Looking ahead to Iowa

Biggest thing with Iowa is that they don't have the running backs that MSU has. So I don't think we'll be run over as badly.

I don't think IA offense is a good as MSU's but their defense is better. This will be another tough game. But if our offense plays better we will have a chance to win. May be after the first lost the team will not be under pressure to win?

It doesn't matter who we play.  He certainly has the ability.  Just make the easy throws and don't force it if it's not there. 

IMHO, there's no point in analyzing the defense. I've stopped looking for rays of hope there. There's just not much there.  

the 2 plays that made this a different game than the last five were the 2 redzone interceptions. That's the game. I picked UM 35-34 all week, and largely, this was exactly what I expected (minus a made FG-???!!!!): If we continue to put points on the board, it comes down to the wire in a close game; we start turning the ball over (especially in the red zone), our D is simply not good enough to keep us in the game.

Iowa will likely put up 31-35 points next week. Can our O regain the mojo that put up 40~ points a game? If yes, we'll have a nice chance to win. If not, the skid continues.

...is going to have a tough time against any experienced quarterback.  Our lack of experience in the secondary it seems that we are having to gamble on virtually every down... we are going to be burned by any QB or RB that can make the read or look outside the hole.

MSU executed and we didn't. We had mistakes in all phases. All the mistakes are correctable. We knew early in the season that there is little room for error from our offense b/c our defense is young. We lost the turnover battle and that's the first time this season we have done that, hence the loss. A win against Iowa(a quality big 10 team) will go a long way.

For the first time this season, Denard looked like a kid who had started only 5 games...I'm not jumping off the ledge yet--I'll wait to see how next weekend goes.  Also, PSU got KILLED by Illinois, so one of those two has to be beatable, right?

It was a loss, but if you compare it to the MSU game last year, this was a lot better all around.  We couldn't run 5 feet last year and Tate was running for his life every time he dropped back to pass. The offense is very capable of scoring on anyone.  Big plays and winning/even in the turnover battle has been our ticket this year.  Today we lost on both.

If we can get similar production and at least break even in the turnover battle next week, we have a very good chance.

Our quarterback has 6 career starts, we're young all over the field, and were 5-1. Not too shabby.

where is moundros?

where is moundros?

is what we're looking at next week.  What I really don't like is the rest of the league (at least those teams with the personnel to pull it off) has a blueprint on how to contain Denard, at least running the ball.  No picks and catch the damn ball will be important.

Possible, but who the f-ck knows? At the beginning of the season, I expected 7 wins. That's still my expectation. The offense is going to have the occasional off-day, and our defense can't hang with anyone. We have six more chances at 2 more wins. Anything above that is gravy.

this team will not win if denard has bad games, they just are not good enough to overcome that. its unfortinate too, because expecting denard to be perfect each game is not fair to him. the offense has to support the defense. the defense blows and we all know that...but when they manage to stop the other team, our offense has to go down and put points on the board.

You Know yes it was a hard lost today,yes monday's going to be hard.But who is going to step up on this team and say we have a game saturday and there just as good at that Michigan State football team we just played,to me Michigan diden't  seem like they had a team leader today.And Rich Rod and The Wolverines will see this game and say Let's work on thing's and beat Iowa Go Blue..... HEART

This was "Recalibration Saturday". Today we learned (or were re-educated that):

- Alabama is good, but probably not the BEST TEAM EVER ESSS EEEE CCCEEEE

- Michigan State is as advertised, a  typical Big Ten title contender with a stout defense, solid running game, and 5yr senior QB who doesn't make huge mistakes, Not a national title contender, but definately a 9-11 win team, and with a upset of tOSU before the end of the season, a possible Big Ten title team.

- Michigan is young and talented, but YOUNG! When our coaches did have "Spock" called during RPS, our players didn't execute. We have our potential superstar (but starting his 6th game) true soph QB to thank  for the non-execution primarily (not a knock, just a statement of facts). And we also learned the margin for error on our team. If we don't get 21 points out of three trips inside the 15 yd line, we're going to lose b/c our undermanned D is going to give up points. Look at it this way, we get 2 TD's out of three on our three failed possessions (and I'm counting thee FG in the first half as a fail), we're able to keep our base offense strategy into the fourth quarter instead of having to essentially abandon our base offense when we went down by three TD's. Even though we gave up 34 points, our D played good enough to win-- not good enough to steal a game by any means, but if our offense played to their at-this-point average to above average levels, we're a 1 TD game on the last drive.

