Morning after snowflakes

six turnovers and we're in the game. the future is bright.

We scored twice as many points on ND as MSU did!

On a more serious note...

The defense played well.  If you told me the defense would produce those numbers before the game I'd be overjoyed.  That was a performance good enough to win the game.  There is hope for the D.  Jake Ryan and Desmond Morgan played well.  They were called upon many times to stop the bleeding and they did.  We are still playing a lot of freshman and they make freshman mistakes, but we only gave up 13 points.

It's clear that Al B. wanted to take advantage of the weak ND secondary and it was working when the passing game was clicking.  I'm sure he regrets calling the half back pass at the goal line, but Vince was solid on that play last year.  When a play like that is called, the half back is going to try and make the pass.  Denard was pressing and that clearly did not work.  I think he had the worst birthday ever.

As we enter the B1G season, one can only note how mediocre the league appears to be.  Iowa is bad.  MSU has QB and wide receiver issues.  Minnesota lost their QB to a high ankle sprain.  Illinois got whipped by LA Tech....really.  Ohio has a porous secondary.  Nebraska can easily beat teams they completely overmatch.  Northwestern looks pretty good, but they aren't scoring points in bunches against decent teams and their defense can be a sieve as demonstrated vs. Syracuse.  Purdue looks good at times, but we are still talking about a team that also fell to ND, but they did beat EMU like a drum unlike another team in the B1G. 

Michigan just needs to clean up their act.  Protect the ball, play more D like they did last night, get the running game on solid ground.  Winning the B1G is completely possible given the state of the league.  Our next game against Purdue could be a preview of the B1G championship game.  Really!

One more thing.  Last night, I discovered Red Hoptober is really good beer.  So, I've got that going for me which is nice.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't feel TOO bad. Disappointed definitely, but I feel like a 6 turnover game with 6 trips to the red zone with 6 points is highly non-reproducible. Even Denard's worst other games haven't been that bad. Like this was his worst game of his career. And despite that we still were completely in the game. The D played great except for a few dumb penalties and Floyd doing something inexplicable on Eifert. Oh well. The B1G still looks ripe for the taking.

More worried about next year because it seems clear that Borges doesn't know how to effectively run the O that the personal fits with next year's team either. The big thing this team needs is to curb attrition so we aren't playing so many youngens in the future.

And let me say to all ragging on Denard that one of his best games of his career gave us the Ohio game last year when the D didn't step up. Would you trade that game for the ND game this year?

There are still folks out there who don't like Denard, don't know who we got with him, thhink we should bench him in the crucial moments of games in favor of bellomy? I'm confused. Last night was not anything new, it was just a magnification of all the bad that Denard can bring. 

You take the good with the bad. That's who Denard is as a QB...a prolific, dynamic runner with an occasionally accurate arm that goes all haywire every now and then. He is jittery and hyper sometimes...last night for whatever reason he was extra jittery and off his game. 

Don't let last night cloud your judgment! He's still the same Denard that led this team to an 11-2 record last year, with big wins over Nebraska and Ohio, and, yes, Notre Dame.

Karmic retribution...that's the best summary of last night to me. Notre Dame derped us the game last year, and Michigan returned the favor this year.

I blame Magnus he predicted Denard would have his worst game against Notre Dame.  Boo this man!

ND needs replay boards. Maybe Brandon can give them UM's old ones.

That stadium isn't as cool as I remember it.

The ND fans are classy and SB remains one of the better host venues.

You cant see shit from the 6th row.

As poor as Denard played, I felt we were only a play away all game and my ND friend could not relax at all. Thats the magic i'll miss from Denard even though i wont miss those picks(duh).

Purdue looks to be the toughest team in the Big 10 right now on our schedule

 

Here are my snowflakes...

