Wolverine Watch: It All Starts (And Finishes) Up Front

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‘Tis the season for solemn travel advisories, warning against a host of possible disasters. It’s time for Michigan to issue one for its quarterbacks, those traveling backward to fire a forward pass.

The Wolverines can’t protect their most valuable offensive commodity. Because they can’t, foes delivering crushing blows sacked their hopes of producing anything beyond the 8-4, 9-3 season forecast last summer.

Wisconsin bagged the Wolverines, 24-10, tossed in some extra bricks and pitched the bundle into Lake Michigan on Saturday. Jim Harbaugh’s team isn’t decidedly worse than the 11-0, Big Ten Championship Game-bound Badgers.

For nearly three quarters, U-M in many ways dominated this potential playoff team.

The difference? The Badgers protected lefty QB Alex Hornibrook just enough for him to produce two quick touchdowns at the end of the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wolverines saw another signal-caller sent to the hospital.

That’s two this year, if you’re keeping score. A quick and painful retrospective…

• Redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight leaves the Big Ten opener with multiple fractured vertebra, thanks in part to a Purdue punk move, a cheap shot when he was already down. But the Boilermakers were in the neighborhood because the neighborhood watch was looking the other way.

• Fifth-year senior John O’Korn absorbs seven sacks in Michigan’s whiteout blowout at Penn State. O’Korn maintains enough mobility to survive the hardcore husking in Happy Valley, but is soon chased out of the lineup by redshirt freshman Brandon Peters.

• Peters gets crushed a couple of times before a Badger slams him to the turf, ending his day and quite possibly his season. Already on the endangered species list as a winged-helmeted scrambler, Peters looked like he didn’t know where he was while getting carted away.

“We can’t get him hit as much,” head coach Jim Harbaugh assured. “We need to get better at that. They played a three-man pick stunt that was effectively holding our center, and we weren’t able to slide off of that and that got us beat a few times.”

Wisconsin pulls plenty of stunts, finding ways to transform their players into massive movers that shake the earth under Camp Randall Stadium. But it’s not just the Badgers, and not just one down-and-dirty move.

Opponents at times look like they’re running a three-man stunt in every gap, turning up the heat against an offensive line still striving to find its way against tougher competition.

Or, as former Michigan offensive lineman Doug Skene put it recently, “If you can’t pick up a simple twist in week eight of the season, something’s wrong.”

Two more sacks by Wisconsin — not including the knockout blow on quarterback Brandon Peters, during which he actually got the football away — pushed Michigan’s total absorbed to 29 on the year. Only 2-9 Illinois, arguably the worst team in the Big Ten, has seen its QBs folded, spindled and mutilated more frequently.

The lack of protection led directly to Michigan’s revolving door at quarterback. The QB shuffle is the difference between 8-3 and 10-1 and a showdown with Ohio State for the right to head to Indianapolis.

Yes, this is a rebuilding year for Michigan. But it really could have been more.

The Wolverines wasted another very strong defense this year, via a substandard offense. Yes, defensive coordinator Don Brown’s crew took it on the chin at Penn State. It happens once in a while. Ask the Buckeyes, Nittany Lions and the Spartans about that.

But in losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin, Michigan’s defense gave up 14 and 17 points, respectively. That has to be good enough to win, and it likely will be, going forward.

Right now, it’s just not, especially when the Big Ten’s designated Mr. Magoo in the replay booth watches a touchdown catch, shrugs and decides not to rock Wisconsin’s potential playoff boat.

“It’s very tough, defensively,” noted freshman defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon. “If they score again [after halftime], they win. Defensive-minded like we are, we know we’ve got to stop them. If they don’t score, they don’t win.”

The Badgers protected just enough, they scored, and they won. They continue to thrive in the low-rent Big Ten West and could become the third straight conference squad to get waxed in the College Football Playoff.

Michigan, meanwhile, is building. It will give Ohio State its best shot in a week, keep laboring through bowl practices and find a spot in the sun around Jan. 1 (or earlier).

Harbaugh’s message after the game was simple: “Just keep fighting. This one hurts, but keep fighting. Keep battling.”

The fight begins up front. Ask Skene. Ask former Michigan All-Americans Dan Dierdorf and Jon Jansen, or anyone in the brotherhood that kept U-M quarterbacks intact for years.

When Michigan’s offensive line gets fixed, Michigan gets fixed, they agree. It can’t happen soon enough.

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