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Sure a win is a win.

Sure a win is a win. Especially against our in-state rival who is still the defending B1G champion. But anyone who is ok with this game has forfeited the right to say "Win with cruelty." 

Yeah I discovered this

Yeah I discovered this recently playing around on a nifty transitive property website called My Team Is Better Than Your Team. When you click on the tool to see all the teams better than Michigan you get the delicious answer of "Nobody is better than Michigan in 2016."

Well ESPN has Speight at 28th

Well ESPN has Speight at 28th in Total QBR. So there.

Up 35-7 at halftime Jake

Up 35-7 at halftime Jake Browing went on to throw 4 TD passes in the second half and played into the 4th quarter. After the drive where Oregon scored a TD to make it 56-21 Washington got the ball with under 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and went on an 8 play 75 yard TD drive lasting into the 4th where Browning threw 4 times including the 44 yard TD pass. To be fair all the passes were 2nd or 3rd and long. They didn't attempt a pass for the rest of the game and had their last TD drive with all runs. I don't really have a problem with a team playing away against a rival continuing to throw the ball when they're showing some fight. And I assume Browning is gunning for the heisman as well.

...don't talk about Navy

...don't talk about Navy beating the #6 team!

Here's a gif I made of the

Here's a gif I made of the McDowell hit from the better angle. Since there are still so many people who don't seem to understand what the referees are looking at. He runs straight at the QB and lowers his head right before contact. He does not turn his head to the side to hit with the shoulder. The helmet hits almost directly on Lagow's stomach and slides to the side due to the angle of his body from throwing.

Yeah I thought it was a good

Yeah I thought it was a good call. There was an angle they showed on tv from behind the QB where McDowell pretty clearly lowers his head like a bull. And the initial contact is from the top of the helmet to the left side of the QB's ribs. The QB is at an angle so at the end of the tackle his shoulder hits the QB and his head has moved to the QB's left hip. That doesn't make it a tackle with the shoulder. The contact was intitiated with the crown of the helmet. Lowering your helmet to hit a QB in the ribcage as they throw should be targeting. I'm surprised so many people are not in agreement with that.

It's a mistake. Musso is

It's a mistake. Musso is 5'10".

The math does work for

The math does work for Michigan at least. 45 offensive ppg for Michigan and 52 ppg total. He was incorrect with Wisconsin though. Should be 28.5 offensive ppg and 30.8 ppg total for them. He said 24 ppg.

Of the 114 offensive points Wisconsin has scored this season 52 of them were in the Akron game. That's 46% of their offensive production this season in one game. Their offensive ppg is 20.67 in the other three games.

In comparison Michigan's defense has given up 48 points this season with 21 in the Colorado game. That's 43.75% given up in one game. The defense has given up 9 ppg in the other three games.

So is that one game an abberation for either team? We'll see. I feel good about it though.

Don't judge.

Don't judge.

I'm speaking more to what the

I'm speaking more to what the two coaches are talking about. Harbaugh thinks we won the line of scrimmage. Frost thinks UCF was "hitting harder" the whole game and they had the superior run game. You can't just look at the box score and say Frost is right and the sky is falling as some posters are doing. UCF ran for 275 yards on 46 carries and Michigan ran for 119 yards on 41 carries. That's about 6 ypc against 3 ypc. But UCF had 66% of their rushing yards on 4 plays. We were holding UCF to under 3 ypc on an average running play while preventing them from passing at all. At the same time we were getting about 3 ypc against a loaded box while throwing at will. UCF had two QB scrambles and two big running plays when they were already losing by 30. That doesn't make you the harder hitting team with a better run game. In terms of the overall game Michigan was definitely winning the line of scrimmage. 

Not too concerned although

Not too concerned although watching wasn't as enjoyable as you'd think a 51-14 game would be. Our top four running backs combined for 100 yards on 28 carries. That's about 3.6 yards/carry against a loaded box pretty much the entire time. If they're loading the box which allows the QB to throw for 312 yards and 4 touchdowns that's a good enough rushing game for me.

UCF on the other hand could not run the ball as well as the box score would make you think. The two QB's had runs on broken plays of 35 and 26. The top RB had a TD of 34 yards and a WR had 1 carry for an 87 yard TD. That's 182 yards on 4 carries for 45.5 ypc and two touchdowns. The other 42 carries listed in the box score therefore went for 93 yards at 2.2 ypc and no TD's. I'll take having some broken plays and big plays given up when your'e being aggressive on D. It's a good learning experience in a game we won 51-14. It well hopefully help with defensive coaching on aggressiveness and taking better angles in the open field.

 

 

I'm switching between this

I'm switching between this and Thursday Night Football.  Why is there no thread on that? Leon Hall covering Jason Avant? Brandon Graham with a sack already? Yes, please.