-I won't dwell on Denard because that wouldn't be a snowflake, everybody gets how bad he was.  Besides, he said it himself, that was the worst game he's played at Michigan.  Time to start playing like a senior, buddy

-We definitely outplayed them snap to snap and still lost.  Now I understand how Va Tech and ND must have felt last year.  This team may be better than last year's with a worse turnover margin and harder schedule, and as a result a worse record - it remains to be seen

-Holy interior D-Line batman!  Q Wash and BWC got LOTS of disruptive pressure and blew up some running plays.  When they weren't penetrating the LBs seemed to be running free and flowing well to the ball.  I've heard some negatives on the interior of ND's line (Golic mostly) so will be interesting to see if this trend continues or if they just had one good game against a so-so O line

-Jake Ryan - you are a force.  Great pass breakup when you tipped Tommy Reese's throw, you played responsibly and held the edge really well, great overall game

-Mattison overall called a great game but I was confused by two decisions during the game.  1) Is Jarrod Wilson really so good that he should be in on a critical 3rd and goal play, covering ND's best receiver (Eifert)?  Shouldn't one of Kovacs/T Gordon be able to handle this better?  2) How are you going to line up Floyd 1 on 1 vs. Eifert with no safety help?  ND went empty set with no RB and Tommy Rees as QB, you don't need a bunch of guys in the box, even if you're blitzing.  I see no reason not to keep a safety deep for help here

-Borges, you are an enigmatic man.  I don't see the logic of only basically running PA passes from under center during the first half, it makes for very easy keys for the defense and it didn't seem to be working for us.  If you're going to go from under center, commit to it - and sprinkle in some runs. 

-Denard hardly targeted the Funchise, and I sort of get why - seems like Te'o was on him more often than not and was running with him well.  Still... isn't this the guy who is covered but is never really covered?  Surprised we didn't see Denard try and put it up high (way high) and see if Funch could go get it over shorter defenders...

-Our O Line was much better run blocking than I expected against ND's front 7.  The inverted veer specifically seemed to be working really well.  One thing though - I could have sworn Nix or one of the other D Linemen of ND was injured about halfway through the game, right when we started getting going.  Does anyone know if someone sat for long periods with an injury?  This could have been behind the success on the ground

-I like our receivers, and Borges was putting them in some good spots route-wise.  Lots of guys open, we just didn't hit them.  For instance - when Gardner did that cool route that the ND announcers noticed, he was open behind the corner.  Denard threw a bit late, and as a result Gardner got lit up (nearly injured).  That said he probably should have positioned his body a bit differently on the catch, seemed difficult but catchable.  Similarly Gardner was wide open over the middle for one of Denard's INTs - simple overthrow there.  If Denard starts making throws these WRs will score in bunches

-Sweet baby Jesus, Dave Brandon please work your magic and figure out a way to get this game OFF of NBC.  I was very close to watching on mute during this game, the unbridled homerism of Tom Hammond and the other guy nearly made me insance.  Witty banter and stupid jokes about the ND players and I barely felt like they knew our guys' names

-Overall every game on our schedule is winnable.  Every game is also losable.  This seems like the type of season that's going to have some high highs and some low lows... my advice is to get yourself ready for the ride

Does anyone else find themselves screaming at Denard to run whenever he sits back in the pocket for more than a few seconds? I wish Denard scrambled much more. Be who you are and don't worry about proving you can be a pocket passer. If you see any lane whatsoever, take off.

Our defense played well.  Holding Notre Dame to 13 points off six (!) turnovers, often times working with a short field, is more than I could have asked for.

I'm with those who say the Big Ten is winnable.  There is no team that we are not capable of beating.  MSU, Nebraska, and Ohio State all have large flaws of their own right now.

It's going to be a long bi-week, but I think this team will try and make a statement against Purdue, with their sights set on accomplishing the only goal they have had all year: win the Big Ten.

is an idiot.

"6 times!  That's gotta be a record for one night."

 

Nope.... Demetrius Brown threw 7 picks vs. Sparty in 1987.

Uh...thought this thread was going to be about something else...

Found this 5 year old gem, made me smile in light of what happened this weekend.