2009 Week 7

On a rain soaked field Saturday afternoon, all eyes were on true freshman QB, Denard Robinson. Starting QB Tate Forcier was injured last week and will miss the next 4 games or so. The major question in Ann Arbor was, how will Denard Robinson play as he was thrust into the starting role. Denard answered this question with an emphatic "pretty damned well!" When it was all said and done, he put together the best passing performance in the last 2 seasons. However, this was against Marshall, who had the 23rd worst defense in the country. The real test of what we can expect from Robinson will come next week when he has to face #3 Penn State. Robinson used both his feet and his arm to dismantle the Herd defense, but he also made some freshman mistakes. It's those mistakes that he can't afford against Penn State and he only has 1 week to learn from them.

Michigan was also playing without starting HB and leading rusher Brandon Minor who may or may not be able to play against Penn State. Michael Shaw had an okay game at best in replacing him so we'll have to see if Minor can go next week. Senior HB Carlos Brown made big plays whenever he touched the ball as he tallied 62 yards on only 6 carries. Sophomore Martavious Odoms was Robinson's favorite target as he had 125 yards and a TD on 7 catches. Senior punter/kicker Zoltan Mesko missed his first FG attempt of the year (a 55 yarder), but he was very solid in punting (45.5 yard avg) and was stellar in kickoff duty as all 7 of his kickoffs were downed in the endzone. Michigan's defense got the job done when they had to as they only allowed 1 3rd down conversion on 9 attempts. This allowed Michigan to controll the ball for over 20 minutes compared to only 8 minutes for Marshall.