Yeah I don't know what to

Yeah I don't know what to think. I find it really shocking. Maybe Denard has confidence in himself but Borges just didn't think he was ready? You can watch the Denard postgame at mgoblue.com if you want to see it for yourself.

Player Postgame:

http://www.mgoblue.com/allaccess/?media=354645

Hoke Postgame:

http://www.mgoblue.com/allaccess/?media=354642

Edit: Also, Sad Roy Roundtree (from Player Postgame) makes me sad.  :'-(      

According to both Hoke and

According to both Hoke and Denard postgame his arm wasn't injured and he could have thrown. Just no passing plays were called for him. All aboard, the Fire Borges train is leaving the station.

Do you think he is back

Do you think he is back playing QB by then? We'll probably play one of LSU, Georgia, Florida, or South Carolina. So I don't know if it's such a sure thing. If in at RB it's more likely he gets 40-50 yards on 10ish carries while the game slowly devolves to Smith/Rawls 1 yard runs and mistimed play actions.

Exactly. If Borges is still

Exactly. If Borges is still OC next season I will be disappointed but still think we can have success. I would really prefer if people would discuss who they would like hired rather than just yell "rabble, rabble, rabble, fire Borges."

The wings on the leather

The wings on the leather helmet would be a leathery looking color too. Not the same color as the actual helmet.

However, it seems that Michigan had leather helmets that were maize and blue.



             

Haha I love how Bill

Haha I love how Bill Romanowski, one of the craziest people ever, thought Gerg was crazy when he pulled out a stuffed beaver in practice and yelled, "The beaver is out! The beaver is out!" Oh, Gerg. It was fun. If you define fun as having your eyes clawed out by a rabid beaver.

A lot of snowflakes like this

A lot of snowflakes like this could really be diaries with more work.  You could go through the stats of the 2011 team through the same number of games last season.  Compare top performers of last year vs this year. Unit vs unit production and see where there is more or less statistical production from last year to this year.  That's the kind of thing people coud really have a discussion about.  You really just gave your opinion with nothing to build off of.

I think that on offense our receivers/tight ends are more athletic with Funchess and Gardner but less experienced. And therefore more prone to mistakes or a tendency to disappear (i.e. lack of targets or receptions) during a game due to lack of separation.  Our line is bigger and more suited to the Borges offense but also less experienced.  Denard and the RBs are pretty much the same.  If the receivers go with athleticism rather than inexperience and Denard does his thing then this offense is better than last year.  That is with regards to potential rather than actual on field performance though.

On defense, our D-line is the new unit and I think that they are also more suited to the Mattison system.  Due to the size and athleticism of Campbell and Washington I think they are a better fit against the run because they can effectively occupy the O-line and allow linebackers to flow to the ball.  Their inexperience with regards to technique hurts with pass rush though, sometimes also against the run.  Mike Martin could just go all beast mode on fools. The loss of Countess hurts but the rest of the defense are the same guys with more experience.  Overall, I feel when the D-line does what they are supposed to this years defense is better than last. The pass rush is worse but I think good coverage helps cover up those warts to some degree.

What people said about this being a better team with a worse record seems pretty accurate.  However, if the team plays to its potential I think they can definitely run the table.

Gordon has been playing well

Gordon has been playing well with 13 goals in 23(13 starts) games but there has to be a reason Altidore is left out. This would really hurt his confidence if it's just a case of him not being deemed good enough for the roster.  The guy has 8 goals in 6 games in the Eredivisie and he has shown some real class in the games I've seen.  Maybe an injury? He did get a red card this weekend but I didn't see any of that game.

"focus on the plays that are

"focus on the plays that are being called and not on the ones that could hypothetically be called"

The argument is that a defensive player doesn't have that luxury.  They have to worry about all of the plays that could hypothetically be called from a given formation.  Don't look at bubble screens alone. That's just one play designed to keep the OLB from coming around the end on a blitz so quickly, and keeps things like that fumble from happening.

Well Bell is gonna get all

Well Bell is gonna get all ready to leap over Floyd's head...only to be slammed down by Ryan for a loss.

That's on a designed run. A

That's on a designed run. A lot of Denard's good runs come on reads where Fitz isn't blocking for him.  I was just saying that Fitz should have at least done better on the read handoffs he received.  Denard gives him the ball and options off a defender. At that point on a read play Denard and Fitz have the same blockers vs defenders.  That's not a comparison of the two (Denard is obviously a lot better) I'm just saying Fitz was really terrible.

I don't know. Is 200 to 50

I don't know. Is 200 to 50 really a shootout?

