rush-punt-punt drive, though, broke the pattern because the incomplete pass on third down was salvaged with a pair of 15-yard penalties against the Cornhuskers. That 30-yard penalty equated to Michigan's second-longest offensive play of the game and was twice as long as Bellomy's longest gain. In the fourth quarter, Borges decided to shake things up. So he ordered up a deep ball to catch Nebraska sleeping. Well, the defense had been doing nothing but bringing pressure on Bellomy and sticking somewhere in the same zip code as his receivers. Bellomy lofted a pass down- field, a few yards short of his intended target and straight into Nebraska safety Daimion Staf- ford's arms. The game plan didn't work. It just didn't. But on Tuesday, when Borges sits down for his weekly press conference, he'll likely say that he wouldn't go back and change anything, like he says every week. He'll say the players just didn't execute. Borges is no fool, and that would be foolish. - Nesbitt can be reached at stnesbit@umich.edu. Redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Bellomy struggled in his half under center for the Wolverines, though the play-calling and receivers didn't do him favors. Michigan State. Yes, thank your lucky brunettes that redshirt junior kicker Brendan Gibbons powered a touchdown-less Michigan squad to victory over the Spartans. The last time the Michigan football team went without a touchdown in three different games was in 1962. That quarter- back was Bobby Timberlake, not Denard Robinson. The Michigan offense has carried drives into opposingter- ritory six times in each of those touchdown-less games this season. That's 18 optimal drives for the good guys. None of them have finished in the end zone, and only half of those drives have ended with field goals. The drives have entered the red zone nine times, penetrated the 10-yard line six times. But none got further than the three- yard line, that's where you'll find the brick wall. You can criticize the players, you can praise the defenses and you can make excuses. But at some point you have to take a look at the play calls. There was a simple pitch to senior running back Vin- cent Smith at the 10-yard line against Notre Dame. Smith had a man open in the end zone, so he tossed it ... well behind the receiver and into the arms of a defender. There was Michigan run- ning 10 plays in five trips to the red zone against the Fighting Irish and only passing once. If at first you don't succeed, run, run again. There was a third-down give to Smith with Michigan down 10 points that ended ina loss of four against Nebraska. Some of the calls just make you shake your head. And then there's the Bellomy matter. After Robinson was knocked out of the Michigan-Nebraska game in the second quarter on Saturday, Hoke and Borges turned to little-used redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Bellomy to lead the offense. It got ugly fast. Like turn-off- the-TV ugly. Bellomy completed three passes to his receivers and three to the Nebraska secondary. His final stat line read 3-for-16 pass- ing for 38 yards and three inter- ceptions. Borges, also the quarterbacks coach, didn't have a game- ready quarterback behind the injury-prone Robinson. A one- possession deficit never felt so insurmountable. Granted, Bellomy got no help from his receivers, who came down with a case of the dropsies as they are wont to do with Bel- lomy at quarterback. But the Michigan offensive scheme, com- pounded by the limited playbook with Bellomy under center, was downright predicable. Hoke swore it wasn't. "I don't think so," Hoke said. "I know what Al changes up for- mationally, and, no." I beg to differ. Bellomy's first drive: Rush, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, punt. They went into the locker Bellomy struggles at QB in primetime TT 4 I By LUKE PASCH to do well, studies. He does all the Daily Sports Editor things that a quarterback should do. He's going to be fine." LINCOLN - This past off- Regardless of how Bellomy season, Michigan backup quar- wanted to play, he was miser- terback Devin Gardner started able in the spotlight. He finished lining up at wide receiver in the contest a horrendous 3-for-17 practice, and a redshirt freshman passing, with three interceptions. quarterback named Russell Bello- Granted, a few of his throws my was thrust into the limelight. were dropped - redshirt junior With memories of his solid receiver Jeremy Gallon dropped spring game performance still two passes and freshman tight fresh (and Gardner's abysmal end Devin Funchess dropped performance), there was specula- another - but on others, happy tion that Bellomy would move up feet led to throws that were well the depth chart to the spot behind off the mark. The running game behind starting quarterback didn't help out much, either, as Denard Robinson, especially if redshirt junior running back Gardner wasn't practicing under Fitzgerald Toussaint continued center full time. to struggle this season. Sure enough, early in the sea- Some credit has to go to son, Michigan coach Brady Hoke Nebraska's defense, which tapped Bellomy for possibly the brought a lot of pressure, and Bel- least desirable job promotion this lomy doesn't have the experience country has to offer: backing up nor the speed that Robinson has one of the most dynamic players to counter that. in the history