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Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges is still trying to fix the Wolverines' scoring woes.

(Melanie Maxwell | MLive.com)

ANN ARBOR -- For Al Borges, Saturday could have been another nightmare.

When Devin Gardner found Jeremy Gallon on third and long with less than 15 seconds to play, Borges' offense had zero touchdowns, two field goals, was 0-for-15 on third down and was about to be the sole reason for the Wolverines' third straight loss.

Again.

But that was before Drew Dileo and Brendan Gibbons saved the day with a last-second fast field goal, allowing Borges' offense to pick up the pace in overtime and eventually give Michigan a 29-17 triple overtime victory.

"In the overtime, we started getting into good down and distance situations that were manageable, we were running the ball," Borges said. "We were hitting those passes, and protecting better. I don't know any other way to explain it, but some of that was the same plays that came up.

"We got a little rhythm going, guys were feeling pretty good. Every time we went out there we felt like we could put it into the end zone. We felt like that the whole game, but the third downs kept stalling us."

Third downs did more than stall Michigan, it kept the Wolverines completely handicapped on offense all game.

And, unlike the last two weeks, Michigan wasn't consistently failing because of 3rd and forever situations.

Five of the 15 regulation third down failures came with less than five yards to go and three others featured distances of less than 10 yards.

"We had some manageable ones, and it was pretty disappointing," Borges said. "Up until a few weeks ago and the last couple years we were one of the top teams in the country on third down, but it's deteriorated ... and protection has something to do with it.

"We're doing our (best) just to shore that up and get better and get into manageable third downs, because we've had a few. The last few games were a play-callers nightmare, you don't have a lot of 3rd and 15 plays on the chart. But lately it's been better, and it all starts with pass protection."

Michigan now ranks 75th in the country in third down conversion rate at 38 percent. But that wasn't the only issue Saturday.

The Wolverines, in the first quarter, established the run game with freshmen Derrick Green and De'Veon Smith.

But in the second quarter, another frame without a point, Michigan gave Green just one carry and Smith none. Borges said some of that had to do with the wind, as it was at Michigan's back during that period and he wanted to pass.

"We wanted to see how we were throwing the ball, and we were doing OK," he said. "The whole idea is to keep yourself balanced as much as you can, you know what I mean? And sometimes you start pounding it, pounding it, it's a good time to throw a play-action pass.

"And people say 'well you're running it well, why are you throwing?' Well, when's a good time to throw, when you're not running well? That's not going to work. You've got to pick and choose when you decide what you want to do and hope like heck you execute when you call that play."

The good news Saturday? Green and Smith had a physical presence, the offensive line took a few baby steps, Devin Gardner found a way to get things going in overtime and, of course, the Wolverines won the football game.

But the offense, in general, continues to trend downward. In the last 12 regulation quarters, Michigan has one touchdown.

Moving forward, Borges says he's done as much as he can to simplify the offense to help the litany of young players featured in various packages.

But, at the same time, he says he's not going to simplify things too much.

"We had 27 first downs, that's a lot of first downs when you consider only three of them were earned on third down, that's moving the ball," Borges said. "You go two things with minus rushing? You've got to go back with basic concepts, because something's going wrong. It's not all the players' fault or the coaches' fault. We had to reel it in and find something we could do, and that's what we did for this game.

"When you get extravagant on offense, you're confident. You're feeling good, you're moving the ball, you want to try this and that. But when you're struggling, you don't want to throw all your creativity out -- we ran 42 different formations in that game -- but we reigned our schemes in, particularly with our run game and pass protection. But, we had to, at this point. With the young inside players, we had to."

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