Denard Robinson's late-game savvy should serve Michigan football team well against Spartans
After Notre Dame scored the go-ahead touchdown with 3:41 left in the game, Denard Robinson steadied his demoralized teammates.
“It’s time to put the game away,” he told the Wolverines in the huddle. “We let them stick around too long, and now it’s time for us to put it away.”
After Indiana rallied to tie last Saturday’s game against Michigan at 35 with 1:15 remaining, Robinson again stabilized the Wolverines.
Denard Robinson on late-game leadership: "You just have to focus and stay calm and know your teammates (will) make plays. You have to try not to make too many plays. You don’t want to overdo it.”
Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com
“He’s just like, “Let’s go, fellas, let’s go,’” receiver Roy Roundtree said. “Once we saw how much time was on the clock, we were like, ‘OK, we’re back at it again.’”
Forget about Robinson’s flat-out speed, elusiveness and accurate arm. His best attributes may be the intangibles he brings to the football field.
Teammates and coaches are impressed by the sophomore quarterback’s command in the huddle and cool under pressure. In five starts, Robinson has led the Wolverines to two last-minute wins.
They may need another boost this Saturday, when the No. 18 Wolverines (5-0) host No. 17 Michigan State (5-0) in a Big Ten battle and intrastate rivalry game (3:36 p.m., ABC).
Oddsmakers installed the Wolverines as a five-point favorite, but against each other, the two schools have a knack for deciding the outcome in the final seconds.
In 2001, Michigan State quarterback Jeff Smoker threw a touchdown pass as time expired to give the Spartans a 26-24 victory. In 2004, the game went to triple overtime.
In 2005, Michigan emerged with a 34-31 overtime win. In 2007, Michigan rallied from a 10-point deficit with seven minutes left to claim a 28-24 win.
Should this year’s game go down to the final seconds, the Wolverines feel confident that Robinson’s late-game experiences against Notre Dame and Indiana have left him well-prepared. “He had no panic, and we’re a no-huddle team anyway,” Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said. “So going to no-huddle or two-minute is kind of the norm for our guys. … Our guys, offensively, are playing with a lot of confidence, whether it’s the beginning or the end.”
The Wolverines practice two-minute and one-minute drills multiple times per week in practice.
“Man, you just have to focus and stay calm and know your teammates (will) make plays,” Robinson said of his late-game success. “You have to try not to make too many plays. You don’t want to overdo it.”
Subtlety isn’t exactly Robinson’s approach, either.
Through five games, he leads the nation in rushing with 905 yards, eight touchdowns and a 9.2 yards-per-carry average. He ranks third in the nation with a 180 quarterback rating, having completed 69.7 percent of his passes for 1,008 yards and seven TDs.
On Wednesday, USA Today tabbed him the early front-runner for the Heisman Trophy capturing 49 of 50 possible points. On Tuesday, in a survey of 13 Heisman voters conducted by HeismanPundit.com, Robinson was the unanimous favorite.
Robinson prefers to avoid the numbers and the buzz.
“I don’t really like talking about the Heisman Trophy,” he said Tuesday. “I try and avoid that question. … I don’t care about my stats or anything like that. I want to win for Michigan and be all in.”
Pete Bigelow covers Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2556, via email at petebigelow@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @PeterCBigelow.
Comments
CamaroDan
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 9:24 p.m.
GoblueinNE_PA I got an idea on how to get more TOP. Tell DRob to take a knee after he gets past the 1st down marker instead of running for a touchdown.
CamaroDan
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 9:21 p.m.
GoblueinNE_PA Your point of view does not make sense. When IU gives us the ball back sooner, they probably still scored. Our D is bad. Again, we had more stops than them, we won. We had 12 possessions and about 18:13 in TOP. We scored on 6, 5 punts and a TO. It would be a blow out if we scored on any of the 6 possessions we did not score. TOP not a issue.
GoblueinNE_PA
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 6:59 p.m.
CamaroDan I don't think you understand football. If the ToP is balanced, it doesn't mean that we had the ball any few times, it means that IU is turning the ball back over to us sooner. IOW, we would most likely have had even MORE scoring opportunities. Get it now? Suppose we had few possessions, if we're holding the ball longer, we're probably moving it more on all of our drives. Remember, we didn't score on every possession we had in the game. Get it now? Probably not.
