How we know Michigan football is back...Complaining when we don't dominate enough

Submitted by Hard-Baughlls on

I'm not going to call anyone out by name or turn this in to a panic/anger vs. celebration thread for respective posters (Like the panic/dont panic thread)

Instead, I just want to point out how far we have come under Harbaugh in just his second year as coach.  No, we aren't a Bama level program yet, but with an 8-0 start, and improving QB, a solid to great defense (let's debate at the end of the year), and a probable top 3-5 recruiting class coming in again to mesh with our young guys receiveing a lot of playing time, everything is looking up.

How as UM fans do we know it's good?...Many are complaining and debating about whether or not this is an historically elite defense or just an extremely good one. Many are upset that despite being in complete control of a rival on the road (30-10), we didn't totally blow them out by 21+ and shut down their offense to under total 200 yards like many prior opponents.

These are once again first world problems as we are searching for issues and weaknesses on this team and how we will match up with OSU and potentially Alabama or Clemson.  

Bitching about a 2 score win (until the final second) and a 9 point win that was never that close against Sparty playing their annual Super Bowl against us at home (no matter how shitty they have been this year) proves that we are once the Michigan we know, Leaders and Best.

MOD EDIT - Let's just put HarbaughLover's thoughts here too as they shouldn't just die out - LSA

He said:

So what? A team has an underwhelming, single digit win against a rival that has had their number in recent years. A team is pretty dominant for most of the game but their opponent scores a bunch late to make the score look close. Still, that team is undefeated and their path is clear to the College Football Playoff. And they have wins over 2 Top-25 ranked teams as of Week 9.

Oh yeah, that team is Alabama and that opponent is Ole Miss.

Stop complaining we weren't dominant enough. We dominated that game just as we dominated the Wisco game. There was no point in the 2nd half where we were in serious danger of losing. And there is NO college football team, not even Bama, that has looked invincible. Our best wins are quite arguably better than their best wins (a 39-point blowout against what will be a Top-20 PSU team, a 17-point blowout over what will be a Top-20 CU team, and a gritty, statistically dominant win against a Top-10 Wisco team vs. a 39-point blowout against what will be an unranked Tennessee team, a solid home win over a Top-10 TA&M team, and a 46-point blowout against what will likely be a #20-#25 ranked USC team). This is a special, special year. Enjoy it.

uminks

October 30th, 2016 at 12:31 AM ^

if he makes the playoffs this season. After all the seniors graduate the next year will be tougher but I still expect only 2 or 3 losses in 2017, then the youngsters should be ready by 2018.

Red is Blue

October 30th, 2016 at 7:56 AM ^

I agree with the OP's sentiments. On nit. "a 2 score win (until the final second) and a 9 point win" - Nine points is still a two score win. When MSU scored and before karma struck back at the stupid 2 point attempt, the lead was momentarily one score.

AmayzNblue

October 30th, 2016 at 8:31 AM ^

Agreed. This is a good place to be in when we can nitpick a 2 score win.

At the same time, why does everyone feel such a need to "police" the blog boards? Are you frightened that we might show up on someone else's TWIS and display some juicy schaudenfraude? If you don't like passionate fans sharing their thoughts, then don't join a board for passionate fans....



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Real and Spectacular

October 30th, 2016 at 9:21 AM ^

My opinion is that I see a lot of people changing their tune after the fact. If you want to say "hey we expected a reasonably close game, it's their super bowl, throw the records out the window ect ect" that's fine. But a lot of you same people were saying "56-3" "79-0" "little brother gonna die" ect. You can't have it both ways. I love Brian and this site but his prediction of 37-0 was another swing and a miss underestimating MSU as has been the recent trend here. It will always be a war, and I think there is some legit concern that we weren't able to dominate them when the talent level is this one sided. They did it to us for years. Frustrating.

BG Wolverine

October 30th, 2016 at 9:41 AM ^

At the end of the game, even though it was a quick shot due to the game running long, Harbaugh and Dantonio shared a longer than normal coaching handshake. Would love to know what they were saying. I'm guessing there is quite a bit of mutual respect there deep down.



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Don

October 30th, 2016 at 9:41 AM ^

It depends on whether we face the Clemson that should have lost at home to a mediocre-at-best NC St team, or the one that went toe-to-toe with FSU in Tallahassee, took punch after punch late in the game, and still ended up winning.

I think we'd have as much trouble dealing with Watson as we did McNabb and Dennis Dixon. Michigan is hardly unique in that respect.

 

Durham Blue

October 30th, 2016 at 1:13 PM ^

Jourdan Lewis agrees that we didn't dominate enough.

 

"I think this was probably one of our worst games," Lewis said. "The first drive, they did some perimeter-running -- stuff we hadn't seen yet. We calmed down (and played well) and then just took our foot off the pedal and stopped concentrating. That's what happened.

"That shouldn't have been close. And we made it close because we didn't execute."

 

This mirrors my exact thoughts.  We had a golden opportunity to demolish them and we let them off the hook.  They made it look respectable and that is a travesty.  It's just awesome to hear it from a senior All American leader on the team.