What was the most hyped game in recent San Diego State memory turned into the Denard Robinson show and a big Michigan win.
The Wolverines’ blazingly fast quarterback accounted for 293 of Michigan’s 413 total offensive yards, rushing for 200 yards and four touchdowns, as the No. 22 Wolverines (4-0) took down SDSU in convincing fashion, 28-7 in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
The Aztecs (3-1) had problems with Michigan’s defensive line, which kept sophomore running back Ronnie Hillman out of the end zone for the first time this season, and made senior quarterback Ryan Lindley force hurried throws and miss open receivers.
Throw in several drops by SDSU’s receivers in key situations, and it was a poor overall offensive performance by the Aztecs.
“I thought they were strong at the line of scrimmage,” head coach Rocky Long — who didn’t make players available to the media — said after the game. “We had a hard time blocking. If we had kept a couple drives alive, if we had thrown it a little bit better and caught it a little bit better. If we had thrown it on target a little bit better and kept some drives alive, we could have kept it close. But we didn’t play well on either side of the ball.”
SDSU, which traveled to the Eastern time zone and faced a 9 a.m. PST kickoff for the second time in three weeks, came out flat. And Michigan, which has had a habit of getting off to slow starts this season, dominated early.
The Aztecs were forced into a three-and-out on the opening possession, and it didn’t take long for Robinson to show why he is one of the most dynamic players in the country.
Robinson scored on a quarterback draw from five yards out to draw first blood for the Wolverines. On the next Aztec drive, Hillman – who hadn’t lost a fumble since his first career carry in last year’s season-opener – coughed up the ball for the first of two times in the afternoon, only to be recovered by Michigan. Less than a minute later, Robinson kept the ball on an option play, found a hole in the SDSU defense, and ran 53 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 Michigan lead to end scoring in the first quarter.
“That was actually an emphasis we had this week; we wanted to start fast,” Michigan defensive end Craig Roh said. “It was a great way to start out. It put a physical demeanor to the game.”
“We needed to get the ball in the offense’s hands,” Wolverines’ defensive tackle Mike Martin added. “Whenever we can watch our offense, we always play better defense. That is something that coach always talks about, that if we have the momentum in the beginning of the game we can ride it out. So that was huge for us and we just had to make sure that we stopped them on third down conversions.”
Robinson added another rushing score from a yard out to close out the half. The Aztecs, meanwhile, went into the locker room down 21-0.
SDSU was able to make things interesting late in the third quarter when Lindley found sophomore receiver Colin Lockett for a 16-yard touchdown catch in traffic to make it a two-possession game.
After holding the Wolverines to a couple of three-and-outs, the Aztecs found themselves in Michigan territory and had to go for it on fourth down. Lindley, who struggled during the game, was forced into a hurried throw and missed a wide open Gavin Escobar. Lindley finished with 253 yards and a touchdown, but completed less than half of his passes (23-48).
“Whenever a quarterback doesn’t throw it very well, a lot of it has to do with pressure,” Long said. “It seemed like he was under pressure quite a bit today from the sidelines. I’ll know better when I watch the film, but it seemed like he was throwing it a little bit early. Either that or the receivers weren’t coming out of their cuts well.
“It’s almost impossible to tell without watching the film, but obviously we weren’t very accurate with the ball, because there were some guys open — really wide open on fourth downs a couple of times — and we didn’t complete it.”
Vincent Smith ran it in from seven yards out to make the final score 28-7.
But perhaps the biggest storyline of the evening was the Brady Hoke-SDSU reunion. The Aztecs had some fun with it, using giant pictures of Hoke and other former members of the coaching staff, and after the game Hoke visited with several Aztecs.
Although the former SDSU coach emerged with the win, Long had only good things to say about him.
Brady will win a national championship here. I don’t know how soon it will be, but he’ll win a national championship.”
