I thought 9-3. Wasn't sure if we'd lose at NW or home vs. UW.

Really glad we shut up Sparty and the way we did before, during, and after the game. Bush league!

Also, Franklin needed a real beatdown and got it. Still mad we didn't stop them from scoring, but it was garbage time.

My surprise is that the slants and patterns SMU used to gouge us and then Indy didn't get a response for OSU from our D and staff.

OSU did to us what we did vs. PSU in '97 - just completely dominated the game. Not something they have done that often to anyone. 

Shea had troubles yesterday at times, but look at the stats for the year, including the 3-game run in the middle. 

WIN the F-ing bowl impressively and then get ready for the final Saturday in November starting the morning we get back from Tempe or Atlanta.

Completely agree - the lopsided score was the real surprise.  That's something that will just have to be avenged in AA next year

Michigan did exceed my win total. I had 9-3. However , DID NOT see giving up 62 points. That's the problem. We got destroyed. Basically we are good not elite. All I want to focus on is how to improve and get to elite. What needs to be done and what parts are missing. Also would be nice to see some silver lining type of post highlighting if we were moving towards explosive offense. 

Do we call this game "The Horror III"?

After ND I figured 7-5 but didn't expect Wariner magic.

I'm so very butthurt from this game and I am having trouble getting past the loss...taking a break til I can put this shit in perspective.  Michigan FB has become almost a religion to me and I need to not care so much.

And, at 53, I don't remember when Michigan didn't choke regularly on big games...it's what we do...so honestly not surprised we lost.  Surprised about being crushed yes.

The difference between happiness and disappointment is results in relation to expectations.  At the beginning of the season 10 wins sounded like a great year.  But, after going 9-1 and only losing the first game by 3 points to an undefeated team, that brought expectations up and led to our disappointment.  As a realist, I saw the loss to OSU coming all along (albeit not by as much), but many here drank the Cool Aid and got their expectations up.

I remember the thread and I chose not to participate because I had no basis to make a prediction.  We didn’t have a Spring game to see Shea,  the O-Line was 5 guards, and the defense looked solid, but no defense can withstand 40 minutes of play each game.  Being an optimist, I probably would have guessed 9-3 as an act of faith.  10-2 is a good season and beyond expectations.  It’s just a bad end after 10 straight wins that made me get excited enough to secure tickets and a hotel room in Indy for the B1G Championship game.  I really want to go to that game.  We will get there.  Just not this year.  I swear OSU sandbagged their way through 11 games to get us into false sense of security.

Surprised at how out of control it got, but you'd have to be an idiot to be surprised that we lost.

It hasn't been a rivalry for quite some time.

The schedule wasn't nearly as daunting as was thought before the season. The ND and OSU games showed us how far we are from competing with high level teams, we didn't really have a realistic shot in either. I am surprised by that.

Losing to OSU, in itself, is not surprising.

Losing the way we did was absolutely shocking. In most profound depths of the Rich Rod and Hoke eras, we never took a loss like this. 62 points?! This is what OSU does to cupcakes!!

On the whole, still very happy with 10-2, especially given how scared we all were after the ND game. But I would still say that the way we lost was stunning

Yeah, I was surprised.  Because in July you are guessing at what you have.  We had no idea Shea would turn out to be as good as he was.  We had not beaten PSU and MSU soundly.  We did not know we would have the No. 1 defense in the country.  In late November, we knew those things.  So damn right, I was surprised to see the defense collapse the way it did.  I expected to give up 21-31 points, but if you had told me we would score 39, I would have said “we win.”

In my view, here's where the frustration comes from... We started the season with Harbaugh facing a tremendous amount of pressure, and the program facing an uncertain path back to elite status. After the ND loss, that path grew murkier, and the pressure on Harbaugh intensified. As the season progressed, it started to seem like ND was an aberration and that Harbaugh would finally break through and restore the program to the ranks of the elite. And after yesterday, we're back to where we were after the ND loss: the real Michigan is a team that beats up on lesser teams but chokes in its very biggest games, and it's unclear when or even if we'll ever be anything other than an also-ran. 

That about sums it up, I think. 

How does Maryland and PSU go toe-to-toe with OSU and we get butt-stomped?  Man defense was a huge mistake, but that is what we do so whatever.  Live by the sword and die by the sword ...

Apprehension was sky-high among fans because of the tough road schedule this year, which turned out to only be a problem at OSU and ND.

OSU also, whether looking ahead to Michigan or not, flailed about on the road.  Thinking it over I don't buy that they just poured all that extra prep time into getting ready for us.  They didn't beat Maryland, MD ended up beating themselves.

So if most people's predictions included a couple of road losses, in answer to LSA's question... fairly accurate.

I really, really look forward to the home schedule in 2019.

ya but sometimes exceeding expectations gives me the happys :)

I have given myself 24 hours to cool off because as most are stating here.  It is not so much that we lost to OSU (that does suck), but how the game played out. It had reached a point that it was humiliating.

