Michigan - Notre Dame: First Half Thoughts

Some random thoughts on the first half here at the Big House.

• The pregame ceremony for Desmond, photo above, was awesome. I was down the field for it and took some more photos which I will post here hopefully soon.

• Michigan starts the game, offensively, very flat. Running two designed QB runs that proved not very effective, and then a penalty, and then an incompletion to go 3 and out. The second possession was no improvement.

• Defensively, much of the same as we saw last week, except ND dominated us along the line...which helped pave the way to back-to-back TDs in their first 2 possessions.

• Greg Mattison showed that he needs to cycle D linemen into the game frequently. Quinton Washington, Nathan Brink and Will Campbell saw a lot of action in the first half. The Notre Dame offensive line is very impressive so far in this game.

• CB Troy Woolfolk dressed, but did not see the field in the first quarter, but did on the first series of the second. He played 1 full series in the 2nd quarter, and then left the game in his second series with what looked like a tweaked ankle after he made a nice pass breakup on Michael Floyd. He was very upset. Looks like his ankle is just not holding up. He did make it back onto the field at the end of the 2nd quarter.

• Special teams, oddly enough have looked good. Punting by Matt Wile has been solid and the coverage has been solid as well. Kickoff coverage, which saw the field once, looked much improved over last week.

• The second quarter, somehow, saw a different Michigan team emerge. The defense made a three and out after the Denard Robinson INT. And then on the next Irish drive, got a huge momentum building INT by Jordan Kovacs, which Michigan turned into 7 points two plays later with a 43 yard touchdown pass from Robinson to Junior Hemingway.

• The halftime score of 17-7 is not indicative of how much Notre Dame has been dominating us. Turnovers by Rees, much like last week, have stifled this offense. Michigan's defense has seemed to have improved slight at the game has played on. No doubt the turnovers and the Michigan towndown have helped from a momentum standpoint.