"Fitz... Suffered today from

"Fitz... Suffered today from the "8-9 guys in the box to stuff Denard and I don't have an extra blocker like he does and we are not passing the ball." Even still, 1.1 ypc sucks."

Well Denard managed 235 yards on 24 carries with the defense focused on him. The threat of Denard on the reads that Fitz got should have helped not hurt him.

Weren't passing. Instead kept

Weren't passing. Instead kept running Fitz.  Two drives where long Denard runs took us to the red zone. Then terrible Fitz runs on 1st and 2nd.  The second time we got a chop block on 2nd too.

Well power running isn't the

Well power running isn't the smartest against Alabama. In a game like this one Rawls is a better power complement to Denard's speed.  Fitz had neither power nor speed.

Yeah. Crossing the middle of

Yeah. Crossing the middle of the field is where WRs get blowed up by LBs.

I played center field. :)

I played center field. :)

Exactly. The SS had to run so

Exactly. The SS never had time to establish himself under the ball because had to run so far.  When he heard something he thought it was the left fielder calling him off.  That doesn't look like an ordinary/easy catch. It looks like an infielder running far into the outfield and then the ball dropping due to miscommunication between the infielder and outfielder.

If he could have made the

If he could have made the catch why didn't he?  The call was so late the shortstop couldn't have known it was an infield fly. He was never under the ball seeing as he stopped and the ball landed beyond him.

Cards fan? The infield fly

Cards fan? The infield fly rule is supposed to be applied to ordinary catches so that you can't intentionally drop an easy catch and get a double/triple play.  It was pretty obvious that the shortstop didn't feel comfortable with the catch and miscommunication between him and the left fielder caused the ball to drop.  That kind of thing happens all the time.

Hey, that's where I was for

Hey, that's where I was for my Wife(Girlfriend) Day!  People are saying that Georgia has no defense but you can't just look at this game and the boxscore.  A pick-six and the two turnovers inside the Georgia 20 which led to Tennessee TD's stopped this from being the blowout it could have been at halftime.  Also, what other times can you remember a defense making such good and bad plays in one game?  They scored a TD and put the offense in position for two more but also gave up 51 points with some long TD's where they got manhandled.  I guess as one annoying woman kept saying near me, "Anythang can happen in the ESS-EEE-CEE!"

"That's assault, brotha."

"That's assault, brotha."

In terms of yardage Ohio has

In terms of yardage Ohio has the worst defense in the B1G, giving up 394.75 yards/game with 277.25 passing and 117.5 rushing.  They're 5th in scoring D giving up 17.3 points/game.  They've played four unranked teams with a combined record of 5-9 all at home.  Hard to say how this game will go though, seeing as Michigan State can't throw their way out of a wet paper bag.  Seems to be strength vs strength with Bell against Ohio's run defense.  I say edge Ohio.

When we ran it against

When we ran it against Minnesota it was on a 2nd and 4 from the 17 at the beginning of the second quarter.  Vincent Smith had 3 carries for 19 yards and a TD up to that point, including a 10 yard run on that same drive.  There was actually a threat of him running the ball.  This was our second drive and Smith had 0 carries.  The safety was not thinking "Oh no, a Vincent Smith toss to the outside! He has been gashing us so I'd better come up in support!"  Instead he got to be all "Oh wow, Te'o is about to kill this gu...Oh here comes the ball."

That's the kind of play

That's the kind of play you run on 3rd and short when the D is trying to cheat up and stuff your "obvious" run play.  It doesn't make sense to try and trick a defense when your regular plays work fine. And Dileo was NOT wide open for a RB pass play.  Did you see this play the last time we ran it? Dileo was wide open then and he still had to drag his feet by the sideline to make the catch from Smith.

Denard threw 291 passes to

Denard threw 291 passes to Tate's 84 in 2010.  Tate also had 4 ints so Denard averaged an int every 26.5 passes to Tate's every 21 passes.

I agree with you that Denard

I agree with you that Denard played terribly. Throwing three consecutive interceptions (the fourth was a hail mary so whatever) is horrible even for a high school QB. I just think that blame can also be put on Borges for play calls that seemed to magnify Denard's weaknesses. How can you not just call a play to complete a screen pass or something and give him some confidence after the first two back-to-back interceptions?  Also, does anyone else feel like Denard is scared to take hits in the pocket? There are plenty of times it seems like he can step into a pass and take the hit but instead throws with his feet sideways.  The guy runs with no fear but throws like he is scared out of his mind.

I agree that there are plenty

I agree that there are plenty of times where poor play can be blamed on poor execution by the players.  However, looking at these plays what happens if they are executed perfectly? The interception plays where Denard has pressure in his face immediately he basically just needs to take a sack.  While not even near as bad as an int that is still not a good outcome.  The Smith pass play made absolutely no sense.  Smith had no carries up to that point and is Michigan's blocking back so the DBs were looking more for pass than run.  And when it turned out to be a run they still weren't going to come up fast because they have Te'o playing LB.

