Instant analysis by Rivals

Need to consider that Martin played very little in the game. I am not a 3-3-5 fan but it can work if Martin is in there blowing shit up. I liked what Demens brought to the table and the decision to go out of the I-formation was nice in that it showed we can do a lot of things on offense. Not having Mike Shaw is a huge problem that a lot of people overlook. I think people are pissed off because before the season started everyone thought we would lose this game but while it was going on it was apparent, short of the mistakes, that we could have won. We should be able to get some mistakes fixed, get Shaw, Martin and Denard healthy and come out with some new shit for Penn State coming off the bye.

When Michigan (we) was down three touchdowns today, I was disappointed. The game had been handed away in a tidy basket, and I was having flashbacks of last week/the season which shall be forgotten. As they battled back, I have to say that even though they lost, I was able to state (and did so) that I am a proud Michigan fan.

Many of the perceived issues I believe amount to a failure in perception. If a machine has 500 parts, and one fails, the machine fails. From an offensive perspective, this was often the case. Whether it be the Lewan penalties, or the poor throws resulting in interceptions, the offensive machine which is Michigan football is really close to running on full cylinders, and really close to 7-0.

The defense is another issue. Not all of the parts fit (Roh), some are too damaged (T-Wolf), and some are cheap and should have been replaced (Ezeh). Speaking of Ezeh, Demens made me smile today. He made some big time tackles. All in all, a loss is unfortunate, but my optimism remains.

We should lose to Iowa and we did.   This was not a game we should have won by every metric out there.

Having said that - we were close in a game we shouldn't have been when our turnover margin was that abhorred.    We were close in a game where Mike Martin essentially didn't play.  Imagine how good Kenny Demens would have looked if Mike Martin was in the game.  

I actually feel very good about this team going forward.  The games with Wisky and OSU are going to be closer than people believe.

Anyone else remember the countdown to KO video from last season where one of the linemen (i think BG) was saying how much time GERG had to spend teaching tackling technique rather than scheme?  Well if that stuff hadn't been a focus for the previous few years it then it will take a few years to get it back with such young/inexperienced kids.  Not that GERG couldn't spend a many hours with another refresher course...

Judging from the predictions posted here over the last few days, the vast majority of MGoBloggers were confidently predicting a Michigan win. Why, I don't know.