Michigan - Ten things to watch

Iowa makes its first trip to the newly renovated "Big House" on Saturday where they will play in front of the largest ever crowd to witness an Iowa football game, here are ten things to watch for:

1. Can the Iowa front 7 contain Denard Robinson?  If you are a college football fan, you have heard about Denard Robinson this season and rightfully so, he has been impressive so far this season.  Last week he was "contained," and he still accounted for 301 total yards.  Last year when he was in Iowa City, he was one dimensional, this year he has become a better passer, not allowing opposing defenses to load the box.  For Iowa to win on Saturday, they need to be able to stop the run with the front 7, if they rely on the safeties to make plays against the run, Robinson will beat them with the play-action.
2. Michigan's front six.  So far this season, the Michigan front has provided very little in resistance to the rush or pass.  For Michigan to have a chance, the front six, yes they play a 3-3-5 defense, will have to be able to slow down the run and put pressure on Ricky Stanzi.  If they can't do that, a secondary that ranks 119 out of 120 division one teams against the pass, will have a long game.
3. Strength vs strength.  Michigan's strength is their run game, 6th nationally,  and Iowa's defensive strength is stopping the run, 2nd nationally.  For Michigan's offense to run the way head coach Rich Rodriguez want it to, they need to be able to run the ball and use play action pass.  For Iowa's defense to be successful, they need to be able to stop the run with their front seven and rely on their defensive backs to stop the pass. 
4. Different formations.  Every fan of Iowa knows that the defense wants to stay in base formation, sometimes they do this at a detriment to the defensive players ability.  Michigan will spread out the Hawkeye defense trying to create mis-matches for Denard Robinson and their wide receivers.  Robinson's favorite target, Roy Roundtree operates primarily out of the slot and Iowa will match up with a linebacker over him.  If they can exploit Roundtree's speed advantage, it could force Iowa to bring in a nickel package and open itself up to the run.
5. Stanzi against one of the worst.  Right now the Michigan defense is 119 out of 120 teams in pass defense, Ricky Stanzi is one of the best passers in the Big Ten.  That is a recipe for disaster if you are a Michigan fan, you might think, blitz Stanzi, but this season Ricky is completing 78.8% of his passes against the blitz.  If Iowa can establish the run on Saturday, you could see several deep play action passes succeed.
6. Iowa needs an early lead. You can almost guarantee it that Iowa will start out of offense, this season they have taken the ball first in all five games and scored in three of the games.  When Iowa can get the lead in games, they can impose their strength on the opponents, which is the offensive and defensive lines.  On the road an early lead can really take the crowd out of the game, Michigan is not the loudest of stadiums anyways, and if Iowa can jump out to an early lead, it will really take the home field advantage away.
7. Two weeks of rest vs. playing a heated rivalry game.  Iowa will come into this game off of their bye week, which gave them time to heal some of their injured starters.  Michigan comes into this game having played their instate rival last week in what was a very hard fought game.  We have seen in the past that when Iowa's coaches are given time to game plan against a team, they can shut them down.  Michigan has been a one trick pony so far this season, it is a pretty safe bet that Iowa's defensive game plan is to shut down Robinson.
8. Turnovers.  Last year, Michigan turned the ball over five times to Iowa's one.  For Michigan to have a chance, they will have to win the turnover battle.  Iowa is too good of a team to lose the turnover battle and expect to win.
9. Can anyone make a kick?  Michigan's two kickers on the season are a combined 2 for 7 with a long of 34 yards, Iowa's kickers are 2-3 with a long of 25.  If the outcome of the game comes down to a field goal, I don't think that either coach feels comfortable.  In a fourth and short situation, look for both coaches go for it rather than attempt a long field goal.
10. Iowa defensive backs tackling.  Michigan boasts the best receiver corps that Iowa has faced all season.  The Wolverines love to run wide receiver screens and several plays to get their receivers with the ball in space.  This season the Iowa defensive backs have done an okay job of tackling, but on several occasions they have not wrapped up.  If the receivers are not taken down with first contact, they can cause havoc for the Iowa defense.  Helping the receivers for Michigan will be the fact that the Iowa safeties will be concerned with stopping the running of Denard Robinson.