of college football. Still, Bellomy lacked any sem- Yes, the safety valve for the Wol- blance of pocket presence, as he verines' all-time leader in total was sacked twice and made some offense is now Bellomy, an unher- questionable reads on the option. alded recruit out of Arlington, The quarterback is supposed to Tex. who Scout.com ranked the be a viable backup option, yet he 39th-best quarterback in the high crumbled under pressure. school class of 2011. Excluding the series in which Basically, if Bellomy is in the he entered the game for Robin- game for any moment that isn't son, Bellomy didn't complete a garbage time, it's bad news for an single pass over the next four offense thatrevolves almost com- drives, not until the final min- pletely around its quarterback. utes of the third quarter. And Still, coaches sang Bellomy's the 12-yard reception by fullback praise in the preseason. Offen- Joe Kerridge was only possible sive coordinator Al Borges was because a pair of Nebraska penal- unwavering. Bellomy is apparent- ties on third down the previous ly a bright kid who understands play extended Michigan's drive. the offense and hits his throws in Bellomy's teammates didn't practice. say a whole lot after the game. Robinson went down in the It's hard to find the rightwords to second quarter against the Corn- sum upa performance like that. huskers on Saturday, aggravat- "I'm sure it's not the situation ing nerve damage in his elbow that he would've dreamed of for that was affecting his grip on the him in his first significant playing football, and Michigan's offense time," said fifth-year senior Pat- became stagnant immediately. rick Omameh. "But he stepped up In the red zone, Bellomy kept the when he had to and did his best ball for a one-yard gain and then when he was in there." threw a pair of incomplete passes, Hoke said after the game that and Michigan had to settle for a he expects Robinson will be field goal before the half. ready to play next week. And for "He seemed like he was pretty an offense that has not scored for good," Hoke said. "I mean, Russ is its last eight quarters of football, very competitiveoHe really wants that's good news. %) 4 Michigan coach Red Berenson and the Wolverines wonon Friday and lost an overtime finish to Miami (Ohio) on Saturday at Yost Ice Arena. Early-season home games need to turn inopoints for Michigan ed Berenson's not the type to call a game a ust-win if it isn't one, and that's exactly how the Michigan coach referred to his team's 4-3 loss to Miami (Ohio) on Saturday. "We're in the CCHA right now. We're playing for- first place," Berenson said. "We're trying to be as high as we can, and Miami is too. These games MATT are huge. We SLOVIN split these games at home. You can't do that. You've got to win your home games.... It's not acceptable." The three crucial league points that the Wolverines are going to so badly need in a mat- ter of months slipped away ina matter of seconds in the series finale - 161 of them, to be exact. "We can't get these points back in March," junior defense- season, the Wolverines finished man Mac Bennett said. "Every with a sub-.500 record in true weekend we play ... we want to away games. This was a major take all the points that we can. missed opportunity for Michi- That's goingto sting a little bit gan to become the pacesetter in but, like I said, we've just got to the CCHA. Instead of staring pick it up." down at all but lone conference It wasn't so much the fact that unbeaten Notre Dame, the Wol- the third-peri- verines are od lead evapo- now jockeying rated - the for position 2-1 advantage "W e can't get with, well, just never felt safe about every- - but rather these (lost) one. the alarming Michigan's speed with points back in schedule is which it did. front-loaded Michigan M arch." with home hardly had games this time to react year. That before it's one- means the goal advantage turned into a Wolverines can't afford many two-goal deficit. It wasn't insur- missteps like they suffered Sat- mountable, but it would've taken urday night. If they can't hold the firepower that the team serve, they can't possibly expect across the rink showed instead to make up the necessary ground to overcome. in the second half whenthey As Berenson noted, Michigan play a stretch of four out of five has to protect its home ice. If his- series on the road. tory is any indication, this bunch Next weekend gives Michigan won't be road warriors. Last a chance to do what it couldn't last year - win on the road. Marquette, Mich., where the Wolverineswill face Northern Michigan twice, is a strange place. Goaltenders turn into box- ers like Shawn Hunwick did last season. Points are hard to come by. Last year, the Wolverines took only two out of six in Mar- quette. And this year, Northern Michigan is much improved from the mediocre team it was last year. There are no easy points the rest of the way. And when the road games are a crapshoot, split weekends just don't get the job done at home. Split series don't win CCHA titles. Ferris State, last year's champion, lost just four games at home all year. And this is the earliest Michigan has lost two games athome since 2001-02. The Wolverines simply aren't accustomed to losing at Yost. If they make a habit out of it, it could be a long first half to the season. - Slovin can be reached at mjslovin@umich.edu