Five Reasons To Be Thankful for Eastern

Submitted by jg2112 on

List your own, even one. Although we overlook opponents at our peril, I'm not doing that here. I do think Michigan should comfortably defeat Eastern, though, and here are five things we'll probably see on Saturday that Michigan fans should be thankful for:

(1) An introduction to semi-relevant Michigan playing time for JT Turner, Vladimir Emilien, Teric Jones, Je'Ron Stokes, Elliot Mealer (YAY), Patrick Omameh, Ricky Barnum, Rocko Khoury, Mike Jones, Big Will Campbell and Roy Roundtree.

(2) Michigan should be able to win without having to risk Stonum or Hemingway (as well as, if injured, M. Williams and Moosman).

(3) Not as much running by Tate, but more rushing for Denard.

(4) A couple of sacks for Roh and Graham, before they get the fourth quarter off.

And, most importantly:

(5) If we see Johnny Sears screw up in the Big House on Saturday, you won't have to groan.

Beavis

September 13th, 2009 at 12:42 PM ^

Don't count your chickens before they have hatched.

I am simply thankful we are 2-0 with a good chance to win on Saturday.

(and to play along, I'd go with the Denard running and the resting of questionable players)

estarr01

September 13th, 2009 at 12:58 PM ^

If last season taught us nothing, it's that we can't look past anyone just yet...we still have a freshman starting QB.

while I think we win, I want to see UofM destroy them, reestablish themselves as a dominant team and leave now doubt that we are back.

Magnum P.I.

September 13th, 2009 at 1:48 PM ^

Okay, I fully appreciate the limited sample size of one game and the danger of making subsequent generalizations. But, honestly, I think the "we still have a freshman starting QB" line can be put away until the next freshman to play QB for U-M comes along. Tate's performance yesterday was better than most every other QB's in the country (including Pryor), despite pressure and different looks all day. As Joe McKnight said (in reference to Barkley, but applicable here to Tate): He's not an 18-year-old after today; he's a man. I can't think of many U-M QBs at any stage of their careers who could have put together as good a game yesterday as Tate did. I think he gets the benefit of the doubt after that. Until he starts making "freshmen mistakes," I don't think the freshman-QB line should get any more play.

Brodie

September 13th, 2009 at 2:45 PM ^

Tate still makes a fair amount of mistakes, it's just that they haven't hurt us yet. He repeatedly takes sacks while trying to make something out of a broken play instead of just throwing it away, every time he tries to make the slant pass he ends up throwing to an empty spot on the field because the receivers aren't on the same page and he continually tries to beat people to the corner when he just doesn't have that kind of speed. All of those things have the potential to be dangerous.

I'm not complaining about Tate. He's fucking White Jesus, man, and there is no possible way any freshman in history could have performed the way he has so far. I'm just saying all the talk of him being flawless is hyperbole at it's finest.

KinesiologyNerd

September 13th, 2009 at 1:00 PM ^

I couldn't agree more. We know Denard can run, and we know he has an arm, but he needs to refine it. Tate seems more resilient than people give him credit for, but we need a better throwing Denard to back him up. Obviously RR won't tell us, but Tate seems to have solidified himself as our starter and our clear clear #1... and damn if feels good

Jivas

September 13th, 2009 at 1:16 PM ^

Denard play nearly a half of the game and attempt a dozen passes. That would be great.

And, um - Ron English is the coach at EMU, right? I liked him when he was at U-M, but given our ability to defend the spread under his tutelage, well ... I like our chances on Saturday.

Seth9

September 13th, 2009 at 1:29 PM ^

If Michigan is subject to the traditional "letdown" week after a big win (looking at you Oklahoma State), then I'd rather be playing a weak team by MAC standards. EMU doesn't seem to be likely to trip us up.

ATrain32

September 13th, 2009 at 1:33 PM ^

Good points JG! I like the thought on working young players in the mix and even just getting them on the field. Plus on the DR points as well.

Question: Does anyone have a read on Emelin not playing?
I guess I had missed something along the way, but I was surprised when Williams got dinged up and Emelin didn't come in to replace him v. ND. In general, watching on TV, I really didn't have a great sense of what the substitution rotations were.

I realize it must be hard for most frosh to jump right in and swim so to speak. There is a big transition from high school to college for many players. So EMU and perhaps IU are very nice to see on the schedule before we go to E.L.

6) The O line will get more game reps in so they reclaim the mojo they were brewing toward the end of last season. I'm very curious to see what Brian's O UFR reveals about the O line blocking v. ND. After reading the UFR v. WMU, I came away with the impression that the O line was not clicking on all cylinders but did alright. I would love to see the big guys take a giant step forward.

BlueVoix

September 13th, 2009 at 1:55 PM ^

All five of my reasons are probably connected to the fact that I'm going to the game and it'll be the first time back since graduating. So yeah. That'll be nice.

joeyb

September 13th, 2009 at 1:57 PM ^

I personally hope we blow them up in the first half like we did against WMU so that the second half can be all Denard. I want to see him run the read option until he gets it perfect.

jmblue

September 13th, 2009 at 2:32 PM ^

1. We didn't have to read any "Eastern Michigan week starts NOW!" posts two seconds after the ND game ended.

2. Cone might see action again. I really hope he can get a TD.

jg2112

September 13th, 2009 at 3:58 PM ^

made me think of the spring game, which brought up this thought: wasn't it nice to watch a Michigan game in which the announcer talked about someone's jock being on the fieldturf (Tate's TD run), and they weren't referring to Stevie Brown or any other Michigan defender?

3rdGenerationBlue

September 13th, 2009 at 2:34 PM ^

Hope Michigan is able to keep it simple next week and own the LOS both ways. Let Tate throw enough to keep his timing and Denard throw enough to establish his - otherwise 300 yds on the ground from as many backs as the coaches care to play.

TTUwolverine

September 13th, 2009 at 2:54 PM ^

I haven't watched them play, but they didn't exactly get blown out by Northwestern this weekend. In fact, they almost won the game at the end, and had very similar stats. We should win, no question, but the team needs to avoid complacency. English appears to have EMU headed in the right direction, and I wish them well. Just not next weekend.