One of the advantages of a balanced offense is that defenses have to do everything right to stop it, with severe penalties for guessing wrong. Eight in the box? Well, some receiver has to be in single coverage. Nickel coverage? Run the ball.
Michigan was able to stop Cedric Benson and keep Texas' WRs from doing any real damage, and that should have been enough to make the Wolverines' 37 points hold up. But it's important to remember, when you execute your game plan, that your opponent gets a vote, and Texas pretty quickly voted to turn loose Vince Young:
After one series of the 91st Rose Bowl, Texas tight end Bo Scaife noticed a fatal flaw in Michigan's defense.
"They were playing our receivers really solid, tight man-to-man defense," said Scaife. "So tight that we didn't have much room to operate. And they were doing a great job of stopping Cedric Benson."
Scaife was then asked how could it be good for Texas that Michigan was doing a good job defending the Longhorns receivers and the fourth-leading rusher in the NCAA.
"Because the way Michigan was playing, I, we, just knew there were going to be opportunities for our quarterback."
Of course, it would have helped if Michigan had actually been able to tackle the guy once they got ahold of him...
hey,
your wolverines did way better than my sooners. 'there's always next year' just doesn't count if you were in the national title game.
Yeah, and the finish was even closer than I thought. Not only did Prescott Burgess get a finger on the ball, Ernest Shazor should have blocked it. Check out this picture.