Perspective

Submitted by greg788 on

After the Notre Dame game, most of the board was out with torches and pitchforks. Some of that was justified. I personally felt Michigan wasn't emotionally or mentally ready to play (including the coaching staff). 

I'm seeing the opposite over-reactions now in all this glad handing. Suddenly the offensive line is a bulldozer. 

Here's what I saw:

1. Nebraska 's defense line is undersized

2. Probably half of them have checked out already with the coaching change (Frost implied as much post game)

3. They failed to do the ONE thing that Michigan's O line has yet prove they can manage: the mayhem from twists, stunts and frequent linebacker blitzing. Instead they tried to play us straight up like Wisconsin / Iowa.

I'm happy to see we executed a relatively simple assignment. But by the end of the first quarter I was shaking my head and thinking, geez, Nebraska D coordinator, what are you thinking, your game plan just sucks and I'd hate to be a Nebraska fan right now

So, perspective is in order. We played our first complete game of the season. What matters is playing this type of complete game against the gauntlet we have to run in a few weeks ... we'll see ...

M-Dog

September 23rd, 2018 at 5:55 PM ^

We overreact.  It's what we do.

Nebraska was a good win.  But bad teams have a way of making merely good teams look like great teams. 

We didn't beat Ohio State or Penn State or Michigan State.  Nebraska is not a useful surrogate for them.

But we are improving.  And the schedule gives us time to improve.  Our two toughest games will be in November.  Our next two toughest games after that are in the second half of October.

So we are going in the right direction, which is all you can ask at this point.  It's too early to try to read any tea leaves at this point, good or bad.

jgoblue11

September 23rd, 2018 at 9:04 PM ^

Exactly! Also, how sad is it that we will already be 5 games in this weekend? Is it me, or is this season flying?!?  

We are getting better. This win was huge for our guys. Handle Northwestern this weekend, and get past Maryland without injuries and I like us against Wisconsin.

Just have to keep running that ball to open up Shea's arm.

Go blue all!

 

UMDWolve

September 23rd, 2018 at 6:00 PM ^

I think you're just overreacting about overreactions.  I haven't seen anyone say "WOW Michigan trucked Nebraska, that means we're gonna steamroll the rest of our opponents!"  It's more along the lines of "this is what we should do against lesser teams, now let's see what happens against better competition"

Dizzy

September 23rd, 2018 at 10:02 PM ^

Honestly, that Ben Mason battleship package they were running looked pretty fucking difficult to stop. It completely broke NU's defense, without even getting fancy. Can't wait to see the counters Harbaugh has off it. 3 TDs in a half ain't bad... we'll see if NW has an answer next week. I don't think they will. Harbaugh knows what he's doing. 

jmblue

September 23rd, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^

I’m not sure where you’re seeing that.  What I see is a lot of people calling Nebraska a cupcake and basically saying the game didn’t mean much.

Mike Damone

September 23rd, 2018 at 6:05 PM ^

You present a rational and logical case.

But Nebraska's defense is not supposed to be that bad.  We made them look bad.

So shut up and dont rain on our fucking parade.  Drinking Maize n Blue Kool Aid this morning after our beatdown of those Cornholes and Frosty the overrated blowhard.

Go Blue!

Double-D

September 23rd, 2018 at 8:59 PM ^

Right now we are likely to be favored in every game right up until we travel to OSU.  Wisconsin and MSU all look to be not quite as good as was first expected.  PSU is at home.

It’s not unreasonable to be optimistic for 10-1 going into OSU.  It’s just satisfying to see the team play so soundly in all facets of the game.  I see a team that has a high ceiling and is likely to keep getting better.  

freelion

September 23rd, 2018 at 6:05 PM ^

I was very upset watching the ND game live in a noisy bar but after watching the recorded version I felt much better and confident this was an aberration not a trend. My perspective then was that Shea was the QB we have been lacking and that he would be a gamechanger. That has been confirmed in the 3 games since and is why I think we can win any game on our schedule now.

M-Dog

September 23rd, 2018 at 8:13 PM ^

You could certainly make the case that had we had Shea last year . . . we would have won the Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State games.

Wow.  That's an impact.

So let's do it this year.  And throw in Penn State as well.

 

rockydude

September 23rd, 2018 at 6:41 PM ^

I propose a Nancy snowflake thread, pinned right up at the top. The "this isn't so good, stop being so cheery"! contingent with the cranky old man finger-wagging just is amazingly boring to me. Maybe they should have their own space to sit and whine about how people are way too happy after every win.