Michigan is back on track, but not good enough to go undefeated (yet)

One of the reasons some of us are not thinking rationally is that there is some very legitimate concern about how we are going to beat several of the teams we will be facing that have decent defenses and which will put eight players in the box and dare us to pass.

Wait so you mean the sky ISN'T falling?

Undefeated yesterday at 3:30. Thanks for the "insight."

sorry, double post. 

Absolutely agree. There's always over-reaction after every loss. I've been on this board for three years, and every loss feels the same to me in terms of the reactions. If this had been the Purdue game, we would be seeing the same amount of hysteria and hand-wringing. But, yes, I actually feel ok today because I think we're in better, more capable coaching hands this year. 

As the "Problems against good Dlines" thread pointed out, we have problems against good Dlines. Denard wants so badly to be a better passer but he never had much time to go through his progressions (the playcalling should have changed to compensate, but that's an argument for another thread).

MSU likely has the strongest Dline of the teams we face this year. This bye week should also help guys recover and perform at a higher level. This loss should even further motivate them. I think we should still have high hopes for this team. They're something special.

But this definitely doesn't warrant its own thread and this seems like the best place to put it.  Does anyone know what happened on the kickoff to start the 2nd half?  Was that planned? Or just a terrible kick?

did you seriously say if not great WMU or SDSU teams??????????

we will likely beat purdue and Iowa.  The last three will be tough.

yea, but I'd rather lose to Minnesota than Msu.

Agree with the sentiment. MSU was favored in this one, and we were super close to tying with 6 minutes left in the game, despite many mistakes and a well below-average game for Denard. Every team (except maybe the top 10 nationally) has their flaws, and we have plenty of strengths to compete with anyone outside the top 10. MSU may be the best team we play all year (unless we make it to the BTCG against Wiscy), and they probably have the best defense and QB (Kork Coupons, HALOL) of any teams we have left to play. And this was our first game on the road against a very hostile crowd. This game felt nothing like the clobbering at the hands of the other MSU or many other games against decent competition last year.

We have a lot to learn from this game and have our work cut out for us. Much like the early losses in Bo's first year, this may be a learning/teaching moment for us and give us the motivation and fire needed to step up our game through the rest of the year.

How much of Denard's problems yesterday were due to poor accuracy/hitting his ceiling as a QB vs. wind and no time to set/throw vs. poor playcalling I can't say for sure. I also see the pros/cons to both sides of the Start Devin at QB argument. Still, I feel confident going forward with either of them. Denard has shown at times that he can throw an accurate bullet and even throw with some touch, and I have faith in our staff to figure it out and give us a good chance to win. Anything can happen on any given Saturday, and based on how dominant we've looked during every game except for the last one, I still see a worst case scenario of 9-3, which ain't too shabby considering what we've been through in recent years.

IOWA and ILLINOIS on the road are the KEY to the rest of the season..I Believe we can beat Neb and OSU at HOME if we are 9-1 or  8-2 at that point with alot riding on the games..

11-1 is not out of the question if the breaks go our way 

...for the most part. The defense is clearly headed in the right direction and has already improved from cover-your-eyes awful last year to mediocre this year. The offense seemed to be making some progress but took a step back yesterday.

Every game this year is part of the answer to "Where are we now?", especially with the staff in its first year here and another formation revolution on both sides of the ball. I'll take being 6-1 at this point, even if the loss is to MSU, since it would seem to me that, with the current personnel at various positions, 6-1 might actually be a performance above what most would have thought. We're already doing things we haven't seen a Michigan team do in literally years now, and this has been a breath of fresh air on some levels. 

I would consider  9-3 a pretty good season for us right now regardless, and it is great that we're a mere 3-2 performance away from that. 

...but it's going to be at least two years to get back to being a national title contender.  Most likely it's going to take three or four to build the kind of talent and the depth behind it to compete at that level.

MSU, which does have a weak OL, did whatever they wanted on offense.  The only way we could stop them is by them fumbling or us playing 46 defense on obvious run downs.  Sparty owned us on both sides of the LOS.

And if ND had a DB who knew how to play a ball in the air, they blow us out.

Our OL can't create movement against a decent defensive front, and our backups are way behind the starters in talent and size...and there's little to no depth.

On the DL, Martin is great and Van Bergen is solid, but they're seniors.  Roh is a nice player and improving, but he's got one year left.  Not much help in the classes right behind them, either.

Don't get me wrong, I love our guys effort, enthusiasm, and dedication to Michigan.  But realisticly, everyone should take Coach Hoke (and all the other coaches) at his word when he said we have a long way to go.

Let's not forget that next year's schedule isn't a cakewalk either.