UM Off vs Iowa/OSU Defense
I'm looking forward to seeing what UofM's Offense can do vs. Iowa & OSU. I think that Tate & crew will still be able to score against them, but they will be the test.
However, after today's and tonight's games, I feel much more confident in saying we go 8-4 or 9-3. That's a little better than I would have thought at the beginning of the year. I now think we will win 1 out of 3 vs. OSU/PSU/Iowa, because of our offense, and only lose 1 or 2 vs. Wisconsin/MSU/Illinois/Purdue. (of course, Delaware St. is a gimme.)
September 27th, 2009 at 12:35 AM ^
I think the bigger question is, 'how will ________'s offense do against our defense?'
September 27th, 2009 at 12:36 AM ^
There's no such things as gimmes
September 27th, 2009 at 12:44 AM ^
I posted on the board a topic titled " Don't sleep on Indiana". And I got neg'd a bunch of times and everyone was pretty sure we'd win by at least the spread of 21. This is division 1 football. did you people learn nothing from app state? or toledo? keep the faith. keep the focus. stay the task at hand. GO BLUE!!!!!!!!
September 27th, 2009 at 12:53 AM ^
I don't see RR & Tate allowing us to lose to Delaware State. Yes, in one sense, there are no gimmes. But under the RR regime and with Tate's leadership, albeit flawed, I feel much, much more confident we will win against Delaware State.
Question: do you think RR & Tate would lose against App State or Toledo? I sure don't think so. This is one of many reasons I am thrilled with the coach and player personnel change in AA.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:15 AM ^
Delaware St is a middle of the pack FCS team
http://espn.go.com/ncf/clubhouse?teamId=2169
App St had three players drafted from their 2007 team. I think they would have been a Top 40/50 FBS team.
Toledo was a whole order of magnitude worse for a very poor 2008 Michigan team.
I think a loss to Delaware St would be a whole another order-of-magnitude worse than the Toledo loss.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:40 AM ^
After tonight's games, I see Iowa, Penn State, and Ohio State as all three being near-certain losses. Notre Dame, probably the only for-real team we have played this season, clearly has a bad defense. Our performance against Notre Dame cannot be the basis for optimism after Purdue and MSU, both 1-3 teams, took them to the wire and didn't get lucky like we did. We might win 1 of 3 against Illinois, Wisconsin, and MSU, and will likely beat Purdue and Delaware State. That's seven wins, and all we need this year.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:51 AM ^
Hold on. What has PSU shown you to make you think they're nearly certain to win in Ann Arbor (something they haven't done in 13 years)? Was it the 10 big points they scored today, or Daryll Clark's smooth 12-32 passing performance? Or the fact that they were last in the conference in rushing entering today?
As for ND, do you seriously think they'd have gone down to the wire against MSU and PU if Clausen, Floyd and Allen had been healthy against those teams, as they were against us?
September 27th, 2009 at 12:52 AM ^
PSU's defense has a pulse.
Also, Clark's passing performance, and Royster's poor YPC, resulted (in my estimation) DIRECTLY from outstanding line and linebacker play on Iowa's part. We have shown a flat inability to field that kind of an effort on defense.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:16 AM ^
And Royster's previous poor YPC was a DIRECT result of the outstanding line and linebacker play on Syracuse, Akron, and Temple's part? PSU's OL isn't good.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:30 AM ^
That's a fair point about Royster's bad season so far, but even against a poor offensive line by Penn State standards, I'm doubtful we'll be able to stop much of anything. Just keeping our run D in the front of my mind.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:52 AM ^
I think our matchup vs. Iowa could be ok because their offense isn't particularly explosive. They cannot burn us in the secondary like the other teams have been able to. Stanzi is a scrub.
However, we are going to have to stop their running game. My feeling is that against conventional run looks, we may be able to do ok.
The question of this board though...how will our offense respond? I think it's really good that we have a road game next week to get Tate and company used to the hostile environment. I think our scheme and execution has been sound enough so far that we're going to be able to run the ball and get the short passing game going. It's just going to come down to turnovers I think.
I don't really like our chances against Iowa but who knows, we could beat OR be beaten by anyone at this stage.
September 27th, 2009 at 12:58 AM ^
going to matchup against MSU. That is who we play next right?
September 27th, 2009 at 1:10 AM ^
Both defenses are god awful, but it seems like we'll be able to easily out-score a lot of teams.
Wisky launched a lot of passes over MSU's secondary, I'm looking forward to Tate doing that next week.
September 27th, 2009 at 8:14 AM ^
enough to put Iowa talk on the back burner. MSU is the best 1-3 team in the land; they basically blew each loss in the closing minute! Yesterday, they had an opportunity for an onside kick that would of given them the opportunity to go for the tie but the kicker squibbed it instead; altogether now, SPARTY NO!!!
September 27th, 2009 at 10:07 AM ^
MSU did not blow the game in the final minute against Wisconsin.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:15 AM ^
Well. They clearly dont like giving anyone a TD... Nov could get nuts.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:03 AM ^
every game's going to be a fight. we can take no game for granted.
I will say... our matchup against OSU's defense, frankly, is not favorable. Tate will have zero time to get rid of the ball w/ Thad Gibson and Cam Heyward coming at him. Calvin Magee has GOT to develop quick hitting pass plays. God help him if Tate starts scrambling around trying to evade those d-linemen.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:34 AM ^
as the season progresses i expect expect a few more packages with Drob in the slot. getting him some touches on the bubble screen in a semi-open field would be scary. who knows, maybe RR will wait until osu.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:57 AM ^
Sometimes confidence is warranted by the quality of play on the field, and other times it's nothing more than whistling past the graveyard. Giving up over 460 in total offense to Indiana at home but feeling increased confidence is the latter.
September 27th, 2009 at 7:28 AM ^
Our defense is severely challenged. The offense, otoh, seems capable of pulling several games out, something we have rarely seen at Michigan. We will definitely lose some games, but I feel that 8-4 is probable. This means playing .500 the rest of the way. I do believe that the offense will be able to pull a win out of Iowa or PSU, or more miraculously, against OSU. I also believe that we can, should, and will win against Delaware State. This leaves Illinois, Purdue, MSU, and Wisconsin. I can see two wins out of these four, giving us 8-4.
What number of wins do you see this year? 7? 6? How many are you confident of? With the exception of Delaware State, I am unwilling to predict any particular games. However, I am very doubtful we will do worse than 3-4 against the rest of the Big Ten. Are you more confident of 2-5 against the rest of the Big Ten?
September 27th, 2009 at 7:55 AM ^
Still leaning towards 8-4 as a ceiling for this team, defense did not play very well against IU, gave up 467 yards. Mouton whiffed on a couple tackles, and Cissoko was taken out of the game as a "coach's decision" (according to what the radio guys said).
Iowa, PSU, OSU looking very tough right now. MSU, Wisconsin are toss-ups IMO. M should be able to handle Del State, Illinois, Purdue. I can see us beating one of the two toss ups, I don't know if we're going to beat Iowa, PSU or OSU.