Florida Atlantic had -1

Florida Atlantic had -1 passing yards at halftime against Alabama. I am quaking in fear of the Alabama-like defense of Notre Dame. I mean they manhandled Michigan State! MICHIGAN STATE!!!

Only two seasons on that list

Only two seasons on that list better than this one were Rose Bowl years.  With 2003 also a Big Ten championship. I'd say that's pretty good company. 

The ELO CHESS ranking (the

The ELO CHESS ranking (the one used by the BCS) has us at 27. Ouch.  I guess cause the two decent, top 30 teams we've played, MSU and ND, we lost by 14 and won by only 4.

Next year. Dantonio:"I don't

Next year. Dantonio:"I don't deserve this, I'm building a football program." Hoke:"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it."

Coming into this season I

Coming into this season I kept thinking that I don't care how explosive Denard can be at times, I just want him to manage the game properly.  There is nothing wrong with Denard's throwing when he sets his feet and throws to an open receiver.  My problem with the situation is that I am sure in practice Denard is composed, makes good decisions, and delivers the ball well.  The only game this season where I thought he properly managed the game and made good decisions throughout was the Minnesota game, which was essentially a scrimmage.  In games against decent competition he dances around and throws some of the worst passes I have ever seen from an FBS team's Junior, starting quarterback.

And you guys need to realize that this isn't a question of Devin starting over Denard, but rather what position Denard should be starting at.  Should Denard remain a QB, or should he be moved to RB or Slot WR.  I would like to see what happens if Devin was QB with Denard as RB for an entire drive.  I feel this would give us our best chance at winning.  IIRC, we ran a couple of jet sweeps to the left around Lewan with Denard coming from the slot receiver position to the right and getting the handoff from Devin, each of which got 10+ yards.

The point of a quick pass or

The point of a quick pass or screen to where the blitz is coming from is that you don't have to pick up the blitz.  The defenders overrun the play on their sprint to the quarterback.  Plays like that are typically supposed to be checked into when the defense shows their hand.  Is Denard even allowed to audible, or do calls have to come from the sideline?  The one time I really remember him reading blitz was when he tried the quick slant to Vincent Smith who was a RB playing in the slot and obviously wasn't ready for the quick pass.

Yes, it was a mistake on

Yes, it was a mistake on Smith's part for not recognizing the blitz and turning to catch the ball on a quick slant.  I thought it was a bad read by Denard because he should have thrown the simpler pass to Kroger running a curl route.  He was just turning as the ball was released and could definitely have made the catch on a ball thrown with his back turned.  The guy covering him was playing poor coverage because he was 5+ yards off him even though MSU was blitzing.

That play also showed mistakes from Borges.  Smith is a running back and it isn't that crazy to see a running back make a mistake like that when running a route against a blitz.  Borges should have played the slot receivers more often and had them ready to adjust to blitzes with quick slants.  Instead a RB was put in the slot and didn't know what to do against that double LB blitz. 

(No subject)

MSU has a decent defense but

MSU has a decent defense but they're no best defense in the B1G.

Wins

A 2-3 FCS team Youngstown State.  28-6

A terrible 0-5 FAU team; 112th passing with 143.2 yards/game, 111th rushing with 86.8 yards/game, and 115th scoring with 13.6 points/game. 44-0

A 2-4 MAC team in Central Michigan (that lost 44-14 @Western Michigan if you're into that whole transitive property thing); 58th passing with 233.5 yards/game, 94th rushing with 117 yards/game, and 95th scoring with 21.2 points/game. 45-7

A trainwreck 3-3 Ohio in a game for the ages (not in a good way); 111th passing with 146.3 yards/game, 48th rushing with 169 yards/game, and 86th scoring with 24.3 points/game. 10-7

 

Losses

Depantsed by a 4-2 Notre Dame team (that Michigan slipped past at home UTL); 32nd passing with 273.5 yards/game, 30th rushing with 194 yards/game, and 44th scoring with 32.3 points/game. 31-13

 

Michigan is 89th passing with 200.5 yards/game, 7th rushing with 257 yards/game, and 21st scoring with 38 points/game.  The poor passing ranking is due mostly to gameplan and playing to our strentghs, as demonstrated by the 7th overall rushing ranking.  Obviously we can score points, and Denard threw for 338 and 337 in the two games where passing was actually necessary.  I think the game will be decided by Michigan State's offense failing to keep up with TOP eating scoring drives engineered by Denard and Gorgeous Al Borges.