Are "we" better than OSU right now?

"Now why would you ask a stupid question like that?"

At home, yes.  We are better (with Denard.)  On the road, I think we are worse.  Denard has never had a good game on the road against a decent opponent, except for the 2010 Notre Dame game.  In all of the marquee road games Denard has played in, he has stunk.  As much as I think Michigan can beat Notre Dame, Nebraska, or Ohio State, the reality of Denard's road woes sinks in.

Even without Horford and McGary.

...What? 

Are "We" better than OSU? Always. Always, always, always, always, ALWAYS, always, always.

Our football team? Maybe, but maybe not.

will muschamp is mad you'd ask such a question

with denard at home? yes

with denard away? no

with bellomy away? helllll no

I personally think so.  OSU has been the least impressive team undefeated team in the history of the sport.  They can't defend spread formations worth a dime, 2 out of three LBs are a joke, their special teams is a dumpster fire, and they have one playmaker on offense.  I think we beat them in the Toilet seat.

is "we" in quotations?  It makes it seem like you are asking 'we' as fans. You are allowed to refer to yourself as 'we' when talking about the home team on a blog. 

As long as D-Rob plays we will win

Beat Ohio.

I just want Hoke to send Urban packing by the end of next November.

Tits or I'm leavin

Meyer is slowly running them into the ground (They're undefeated because their schedule is ridiculous). Every week the defense gets worse, and that poor miller has been injured about 4 times so far, and unfortunately the kid's injuries are getting more and more severe.

As of now, Denard is still recovering.

Our backup QB is Michigan's version of Bauserman. Do you think Bauserman can beat Miller? Right. I didn't think so.

Denard will be the second Michigan player to receive a standing ovation at the Horseshoe. It is his destiny.

Forgot the main part of this original post. Defensively, yes. Offensively, no. Fortunately, the two units that are strongest/weakest for both teams match up.

now my confidence has wavered

In a word.  No.

In two words.  Hell No.

Here are the current conference rankings on some of the more important metrics, in my estimation. (Source: THIS). 

& it's not that close.

for the record my Guess The Score pick was Neb 20 - M 13.  
Even with Denard, we are barely functioning on offense.

I'm an OSU fan that occasionally lurks here and on other rival boards--for no other reason than that I like to know what the pulse is everywhere in the B1G.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: let me state the obvious, Ohio State is a flawed team. Similar to you guys, Urban inherited a team that had major depth issues. Especially in the O-line and in our back seven. On top of that, Urban has had to teach our offense a brand new style of offense that requires Braxton to make reads that he's never done before. While we put up points, it's more Braxton being a ridiculous playmaker than us being consistent on offense. Growing pains are still very much an issue.

That being said, every man on that football team has bought in 100% and if you watch our games you know that while it's not always pretty, we play harder than the other team lining up against us. This team has that "it" quality. The players constantly tweet about how much they love their teammates and Urban has them drinking the koolaid big time.

The result is we find ways to win. Whether it be at East Lansing or State College against stout defenses or when Braxton goes down and we need our backup qb to lead us on a game tying drive.

Scary thing is that while we have been doing it while sustaining major injuries to our playmakers (Jordan hall, Barnett, Sabino, etc) and by playing some players out of position, we are gelling and at our strongest today. Especially on defense--we have figured out, finally, how to stop the run and we are finally blitzing consistently, which has resulted in our pass defense capitalizing via the interception.

I'm not a homer, however, and know all too well how special Denard is. He can do it by himself. By the look of your anemic offense, he's going to have to have the game of his life for you to have a chance in The Shoe. And I think he's capable of it, so I'm not confident. Especially with Jake Ryan looking like mini Clay Matthews for you guys on Defense.

Hope both teams win out so The Game lives up to its billing in a few weeks.

Big Tennnnnnnn!!!

Michigan has really struggled to score against a terrible Nebraska defense. Yes the defense is good enough to keep them in the game but the offense isn't good enough period.

The OSU-Indiana game was not close. The closest they came until the last minute was a seven point lead during the third. From that point on they build an 18 point lead and traded touchdowns the rest of the game. They were never in danger of losing.

OSU seems to always play up or down to their competition. 

...and of course UM will be their biggest game of the season so I would expect them to play well.

