The Michigan Panthers are at home Sunday playing in Ford Field for the third straight week, hosting the Houston Roughnecks to continue the United Football League season (noon, ABC).
The Panthers are 1-1 after falling to the Birmingham Stallions 20-13 last week, while Houston is 0-2 with both losses coming by one score. The Panthers are tied for second with the Memphis Showboats at 1-1 in the USFL division, trailing Birmingham at 2-0, while Houston is currently last.
Michigan struggled on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball vs. Birmingham, outgained by 114 yards on the ground and giving up seven sacks, which sunk the offense and let Birmingham dictate the pace of the game. Michigan had chances to tie or take the lead late in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t slow down Birmingham’s pass rush enough to sustain a drive to the end zone.
The tale of the season through two weeks has been slow starts offensively and strong performances from the defense to keep Michigan in the game as the offense finds its footing. Head coach Mike Nolan is aware of the slow starts, and both the players and the coaching staff know a change is needed to start against Houston.
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“Both games we’ve started slow so we have got to do a better job,” Nolan said. “I think some of that, and (offensive coordinator) Marcel (Bellefeuille) would even tell you, some of it falls on us as coaches to kind of put our guys in the best situation we can find early in the game and not ask too much of them.”
One of the problems against Birmingham was the rushing attack. After running for 112 yards in Week 1 against St. Louis, the Panthers only ran for 47 yards on 14 attempts in Week 2, with 25 yards coming from quarterback E.J. Perry.
Nolan said the performance of the offensive line and Perry’s decision-making in run-pass-option plays led to fewer rushing attempts and turning to the passing attack for 34 attempts versus 14 runs.
“There were several RPO’s in that game that didn’t turn out to be runs so that’s one of the reasons there were fewer runs than we’d like,” Nolan said. “We have to do a better job communicating with the quarterback and having him trained so we do stick to the run a little better.”
It has been a learning process early on for the Panthers’ coaching staff as they learn the strengths of their roster in a much shorter window than the NFL offseason. He said UFL teams have to use the early weeks of the season to continue to find out which players can do what because of the lack of preseason preparation.
The offense has plenty of new faces, especially at the skill positions, but defensively there is more continuity from last season.
“The sooner we can get everyone up to speed and start playing as a team, which sometimes takes a little bit, the better everyone will be,” Nolan said.
The Panthers face a Roughnecks team that gave up 294 yards and 23 points to the DC Defenders in a 23-18 loss last week, following an 18-12 loss in Week 1 against Memphis. Former NFL first-round pick Reuben Foster leads the defense at linebacker, and with solid defensive backs in Corn Elder and Donald Rutledge Jr.
Nolan isn’t too worried about his offense finding its footing.
“It was just the second game, I don’t want to jump off the bridge quite yet,” Nolan said. “But I think it’ll come around, I’m pretty confident it will.”
Last week, backup quarterback Danny Etling got in for one series replacing Perry, which was planned by the coaching staff. The plan was to give both quarterbacks playing time early in the season, but Etling didn’t play in Week 1 because of the close game. That turned into a priority in Week 2, and though Nolan said he’d like to see more opportunity for Etling, he stressed the main focus was developing continuity for the offense.
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The Panthers’ defense gave up 302 total yards and 161 rushing to Birmingham, which ran a spread option offense with mobile quarterbacks.
They will face a quarterback that doesn’t have much film available to study in preparation. Last week, Houston’s starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano left the game with an injury and was replaced by Reid Sinnett, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 221 yards and one touchdown. He started for one season as a redshirt senior at FCS-level San Diego, and has spent a handful of seasons bouncing around the NFL.
“The guy (Sinnett) who went in and played most of the game will be their player,” Nolan said. “He’s a good, very capable quarterback. So, that’s somebody we don’t have a lot of film for.”
Through two weeks, the Roughnecks have gained just 97 total rushing yards, led by running back T.J. Pledger and the injured Guarantano.
However, the main focus for the Panthers is inward rather than who will be lining up against them Sunday.
“Like I said, it’s more about us,” Nolan said. “It’s as much about us as it is about Houston when you’re getting this early in the season.”
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What Michigan Panthers must fix in Week 3 of UFL season vs. Roughnecks
