Game 6: Michigan vs. Toledo

After the pathetic second half vs. Illinois, many are left scratching their heads about the Wolverines team. Are they the team we saw in the second half vs. Wisconsin, or the team we saw in the second half vs. Illinois? It's not black and white and I have finally accepted that this year's team is mediocre. They aren't terrible. They are a young team where every game is winnable, but they just won't put it together every weekend because of the inexperience. But if the defense plays like they did vs. Illinois, they will be terrible, period.

UT Offense vs. Michigan Defense:

Luckily, Michigan gets Toledo this weekend and if they take the game seriously, this should be an easy win. Yeah Toledo almost beat Fresno, but that was in Toledo and since then, their offense has been terrible. Toledo is 84th in the country in total offense even though Toledo prides itself on having an explosive offense. Michigan's defense, though, has not done well against the spread (see last week) and that's what Toledo runs. Still, still, if we can't stop them...

Toledo gets their top running back DaJuane Collins (#22) who was out and limited by injuries the last two games. Collins is averaging over 7 yards per carry this year including nearly 140 yards on 15 carries against Fresno. Toledo's quarterback Aaron Opelt (#11) is not very good (under 60% completion percentage), but he does throw it a lot and have some talented receivers who are all at least 6'4". So that could really give the Michigan secondary troubles after struggling last week with missed assignments aplenty. Michigan's front four needs to play better for Michigan to shut down Toledo. I think they will since Toledo's offensive line isn't good. If the front four does play bad, this will be a shootout and Toledo could win this game.

A friend of mine who goes to Toledo, but is a diehard Michigan fan, said he has watched both teams this year, was at the UT Fresno game, and still thinks Michigan should blow out the Rockets. I sure hope so, but if they don't pressure Opelt, it will be a long day for the defense. They should get pressure and bounce back from their pathetic performance last week. Scott Shafer admits he was outcoached last week and I don't think he will let that happen against Toledo.

Advantage: Michigan

UM Offense vs. Toledo Defense:

So Michigan has a lot to work on after doing nothing in the second half last week and still without any running game. Ortmann at LG did not work out well. He is a tackle. The coaches said that they have found the starting five with Dorrestein, Ortmann, Molk, Moosmann and Schilling, but they definitely need to shuffle up the spots of all of them. It'll be interesting to see what they do tomorrow. Dorrestein will play despite getting, as Rodriguez said, "dinged in the head". "Dinged" seriously.

Martavious Odoms is questionable with a shoulder injury after having a pretty good game last week. I expect him to play. Darryl Stonum will be back after being suspended last week. That will help Threet against a pathetic Toledo defense. Toledo's defense is so bad that Michigan's offense (109th in the nation) has the advantage in this matchup. Toledo's defense is 110th in the country in scoring defense, and that unit is said to be improved from last year. The only good player on Toledo's defense is safety Barry Church (#8) but with the terrible Toledo pass rush (93rd in the nation in sacks) even he will probably look bad from time to time. I don't care how bad Michigan has been this season they will be able to run the ball, pass the ball, and score. The only thing that can kill them is if they turn the ball over alot. That means, Michigan should not hand it to any back other than McGuffie to avoid fumbles, and Steve Threet needs to limit his ball slipping out of the hand thing to one time. Threet has been good about not throwing picks so if he keeps that up, Michigan will have success against Toledo's pathetic defense. The offensive line is terrible, but you could put tackling dummies on the O-line vs. the Toledo D-line, and Threet would still have enough blocking.

Advantage: Michigan

Special Teams:

Lopata keeps looking worse and worse as the year goes on; Zoltan keeps looking better and better (Statistics wise, still relying on good bounces) but Michigan is tops in the country in net punting average; and the return game finally looked decent last weekend with Odoms returning (until his fumble, but that was a good helmet on the ball type hit). If Odoms is healthy and plays, I am calling it right now that he will return a kick for a touchdown. Toledo is 115th in the country in kickoff coverage and if Odoms is healthy he is explosive enough to return one. Even if he doesn't play, Avery Horn or James Rogers even could have success.

Toledo has a good kicker in Alex Steigerwald who missed his first kick in two years last week. He is pretty reliable. Toledo's punting is atrocious averaging only 36 yards per punt, but they have some decent coverage there. Toledo has no explosive returners.

This speaks for itself, even if Michigan fumbles once..

Advantage: Michigan

Prediction:

I want to say Michigan will come out and kill Toledo after a horrid performance last week, but I'm not sold on the defense stopping any spread, even Toledo's, after last week. Michigan will score though because Toledo's defense is just that bad. Michigan will reach the unfathomable 40 point plateau tomorrow with the offense finally running the ball well with McGuffie, hitting some deep passes, Threet with a long run or two, and a touchdown off a kick return. Toledo will score too though making it scary for a while. Hopefully they get pressure, but if Opelt gets off quick passes, they will hurt the Wolverines D.

Michigan 42 Toledo 20

You can get the call live on the sportstream at noon. Log onto wcbn.org, click on listen live and sportstream.

Go Blue!