Lorain Steelmen
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 3:32 p.m.
As I've said before, the strongest points about DRob,(and there are many), are 1.)His ability to take 'what the defense gives him', and 2.)His humility,in giving the credit to the receivers,Oline,backs, and coaches! Let's face it, what makes DRob hard to stop, is that he's about THE TEAM, THE TEAM, THE TEAM! When defenses have to defense EVERYBODY, they have serious problems. DRob is the stick that stirs the drink! As long as the Wolverines WIN, DRob is a happy camper. Having said that, if this team needs Tate, or Devin, to step in there, the team will make it happen! Go Blue! UM 38 - Silo Tech 17
CamaroDan
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 1:24 p.m.
GoblueinNE_PA I don't see how our time of possession relates to a bigger blow out. If we have scored slower, we and IU have less possessions and it is 28-21 instead of 42-35. We have to stop them more than they stop us. We make them punt more than us and we turn the ball over less. We win. TOP not a useful stat.
Sean T.
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 12:44 p.m.
GoblueinNE_Pa, Don't bother. Some of these guy's act like we're playing XBOX and the TOP doesn't matter. Indiana's offense held the ball but burned themselves by not running the ball and creating balance. Denard won't be sharp every game and when that happens, our TOP will surely affect the game. Quick strikes are great but how many quick strike TD passes have we made in comparison to Denard's quick strike runs. If we are behind with very little time left we lose because 6yrd slants and button hooks don't win you games when your QB is used to scoring with his feet.
GoblueinNE_PA
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 12:11 p.m.
OK, apparently stating someone refuses to acknowledge information, i.e., is blind to a something is an insult. Lets try again. ToP was critical in that IU game, even if you refuse to admit that point. Had the ToP been more evenly balanced, Michigan would have won by 17 or 18 points. It would have been a blow out. Instead, we have to put DRob in a situation where he's taking an unnecessary pounding at the end of the game in a 2 minute drill. We put our best player at unnecessary risk. I don't understand why that's not obvious.
goblue1908
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 11:47 a.m.
i think that in the IU game we played it a little too close and let them hang around and that was due to them having the ball for 2/3 of the game. i agree that we need to have longer drives, not necessarily 12 plays but at least something to eat up 2-3 mins per drive rather than 1.5 mins per drive. state has a good defense and if we can continually wear them down with some lengthy drives i think it will be to our advantage
michboy40
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 11:25 a.m.
I would prefer to quick strike, then stop their O, then quick strike again. Repeat until end of game.
CamaroDan
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 10:54 a.m.
GoblueinNE_PA Stop with the time of possession battle. The SCORE is the only stat that counts. We only need one more stop on them than they get on us. If it is a slow down game, it only means fewer possessions for both teams. Didn't the IU game teach you that TOP does not mean much?
Papabear151
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 10:21 a.m.
Good backs, good recievers, good passing game, great running threat from QB. Their defense is simply just going to have a hard time trying to focus on all of that. Denards passing improvements are what made this possible. Hopefully the O can stay on the field long enough to keep theirs off and give our d some rest.
Forever27
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 8:26 a.m.
GoblueinNE_PA, I agree with you 100%. Also, if the MSU defense is playing tight enough to make the open field tackles on the outside after the short passes that means that they will be cheating up. For them to contain the run they'll have to bring at least 8 into the box. Both of these adjustments will open up the deep pass which Denard has been able to hit the receivers wide-open when they start to play close and tight. This is the beauty of this offense. It can work as a slow and methodical march down field or as a quick, big play. The thing is that the defense has to pick their poison because it's almost impossible to guard against both unless you have two lock-down cornerbacks and some solid play from the safeties.
GoblueinNE_PA
Thu, Oct 7, 2010 : 7:56 a.m.
ND and IU aren't the games we should be looking at, we should be going back to the UConn game. While UConn's offense stunk, their defense probably played us the best, forcing the team to make long methodical marches down the field. I'm hoping and praying that we see that this weekend. The MSU defense will be keying on DRob and trying to stop the big play, but if we can keep getting 4 or 5 yds a play and just grind out these long 12 and 13 play drives, we'll have a good shot against MSU. We'll have the ball, MSU's O can sit on the sidelines and if we're lucky, we'll force them to play catch up.