Plz stop with the: "we lost to top 15 teams"

No.

I really think this is some fresh insight.... I never thought about it this way before. You sir, are a trailblazer in analysis.

We didn't lost to your grammar either. Everyone is frustrated, if you had told me before the season we would've put up 500+ yards on Iowa's defense I would've looked at you funny. You can't win em all, but once we get some defensive depth and experience we just might.

Absolutely we're frustrated. That's to be expected. It doesn't matter how we lost, it'll always be frustrating. We could lose by going 3 and out on every possession because an opposing team's dline was just 100x better than our oline and it we still wouldn't just sit back calmly and say, "Well, we just lost to a better team."

What people are stupid for is predicting 7 or 8 wins before the season and saying that if that happens Rodriguez should stick around, and then when we lose to two top 15 teams they all of a sudden decide that this is completely unexpected and unacceptable.

More discussion of what the issues are and how they can be fixed throughout the rest of the season is acceptable and more than welcome.

The fact that this is why we lost is more comforting than knowing that we just got outplayed isn't it?  This means the talent and scheming is there, but our young kids are making mistakes (weird).

I don't understand why so many MGoBloggers are such hard asses about posting opinions that are similar to what someone else felt and posted. What does that take away from the board, exactly? It's like you're all frothing at the mouth for the opportunity to feel superior to someone every time we lose. It's really ugly.

Three picks and a fumble. But who's counting?

because they don't do the dumb things we do to beat ourselves.  Young, inexperienced teams do those things, which is what we are.

The only things standing between us and the top 10 are better decision-making and better execution.  Those things come with experience, which is what we're currently acquiring.

I feel very optimistic about the future, myself.

People shouldn't be frustrated for losing. I think what people are underestimating is the pressure having such a bad defense puts on every other play. It is hard going into a game knowing you need 40 to win. That puts a lot of additional pressure on every offensive snap that leads to penalties and turnovers because in all honesty an interception feels similar to a punt so might as well throw it up and give your guy a chance to make a play instead of throwing it away and punting.

I don't advocate giving free passes but until the defense becomes average every single play is going to feel like life or death and lead to mistakes you wouldn't otherwise see.

"stop trying to convince everyone that they are stupid for being frustrated." Some wack logic there. 

As if it isn't possible to hold both ideas in our perfervid little minds: we f'd up. We lost to two very good teams we coulda beat. 

I think it's the OP who should have thought twice before wasting our time with such weak sauce.

OP your analysis is bizarre.

If we, as you say, "lost to ourselves" rather than a top 15 Iowa team then wouldn't this bode well for the future given that we have a defense made up of very young talent and an offense of mostly young talent as well. If, as you state, we lost to ourselves then one would naturally expect that the sort of progress made in the last year by Denard (and Tate it seems), by the offensive line (looking at you Omameh) and by the offensive weapons (Roundtree etc.) should persist. How is that not positive going forward?

As an aside, please don't shout back with irascible comments about how RichRod can't coach em up or scheme or whatever given the development of the players listed.

It sucks to shoot yourself in the foot, but it sucks worse to not even be competitive.  Saying that the mistakes cost us the game implies that when we were not making mistakes we were still in the game.  Even playing like we did yesterday (i.e. sloppy), we should be able to beat PSU, Purdue and/or ILL.  This team is improving in fits and starts, and we all knew it would be another year before we could consistently compete with the best teams in the conference. 

While we are complaining, please stop with the "our coaches stink because our freshmen and sophomores don't play as well as other teams' seniors."  Who killed us against Iowa?  Seniors Stanzi, Johnson-Koulianos, Clayborn, Klug, etc.  Who made the big mistakes for us?  Sophomores Denard, Tate, Smith, Floyd, etc.  Throw in injuries to our most consistent O-lineman and D-lineman, and it is not the end of the world.  If we get healthy in the bye week, 8-2 is not hard to imagine going into WI and OSU.

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We shot ourselves in the foot. That's what young teams do. OSU got manhandled and punched in the face. That's not what you want from an experienced team, let alone the number 1 ranked team.

I'd rather take a loss knowing we can control our errors with time as opposed to a "what the hell just happened to us" loss. 

OSU looked like a high school most of the time last night.

Knowing that we could have and should have won had we made less preventable mistakes than to lose because we just plain suck.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Our offense is crazy good. Its depressing to know that if we control the turnovers that we could very likely have won the last two games, but turnovers do happen, even to experienced teams, but we just can't afford to do that because our defense is so bad.

I look forward to having a defense again. You want to know what our future is once we do? Think Oregon, only better, because we're Michigan and thanks to everything we've done in the last 130 years, all a recruit needs to know is that he can be a part of keeping that tradition going.

Iowa did not turn the ball over, but Stanzi came close to throwing 2 picks. One pick may have been a pick 6.  If Stanzi throws the 2 interceptions, Michigan could have won this one. 

Would the haters still be hating on the coaching staff?

It's funny, the opposing the team doesn't turn the ball over (Iowa and MSU) and our coaches get heat.

I'm tired of hearing this crap on here too. All it is is well if this and this and this had happened and this didn't happen we woulda won! 

It's about execution, being disciplined, and eliminating mistakes, not about what COULDA happened. Get used to it.