Michigan is rolling 28-0 in the second quarter. Denard Robinson is 10 of 10 passing for 129 yards and a TD. He has 4 carries for 43 yards and a TD, but it's Fitz Toussaint doing the heavy lifting in the running game. 5 carries for 74 yards.
If someone else has the hot hand in the running game give it to them. It looks like there was an early focus to get Robinson into a passing rhythm since he's completed less than 50% of his passes the last two games. Other than his explosion against Notre Dame he hasn't broken 100 yards in a game passing all season.
Granted, lesser opposition. And he ran for 198 and 200 in two of those games so he was doing plenty. But the competition gets tougher from here. Minnesota is bigger and more physical than all the teams they've played so far except Notre Dame.
But it's always looked to me that if Denard didn't get into an early rhythm with passing because he was emphasizing his running game, it's been hard to turn that back on. He's got some good wide receivers. Vincent Smith is a good receiver out of the backfield, and Brady Hoke has put the fullback and tight end back into the passing game. So they have options for giving him some easy short passes to get him going early.
Most importantly the defense is stepping up and stifling the Golden Gophers. More signs of an improved defense so at least Michigan hopefully doesn't have to score 50 points to win games in the Big Ten.
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