Observations on the first half with Notre Dame, 21-7!

Well, we dodged a bullet thanks to Brian Kelly's risky call to go for a TD rather than get a sure field goal. Notre Dame converts one of two red zones for 7 points, and Michigan gets 7 points out of their only red zone with two big play TDs for a 21-7 halftime lead.

Denard Robinson looks every bit as good as last week! He was 7 of 15 for 107 yards and a TD plus he ran for 174 yards on 10 carries including a 87 yard TD romp. Offense didn't look great, but did convert two Notre Dame turnovers into 7 points. We had no turnovers, but an almost on a fumble by Robinson recovered by Vincent Smith. Odoms has 5 catches for 78 yards and a 31 yard TD grab. We have 296 yards of total offense, but only 10 first downs and are only 1 of 6 in 3rd down conversions. Notre Dame has about a 4 minute time of possesion advantage, but couldn't convert it into points.

Defense is scary! They have a hard time stopping a 3rd string quarterback. Mouton is having a good game with 11 tackles, 1 for loss and a 9 yard interception. Kovacs has 10 tackles. Oh, the tackling is lackluster though and our safety play is non-existent (I'm speaking specifically of Cameron Gordon). Notre Dame has 238 yards ot total offense, 4 of 10 in 3rd down conversions, but the turnovers have killed them.

Will Hagerup has punted 5 times for a 40.1 yard average, but he hasn't looked good with line drive punts and a couple out of bounds between the 20-30 yard stripes. We have forced Notre Dame into 5 punts, and they have put us inside the 20 on 3 occassions. While their is no special teams advantage, we certainly look weak in this critical area.

Second Half will be interesting! We need to possess the ball more, and get another two scores if we are to ice this one!