Scoggins: Defense hit below rock bottom

ANN ARBOR, MICH. - The Gophers football team finished dead last in Division I-A in total defense in 2007, Tim Brewster's first season at the helm.

It's statistically impossible to finish worse than last, but the current Gophers defense might find a way. It's on course for that destination after yet another inept showing Saturday at the Big House.

A 58-0 loss requires an equal helping of futility by the offense, but the Gophers defense was so overmatched Saturday that we didn't learn Michigan uses a punter until the second half.

Michigan's offensive output resembled a video game: 580 total yards, 32 first downs, 363 yards rushing, 7.9 yards per play.

"I didn't even look at the scoreboard," Gophers senior cornerback Kyle Henderson said.

Smart move. That thing looked like a telethon tote board. It just kept going higher and higher.

This was hardly a revelation, of course. Putrid defense and Gophers football go hand in hand. It's a given. Death, taxes and cover-your-eyes defense.

The Wolverines ran up and down the field so effortlessly in the first half that their "Hail to the Victors" fight song was on an endless loop. The band played it over and over and over ...

"We were playing very undisciplined, and that showed right away," Henderson said.

It was stunning how easy Michigan made it look. The Wolverines led 14-0 before everyone had time to locate their seats. They had 223 total yards and 11 first downs in the first quarter, which they trumped in the second quarter by scoring 24 points.

Sure, Michigan has a different caliber of athlete, but the Gophers showed almost no resistance. They tackled as if they were playing flag football. Seriously, they're taking this whole Minnesota Nice thing too literally.

Robinson was as dynamic as advertised, but his passing was supposed to be his Achilles' heel. Michigan came in with the worst-ranked passing game in the Big Ten, and Robinson was completing only 48.6 percent of his passes.

"You've got to have players that make plays," Gophers coach Jerry Kill said. "You have to have guys that can run and get into a football position. Athletically, [Robinson] is the best player on the field, and we didn't have people athletic enough to tackle him."

Everyone knows that Brewster left the cupboard bare in terms of talent. Your last name didn't need to be Lombardi to discern the gigantic difference in talent level on the field Saturday. The Gophers live in the same conference as Michigan, but they function in different universes in football right now.

But that's still no excuse for getting steamrolled to that degree. And it can't be pinned completely on a lack of talent. The coaching staff deserves some of the blame. Nobody should get a free pass at times like this.

That includes the offense, which managed a whopping eight first downs and went 0-for-11 on third down. The Wolverines are improved defensively, but they're also one season removed from finishing 110th nationally in total defense.

This whole Gophers program is a mess right now, top to bottom. It was hard to find one positive or reason for optimism Saturday. Each week seems to get a little worse, and the toughest part of the schedule is yet to come.

"When you don't have a lot of success, sometimes you come apart instead of moving together," Kill said. "That's part of the trial-and-error process of turning around a program. It's frustrating for everybody. It's frustrating for me, it's frustrating for the kids."

That's understandable, but at some point the program has to show some signs of life.