Games following bye weeks under Harbaugh
Been a bit of a mixed bag:
2015: Almost upset by Minnesota on Halloween following the kick to the balls in AA vs MSU.
2016: 41-8 home win vs bad Illinois team.
2017: Awful 14-10 loss to MSU. The “Okorn rain game”
2018: Dominant 42-7 butt kicking of Penn St
2019: Got pounded 35-14 to Wisconsin.
Im sure many here have read Overtime by John U Bacon, and one of the interesting things was that the team felt Harbaugh worked them too hard leading up the 2017 MSU game so he adjusted the next year and they destroyed Penn State. So..did he forget and over work them vs Wisconsin this year or was there another reason? Either way, I just want 11/16 to be more like 2018 Penn State and not at all like 2017 MSU.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:18 AM ^
posting a selfie. great.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:48 AM ^
This is how I'm gonna be on State Street when we beat OSU
November 4th, 2019 at 3:46 PM ^
preach it, doc! barely 3 weeks away!
November 4th, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
The noise he makes in that scene is amazing.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
Really a gem of an episode, probably top three for me. Gale the Snail mashin it, the roast, the wine in a can, nightcrawlers...really every member of the gang gets some time to shine in that one.
November 4th, 2019 at 7:25 PM ^
Hey we're not intervening for a lack of good ideas.
November 4th, 2019 at 7:42 PM ^
I have to go with The Nightman Cometh. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did watching that episode. "you've gotta pay the troll toll...". Classic.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
Hey, I thought we didn't do "sexybits" anymore?
November 4th, 2019 at 11:15 AM ^
I hate excuses, but we went into that game (Wisconsin) with 2 healthy D lineman, and an obviously not ready Donovan Jeter. Just look at our recent rotations. No more Jeter or Mason. Those guys got 50 - 60% of the snaps in that game. Lately it's been, Danna, Paye, Dwumfour, Hutchinson, Uche, and Kemp exclusively. Jeter has been a healthy scratch as far as I know.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^
This.
We're not at all the same team. Not even on offense, since we decided that "running plays that have a chance of working" are a good idea.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
Totally agree. Wisconsin kicked the shit out of Michigan, no excuses. However, if they played again it would be a very different game (though still maybe a loss).
November 4th, 2019 at 11:49 AM ^
Moreover, MSU's OL is nothing close to Wisconsin's OL. A rough day from the defense against Wisconsin's OL and JTT turns into a rout. A rough day from the defense against MSU and Collins turns into a TD or 2.
My bigger concern is with the offense. 2nd half PSU and ND was much, much better than everything up to that point this season. I'm not worried that they fall back to Army level offense, but I am worried 2nd half PSU and ND were a bit higher than what can be expected for the remainder of the season.
I think they're much better than what the offense showed against Iowa, but maybe not as good as what the offense has been lately.
Yes, negative thoughts.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:41 PM ^
I don't think your take is too bad.
We do have to be careful with MSU as this is their bowl game and maybe Dantonio's swan song game. They'll be taking haymakers.
I do worry alot about our offense. It showed many things I liked in 2nd half PSU/ND. ND's LB's were bad, but still. But that is the offense we need to show. Maryland Offense had me worried, but maybe they had the foot off the gas for the 3 3 and outs because it didnt' need to be on it?
November 4th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
For this offense, MSU is a uniquely difficult matchup because of how much Michigan likes to plow straight ahead. Against State, those are wasted downs.
21 points is probably enough, but Patterson will need to make plays to get U-M there.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:49 PM ^
Don’t MSUs LBs play hyper aggressive blitz ball, ala Notre Dame? Hopefully we can take advantage of it in the same way.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:16 AM ^
I think people read way too much into bye week performances. There's simply not enough data to be meaningful.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
John O'Korn is always a meaningful data point, on the other hand.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
More like data round, but I get your blunt.
November 4th, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
I believe someone looked at the last 20 years or whatever of Michigan byes and our record isn't particularly good or bad. ND had a bye before they played us. Sure, a bye week could be nice for resting, but a lot of people seem to think bye weeks are worth like 7 points. It's just one more week, and they usually rest a bit more than usual. It's not like you're going to overhaul anything, nor should you.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
Overworked during prep seems way down on the list of reasons for result on both of those games.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:18 AM ^
"INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
- Multivac
November 4th, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
Just re-read some of those stories. Fascinating what some of some of these authors did see in the near future versus what they did not.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:46 AM ^
Asimov has always been one of my favorites.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
http://www.librarything.com/work/9495532, I assume, is your favorite?