Next year their offense will be scary good because they return literally everyone.  Defense will still be a big question mark.

'Tis far better to have failed at Michigan than to have graduated from Ohio State.



In all important facets of life, we are better than OSU.



/ homer

Absolutely not

Probably not.  But I like our chances with Hoke and Denard vs Urban Legend and Miller.

Nope.

I think our defense will by pumped for the Game, but unless our offensive unit begins to make progress in the next three weeks, this could come down to Gibbons' leg.  I think moving forward though, the O-line depth (or lack thereoff) at tsiO, will become a critical issue if it isn't addressed quickly.

Both teams are going to come out pumped up for this game, and it'll be closer than most people think. If you made me guess right now, I'd say OSU wins by less than a TD, simply because its a home game for them. I don't really buy into the whole "this is their bowl game" crap. This is our most important game, too. Given how close some of OSU's games have been this year, a UMich win wouldn't surprise me.



I'd say both of these teams are on even playing fields right now. I think their offense is much more balanced, but our defense is better than theirs. One way or another, should make for one hell of a matchup.

game will be will depend entirely on if OSU can hit the deep passes that were WIDE open last year.

It could be close or a rout.

If Michigan had an explosive passing offense, I think Ohio State would be toast. Except Michigan doesn't.

Defense:  Michigan  might have a slight edge here.  That edge might be razor sharp if only Ohio were a passing team. Except their not.

Rushing Yards: Ohio 33rd, Michigan 52nd (1,005 yds vs. 1,161 yds)

Passing Yards: Ohio 119th, Michigan 1st (2,501 yds vs 1,162 yrds)

Scoring Def: Ohio 50th, Michigan 14th (28 pts vs. 17 pts/gm)

Offense: Ohio has a significant advantage in my opinion

Scoring: Ohio 21st, Michigan 64th (38.6 pts vs. 28 pts/gm)

Rushing: Ohio 7th, Michigan 29th (2231 yds vs. 1653 yrds)

Passing: Ohio 88th, Michigan 110th (1655 yds vs 1372 yrds)

1st downs: It's pretty even at 19 to 20 per game for both teams

3rd D Conv %: Ohio 44.7%, Michigan 47.3%

Borges could set up Denard to succeed big time in this game with the right calls and if Denard can "stay on target".  

I don't think either team will run the ball effectively in this game.

Turnovers (INTs!), penalties and special teams play will dictate the outcome of a close game. 

I don't think Ohio is unbeaten heading in to the Michigan game.. They've got too much historical bad mojo vs. Wisconsin in Madison, in what will be the Badgers' last home game of the season and a must-win for UW to get to the title game.

Don't have to be; just have to be better than them in a month.

Let's hope the offense can find another gear or at least a gear period, before the game

I think the teams are fairly equal if both have their #1 QB's.  If either has to go to the bench, though, there is a severe degradation of the "sample."

I bet if we were to go back a year ago and reread the boards after the Iowa loss, there's probably a thread exactly like this. Talking about how our Offense is doomed and OSU is gonna kill us

Our Defense is light years better then Ohio's defense. Our offense isn't as good as ohio's offense. They say that great defense wins championships, so yes I would say that we can beat ohio. 

Plus we have the "we've never had TerreLOLe Pryor on our roster" factor in our favor. We are better. MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH

Before Nebraska, I would have said we get the edge.  After Nebraksa, Michigan has shown to be inept on offense against better defenses (this has been the case for the past several years!!!).   OSU ranks pretty good in run defense and terribly in pass defense.  What does Mich like to do? Run.   I was pretty confidene that Michigan woudl win against Nebraka with our defense getting better, but now, I have very little confidence. 

Having said that, we almost beat Notre Dame... but they are overrated. 

And that streak isn't going to change this year, even if Denard is healthy. Our record at home under Hoke is still unblemished, but on the road it's a different story (like it is for most teams). During the regular season under Brady Hoke, Michigan has not once gone on the road and beaten a team with a winning record for the season. Our mediocre offense (6th and 7th in scoring and total offense, respectively in the conference) does not support our excellent defense, and that's a killer on the road against potent offenses, which OSU has.

A critical aspect of our mediocre offense is that outside of Denard, we have no running game of any consequence, while OSU has two of the top ten rushers in the conference in Miller and Hyde.

