Michigan's Road to Redemption: Week One─Western Michigan
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/191210-michigans-road-to-redemption-…
Really nice article here about the first matchup of the season: UM vs. WMU
Very in-depth look at the strengths and weaknesses of both squads. Sure sounds like this game will be offense vs. offense. Hopefully the UM defense will come out and play well.
Whoever wins will have the better playing D, so that should be us. Also, in response to that thread awhile ago about women on mgoblog, I think she has posted here before. She is the only smart person on bleacher report.
I think the secondary could have trouble with Hiller. This is the hardest of our first 4 games IMO.
Notre Dame will be good. 10-2 IMO.
Agreed. They have a very dangerous group of receivers.
Does this line about WMU scare the shite out of anyone else?
"The offensive line for Western will be their strength early on as all their starters return with numerous reserves also holding starting experience."
I hate that I'm even nervous about a MAC team but after App St. and last year, I take nothing for granted. Especially a reigning MAC champ with an experienced QB and O-Line.
Buffalo won the MAC, Ball State won the MAC West and Central was second. Western finished third after losing to both.
If you think their line is going to be able to handle Mike Martin and Brandon Graham, well, then you should worry.
I don't think they'll be able to. They'll also be the first team this year to have to deal with STEVIE BROWN in a linebacker hybrid role. Watch out.
There is no doubt Western will be ready to play, Michigan cannot look down on them or they could very easily end up trailing in the 4th quarter.
....no returning secondary starters. Tate should bubble screen and slant them back West.
Cubit is a defensive head coach, I very much doubt there isn't someone(s) ready to step up as the season moves on.
But its the first game of the year for both teams, UM's first game in new defensive scheme and still a lot of inexperience. I do think michigan will win the game but it will be a much tighter than expected
The MGoBoard community seems to predict a close win for Michigan.
Columnists I see predict a close win for Michigan or another upset loss.
So, who is "expecting" a comfortable victory for Michigan?
Me, TBH.
I think the fact that the O-line has a year of experience in the system combined with the expected improvement in accuracy from Threet/Death to Forcier will be the sort of thing that has a "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" kind of effect on the offense. That is, having a better offensive line last year would have helped a little, and a more accurate QB would have helped a little, but both will help a lot. I think we go back to comfortably beating the teams we should comfortably beat (WMU, Purdue) but still struggle with the better ones.
It was mostly based on the "season Predictions" thread but after going back and reading it again most don't "expect" a big win. The original poster's predictions seemed to have drawn my conclusion.
I am not normally a fan of columnists so I am not sure where they peg UM to finish in the big ten or what they think their record will be. Seem to be too hungry for a headline and the opportunity to sell 1 more newspaper these days, than to be down to earth and do a little research before writing about a subject but anyway.
I must say that this was a very good article. To Irish I really think that after last year and App. State the year prior I do not think that UM will overlook WMU. Not to say it won't happen but IMO they will come in there with their lessons learned.
Basically, it looks like this article says WMU will struggle to be as good as they were last year anywhere except the QB and kicking positions, while UM has improved in many areas, especially QB.
I think a lot of fans are so trauatized by last year that they have somehow failed to remember that it was just an aberration. This is UM we're talking about, and I fully expect "UM football" to be back in "force" this season.
I see this game as a blowout: close for maybe one half and the roof caving in on WMU in the second half.
I see this becoming a pattern. With a deep OL, a lot of "waterbugs," a decent QB, and the Barwis factor, we could see UM score a lot in the second half this year as opponents tire.
At any rate, I still think they can pull off 9-3.
If Michigan's running game is in full force, they should be able to tire out WMU defense. That will be huge for Focier in his first game. He will have time to get comfortable with college football and gain some confidence. I do see WMU loading up the box to try and shut down the run and put pressure on Forcier, but a few over the middle passes and maybe even a QB keep for long yards will force WMU to back off some. While I think this game will be a 10-13 point win for Michigan, it could easily turn into a 21+ win for them as well
I'm a WMU grad and I live 10 minutes from their campus. But I'm a lifelong U of M football fan. And the thought of Michigan losing to WMU in football boggles my mind and gives me dry heeves.
Michigan is clearly the bigger program. 106,000 spectators vs. 20,000 spectators, and most of them leave at halftime. Michigan gets high school all-Americans and 1st team all-staters. WMU gets 3rd team all staters from Illinois and juco transfers.
Michigan will win this game. But that fact that some are uneasy or unsure about it shows how low the program fell last season.
WMU has a nice dink and dunk West coast passing game and nothing else. The defense is atrocious. If Michigan doesn't score 30 to 40 on them I would be shocked.
I think this will be a very exciting game for the folks in t.v. land to see. WVU return most of their offense while we are under our third D.C. in three years in charge of a defense that disappointed last year. I do think this will be a great starting game for our offense, seeing as the Bronchos only return two starters; this is going to be as close to a Turkey shoot that Tate will probably experience until the DSU game. The whole football world will see what this offense can do. Unfortunately, they may see our defense struggle as well; both defenses might be hitting the oxygen.
I can't see our D struggling as much as theirs in this one, hopefully they don't struggle at all, but I see 45-34 as a possibility.
I can definitely see our defense struggling mightily all season long, regardless of the opponent.