A Windy Wolverine-Illini Battle
Not to steal any thunder from mgoweather, I'll leave the full forecast to her. However, as the resident night shift meteorologist, I felt I needed to inform you all that wind is looking to play a role in Saturday's game. At the moment, sustained winds over 20 miles per hour seem likely, with gusts near 30-35 mph.
We all saw how this was handled the last time wind was a major factor. Here's to hoping Borges learned from that day.
Seems like I will be missing this game. But, I expect a ground battle and Michigan squeaks out a close one 17-14.
November 11th, 2011 at 6:25 AM ^
November 11th, 2011 at 6:45 AM ^
Denard being forced to run versus pass bcuz of wind cannot be a bad thing.
November 11th, 2011 at 7:14 AM ^
And yet... MSU... NW....
November 11th, 2011 at 7:29 AM ^
He passed for like 350 against NW and we won in a blowout. I'M JUST SAYIN!
November 11th, 2011 at 8:30 AM ^
November 11th, 2011 at 7:46 AM ^
This season it has been, he has been a reluctant runner most games, very tenative. High Winds + on the road = Michigan loss.
November 11th, 2011 at 6:34 AM ^
Last time many people were saying that we had the advantage if wind was a factor. What changed?
November 11th, 2011 at 7:03 AM ^
will there be trash?
November 11th, 2011 at 8:29 AM ^
70% chance of hot dog wrappers.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:25 AM ^
"Will there be trash?"
Yes, possibly up to 60,670.
November 11th, 2011 at 7:09 AM ^
November 11th, 2011 at 7:19 AM ^
This sucks. I have a wedding to attend at 5:30. The fact that the wedding party is a bunch of Sparties... coincidence? I say no. Didn't have a better place to put this post, and didn't want to start a thread.
/rant
November 11th, 2011 at 7:51 AM ^
Great! Bad weather is kind of a Michigan football thing in these last five years. Maybe we can get some rain as well.
November 11th, 2011 at 8:02 AM ^
Not another...... Trash tornado!
November 11th, 2011 at 8:17 AM ^
Sweet! Another 40+ pass attempts is a coming......
November 11th, 2011 at 8:44 AM ^
Well... it's 11/11/11 so my wish is that there's some cosmic shift in the weather pattern. At least Scheelhasse <<<<<< Vandenburg or Cousins passing. Also, AJ Jenkins << Mcnutt and Cunningham. I'm really nervous about Jason Ford, though. That guy is pure terror... when he gets hit, he keeps churning his massive manbeastchild body.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:00 AM ^
I think AJ Jenkins is a better receiver than Cunningham or McNutt.
November 11th, 2011 at 8:58 AM ^
I feel like Illini fans are a little more classy and won't release trash onto the field. That is something only 12 year olds and MSU fans do.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:08 AM ^
look out for flying cow dung patties
November 11th, 2011 at 9:10 AM ^
You have never been to Champaign. I had a worse experience there than I did at MSU.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:15 AM ^
Meh, I think it is a push. If it becomes a ground battle, I get that they will be able to slow down our offense by stacking the box, but we will be able to do the same to them with the threat of long passes reduced.
As to how it affects our air attack, I think that this is overblown - both teams will be forced to stick with shorter passes, which helps both of these QBs. I am sure that Denard will still try to air it out a few times, but based upon the fact that some of his long throws against Iowa were not that bad - see Offensive UFR - and should have been caught, I am ok with this. Despite all of the criticism of Borges' game planning against Iowa, I actually thought the game was well called and well played by Denard (minus some missed running lanes). What killed us were the dropped balls by our receivers and some pretty bad calls at critical times.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:17 AM ^
because it's too damn windy for a QB, who is not pretty accurate! Mystery solved.
I'm not feeling good about this game at all now. Rain would be fine, but 30 MPH + winds makes it very difficult to throw a good deep ball.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:26 AM ^
Look at it this way, it's not like their offense has been any good. I think we will see both teams finish with less than 20 pts.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:57 AM ^
So if it is another trash tornado, Denard will be asked to drop back and throw 40+ downfield passes. He will also be told that there will be checkdown recievers but if he cares about the well being of puppies he will not throw anything less than 40 yards.
DesHow21it.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:04 AM ^
It Denard is throwing into the wind, this means all those deep bombs he overthrows will be RIGHT ON THE MONEY!!!
Eh? Eh? :)
November 11th, 2011 at 11:30 AM ^
Is it ever not windy at Illinois? They need to put up a windscreen or something.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:42 AM ^
Hopefully this means bubble screens, slants, and a lot of Denard running the football.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:18 PM ^
That would make way too much sense and Gorgeous Al wil have none of that.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:01 PM ^
Steady 20 MPH winds throughout the afternoon with gusts reaching 40 MPH (per Accuweather). So it's time for our Defense to pick-off some errant tosses by the Illini and run them in for points. This will take a ton of pressure off of Denard and allow our Offense to play with a lead - I hope!!
November 11th, 2011 at 12:03 PM ^
At least we won't be subjected to both teams going 60+ points in triple OT. Wind or no wind -rain or no rain - I feel good about this game. The illini look like they are regressing. This would be a decent road win and give us 8 wins with two game remaining. With a new caching staff and a (sort of) new system - I'll take that. In fact I would be pretty happy and excited with that.
November 11th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^
Sounds like a great mascot idea. Gets the little girls into the Michigan spirit and also makes for a perfect co-advertisement campaign with a fast food restaurant.
/Please god no!
November 11th, 2011 at 1:03 PM ^
Who said we have an advantage if it's windy? History says otherwise. Wind has not been Denard's friend. Traditional drop-back passers have proven better able to adjust.