Michigan Monday is up
https://theozone.net/2018/10/michigan-monday-recapping-badger-beatdown/
it isn't as funny or snarky as usual, mainly because they are like "oh crap, it's serious now"
October 15th, 2018 at 10:00 PM ^
Really surprised at you about this weeks game, mgrow. What makes you think we won’t start slow again? Especially considering a lack of data to suggest otherwise.
October 15th, 2018 at 10:39 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh has never lost a game in East Lansing. Not as a player. Not as a coach.
We're winning this game.
And we're beating OSU.
October 15th, 2018 at 10:48 PM ^
Actually we do have data. I have warched our O line improve game by game due to excellent coaching and thats something i havent seen round here since Christ was a kid.
I predict on facts, not emotions. We're gonna win this one.
October 15th, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
I think I need to upgrade to bifocals (I’m 50 now, it’s time). I read that last line as, “I predict on farts...”
October 15th, 2018 at 10:22 PM ^
About that Northwestern dud. I really think Nebraska lulled us to sleep the week before. We were probably thinking Northwestern would be easy since they lost to Akron. Hopefully a lesson has been learned and the team stays hungry for each game.
October 15th, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
Wellcome back Lazarus.
Programming note: newbies please show some damn respect here. This is one Mr Shrute Beet Farms back from the dead. Also known round here as king of the animated GIF.
Hey you werent hiding out with purplestuff by any chance were you? Love to see him comeback too.
October 16th, 2018 at 5:11 AM ^
I keep checking to see if PurpleStuff posts anything and so far it's been nothing since April. He's great, wish he would come back to the board now that his predictions have largely come true.
October 15th, 2018 at 10:26 PM ^
"a crappy Northwestern team"
That beat Michigan State in East Lansing...
October 15th, 2018 at 10:30 PM ^
Being down 17-0 to a crappy NW team and winning is better than losing to them at home. It’s crazy how one below average year where we are forced to play our third string QB and still win 8 games and everyone thinks Harbaugh just forgot how to coach
October 15th, 2018 at 10:36 PM ^
I don't think Northwestern is crappy. We didn't start well, but Northwestern is a fine team, their defense is solid, and playing in Evanston sucks ass. Nobody wants to play there. We should have won more comfortably, but it's explainable.
October 16th, 2018 at 5:12 AM ^
They went to OT with Nebraska.....they are not good.
October 16th, 2018 at 8:47 AM ^
Meh, NW coming off a big win at Sparty. Plus, even NU can be expected to improve. NW is solid, but nothing I’d pay money to go see.
October 16th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
They're not great, but they were coming off a big road win, and we all know Nebraska is improving every week. By the end of the season, I would not want to play Nebraska.
Northwestern isn't a top 25 team right now, but they have a non-zero chance to win the West.
October 15th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Yikes
October 16th, 2018 at 7:49 AM ^
Still a wee bit nervous though that we have not played well on the road yet.
This is the source of the small sliver of doubt that I have about our chances this weekend. Everything else tells me that we match-up well against MSU and if we play a clean game, we should win comfortably, but we just seem to not play well on the road.
But I can't believe that not every one of these guys is focused and determined. I mean, if we're tired of hearing the narrative around how Dantonio "has our number', I can't even imagine how it must make the players feel.
October 15th, 2018 at 9:54 PM ^
Wow. A fair, balanced and honest piece.
October 15th, 2018 at 9:57 PM ^
"The offensive line continues to grow and improve, just as Ed Warinner’s lines did at Ohio State. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, this will be a cohesive unit with only veterans on it. What they lack in individual talent will be made up for in technique and execution. That’s just how it goes."
Wow, that's almost like premeditated "surrender cobra".
October 15th, 2018 at 10:18 PM ^
That's PTSD. They know the war crimes they committed with Warinner against Alabama, and they know they will pay for it in this life. You can't run from your sins. The Game comes for everyone.
October 15th, 2018 at 11:03 PM ^
Yeah, it's funny I was in a debate with one of the OSU accounts about how I think OSU has dropped the ball in State of Ohio recruiting, and he blamed all of their major in state misses on Warinner since most were OL, therefore implying he was a bad recruiter.
So when I said, since our OL recruiting sucked anyway, I'd rather have the improvement that Warinner seemed to be bringing to our OL, he basically agreed he'd rather have that too.
The cognitive dissonance to get rid of a guy who could turn lower rated guys into a great OL because he couldn't recruit 5* ........that is the definition of hubris.
October 15th, 2018 at 11:13 PM ^
Also, it's probably not even factually true. They missed on 5* Jackson Carman last year, a year after Warinner was gone. Other big programs are just coming in and out-recruiting them. Al Washington is about to land a top ten player from suburban Columbus. There's no excuse, OSU is just getting beat.
