Eric Thomas: Hard To Argue With Denard's Success.
Having Denard Robinson play quarterback is risky at best. It's a bit like joining a 80s metal band. Sure it's fun and you have a lot of stories, but there could be consequences. But the guy just won a BCS Bowl game.
Denard is terrible at playing quarterback, and it's what makes him fun to watch. Matt Millen spent the entire Stanford game pounding into our heads that Andrew Luck "bores you with completions. He bores you with efficiency." Luckily, Michigan fans need not fret such luxuries. In fact, there are no guarantees he will even handle the snap properly. But if he doesn't, he might still run for a touchdown. Robinson is like playing a guy at pool that slops every ball in, and then nails a bank shot to sink the eight. You want to chase him down the street with a cue stick, but he just won.
Fortune befalls him seemingly at random. He heaves passes over the middle into triple coverage and the defensive backs are so surprised to see the ball come their way, they play bad defense. I swear those DBs have a shot at every throw. Some of the deep throws look like punts, and Junior Hemmingway seems willing to risk his life and spine to adjust for the ball.
I like run up the gut football, so this is akin to seeing an elephant fly. I have no explanation how Denard Robinson squeaks out these miracles, but it's shockingly consistent. Michigan looked like a junior varsity team in the opening quarter. Then in the final 53 seconds of the half, Michigan gets a 10 point flourish literally out of thin air. The second half could only be called a symphony of picks until Denard hits Junior in the back of the end zone.
I think about crossing patterns, screens and go routes. I am apparently an idiot because Robinson is a nationally famous quarterback when he just heaves a prayer into coverage. I need someone to sit me down and explain how this just keeps happening.
I hope this doesn't sound like a complaint. I love watching it. He is an electrifying player to watch, but I can't bet on him because I don't believe in magic. At this point, if Denard distracted the defensive line by shooting sparks from his fingertips, it would not even make the top 5 of most inconceivable things I have seen from shoelace. As much as it makes no sense to me, I still butter the popcorn when the guy is going to be on TV.
I guess the problem is I don't know what it means for Michigan football. Denard is a bad quarterback, capable of ridiculous plays. The problem is those ridiculous plays often go for touchdowns and are the margin of victory. Denard is never going to be the methodical, grind it down the field quarterback, and is that really what represents Michigan football? The coolest thing about Lloyd Carr quarterbacks is they surgically dismantled opposing defenses, and then robotically stared at the sideline awaiting further instructions. Not Robinson. Just when you are convinced the guy has been sacked by three different people, Robinson throws a bomb that bounces off two defenders and into the hands of the "intended" receiver. It's like when people tell me that Lars Ulrich is the best drummer in metal. You want to scream at the idiot saying it but it's really hard to argue with success.
How can graybeards like me say that the guy is a fluke? He quarterbacked an 11 win season. But it's hard for me to say that my friend who just wildly mashed buttons kicked my butt at Mortal Kombat. Robinson is a football anomaly, but the guy just won a bowl game. Say what you want about Virginia Tech (they looked awful) and other teams would have murdered them (cough, Baylor, cough, Boise State), but the national television audience just watched Denard win a bowl game.
Here are my instructions (to myself) for Denard's senior season: Just shut up and watch.
