Week 2 - Game Report
Michigan Wolverines (1-0) at Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1-0)
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You Want Ridiculous Turnovers? You Got Them.[/size]
Redshirt Freshman FS Cameron Gordon. You'll Remember That Name Come Seasons End.
Ann Arbor, MI (AP) - South Bend Indiana is the location for one of the greatest rivalries in sports between the Michigan Wolverines (1-0) and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1-0). A beautiful day for football as partly cloudy skies and a light breeze roll through Notre Dame Stadium.
The Fighting Irish won the coin toss and elected to receive first to get this game started. Michigan's defense came out the blocks slowly once again against Notre Dame's fast-paced no huddle spread offense allowing them to get to the 21 before stopping them. Just like last week against UConn, the Wolverines defense caught another break as the Sophomore K Nich Tausch missed a 38 yard field goal wide right to give the ball the Michigan's offense for the first time today. Tate Forcier and company trotted onto the field and 3 plays later they trotted right back off due to a bad pitch on an option by Forcier that gave the ball right back to the Irish's offense. After a couple plays Notre Dame found themselves on Michigan's 3 yard line, coming out in a 5-wide set, redshirt Sophomore QB Dayne Christ would make a costly mistake by throwing it to seemingly open WR before the redshirt Freshman FS Cameron Gordon jumped in front of the wayward pass with nothing but daylight in front of him for an NCAA record 100 yard interception return! 7-0 Wolverines still early in the 1st quarter as this game looks to be an exciting one.
Following the turnover score Notre Dame's offense would chug down the field again, but the Wolverines defense has been playing a bend, but don't break defense so far this season as the Irish would trust their kicker enough to try a 55 yard field goal and he certainly would redeem himself by booting it through as Michigan allowed it's first points of the season. 7-3 Wolverines. After picking up a nice first down, for the second straight week the Junior HB Michael Shaw would cough up the football on his 1st carry again! Notre Dame got great field position once more as they were on the Wolverines 47 going under a minute left in the 1st quarter as Coach Kleinbauer shook his head in disgust. Once again Notre Dame found themselves in goal line range and once more the Wolverines defense stepped up stopping them. The very sporadic Tausch this time from 22 yards out hit the uprights as he was denied and it would be Wolverines ball still 7-3, unbelievable! Another solid drive by the Wolverines in the making, but disaster almost struck again as the redshirt Sophomore HB Michael Cox got his first touches of the season in replace for the 2nd string Michael Shaw, but he fumbles as well! Luckily the Wolverines fell on the football but Coach Kleinbauer has to be livid with his HB's (aside from thge starting Sophomore Vincent Smith). 2 sacks in a row would force the Wolverines to try a long 54 yard field goal. The left-footed redshirt Freshman K Brendan Gibbons booted it right down the middle but just short as he missed it. Both teams would end up going back and forth for the rest of the half before the rising freshman FS Cameron Gordon picked off his 2nd pass of the game and Forcier got his offense into scoring range as Gibbons made the 48 yard field goal this time with both teams going into halftime with the Wolverines leading 10-3.
Michigan received the ball and started from the 22 to start the half. Just like last week after the half, Sophomore QB Denard "Shoelaces" Robinson stepped onto the field to run the offense. The results weren't nearly as good as last week's though as after picking up a quick first down the offense stalled and were forced to punt the ball back. The Wolverines defense continued to frustrate Crist though as he threw his 3rd pick of the game, this time to another redshirt Freshman, CB Justin Turner giving his offense the ball at their 40. Robinson trotted back onto the field as it looks like Coach Kleinbauer wanted to give him another shot. After picking up a huge gain through the air Robinson would run an option and just like Forcier did in the first half, pitched it right to the defender to give the Fighting Irish offense another shot. This game has been turnover mania. On that note, Crist threw his 4th pick of the game, this time it was to the stud Sophomore DE Craig Roh who was playing the flats and had daylight as he returned it 39 yards highstepping his way into the endzone giving his team a little breathing room, 17-3 Wolverines.
Few extra notes from the game:
Both teams went on a scoring tear in the 4th quarter.
Cameron Gordon picked off Crist for a 3rd time (Crist threw 6 total).
A total of 9 turnovers this game (6 from Notre Dame, 3 from Michigan).
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Box Score
- 7 - 3 - 7 - 10 -
27
- 3 - 0 - 0 - 13 -
16
Players Of The Game
- FS #4
Cameron Gordon - 4 TAK, 3 INT, 1 TD, 1 DEF
- OLB #5
Manti Teo - 8 TAK, 1 TFL, 1 FF, 1 FR
Player Stats
QB#5 Tate Forcier - 10/15, 150 Yds, 6 ATT, -15 Yds, -2.5 AVG, 1 FUM
QB#16 Denard Robinson - 2/3, 42 Yds, 3 ATT, -11 Yds, -3.6 AVG, 1 FUM
HB#2 Vincent Smith - 18 ATT, 89 Yds, 4.9 AVG, 1 FUM
HB#20 Michael Shaw - 6 ATT, 40 Yds, 1 TD, 6.6 AVG, 1 FUM
HB#15 Michael Cox - 1 ATT, 3 Yds, 1 FUM
FS#4 Cameron Gordon - 4 TAK, 3 INT, 1 TD, 1 DEF
CB#29 Troy Woolfolk - 1 INT
DE#88 Craig Roh - 3 TAK, 1 TFL, 1 INT, 1 TD
CB#2 Justin Turner - 5 TAK, 1 INT, 1 DEF
CB#12 J.T. Floyd - 6 TAK, 1 TFL, 1 Sack
K#34 Brendan Gibbons - 2/4 FG, 3/3 XP, 46 Long
QB#10 Dayne Crist - 31/45, 349 Yds, 1 TD, 6 INT, 6 ATT, 4 Yds, 0.6 AVG
HB#5 Armando Allen - 9 ATT, 69 Yds, 7.6 AVG, 5 REC, 27 Yds, 5.4 AVG, 27 YAC
WR#18 Dubal Kamara - 6 REC, 79 Yds, 1 TD, 13.1 AVG, 31 YAC
DT#67 Louis Nix - 3 TAK, 3 TFL, 2 Sacks
DT#95 Ian Williams - 5 TAK, 2 TFL, 1 Sack
OLB#45 Darius Fleming - 3 TAK, 3 TFL, 1 Sack, 1 FR
FS#26 Jamoris Slaughter - 6 TAK, 1 FF, 1 DEF
FS#15 Dan McCarthy - 3 TAK, 1 FF
OLB#5 Manti Teo - 8 TAK, 1 TFL, 1 FF, 1 FR
SS#22 Harrison Smith - 9 TAK, 1 FR, 1 DEF
K#40 Nick Tausch - 1/4 FG, 1/2 XP, 55 Long