Henne, Michigan Overcome Injuries in 27-17 Win

Photo Courtesy Wolverine Photo

Even before the game started last night, Michigan fans had a reason to be worried. With Mike Hart out of the game and in street clothes, it would be up to someone else to step it up. Obviously, when your best player isn't even playing, it puts your team face-to-face with adversity. Well, as it turned out, that would just be the beginning as more injuries happened as the night went on. Luckily, though, Illinois seemed to do its best to give the game away and Chad Henne showed why he is so important to this team. With all of those contributing factors, Michigan was able to leave Champaign with a 27-17 victory.

The start this game got off to was about as bad as possible. As usual, Michigan's kickoff coverage absolutely stunk, and due to that, Illinois returned the opening kick all the way to the U-M 33-yard line. Only two plays later, Juice Williams hit a wide open Jacob Willis for a 26-yard touchdown pass. Williams initially faked a handoff that most of the defense bit on, allowing the pass to be complete with ease.

Needing to rebound after all the momentum was in Illinois' favor, Michigan's offense didn't help the early deficit. Instead, it put the defense in bad position after Chad Henne threw a pass behind Mario Manningham on third down. The pass deflected off Manningham's hand and was then intercepted by the Illini. Thankfully, the defense did its job on the proceeding drive by getting a stop and allowing the game to slow down a little. If Illinois would've went down the field and scored again, then it could've gotten really ugly.

When Michigan got the ball back, the offense again struggled and suffered a huge loss. On third down this time, Chad Henne was sacked and hurt his shoulder after getting drilled into the ground. Because of the injury, Henne headed to the locker room and all Michigan fans held their breath. At the time, no one was really sure how bad the injury was or if we would even see Henne back in the game, so this was definitely the most uneasy feeling of the game.

On fourth down, Zoltan Mesko boomed a punt 67 yards to pin Illinois inside their own 5. That would turn out to be a big play as it gave Michigan great field position after the defense again made a stop. With Henne still injured at this point, Ryan Mallett went into the game and was there really to only hand the ball off. The majority of plays on the drive were just runs by Carlos Brown, so it was obvious the coaches were limiting the playbook. I can't complain too much, though, as Brown was playing well and got Michigan into position to kick a 25-yard field goal, making the score 7-3 Illinois.

On the next drive, the defense went back to its old ways and let Illinois go 90 yards down the field for a touchdown. It was a combination of runs that really got the Illini in a position to score, and then Daniel Dufrene got in the endzone from 8 yards out to give Illinois a 14-3 lead. Not wanting to get down by any more points, Michigan's offense went to work. Chad Henne and Mario Manningham (also went to the locker room for a short period of time) both returned and played great. Henne hit Arrington for 39 yards early on the drive to get the ball down field, and then found Manningham for 24 yards on third down a few plays later to make it first and goal. On the very next play, Henne hit Manningham again, this time on a play-action, and Super Mario fought his way into the endzone for a touchdown.

Following a three and out by the Fighting Illini, Michigan got the ball back and went nowhere. After a couple of sacks, Michigan faced a 4th and 27, meaning that Illinois would get the ball back with time to do something before the end of the first half. Right? That would've been the case if Illinois didn't rough Zoltan Mesko on the punt, but they did and the personal foul gave Michigan an automatic first down. After catching that colossal break, Michigan went right down the field and made Illinois pay. U-M converted one third and long already on the drive, but did so a second time to score a touchdown. On 3rd and 8, Henne threw a perfect pass in the back corner of the endzone to Adrian Arrington, who made an even more perfect catch. Arrington had to lay out to catch the ball and barely dragged his foot in doing so. Initially the pass was ruled incomplete, and Lloyd Carr even had to challenge to get the play reviewed. Thanks to replay, the play was overturned and Michigan was ahead 17-14. It should have never been called incomplete in the first place, but then for Carr to have to challenge was ridiculous. Oh well, thankfully there is replay, though.

After the touchdown pass that gave Michigan a 17-14 lead going into the half, Chad Henne again was in pain. He was standing on the sideline grimacing and headed to the locker room a few minutes before the rest of the team. Again, no one was sure of why exactly he was hurt, but it was severe enough to keep him out of the entire third quarter. The reasoning behind that may have had to do with the fact that Michigan was going against the wind and the coaches just wanted to save him for the final quarter of play, but regardless, he missed a crucial part of the game.