- Penn St is BAAADDDDD, but no one in the Big Ten outside of tOSU looks like a real top 5 team. I still peg us at 7-9 wins. I still think we beat Illinois, Purdue, and we take 1 other against Penn St, Iowa, and Wisconsin. tOSU is anyone's guess with the rivalry and a nealry full year experienced Denard.

I am looking forward to the Indiana game, we will regroup and will be more determined to make a statement next week.  It is only one loss and we weren't projected to go 12-0.  I am looking forward to the men stepping up the play next week.

I'm sorry, but if you think we're beating Iowa next week, you're fucking high. Maybe the game just looked worse to me in person than on TV, but this game didn't feel close at all, even when we were ahead for a brief time.  The defense continues to get worse, and even when it manages to make a key stop, the offense does nothing (this trend also happened against ND and Indiana).  Pray for bowl eligibility this year and be happy if we get it, because just like last year this ship is going down fast.  Put whatever optimistic spin (the defense is young for the 3rd year in a row, Gerg has super bowl rings) that you want, but we are fast headed straight for an oncoming train once again.

Since I live in Iowa, I will be hearing a lot of the smack-talk about how the Hawkeyes are going to kick our ass.  I can only keep my yap shut, because I'm very nervous that U-M will possibly head into the toilet instead of rebounding and improving from the MSU game.

Just like last year, Iowa can exploit the middle of our defense with their tight ends.  I firmly believe that their running game this year is worse than it was last year, and I also think that they can't compare to MSU's running game.  This leaves Stanzi.  If we can get to Stanzi, and I think we can with an effort like yesterday's, we have a chance.

On offense, we are playing against the best defense we've faced.  The secondary make little to no mistakes, and they make big plays, while the linebackers once again are very good.  The Hawkeye d-line is probably a tad better than ours is, but not much.  Of course, Clayborn is awesome.

In sum, if we play mistake-free offense, control the ball, and get to Stanzi, we can win this huge game.  Wish me luck as I toil here in Hawkeye country this week.

This game is hard to predict.  On paper, they're not a great matchup, but our OL played probably its best game of the season against them last year.  We used a lot of I-formations in that game.  Would we try to bring it out again this time? 

One thing I really want to see is us commit to more RB carries.  We only had 13 against MSU and nine against IU.  I think we're getting a little too zone read-heavy in the ground game.  I really liked the play we used against BGSU where the playside guard pulled.  Shaw and especially Smith might benefit from a few more outside run plays.

This is the TD drive led by Denard last year against Iowa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNroKSrqG8Y

 

Few points I see in this.

* Denard was able to run against Iowa even with little threat of the pass.

*Denard looked tired toward the end of the drive. He is in much better shape this year.

*The offense was slow in getting to the line and snapping it last year.

*The O Line looks a lot better this year. Many of the gains Denard got in this were the result of his speed.

One of my brothers-in-law just said he'd give me 10 points for the spread!  He's insane, and I hope to make him eat his words Saturday.  He's a rabid Hawkeye fan, and he is one of the biggest smack-talkers I know.

I think UM matches up better vs. Iowa than vs. MSU.

Sure, Iowa's defense is better than MSU's, but UM's offense can score if it takes care of the ball. You guys left anywhere between 6 and 14 points off the board.

The reason I think UM has a better chance against Iowa than against MSU, however, is that Iowa doesn't have the firepower MSU has. MSU has more talent at the skill positions than Iowa, and several of MSU's offensive players (Baker and Martin come to mind) are more explosive than anyone on Iowa's offense. Some of those big plays by MSU really took the wind out of UM.

If Michigan's offense can take care of the ball, it should be a close one... Iowa isn't a team that's just going to go off on you.