Late Shift Games Open Thread

Submitted by formerlyanonymous on

The 7pm games have started. So while you're probably still amped about MIIIIIICHIGAN, here's your place to start the discussion for everywhere else.

Go BYU!

TATEisGREATyo

September 5th, 2009 at 7:18 PM ^

Tate can pass AND run:

Denard can run THEN pass:

Just what the preseason has shown.

With that said,

Nick is out. We have 2 QB's. It excites me.

Hopefully we saw our own weaknesses and can adjust for the ND game, and come up with a few tricks. It's a good day to be a MICHIGAN WOLVERINE!

MaizeNBlueJ

September 5th, 2009 at 7:38 PM ^

Agree on the secondary. Donvoan got penalized a few times, but was solid otherwise. Floyd got burned a couple of times in the second half. They did tackle very well, which is definitely a good thing.

Hopefully Brandon Graham will get a couple sacks next week, because he was so close about 3 or 4 times. Craig Roh played well on the D-line as well.

Injury concerns: Cissoko apparently got a little dinged up towards the end. Hemingway didn't return after he got the first down in the third quarter and tweaked his ankle (I think). RichRod said in his presser that he thinks Hemingway is okay, but they might have to rest Cissoko some.

Here's to a good week of practice and to taking it to ND next Saturday. Go Blue!

Muttley

September 5th, 2009 at 7:37 PM ^

If I only considered today

PSU (took care of business vs weak Akron)
ND (35-0 vs Nevada, similar preseason rankings quality to WMU)
MSU (takes care of business vs FCS team)
tOSU (squeaks by Navy, similar preseason rankings quality to WMU)
Wisc (in progress, winning 7-0 1st qtr vs N Illinois, preseason rankings slightly lower than WMU)
Purdue (takes care of FCS Towson)
Illinois (destroyed by Missouri)
Iowa (Sneaks by FCS N. Iowa)
Indiana (squeaks by FCS E. Kentucky)
EMU (yet to play but among FBS worst)
Del State (no need to see 'em)

Adjusted for common sense, adding whether I think Mich should be favored

PSU  slight dog
tOSU slight dog
ND   toss-up (ND favored by negligible point or two)
MSU  toss-up
Iowa slight favorite
Ill   slight favorite
Wisc slight favorite
Pur strong favorite
Ind overwhelming favorite
EMU overwhelming favorite
DSU favored such that no line will be issued

9-3, 8-4 all of a sudden looks baseline. If we win next week, 10+ wins are possible.

Jeff

September 5th, 2009 at 8:28 PM ^

I don't know why you're comparing Nevada to Michigan because the point was that Nevada and Western Michigan are similar level of opponents.

I think he's right. Both Nevada and WMU have bad defenses and were supposed to have good offenses. So while Michigan and Notre Dame's offensive output might not mean much, their defensive strength was impressive. Next week will be a much tougher test since that will be a large step up in competition for both schools.

For an example of preseason rankings, NY Times ranked Nevada 48th and WMU 56th. I think that counts as pretty similar.

Irish

September 5th, 2009 at 9:36 PM ^

I didn't even know the NY Times had a preseason ranking, and didn't check it before making my post. If your just looking at that list your right, that isn't a big difference in ranking, I should have checked more than just espn's listings.

Jeff

September 5th, 2009 at 10:14 PM ^

I'm not sure what other rankings are available online. In my personal opinion, the NYT quad ranking of Nevada and WMU is pretty reasonable. I think they're both good mid-major teams but not great teams. I predict both teams will go around 8-4 or 9-3.

Nevada did receive 11 points in the Coaches poll and WMU got none. However that is not much of a difference considering Florida had 1466 points and the number 25 team (Oregon St) had 165. So 11 points is just about meaningless. Nevada is probably slightly better than WMU but I don't think it's much of a difference in quality.

Like I said previously both teams are probably pretty good on offense and both are pretty bad on defense. I am very impressed that Notre Dame shut out Nevada. I expected Nevada to put up a lot of points.

Irish

September 5th, 2009 at 11:09 PM ^

Until I have seen more of the UM game I don't want to make to strong a comment but I would put Nevada above WMU just looking at their offenses. Pass defense was pretty much mirror images of each other, considering nevada's pass defense was dead last last year you could make the argument that WMU's secondary was stronger and I wouldn't have much to say otherwise.

But the offense, Nevada averaged over 37 points per game last year and brought back 3, 1,000 yard rushers this year and Kaepernick can throw (over 2,800 additional yards in the air). Thats beyond prolific. Again I haven't seen much of the game yet, but what I did seemed to be hiller hand cuffed by his inexperienced receivers with deflections and bad routes. At the same time that could be the result of a good pass rush hurrying hiller into bad throws, not certain yet.

formerlyanonymous

September 5th, 2009 at 8:29 PM ^

So many penalties this game. I wouldn't be surprised if penalty yardage was somewhere near 60% of the total yardage.

EDIT: Since that sounds confusing: Say both teams have a total of 400 yards so far, they might be approaching 240 penalty yards. Yeah, that's an exaggeration, but it seems like it's been like that.

thee1jersey

September 5th, 2009 at 9:11 PM ^

I'm pretty pumped about the late west coast games myself. Even though i think Cal will kill Maryland, and LSU will destroy U Dub, I want to see Locker and Best play. I just hope i don't see Best throw up Gatorade like he did last year. I can't belive that BYU actually has a chance to be Oklahoma.

Muttley

September 5th, 2009 at 10:05 PM ^

Down only 8 w/ a minute left, NIU had the ball in Wiscy territory (about the 30), but didn't make it on fourth-and-three.

B10 not exactly murderer's row this year.