Saturday, October 12, 2013 - Early Game Thread

Submitted by Wolverine In Iowa on

I'm going to watch FYS against Indiana - should be hilarious.

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LSAClassOf2000

October 12th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^

The Spartans are gaining 5.85 yards per snap now while only giving up only 4.72 yards per snap, and they've also conversted all but two of their third downs. Even more interesting, if I counted right, Indiana has only about 70 yards of offense to their name in this half. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

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alum96

October 12th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^

Not a big TOP guy but holding the ball for 15 more minutes than another team is pretty ridiculous.  Also MSU with 13 minutes or whatever to go is holding IU offense to half their season total on offense.  IU defense obviously very suspect - but you need to put 35+ on them to offset the offense that even with 15 minutes of possession can put up 3 TDs.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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LJ

October 12th, 2013 at 3:34 PM ^

I don't get this.  Take a look at the record at the bottom of his wikipedia page and tell me you wouldn't take it in a heartbeat at Michigan.  He's got a national championship, a 2nd place finish, and has won the conference more than half of the years he's been there.  What more can you possibly want?

Joined: 07/05/2008

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alum96

October 12th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^

The point is MSU does not need to be great on offense with that defense.  If their offense is competent they are the division favorite IMO - even though I think they lose at NW and at Neb.  They avoid OSU.

All the 4 favorites in the division play each other but when you look at what other teams they play Neb and MSU have a clear advantage from schedule.

Joined: 04/28/2012

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ghost

October 12th, 2013 at 3:08 PM ^

Indiana's D is a joke.  It as abolutely awful.  They gave up 35 to Indiana St.  The same team that's only win i over Qunicy.  People are way overreacting to MSU beating a couple of bad teams.  They were supposed to win those games.

As far as them being the favourite in the division well they will likely lose to at least 2 of Michigan, NWST, and Nebreska.  It will probably take at least 6 wins to win the divison, but that likely requires the use of tie-breakers.  Having  both losses in the division would leave them at the bottom of basically every tie breaker.

Joined: 09/02/2011

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jonvalk

October 12th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^

Ok, so watching Texas' defense tear up Oklahoma makes me wonder whether the issue with our defense in the RR years was GERG or a combo of scheme (RRs doing) and talent. Texas has looked great on defense ever since he took over.

Joined: 07/19/2009

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alum96

October 12th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^

I dont know a thing about Texas defense but I'll just say in general the talent level from where TX recruits is above what UM had in those years.  It also is potentially one of those snowball games where whatever OU does it just snowballs on them.  That said, I dont wish ill will on any coach who leaves here - it just didnt work here.  Hopefully it works for them elsewhere. 

Joined: 04/28/2012

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Perkis-Size Me

October 12th, 2013 at 3:11 PM ^

GERG was forced to run a defense he knew nothing about. Granted, it was still his responsibility to put a competitive defense on the field, and he failed miserably at that. But I place most of the blame on RichRod. He put GERG in a really bad position with asking him to field a 3-3-5.

That being said, I doubt we could've fielded much of a good defense even if GERG got to run his scheme. Those were just not good teams at all.

Joined: 11/30/2011

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ND Sux

October 12th, 2013 at 3:05 PM ^

on a double pass thingy.  Probably should't have been thrown, but nice leaping Hemingway-esque catch.

...followed by missed XP.  Wow.

Joined: 10/01/2009

MGoPoints: 15650

NOLA Wolverine

October 12th, 2013 at 3:19 PM ^

Notre Dame employed this logic. You'll need a crew willing to throw 11-12 pass interference flags if you want to do that. Michigan should try to destroy MSU on Gardner run/pass option plays. I don't know why we've stopped running those, but MSU's aggressive coverage will fall apart if Gardner can evade the first rush like it did earlier when IU's QB was scrambling around. Or when Russell Wilson destroyed them two years ago. 

Joined: 09/01/2009

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snarling wolverine

October 12th, 2013 at 3:33 PM ^

MSU loves to tee off on offenses that don't stretch the field, as we've seen the last few times we've played them.  You've got to force their safeties to back off.

ND had a fine gameplan against MSU, but Rees had an absolutely piss-poor game accuracy-wise.  If he'd played with his usual level of accuracy, they'd have won going away.  IU scored 28 today and they only got a couple of PI calls. 

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