OBSERVATIONS ON THE 35-12 WIN OVER THE BRONCOS

1-It's tough to complain when you win 35-12, but … Navarre looked good with 14 of 23 for 174 yards and 4 TDs (1 pick). Our running game has looked solid! Perry had 17 carries for 118, Bracken had 12 carries for 50 yards. Our offense had 446 yards in 80 plays for 5.6 yards per play. We were 7 of 16 in 3rd down conversions (1 of 2 in 4th down), and time of possession was 5 minutes to our advantage. We had 22 first downs to their 17. Brinton wasn't too impressive in his debut with 4 of 8 for 52 yards, but I think it was more due to a resolute Bronco defense. We could have easily won this game 49-0!

2-Our defense does leave a lot to be desired in my opinion. We look good at times, but we have the same problem as the first game in our linebackers. They are not doing a good job in cover situations, and don't look very mobile against the run or the pass. On the bright side, we have held the Bronco offense to 76 yards in 26 carries in rushing, and 325 yards in 63 plays for a 5.2 average per play. They were 4 of14 in 3rd down efficiency. On the dark side, they earned two touchdowns. We had two picks, but again we didn't convert points from turnovers. We had 7 sacks led by Norm Heuer with 2 (and 2 tackles for losses), but our leading tackler was June with only 5 tackles. We must get better play from our linebackers if we'll compete for a Big Ten title. If I were a coach, I would strongly attempt to play Cato June at the WILL linebacker over Kaufman especially in passing situations. This puts a 217 lbs. 4.4 person in rather than a 234 lbs. person with 4.6 speed. I would also move Hobson to MIKE inside linebacker in passing situations (4.5 vs. 4.6 for Diggs); this would leave Drake, J.Curry, Shaw and Shazor at the safeties and M.Curry, Jackson, Combs, LeSueur and Williams at the corners. Most of our corners and safeties are 4.3 or 4.4 speed guys.

3-We have been able to play a lot more players on both sides. On offense: Avant, Underwood, Mingery, Massaquoi, Bracken, Stenavich, Denay, Christpfel, Solomon, Gonzalez, etc. and on defense: Massey, Kashama, Shazor and Reed. All players are our posted depth chart played including other players (many walk-ons) except inured players: Bellamy and Bowman. The only true freshmen who played include: Jason Avant and Jacob Stewart (Big Gabe didn't play). An interesting note: Kashama played ahead of Woods at Rush-Defensive End behind Orr. Zia Combs has started the first two games at cornerback as we have started each game with 5 or 6 DBs.

4-Wow! The Bronco defense really looked tough in the second half. Lape led the defense with 12 tackles, Reynolds and Smith had 8, Care and Tony Clark had 7 tackles each (one pick for Clark); Babin also looked tough and put on a good pass rush (2 sacks and 2 tackles for loss). Greg Jennings, a former M recruit, had 3 catches for 50 yards and 5 kickoff/punt returns for 91 yards. Jermaine Lewis had two nice TD catches over Combs and Curry, and 7 catches for 61 yards. Afariogun is a great tight end; he had 4 catches for 39 yards (I believe he is the one who Curry injured his shoulder on last year). Philip Reed had 94 yards on 15 carries for a 6.7 average. Munson and Drach split time at QB probably due to rib aching from the 7 sacks, and Munson did a nice job with 15 of 25 for 199 yards and 2 TDs. They have a nice team, and should do pretty well in the MAC.

5-Individual performances for Michigan showing promise again include Tyrece Butler, Ben Joppru and Braylon Edwards. Butler had 4 catches for 44 yards, Joppru with 3 catches for 23 yards and 1 TD, and Edwards with 4 catches for 93 yards and 2 TDs. Julius Curry has had some nice punt returns (3 for 48 yards); LeSueur had the one nice 49 yard kickoff return. On the dark side, Askew only caught one pass and Bellamy didn't play due to an apparent shoulder injury.

6-Brabbs missed two field goals. Finley punted o.k., but not great on 4 punts. Some of our returns were decent, but we took a penalty on a punt block by Orr that cost us field position near the end of the first half. Our special teams are mediocre at best after watching the first two game; we certainly don't look like a championship-caliber team in this area.

7-We only turned the ball over once, and that was right at the end of the first half in the "hurry up" offense, but we had opportunities to capitalize on Bronco miscues and didn't. They fumbled 5 times, but we only recovered once; we caused 8 miscues and created 3 turnovers to their one. Edwards fumbled at the beginning of the game, and went out of bounds. We must do a better job in scoring off of turnovers.