Big Ten statistics here: http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/stats/2012-2013/confstat.html

How about we let the next coupel of games play out before we start comparing UM to OSU.

If you look at records, yes they are better than us.  They found a way to come from behind in an improbably situation and win with their backup QB on the road, and we...well imploded.  We have a similar style of QBs.  Our defense has been more consistent, but theirs seems to play well in big games like MSU and PSU.  If you look at our common opponents, they beat MSU 17-16, we beat them 12-10.  They beat Nebraska 68-38, we lost 23-9.  They beat Purdue 29-22 in OT, we beat them 44-13.  What does that tell you?  IDK

It seems to me that their offense is more consistent and our defense is more consistent.  But, I do think they have the talent on defense to win as is evident in their big games.  They obviously haven't played a top 10 team like ND or Bama.  I may get negged for this but ultimately I think they beat us this year because of our lack of consistency on offense and even more so on the road.  But, I also think we would beat them at home.  So, I really have no idea, who is a better team as we are both good at some things, and deficient at others.

Hard to say how good OSU is.  They have had the good fortune of playing just above their level of competition in most of their games.  Their worst games have been against their worst competition.  Is that luck, or good coaching?  I have been watching football for over 30 years and I still am not sure.  I do know that if the OSU team that showed up against Cal, Purdue, or UAB had shown up against Penn State or Nebraska, OSU would not be undefeated. 

where Michigan and OSU partisans are arguing strenuously about how much worse their own recruiting has been than their rival's.

not

Thank god for our D.

This is honestly a fun comparison because the strengths and weaknesses of both teams are completely evident. OSU is great at stopping the run (via RB or running QB), but struggles with spread QB's who deliver accurate passes in the intermediate game. When teams have not been able to make OSU pay for this weakness, OSU has won by multiple scores (See Miami, Nebraska). So the question comes down to Denard, as it should. Because as good as Michigan's D has been, I don't think they will completely stop Miller, Hyde, the Smiths, Philly Brown, and Stoneburner. OSU will score in this game. First, will Denard be healthy enough to be full go in The Game? And if he is, will he be accurate enough to exploit OSU's weakness? I don't think Denard goes on the road and runs for 200. Meyer will make Denard's injured arm beat OSU. I don't see it happening this year for Michigan simply because Denard has never proven he could go on the road for a big game and beat someone through the air even when healthy.

is Braxton better than Denard? That should start some fireworks. Braxton is getting the Heisman hype right now, but when the two college careers are complete, who will have the numbers? What would Urban do with Denard? What would he do with Devin? For my money, Devin and Braxton are twins, and if Devin had the starting job thrust upon him as a (rs?) freshman would he be getting Heisman hype now?

Ohio is better than us right now

UM is in a virtual tie with Ohio according to the Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings (which are the most accurate  in predicting future game outcomes).  Why?  According to Sagarin, UM has played the #1 and #2 teams in the nation--both on the road--while Ohio hasn't played anybody in the top twenty.  Seemingly, their toughest was Neb=#25, but they played that at home.  Thus, if you subtract 3 points from Neb's ratings for the Ohio home field advantage, Ohio's toughest game actually was MSU, a #35-rated team that they beat by one point.

Also,  when Robinson played most of the game (up until last week), UM had nearly a 3 point lead over Ohio in the Sagarin ratings--meaning that the game in Columbus would have been a tossup (after spotting Ohio a 3 point advantage for home field).  

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt12.htm

I guarantee The Game will be close.  I have my doubts based on Hoke's road record that we will pull it out, but with our defense anything's possible.  As for being better than Ohio, Michigan always is.

current(RIGHT NOW) state of the team, I say, and it pains me greatly to say this....NO WAY!   There are problems up front on offense, the QB spot is a HUGE question if Denard is hurt and the secondary seems to be giving up more big plays.  Although our pass defense is rated no. 1 in the country.

Denard being healthy and the oline being able to open holes is the key to the whole show.  If the running game works, we're competitive against anyone in the B1G.  If Denard is out or we can't rush the ball, we're in HUGE trouble.  It all hinges on Denard's health/  No offense to Bellomy.  He's a redshirt freshman.  The poor kid has seen no action and the receivers weren't catching for him.

This week is a big indicator of where the team is.