Ryan Mallett was once again the starting quarterback as the second half got underway, and it showed as the playcalling once again became very limited. With that, the Michigan offense had to punt to Illinois, who looked to take back the lead. The Illini did get the ball down the field enough to try a field goal after its drive stalled, but from 47 yards out the kick was no good and U-M now had the chance to build on its lead. Even with Mallett at QB, the Wolverines were able to move the ball. Mallett scrambled for a 20-yard run on one play and then Illinois got a pass interference penalty a few plays later on third down. Things were looking good up until this point, but then Ryan Mallett fumbled the snap and Illinois fell on it. We've seen it happen countless times already this season, but again, the center-QB exchange caused a turnover. I don't want to blame Mallett too much for this as Henne did the same thing earlier in the game, but you'd think the players could at least get the snap down by the 7th game of the year.

As Illinois took over, Ron Zook inserted Eddie McGee in at quarterback and the difference between he and Juice Williams became apparent quickly. McGee had a better scrambling ability and showcased that on 3rd and 7. It appeared Shawn Crable would sack McGee for a loss, but somehow the QB got away from Crable and ran for 16 yards. By continuing the drive, Illinois eventually landed in field goal range again once things stalled. This time the kick would be good, tying the game up at 17-17.

Ryan Mallett came back on to the field looking to make up for the fumble on the previous drive. Things again looked good after Carlos Brown and Brandon Minor had a few great runs, but later on a 3rd and 9, Mallett just tried to do too much and again turned the ball over. Mallett threw a pass that was read perfectly by the Illini defense and was picked off at the 4-yard line. Rather than take the lead with a field goal, Michigan blew another opportunity to score.

Right after the interception, Chad Henne was seen on the sidelines saying something to the coaches, and I imagine it was something along the lines of him saying that he was okay to go back in. Whatever was said, it worked as Henne came back in the game after the Michigan defense forced a punt. This next drive would be the biggest of the game for so many reasons. Probably the biggest: Illinois' self-implosion began.

The very start of the drive looked bad for the Maize and Blue. On 3rd and 15, Michigan didn't even come remotely close to moving the chains, but a personal foul face mask on the 3-yard gain kept the drive alive. Just a play later, Illinois got another personal foul, this time for a late hit out-of-bounds, moving Michigan down the field even more. Even with both penalties, the Illinois defense did hold Michigan and forced the Wolverines to punt after Henne barely overthrew Manningham on 3rd down. Henne just missed what could've been a long touchdown, but that mistake was quickly forgotten.

Zoltan Mesko had another nice punt that would've pinned Illinois inside its own 15, but the returner, Kyle Hudson, muffed the fair catch and Michigan's long-snapper, Sean Griffin, quickly fell on it as he was right there. That was the difference in this game. Two plays later, Chad Henne handed off to Adrian Arrington on an end-around, and then Arrington threw a pass to Mario Manningham in the endzone for the touchdown. Michigan leads 24-17 and controls all the momentum.

Juice Williams returned to the game as QB for Illinois, but it didn't make much sense. Zook's shuffling of quarterbacks seemed to come at the worst times, and it showed as Illinois promptly went three and out. Trailing by only 7 points, Illinois decided to punt. Michigan couldn't get into the endzone again after taking over, but they were able to put the game away. K.C. Lopata nailed a 39-yard field goal to give Michigan a 27-17 lead. Lopata has really been great since becoming the starting kicker, and he was huge last night as that kick sealed the game.

On the proceeding kickoff, James Rogers made a great tackle at the 9-yard line to pin Illinois back deep. Eddie McGee came out as the QB, but Illinois still couldn't get things to click. The Illini failed to convert a 4th down, so Michigan got the ball back. After running some clock and punting, Juice Williams trotted back on to the field looking for a miracle comeback as there was only just over a minute to play. Instead of a comeback or anything of that sort, the final nail in the coffin came on the first play of the drive when Donovan Warren dove and intercepted a pass. Michigan then just took a knee and walked off the field with a hard fought 27-17 victory.

The Wolverines improved to 6-2 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten. U-M will look to keep that perfect conference record alive next Saturday when the dismal Minnesota Golden Gophers come to town fresh off a loss to North Dakota State. Kickoff is set for 3:30 on ESPN Classic, and remember, plans are for a live-blog since many of you likely can't watch it, so make sure to check that out. Until then, Go Blue!