Now that I have cooled off.  I am still disappointed, but here is my perspective.

Michigan is now a Top 15 program (ranking between 8-15) and if status remained quo, that is pretty much where we will be.  This compares to MSU during their 6-7 years of glory (quickly fading BTW) or Wisconsin.

The question now is, will tweaks be made to elevate the program to a Top 5 in the country to hang around with 'Bama, Clemson, Oklahoma, and yes OSU?

And, to me, tweaks need to be made on BOTH sides of the ball.

For Defense, Don Brown is a great coach, he is a DUDE.  His man to man pressure scheme works great..... Against 111 out of 126 teams in the FBS.  It will make a mockery of the lower 100 teams, consistently beat the next 20 teams, BUT to complete and beat any of the top team, the defense has to be able to play man AND zone coverages.  Can not go out there and "out athlete" the top teams, need to mix up the coverages.  All of the QB's noted above are too good to say "Hey, we're here to play man to man....lets go!"

On offense, again measure against the top teams, 50 points a game is the barometer, having a ball control offense is great, but there is the need to be explosive plays as well because when you complete against those top teams, they WILL score and score plenty (Clemson gave up 35 to SC, Bama gave up 21, and Okla..never mind that D is simply terrible).  But the point remains, the offense needs to continue to evolve with the ability to go up tempo when needed and the continued evolution of the passing game so that 50 points is certainly attainable consistently.

Harbaugh is currently 38-13 and with a Bowl win and has the opportunity to finish with the highest ranking since 2003 or 1999.  It has been a LONG TIME coming to be back in this position.

What I see is: Status quo equals ~10 wins season and being ranked between 8-15.  Tweaking is needed to take the final step.

The question is, do you believe that JH is willing to make those tweaks or just accept the status quo?

To me the answer is obvious and if you really have to ask which way JH falls on this matter, then you have not really been paying attention to the overall building of this program that JH has put into it........

Honestly, the whole feel of the season would be quite different if The Game's score had been something like a 35-31 loss. It was just the pounding that took a lot of luster off of an up-til-that-point great season.

I predicted 10-2.  After ND I changed it to 8 wins, maybe.  The team grew, but they fooled us in thinking they were better.  Lets hope we don't lose to many guys early to the NFL draft look to next year. 

At least we didn't didn't have to watch the Lions today!   

Am I surprised? Am I surprised?? Yes, I think every football fan in America was at least mildly surprised that Michigan came out looking unprepared, uninspired, out coached, outclassed, out executed, out hustled, and basically like they didn't even belong on the same field. 

I genuinely think that Michigan coaches and players came into this game believing wholeheartedly that they were going to win and maybe even dominate. However, I also think that they forgot that the other team might actually prepare and be ready to sucker punch them in the throat. This team clearly wasn't prepared mentally both in terms of game preparation and just being ready for the other team's absolute best shot. You gonna tell me that their offensive scheme was so good that NONE of our DL players could win a one on one matchup and even apply pressure to Haskins? For 4Q?? I'd like to be wrong, but I think this team showed up thinking it was going to be easy and wasn't ready for a street fight. 

Onviously I'm venting, but anyone who has ever played sports on a somewhat competitive level can at least somewhat agree with me that Michigan just was not prepared. If there's a counter argument, someone please make it. The only one I can think of is that UM had the equivalent day of a great shooter in basketball going 0-15 from 3 and chalking it up to an "off day."

Am I disappointed?  Yes.  But I also try to be a realist, so apart from the bookend losses to Notre Dame and Ohio State, this season has been a pleasant surprise.

As a Red Sox fan for most of my life (born during the Truman administration), I tend towards pessimism, despite the four World Series championships in the past 15 seasons.  I didn’t post in the pre-season prediction thread, but in August I was thinking that I wouldn’t have been surprised by a 7-5 season, but thought that 9-3 was possible with a few good breaks.

I expected losses at Notre Dame, Michigan State and Ohio State.  I was worried about Wisconsin because the Badgers were getting a lot of pre-season hype (there was a time when many pundits had them in the playoffs, plus they had a Heisman Trophy candidate in running back Jonathan Taylor and Sports Illustrated ran a glowing story about their offensive linemen). I also thought that Penn State at home and Northwestern on the road would be toss-up games.

Among my concerns were: (1) uncertainty about the skills of the offensive tackles; (2) finding a suitable replacement for Mo Hurst; (3) possibility that Shea Patterson had been overhyped since he came out of IMG; (4) finding a reliable punter; (5) getting good replacements for holder Garrett Moores and kickoff specialist James Foug who’d been key players on special teams; (6) Pep Hamilton commanding the offense; (7) several new coaches; and (8) the lack of any apparent contributors among the true freshman class.

