Observations on the win over Central Michigan, 41-17!

1-Michigan's offense looked much improved! We completely dominated time of possession with a 12:30 minute advantage. Henne was 11 of 19 for 113 yards and one sack. Offense had 23 first downs and 4 of 14 in 3rd and 4th down conversions. We converted 5 red zones into 31 points. We netted 386 yards on 71 plays. Carson Butler had 3 catches, Manningham, Hart and Breaston caught two each and Greg Mathews caught his first pass as a Wolverine. Forcier was 2 for 2 for 21 yards.

2-Running game was solid! Hart led team with 116 yards in 19 carries for 3 TDs and team had 252 yards in net rushing. Grady had 46 yards in 12 carries with 1 TD. Minor also saw action, and was smacked hard by a CMU defender; he finished with 30 yards in 7 carries. Carlos Brown also saw action with 3 carries for 4 yards. The Chippewa's have a very solid hitting team. Hart and Jerome Jackson fumbled, but we recovered both times.

3-Defense was solid! Harris led team with 6 tackles. Branch forced his second fumble in two weeks. Woodley took Central Michigan out of their first red zone scoring opportunity with a forced fumble, 2 sacks and fumble recovery. Morgan Trent had a TD saving tackle on Snead, and was second in team tackles with 5 overall. Defense had 8 tackles for loss including 4 sacks, one interception and two forced fumbles. Jamar Adams and Leon Hall had two pass deflections. Three CMU red zones only resulted in 10 points. Bomb over Mundy and Engelmon resulted in the other score. CMU had 14 first downs and 204 net yards in 60 plays with 3 turnovers; they were 5 of 16 in 3rd and 4th down conversions. LeFevour was 17 of 36 for 153 yards, 4 sacks, one pick and 2 TDs. Linson caught 6 passes for 87 yards and one TD. Snead only netted 33 yards on 11 carries, and team could only net 56 yards against our defense. Kress led the Chips with 10 tackles

4-Special teams looked better! Breaston gets one punt return for 14 yards, and two kickoff returns for 44 yards. Rivas hit two of two field goal attempts and four extra points. Ryan starts at punter, and hits one inside the 20 and a 42 yarder out of his end zone. Ryan also kicks off 8 times with one touchback. Fraser got 5 kickoff returns for 155 yards including two over 40 yards. Jason Gingell got an extra point, Johnny Sears took a kickoff 22 yards and Zolton Mesko got a 54 yard punt in backup roles. Mikulec did a nice job for Central kicking away from Breaston on the 6 rugby kicks. Michigan took 9 penalties for 73 yards, but had no turnovers.

5-Burgess starts over John Thompson at MIKE in place of Chris Graham with a leg injury, and Trent started over Stewart. Carson Butler got his first start in the two tight end formation. Arrington saw a lot of action at wide receiver, and had one catch; all receivers saw action except Carl Tabb. Adam Patterson and Brandon Graham got action at defensive end. Chris Richards had a nice hit jarring the ball away from a CMU receiver. The first weather delay ever at Michigan Stadium for a Michigan home football game.

6-Both victories were nice tune-ups for Notre Dame! Announcers said Lloyd Carr has never won in South Bend. The Irish crushed Penn State. We'll have to play our best to win next week.
Observations on the first half with the Chippewa's, 24-10!

1-Michigan's offense looks much improved! We completely dominated time of possession with almost a 10 minute advantage. Henne was 7 of 11 for 86 yards and one sack. Offense had 12 first downs and 3 of 8 in 3rd and 4th down conversions. We converted 4 red zones into 24 points.

2-Running game is solid! Hart led team with 75 yards in 13 carries for 2 TDs and team has 109 yards in net rushing. Grady had 32 yards in 9 carries with 1 TD. Minor also saw action, and was smacked hard by a CMU defender. The Chippewa's have a very solid hitting team. Hart fumbled on his first carry, but we recovered.

3-Defense was solid! Harris led team with 5 tackles. Branch forced his second fumble in two weeks. Woodley also took Central Michigan out of their first red zone scoring opportunity with a forced fumble, sack and fumble recovery. Morgan Trent has a TD saving tackle on Snead just prior to that play. Defense had 4 tackles for loss including two sacks and two forced fumbles in the first half. Jamar Adams had a nice pass deflection towards the end of the half. Two CMU red zones only resulted in 3 points. Bomb over Mundy and Engelmon resulted in the other score. CMU had 9 first downs and 126 net yards in 26 plays with 2 turnovers; they were 3 of 7 in 3rd and 4th down conversions including their TD.

4-Special teams look better! Breaston gets one punt return for 14 yards, and two kickoff returns for 44 yards. Rivas hits his only field goal attempt and three extra points. Ryan starts at punter, and hits one inside the 20 and a 42 yarder out of his end zone. Ryan also kicks off 4 times with one touchback. Fraser got a 44 yard kickoff return on us.

5-Hopefully, we can give our reserves a chance to play if offense can get a couple quick second half scores. Burgess starts in place of Chris Graham with a leg injury, and Trent may have started over Stewart. Rumors include Carlos Brown having mono as Schilling did last week.