Yessir

November 12th, 2017 at 5:52 PM ^

I'm interested in this game.  I might buy a 1/2pt or even a pt and go with MICHIGAN!

We won't get blown out. 

bamf16

November 12th, 2017 at 8:36 PM ^

Went back and watched some of the highlights of last year's Orange Bowl.

 

On Cook's long reception down the Michigan sideline, guess who was in man coverage. Another reason I was glad to see Uche getting some more game time on Saturday.

 

Dalvin Cook gave Michigan problems early (first 2 carries got 40 yards) then some eff ups led to the big 71 yard run on 3rd and 22.

 

I know this is cherry picking, but after his first two runs, and minus the 71 yarder, Dalvin Cook rushed for 34 yards on 17 carries (20 carries for 145 total); I include this only to show that it wasn't an inability to stop Cook, but rather breakdowns that a great football player took full advantage of.

 

So if Michigan is going to struggle with Taylor on Saturday, I'd bet it's more like what we saw in the Orange Bowl than the constant 4-7 yard gains Ball and others gained on the UM defenses in '09 and '10.

I Like Burgers

November 12th, 2017 at 10:18 PM ^

Brian and Ace play the cherry picking "if it wasn't for these 2-3 things everything worked great" game all the time, and I'm personally not a fan of it.  Those things happened, there are reasons they happened, and it feels disingenuous to discount them.

I mean, you can play the same game with Minnesota and Higdon's 200 yard game.  If it wasn't for two of his first three runs, Minnesota held him to 76 yards on 14 carries.

I do think you're right though, its not going to be a steady pounding of 4-7 yards like the old days.  It'll be the same kind of busted plays we've seen Michigan get burned on ever since the Orange Bowl.  Will be a good test for Don Brown and the defense.

stephenrjking

November 13th, 2017 at 1:32 AM ^

They overdo it sometimes ("except for 2 drives every game Michigan pitches a shutout") but there's a point to this: it shows that the defense overall is sound and talented. Which means that offenses won't be able to consistently move the ball, and that the defense can be relied upon to get key stops.

Everyone gives up stuff occasionally. Perfect games in baseball are rare for a reason--even the nastiest, most consistent pitchers give up walks and hits and runs. Defenses do too.

But there's a difference between Rutgers getting a long TD because one guy got caught in an uncharacteristic error (the repeatability of the error matters) and PSU consistently picking on their right safeties and LBs for yards. The long Barkley TD felt bad, but he was otherwise held down on the ground; we got pounded by PSU because they were able to consistently move the ball in chunks.

bamf16

November 13th, 2017 at 6:38 AM ^

Kind of what I was going for. Cook didn't give the UM defense fits because they lacked the talent/scheming to stop him; they did pretty well on 85% of his carries. He gave them fits on plays that all indications are they are good enough to stop/fix.

 

A defense that constantly gives up 5-7 yards on each carry clearly doesn't have what it needs to stop the opposition. I think this is why I (at least) was more sick over what the Wisconsin RBs did against the RR defenses than what Cook did last season.

I dumped the Dope

November 13th, 2017 at 4:21 AM ^

is a better RB than Barkley.  He seems to have elite size and speed plus the big boy OL.  Barkley gashed us 2x but after that and against many other defenses he has been held.

I think we are going to have to load up the box to stop Wisc.  And I think this is where we need Long and Hill to be full stop because they are going to get tested unless we can be good enough to force 3 & long.  Also Fumagalli is the other secret weapon against LBs that seems to be a tough cover.  I believe part of their strategy running is to wear the D down, so I bet we will have to substitute some.  

I think WI's defense has taken a small step back from when we last met, they seemed to have 3 NFL-level linebackers playing.  I don't know if we can run into their front 7.  If we have reasonable success I really like our chances in the game.  It would be superb to have Higdon, he seems to fly into traffic and then fly right out, clean.  Impressive.  Evans seems to then build on this success when the opposing D gets tired with his jukes.

MonkeyMan

November 12th, 2017 at 7:26 PM ^

Has anybody else looked over the rest of the schedule this Saturday? Man- it is aweful. Its like this past weekend used up all the good match ups and there is nothing left. UM vs. Wisky is the ONLY interesting game for the ENTIRE week

 

what a bunmer- guess I'll get a lot done around the house for once