November 4th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
I worry that the "bye week" data point hides a multitude of other factors. For instance, having lost Speight to the dirty Purdue hit had much more to due to the MSU loss than the bye week. Interesting take, but i'm not drawing causation out of this.
November 4th, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
Or maybe insanely stupid gameplay before the oncoming monsoon...
November 4th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
Man I hope we do the good thing after the bye week and not the bad thing after the bye week!
November 4th, 2019 at 11:19 AM ^
I honestly dont care if we have a bye week, a short week or have to play them as the second half of a day/night doubleheader.
This is the year to fucking crush them. Just like we used to back when Jimmy was the HC or when I was in school. We fucking owned them and with the exception of maybe once a decade when we overlooked them we rolled. Time to do that again. Time to remind them, once and for all, that unless we hire utter idiots as a HC (and Harbaugh is anything but that) we own the state.
Michigan 45-7
November 4th, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
Reminiscing is great. Yeah back in the day MSU beat us only once every 3 to 4 years and we generally owned OSU as well. Time to own those asses one again even if both teams have 30 year old convicts playing against our college age students.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
"Back when Jimmy was the HC"? Umm....I'm pretty sure that he's currently the HC. If you mean back when Jimmy was the QB, then I get where you're coming from....keeping in mind that Harbaugh broke his arm in the Sparty game back in 1984 and that led to the infamous (at the time) 6-6 season.
Michigan went 40 years (1968 - 2007) without having back-to-back losses to Sparty. I hated seeing that Dantonio run earlier this decade (after Michigan had won the (70's, 80's, 90's and 00's). It's definitely nice seeing a return to normalcy and winning this year would go a long way toward putting things back on course (and getting Harbaugh above .500 against Dantonio).
November 4th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
I've been waiting for 49-3 for a long time.
My concern is that we've been intending to do this since 2016--should have in 2016 and 2018--and haven't.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
We beat them by two TDs on the road last year. That's unsatisfactory?
November 4th, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
Um, no? But it's not 49-3.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:23 PM ^
We fucking owned them and with the exception of maybe once a decade when we overlooked them we rolled.
That was true in the 1970s (9-1 vs. Sparty) but from the mid-80s onward the series became more competitive. MSU won in 1984, '87. '90, '93, '95, '99 and 2001 before Lloyd pulled off a six-game winning streak.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
Wisconsin was was a wet fart for reasons probably not related to bye-week. I'll blame DL rotation, fumbles, dirty hits to our QBs and tough road game before taking a forensic look at practice schedules.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
Yeah, I’ll take having two healthy Viable DTs (one of which barely plays anymore) as a major reason a team regularly employing 6-7 OL and an All-American running back smoked us. On top of Wisconsin being an overall really good team and playing them on the road.
“overworked in practice,” ain’t it.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
Michigan's defense is playing quite a bit better than they did early in the season. And it's debatable whether the offense is better but they've looked excellent at times. We saw nothing excellent at any point early in the season. The main thing is we're not fumbling as we did early in the season.
I would expect a close game if we played Wisconsin again.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:28 AM ^
And to be clear I’m not saying the bye week was the reason good or bad for these performances, just wanted to point out it’s been up and down, probably for various reasons.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
No worries. It was worth a look, but we lack data points to make a reliable statement about Harbaugh's record following bye weeks. Unfortunately, my work server is filtering out anything resembling a gambling site. I suspect records are slightly better for teams coming off an bye week, but that's just my hunch.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:33 AM ^
So..did he forget and over work them vs Wisconsin this year or was there another reason?
I think the main reason was that Michigan was nowhere close to a good team at that moment in time. Fast forward eight weeks and things are very different.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
Quite frankly, Wisconsin was just a horrible matchup for us this year.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
Bye week by week is interesting but 5 instances don't make a sample set.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
Think we will throw any passes over 30 yards against Bye?
November 4th, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
Nope... but we also won't fumble!
November 4th, 2019 at 1:25 PM ^
THE Bye University.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
I do wonder if Harbaugh works the guys too hard in practice, or at least used to. I remember when he was hired and all the practice time was spent on the field. We have also seemed to be gassed by the time OSU rolls around.
That said, I think we're going to pound the shit out of MSU just like we did ND. They'll keep it close for a bit, maybe even the first half, but once there's blood in the water MSU will collapse.
November 4th, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^
Same feeling, and I'm usually a BPONE guy.
I think we bury them deep this year.
November 4th, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
So, according to "See-Saw Theorem", guaranteed big win!
It does seem strange that wins had positive narratives in the two weeks prior, while losses had the bpone.