Durham Blue

October 6th, 2019 at 1:24 PM ^

Well, half the team is playing like a CFP contender.  The other half is playing like a top 40-ish team (yeah, I am being generous).  So, #16 is about right if you take the average.

Ezekiels Creatures

October 6th, 2019 at 2:00 PM ^

One thing is safe to say, the defense is playing better than it did in the Army game, especially the D Line. There's a unison to fire off the ball at the snap now. Dwumfour is back. Danna is fast. And McGrone is making a big difference they didn't have in the Army game.

Don Brown going into seclusion has paid off, so far...

DairyQueen

October 7th, 2019 at 9:47 AM ^

A lot of people knock Brown, but the fact of the matter is, just like an offensive coordinator, as a defensive coordinator, you would love to preserve your more exotic looks for when really necessary, keeping the element of surprise in your pocket, and first and foremost, just playing to win straight-up and outplaying the opponent to the man (and because of the offense performance against Iowa, it became necessary).

The same with your players, brining Dwumfour back too early from injury against Wisconsin (let alone Army) is highly both highly risky, and doesn't necessarily (again "necessity" is the key word) gain much.

UM needs to win the division first and foremost. So technically, even the Iowa game wasn't deterministic, in that they could have lost, and still completely controlled their own destiny (aka "win out")--of course there is still the potential for a tie-break so it is in your best interest to win, of course.

But just to emphasize the point that the "old guard" mind-set of rank being determined by AP/Coaches Poll, is a thing of the past (which biased against undefeated-ness despite SOS, and lack of season-finale Top-Match-Ups), now that we have Conf. Champ. games, and CFP, just like the NFL, going 16-0 (and same for the NBA/NHL), is not only completely unnecessary, but determines nothing, and may not even be desireable (for psych/effort/peaking/learning purposes too complicated to get into).

Ryno2317

October 6th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^

Jesus .. the amount of bitching and moaning on here is insane.  We win a game most on here thought we would lose, the defense improved dramatically and we move up In he polls and all we can do is bitch.

Ryno2317

October 6th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^

You are a joke.  You bitch and moan about every single thing.  Win or lose, you complain.  You keep saying that yesterday’s performance won’t beat PSU or OSU.  So what? We didn’t play them yesterday, however, we did get a win against a quality opponent.  So, in addition to repeatedly stating the obvious, your comments are more or less irrelevant at this point.  Grow up a bit. 

bronxblue

October 6th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^

But it doesn't count because while Michigan holding a top-25 SP+ offense to 3 points and by 50 yards their worst offensive performance of the year (and by far their worst per-play output of the year) is expected, a defense similarly gumming up Michigan's offense shows only that Michigan's offense is the worst in the history and Gattis and Harbaugh should be thrown into the nearest lake.

It's tiring around here.  As this site has become more popular the "fun" of just following a team and living with the ups-and-downs has disappeared into a chorus of obnoxious BPONE-ing by people trying to out-ironic each other.

True Blue 9

October 6th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^

I can only speak for myself but I'm thrilled that we won. And I'm so glad that Don Brown appears to have figured something out with this group. 

I think the performance of the offense is inexcusable in week 6. I think Harbaugh is a joke for saying the offense is hitting their stride. Everyone knows that's a flat out lie. 

Being happy about a win but critiquing the offense, the play calling, the coaching, etc. isn't bitching and moaning. It's calling out our current reality and searching for some answers. 

Ryno2317

October 6th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^

I agree with your comment mostly.  However, most of the posts on here are not critiquing the offense or searching for answers.  They are horribly unfair and unnecessarily critical of a coach with a 75% winning percentage who flat out turned this program around.  It seems that everyone around these parts forgot the 8 seasons prior to Harbaugh getting here and think he should have magically started winning championships shortly after he got here.  We are much better and closer  to where we want to n when he got here.  

True Blue 9

October 6th, 2019 at 2:56 PM ^

Fair points and I agree that Harbaugh has absolutely gotten this team (overall) to a better place. But being the 3rd highest-paid coach in America, in my opinion, we're not paying him to get us better. We're paying him to get us to the top of the mountain. If he can't even beat OSU once in 5 tries, will he ever? 

I don't profess to having all of the answers, in particular around who would be the next coach. And I'm not 100% on either wagon, if Harbaugh should stay or go. I DO know that this shit offense in year 5 is simply unacceptable. 

snarling wolverine

October 6th, 2019 at 4:01 PM ^

Why does his salary matter so much?  I don't understand why that's always the go-to criticism.

