FanNation - The Republic of Sport

In a game where the 1st and 2nd string RB's (and even a ref) get injured and Mario Manningham has a career day coming back after his "suspension," sophomore Carlos Brown popped his head up and let us know that there will be life after Mike Hart. After Hart and backup Brandon Minor both left the game with ankle injuries Brown played the whole 2nd half, scored two touchdowns, and gave the Michigan faithful some hope....how heartwarming. OK, so maybe Purdue was already a little worn down after Hart racked up over 100 yards in the first half, but Brown still looked good. He showed some tremendous speed that's for sure. Michigan looked great in this game. The offense looked superb, especially overcoming two game-ending injuries. The defense looked top notch. Team captain Shawn Crable had a great game. Even kicker K.C. Lopata did well. This kid has a nice story. He's a walk-on first of all. Then senior Jason Gingell chokes in nearly every one of the first five games of the season. Coach Lloyd Carr likes what he sees from LoPATa in practice and starts him in game 6. Then K.C. nails every kick henceforth (hopefully that doesn't jinx it). It was windy in Ann Arbor today and you could see the movement on his kicks, but he still hit six PAT's and 34 and 35-yard field goals. The only negatives were 1) the poor tackling. I don't know who taught these kids to tackle, but you hardly ever see them hit and wrap there arms to bring their man down. There were way too many "shoestring" tackles. Half the time they just fell down with a hold on thier man's jersey or foot and eventually brought the guy down. Now a tackle is a tackle and maybe I shouldn't complain, but it's not like Purdue's offense was covered in grease or Astroglide. It's a combinaton of a lack of discipline and poor coaching in my opinion. They got lucky today...they were playing a Big Ten team instead of an SEC team. Try to make those kind of tackles against the rest of the country (App State, Oregon) and you come up empty-handed. Negative 2) was on special teams at the end of the game. The "hands" team lost two onside kicks in a row. Luckily their lead was out of reach because it gave Purdue an extra seven points. By my count that's 4 failed onside kick receptions this season...unacceptable. Now let's get ready for Illinois who will probably be bringing everything they have after their loss to unranked Iowa. Remember The Ultimate Warrior? He quit wrestling because Chuck Norris wanted his nickname back.