What I learned:  (1) After the first game, Jon Runyan and Juwann Bushell-Beatty seemed to perform reasonably well as offensive tackles, and until recently they both were healthy.  (2) Mo Hurst probably was irreplaceable and it showed.  (3) Shea Patterson wasn’t spectacular, but he was very good (especially considering the QB play after Jake Rudock left), even though he doesn’t have the arm strength that he’d need to take advantage of downfield throws and he’ll likely be overshadowed in the All-Conference voting. (4) Will Hart emerged as the Big Ten’s leading punter for average distance and mostly was a reliable holder.  (5) Jake Moody was very reliable on kickoffs and has made eight of eight field goal attempts in place of Quinn Nordin. (6) Pep Hamilton isn’t very good as an offensive coordinator.  (7) Apart from the first and last games of the season, Ed Warinner seems to have done enough with the offensive linemen to make them better than I’d expected, but it’s hard for me to know whether any of the other new coaches made much of an impact.  (8) Other than Jake Moody, Ronnie Bell and Aidan Hutchinson, it appears that all of the other true freshmen have preserved their redshirt status.  Those three who played regularly were solid contributors, even though their contributions were limited until Moody set a school record when he made all six of his field goal attempts to win the Indiana game.

Whether it would have made any difference in the big scheme of things or not, in my head there were a couple 'tipping points' in the first half.

2nd and 2 after a Higdon 8 yard carry on the first drive, we go play action and get sacked..... FFS!! hand the ball to Mason and move the damn chains!

The 2pt attempt after the turnover TD, why?  Take the PAT and  don't give them anything positive after a turnover.  

We gave their D stops on both and let them build momentum and confidence.   MD ran for 250 yard in the 1st half against that D.

But, that's the way it went.

For this being Year 4 of the Harbaugh era, a 10-2 regular season was not a surprise.

Losing by RichRod proportions against OSU was a surprise.

Surprised with the record? No. To me, 10-2 is a good (not great, particularly given the talent that came back) year. Surprised at losing to OSU? Yes, but not overly so. Surprised at giving up 62 points to OSU? Absolutely stunned.

I did not expect OSU to drop a historic 62 on UM. That was just plain awful to behold.

I'm in the camp of highly disappointed. Yes W-L is all that matters - just look at OSU - but the way we lost to OSU cannot be understated.

My question now is, what will Harbaugh focus on during the off-season to improve things. Last year it was the S&C and OL, which were massively improved. BUT... I don't think we will ever be able to recruit at OSU's level but we certainly need to be deeper with top talent. Will Harbaugh go out and hire a top OC who can scheme us into wins, without relying on top tier talent?

I'm behind the team all the way but this was brutally painful to watch.  Go Blue!

agree, we didn't expect OSU to fall apart during the season. they got it back together on saturday, that's for sure. meyer looked fine, too, by the way. 

I am surprised, not that we lost, but that Ohio State won the way they did, and that in one week, they seemed to have fixed all that ailed them over the season. 

The short answer is that we should in no way be disappointed, but we completely are because we are idiots who apparently deserve to rot in hell.

Eat at Arby’s.

Surprised? no.  I was only allowing myself a faint glimmer of hope.

UM is good, not great.  OSU is Alabama level, and we're not.

I believe that the basis for our disappointment is largely the expectations that we had for OSU’s performance which were set As a result  of their play against Purdue and Maryland among others. Unfortunately, that is not the Buckeye team that showed up at the ‘shoe on Saturday. Emerging from the tunnel instead was the team that was ranked #3 in ESPN’s preseason power rankings — loaded with 4 and 5 star talent. Viewed thru that lens, with the benefit of hindsight, we should not have been surprised. 

I was disappointed and I WAS surprised. I will never be surprised again.(Perma-BPONE)   But I said last year I wouldn't attend another OSU Michigan game until UM proves that they can win one. I've now extended that to watching them on TV as well.  It ruins my enjoyment of the rest of a good season (2016,2018 for example.)  

not like that though

Thanks for doing the follow up on this. I was thinking the same thing, relative to our earlier expectations.

I think the reason for most of the intense disappointment was based on an expectation after OSU's underperformance in some games.

Their lackluster games against Purdue and Maryland made them appear more vulnerable. They have so much talent that they tend to look past certain games and take a win for granted. I think a lot of us bought into that, while forgetting that OSU will never take the UM game for granted.

The big bpone thing about it is that our team was on a roll, of course we did not play hard against Rutgers and IU, but OSU was having a tough time against NE and Maryland. I thought we could take them and did not expect the total collapse of both our defense, offense and special teams. All we had to do was take care of business and we would have won the B1G and made the playoffs and great things may have occurred with recruiting and having Michigan back the national stage. Now we are the butt of jokes getting our asses whipped the way we did by OSU. It was a very embarrassing loss for the program. If I knew we did not have a shot at the playoffs, I would have accepted a loss to OSU better but they ruined our season and possibly future seasons by destroying our team.