Michigan has a lot of money; it's not a huge sacrifice to us to pay the guy.  It doesn't go on students' tuition bill.

I don't really get the point about OSU either.  First, Jim's pretty unlucky to have lost in 2016.  Why would that game, in year 2, be the high-water mark for him?

Also, his first four games were against Urban Meyer (who won over 90% of his games overall at OSU) while from here on out he faces Ryan Day.  I'm not too optimistic about this year's meeting but we really don't know what to expect of a Day-led OSU going forward.  Jim's record against Meyer doesn't necessarily predict his record against Day, any more than Lloyd Carr's record against John Cooper predicted his record against Jim Tressel.

True Blue 9

October 6th, 2019 at 4:25 PM ^

I do agree with you that the school has money but I think you'd be hard-pressed to make the argument that we're a top ten program right now, so what are we paying that much for? We can agree to disagree that the amount of money doesn't matter, but it's my opinion that for what he's paid, the on-field results don't match the salary. 

The OSU stuff, I couldn't disagree less. Yes, Urban was great. Dantonio figured out a way to beat him multiple times. Sorry, I just had enough excuses about bad bounces or spots. Beat them. 

Again, I'm not saying he has to go and I'm not saying I have a better solution for how to move forward, I just know that the product on the field is pretty gross and just unacceptable for year 5. If you feel differently, cool. That's just not where my head is at. 

BeatIt

October 7th, 2019 at 6:17 AM ^

It’s Harbaugh’s recruiting that is hurting this team. Your 2018 class had “zero” top 100 commits, only 5 or 6 had offers from other P5 schools, OSU only offered 3 of your 2018 commits. 2019-3 top 100. 2020 so far 1 top 100 commit. You are not reloading every year for 10/11 wins without some top talent. um is going he way of msu&wisconsin, taking 3 stars and developing them. Unless Harbaugh figures out how to create some excitement or um starts consistently challenging OSU I don’t know how you’ll ever get top talent,offensively with that half dead one. When a Harbaugh was hired I thought it would be um and OSU every year like the old days. Really surprised he hasn’t continued the good recruiting he had in the first couple classes. Gotta win on the field.

Don

October 6th, 2019 at 3:43 PM ^

"We win a game most on here thought we would lose,"

Out of curiosity I checked the prediction thread of a few days ago.

Of those commenters who actually ventured a prediction, 73 predicted a Michigan victory, and 32 predicted an Iowa victory.

So no, "most on here" did not think we were going to lose. Those who predicted a victory were right, and those who didn't—like me—were wrong. 

Nobody who predicted a Michigan victory did so with us scoring just 10 points.

taistreetsmyhero

October 6th, 2019 at 5:27 PM ^

It’s not that hard to understand. Iowa has a decent offense, but we will face 3 teams with vastly better offenses in the future. Iowa has a good defense, but we will face 4 equal or better defenses in the future.

A 10-3 game doesn’t predict much success against teams that we will need a competent offense to stand a chance.

KBLOW

October 6th, 2019 at 1:49 PM ^

Ranking seems about right. But if Iowa and Michigan were in the SEC as a 14 vs a 19 the media would be getting sooooo excited about how amazing the SEC defenses they saw in yesterday's game were and how neither team deserved to be out of the top 15. 

IMO Florida and Auburn are both highly overrated. Also Texas and Boise St. and Oregon. And A&M in the poll at all is a freaking joke. 

OSU should be 1 or 2. No way Clemson or UGA kicks the shit out of Sparty like they did. 

Bluedream

October 6th, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^

Iowa, Michigan State and us couldn’t combine our offensive talents and produce a top 10 offense.  That “all star” team would be whipped by the defenses of all three teams as well as OSU, Wisconsin and PSU. 

10-3 win is a good win but we saw two good defenses slap around two inept offenses. I’m not going to pretend the D is suddenly vaunted. We’ve seen this before, the D records great games against shitty offenses, we get confident then a team like Wisconsin, PSU, OSU comes in and mops the floor with Don Brown’s mustache. 

YaterSalad

October 6th, 2019 at 2:16 PM ^

I think you might have PTSD from the OSU game last year.  Or maybe it is the two times we met pissed off teams on the road after their bye week - PSU last year and Wisky this year.  It is hard to paste people by 3 or more TDs at home and not have a “revenge” factor the following year when the home / away flips.  Yeesh. Apart from those 3 games I don’t really see the angle that Brown’s D gets torched by any decent offense.