Michigan takes on Wisconsin Saturday in Madison with an opportunity to get off to a great start in Big Ten play. There are many question marks, however … and we address some of them, with comments from head coach Jim Harbaugh, in our News & Views format:
NEWS: Michigan’s offense has set the tone (negatively) the first two games with a Shea Patterson fumble on the first series, and it ranked last in the country after two weeks in fumbles lost.
HARBAUGH: “Just everybody on that side of the ball, that unit … [we need] more efficient [play], cohesion … everybody playing efficiently and playing with good ball security. Taking advantage of big plays when they're there.
“Also, the efficiency factor, run and pass, what we do as an offense … consistently move the ball, which there have been some positives. There have been a lot of first downs. Eliminate the turnovers.”
VIEWS: The last one is the big one. U-M would have rolled both MTSU and Army minus the giveaways, and the Wolverines would lose to at least three more teams on the schedule (handily) with similar performances. Harbaugh insisted they were working on eliminating them.
“There are drills … ball security drills we do on a daily basis,” he said. “Just keep working on it. The team drills, we've made a high emphasis on the scout team … punching the ball out, ripping it out and getting the ball out in 11-on-11 drills. Same thing in seven-on-seven drills. We’ve made an emphasis of it. That's what you do.”
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What it really comes down to, however, is concentration and focus. Patterson’s fumbles to start both games were pretty much unforced. At the same time, the Wolverines have left at least 28 points on the field with dropped touchdown passes or bad throws that would have been scores (like Patterson’s overthrow down the left sideline to sophomore Ronnie Bell against Army).