October 16th, 2018 at 10:51 AM ^
It's interesting that you crap on a fan base for wanting to get rid of a guy that couldn't recruit 5* OL. Because, that is essentially the main complaint against Drevno - that he whiffed on every big time OL he tried to recruit.
The comparisons in actual coaching aren't good, although everyone of us enjoyed how the 2015 and 2016 OL's played (all Drevno, all the time). We knew the personnel had issues, but the lines generally played above their talent on the whole. The 2017 OL was a mash up of two OL coaches coaching the OL. All we hear growing up is that the OL must be a cohesive unit, and spend time together, to be any good. So we split them up with two coaches that had very different OL strategies. That plan didn't work...
I will readily admit that the improvements we've seen with Warinner this year, appear more impressive than what we saw in both 2015 and 2016. But I'm not sure that the addition of Greg Frye last year didn't derail some goodness that was growing with Drevno. Then again, I don't that anyone could have made last years OL decent at football...
October 15th, 2018 at 10:18 PM ^
There's definitely some apprehension in this write up. I think the depth of Warriner's work with the O-line, save the ND game, is becoming an "Oh, shit" type of realization for future opponents. Even in 2016, an above average O-line closes out the ohio and Iowa games. Now it's becoming apparent that this group is proving capable of doing that, all the while Don Brown's defense is now fully realized and terrifying (while holding out Gary and limiting Solomon).
October 16th, 2018 at 12:30 AM ^
yes, the tone verges on oddly reverent in the opening "one of only two teams in the country to beat Wisconsin" and continues from there.
October 16th, 2018 at 9:13 AM ^
Pretty sure that was a dig, since they go on to explain how terrible BYU is.
October 16th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^
I got the snark aspect, was still struck by the weird tone of his writing, then again, I was probably reading too much into it. He's been hedging this year, as if he's managing expectations.
Enjoyable to see that from the OSU side once again
October 15th, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
" and in so doing they joined 4-3 BYU as the only two teams in the nation to have beaten the Badgers this season "
That's the typical snark I've come to expect.
October 15th, 2018 at 11:09 PM ^
My favorite bit of snark:
If you can't run the ball, you can't win this game. One of these two teams is hitting it's stride in the ground game. The other is hitting a defensive line. Repeatedly.
October 15th, 2018 at 11:21 PM ^
Snark? That seems directed at OSU. For as much as Michigan fans like to complain about Harbaugh running into stacked boxes, they just got 13 for 51 from Weber and 10 for 35 from Dobbins. Against Minnesota. In the 'Shoe.
October 16th, 2018 at 7:30 AM ^
Yes, but it's still snark. I appreciated that it was self-directed snark.
October 15th, 2018 at 11:36 PM ^
Lots of stuff here that is complementary toward Michigan but this is one he repeats:
"I wrote yesterday and probably tweeted that one of the main differences between the Ohio State defense and the Michigan defense is that the Buckeyes always look like they’re about a man-and-a-half down, while the Wolverines generally look like they’re playing 13-on-11."
October 16th, 2018 at 12:16 AM ^
Always a good read. Seem to see the positive side when a ton of our fan base cannot
October 16th, 2018 at 2:12 AM ^
Man, even the article's timing says, "Oh crap, it's serious, now." Dude rarely gets it out before Wednesday.
October 16th, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^
Right. I bet they are so worried.
15-2 man.
October 16th, 2018 at 8:23 AM ^
The best thing that could happen was Staee beating psu, on the road. Gets our kids fully focused and, maybe, gives Staee some overconfidence.
October 16th, 2018 at 8:24 AM ^
As we’ve also seen, without pressure, Haskins doesn’t make too many mistakes. With pressure, however, those mistakes come at a much greater clip.
When we do get to The Game, whatever state we're in at that point, this is what I am most interested in seeing - Haskins with someone in his face for the entire game as he's not experienced it too often yet.
October 16th, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
If Orlando Prince continues to be the matador he's been this season, we will see exactly how well Haskins can respond to pressure. Gary, Winovich, Paye, and Uche will come through and around Prince so fast that Haskins will be happy to hand it off to the guy we passed over and duck out of the way.
October 16th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
The line I like best was written last week: "...bringing a one-dimensional offense against this Michigan defense is just asking to be debacled."
Ask Wisconsin if this is true...
October 16th, 2018 at 5:03 PM ^
Michigan Monday has reverted back to its original purpose . . . to keep a very wary, concerned eye on that dreaded Team Up North.
It's not all shits and giggles anymore.