Opportunity Seized

What an interesting case of a football player?  His upside to downside continuum stretches so far.  I've witnessed things I never thought I would see both good and bad.  It is what it is...highs and lows. 

Hoping the team can figure out a way to win the Big 10.  Next year is kind of already on my mind a bit.

I can't wait for the Denard pass to Te'o.     My wife dropped an f-bomb on that one and she doesn't know shit about football.  I have to see if a receiver fell down or made the wrong cut.  

He turned Dink and Dunker moxie qb Cade McNown into a first rounder and Jason Campbell into an NFL qb.  Borges cant throw the ball for Denard.  Borges cant run a better route than Devin Gardner who broke off his route on one of Denard's INTS.

This was just one of those games.  We have been on the good end of the them in past and today we weren't.

Defense was encouraging and offense moved the ball.  This team will win a lot of games.

Funny how I thought our Denard was our rock and our defense was suspect. Tonight was backwards all around. Great seeing the defense step up so many times, though. They did their job, and then some.

One game at a time.

Disappointed in the loss and all of the turnovers (minus all the points) but as others have said I do think there are positives from this game (defense owning, offense moving the ball pretty well).

Definitely think we can contend in the Big Ten and hope that our coaches and players continue to work to get better over the next 8-9 games in order so we can make the hopeful bowl game interesting.

One game at a time nice time for a bye and take heart I do think we are making progress.

BIG action, I actually think Minnesota and Northwestern have a shot at this division with the right outcomes.

MInne's crossover games are Wisconsin/Purdue/Illinois.  Anyone think they can't win all 3 of those with some breaks.  Get an upset win or two vs Neb/MSU/UM and they'd be sitting pretty

Northwestern's crossover games are Indiana/Penn State/Illinois.  Jesus, they'll probably be favored in those 3.

as much as I was encouraged by our D tonight.   Brian Kelly's puckered up big time after the INT in the endzone, that dude was deathly afraid of doing anything remotely even riskey with the lead.  ND made no attempt to challenge our D downfield, or even midfield except for a couple passes blazed over the heads of TE's over the middle.

As much as I'd like to think we improved, Kelly made it pretty easy on them.  We tackled better, pursued better and didn't seem to be out of position as much but how much attempt was really made to make our defensive work out there?

Purdue will be another tough struggle, and again it will probably come down to our mistakes, how many, often, and how deadly.

The big ten of which Michigan is certainly a member. :s

Very disappointed with Team133 tonight. The good thing is I'm drunk.

I think someone else said this, but Notre Dame is a "traditional power", and while this induces eye rolling in most of us, it gives them the same advantages we have, such as resources and recruiting. Honestly, they're probably a year ahead of us in terms of recruiting talent and the coaching staff setting up their system, etc. They consistently get talent, and once they get a staff that can actually do something with it, they will be good, like they may be starting to be.

Also, we're kind of in a weird transition right now ourselves, as we're split between Rodriguez and Hoke players/schemes/talent/etc. IIRC, Rodriguez' first couple classes were highly regarded, and then they dropped off some later. So, the seniors last year and this year were highly recruited, but many of the underclassmen brought in were not. Hoke's guys are clearly very good, but they're all Freshman (that weird 2011 class doesn't count), and next year a new crop of very good Freshman will come in, combined with this year's class who will be sophomores with experience.

The other thing to think about is that any rivalry worth having is worth being competitive, meaning we should have stiff competition from MSU, OSU, and Notre Dame. That's why they're interesting to watch, and the definition of competitive games is that they can go either way. When we win, it's an accomplishment, because it wasn't easy, but conversely, it means we can lose for one reason or another, and we have to be willing to accept that. This could also be a weird blessing in disguise. Think about last year, where we lost two games we maybe could have won, which kept us out of the B1G championship game, where we would probably have been humiliated by Wisconsin, and who knows if we would have gotten a BCS berth that way. If we had won the two games we lost this year, we could be in the MNC talk, and if for some reason we got there or another really high level bowl, we might get really humiliated.

I could go for a big cold glass of bleach right now

I had a blast watching that game! I'm sitting here this morning trying to figure out why I'm not more upset. I love the sheer edge-of-my-seat excitement I feel when the ball is in Denard's hands. The unpredictable nature of it is such a rush! We only get 8 more games of watching this kid - that's what sucks.

Earlier this very week, another quarterback threw three picks in a single quarter.  He didn't get benched, and I'm pretty sure the team is going to ride it out with him.  I'm speaking, of course, of Peyton Manning.

Horrible game for Denard.  Moving forward . . . .

Kittens!

to say "at least we won't see... again on the rest of schedule"?  We heard it after Alabama, we heard it after Air Force and now we have to hear it after ND.  I think MSU's defense will feel just as tough as ND's or Alabama's.  They really aren't as good, but they play above themselves against us.

The cold hard reality is this team is not the opportunistic, frankly, lucky team of last year.  We forced turnovers last year and were able to overcome our own mistakes.  Team 133 is not getting those breaks or not making them and it certainly looks like most of the teams on our schedule are better this year than last.

Northwestern and Purdue are definitely better than last year, Nebraska and OSU will be much harder to beat on their turf and MSU will give us everything we can handle.  It will take near mistake-free football to win the conference title this year, not because every team is great, but because our offense isn't really any better than last year or the year before; possibly a little worse.  The defense seems a little worse, but it's hard to tell because the only team with a guareanteed strong offense was Alabama.

Overall, we still don't know much about good this team is.  Assuming the weather will be decent against Purdue, we should find out a lot more.  If nothing else the MSU game will be tell us all we need to know.  Unfortunately, we are trying to find some way to get our square peg to fit the round hole that is Michigan football.

There are no guarantees left on this schedule.  The closest thing to a guarantee left is that every team we will play will have a good chance to win going into the fourth quarter.  Whether it's MAs or turnovers or poor decsisions, this team is not dominant in any one area to the point of guaranteeing victory.

Nailed it, Ace. Thanks for this post. Sums up my feelings perfectly.

we go back to a strong O-line, a pocket passer, and a dominant RB.  Not that I don't like Denard but after five years of scrambling QBs who can't seem to complete passes it'll be nice to (hopefully) get back to a TEAM that commands the field.  As dazzling as he can be I'm tired (and have been well before this debacle) of hanging my hopes on one guy having a great game.

Unfortunately, if he can't pass the ball accurately, we're pretty much stuck with a RB at QB (hence our march up the field three yards and a cloud of dust style late in the game).