michigan-notre dame points to consider
these are 2 teams that have something to play for. home field is not that big of an advantage. last years game was closer than score. threet is gone and forcier and robinson are big upgrades. still not sold on clausen,weak arm and hates a pass rush, or nd's offensive line(brandon graham next) or defensive secondary. still question marks for michigan as western michigan's defense is pretty lame. my pre-game post predicting 400-500 yards and 30-45 points for michigan was almost dead on,meanwhile michigan's defense looks improved and brandon graham is a 1st rounder(remember lamarr woodley was a 2nd rounder). turnovers were big in last years game as was the rain.
388 yards with threet in charge should be eclipsed this year with tforce and drob.
most big games come down to play at qb,turnovers,and penalties.last year threet outplayed clausen but the the notre dame loving god made an appearance in south bend that day.
Michigan 24
Notre Dame 17
September 7th, 2009 at 10:39 PM ^
I respectfully request better formatting for your next post. Other than that, good points!
September 8th, 2009 at 1:10 AM ^
opera on my computer wont allow proper formatting no matter how hard I try.Ie has not been working today for some reason.it keeps telling me I'm offline.sorry.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:45 PM ^
with the safe play on WMU defense -vs- our offense, but I don't necessarily believe that Clausen has a weak arm. He throws a pretty decent deep ball. I think that he will be prone to getting rattled especially if BG, Death Roh, and the Hulk get in his face all afternoon.
turnovers, turnovers, turnovers!
September 8th, 2009 at 12:25 AM ^
On the deep balls I saw Jimmah throw, they were way underthrown, and a good DB would have either picked it or at least broken it up. Jimmah is getting all the hype for last weeks game, but when you look at the highlights, the receivers did all the work. If our DL can get some pressure on the chosen one, it's gonna be a long day for the Irish.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:55 PM ^
I think you underestimate two things. One is Clausen's arm, and the other is the ND secondary. Clausen does have problems with the pass rush, but he looked improved in the pocket in the first game. I've yet to see a QB that doesn't have issues when they are sacked 50 times in a season. However, arm strength has never been an issue. I've yet to see a pass that he cannot make. His problem has been his overconfidence in his arm. He has a tendency to force the ball into coverage when he should just throw it away.
The ND secondary is most likely the best one UM will see all year. They are four or five deep at corner and all of them are very good. The safeties are very reliable. McCarthy doesn't look like much but all he does is make plays. Meanwhile Smith is back to his natural position of FS after ND dropped the 3-4.
Woodley against Sam Young will be fun to watch. I'm sure they'll both win a few battles over the course of the game. It will be interesting to see how much Roh plays against ND. ND is more likely to run right at him than WMU was. It should be a good game. Both teams look much improved over last year.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:03 PM ^
I think you mean B.Graham
Woodley owned S.Young in 2006 IIRC
September 7th, 2009 at 11:09 PM ^
They're the same guy. Terror off the edge and can still defend the run. He's going to need help from Roh on the other side or ND will just put the second TE over him on passing downs. Duncan did ok against Nevada's smaller DEs last week. I doubt Roh will be in there on first and second down. He just isn't big enough to take on the 315 pound guys on running plays yet.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:08 PM ^
we can destroy ND am I the only one who saw how fast we are
September 7th, 2009 at 11:18 PM ^
I think people are leaving out the fact that our D coordinator was the head coach of a team that had the monumental upset of ND last year (Syracuse)...that if nothing else should help us out.
As far as ND's D, it should be improve greatly with GT old D coordinator (Tenaua???). I can't breakdown the positions, but I don't think the seconadry will matter as much as the front 7 against UofM. If we can win in the trenches we have a good chance to win the game.
Claussen did get rattled his freshman and sophomore year, but he's a junior now and it's expected he develop and not get rattled so easily. I'm hoping Graham and Martin can rattle him at least one more time.
Overall I think we'll see an improved ND team from last year, but we'll also see a greatly improved UofM team. If UofM can win this everyone will believe they have finally turned the corner from the 3-9 season and Weiss will be getting his walking papers before the end of the season, IMHO.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:38 PM ^
It would feel great to be the team that forced Weis out, would it not?
September 8th, 2009 at 12:28 AM ^
It would.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:20 AM ^
Wow you're right I completely forgot Syracuse upset ND last year. Looking at the stat line, ND only ran for 41 yards but Clausen threw for nearly 300 yards with 2 TDs and no INTs which led to 23 ND points.
I think we can score more than 23 if we decide to score in the second half, and i would bet GERG can figure out how to slow down Clausen with (hopefully) a little better personnel this year.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:46 AM ^
where did the GERG thing come from?
September 8th, 2009 at 12:46 AM ^
check the very bottom of this:
http://mgoblog.com/content/mgoboard-faq#comment-188239
September 8th, 2009 at 11:58 AM ^
Tenuta has been at ND for a year now. He coordinated last year's game.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:10 PM ^
While Tate is clearly more talented than Threet, I don't know if he'll play better against ND than Threet did. Threet had by far his best game of the season that day (17-23, 175 yds, TD). I'll be really happy if Tate can duplicate that performance (well, minus the killer fumble).
September 7th, 2009 at 11:16 PM ^
but i seriously don't remember. Threet got 40+ of those yards on a checkdown to McGuffie (TD) and threw a lot of the completions on bubble screens didn't he?
I didn't see a lot of short stuff from Forcier. All three of his TD's were downfield.
I agree that I would take a duplication of that performance (add a coulple of TD's though)
September 8th, 2009 at 12:26 AM ^
Um, yeah, I seem to remember something about a backwards screen pass giving ND the ball at about our 20, and a brutally-timed fumble that sealed the deal for ND late in the game. The fact that the ND game may be considered one of Threet's better games is all the more reason to be excited about Tate/Denard and our chances this year.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:09 AM ^
Yeah, the pass to McGuffie turned into a 40-yard TD, but the stats also don't count what looked like a long TD pass to Mathews that was ruled incomplete by the officials (who ruled that Mathews didn't have possession). So he really could have been 18-23 for around 215 yards. That's a strong day.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:35 AM ^
I'll take that bet. After watching Tate play Saturday, I'm willing to bet that Tate plays better than Threet against every team he faces this year.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:10 PM ^
Other than that, I think we will be fine. I watched the game and, frankly, ND looks slow on defense. But I am very worried about Clausen using Rudolph as an outlet when he is in trouble. We need to shut this down.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:18 PM ^
we see what Stevie Brown has got. Covering slots and TE's is one of the strengths of his new postition right?
September 7th, 2009 at 11:21 PM ^
But Rudolph is 6'6" with great hands. They might need to double team him on key plays.
September 7th, 2009 at 11:21 PM ^
like Floyd
Rudolph the red nosed tight end is the last of my worries.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:10 AM ^
By our secondary. I feel good about out run defense, especially against their ground attack, but they have a good group of receivers. Floyd has great hands, Tate is the deep threat, and Rudolph looks to be developing into a very good TE. Kumara isn't a bad 4th option either. Tate just needs to play smart and not turn the ball over and this should be a good game.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:43 AM ^
I think our DL and LB's will stuff the ND running game - they looked stout against the run last week. Stevie Brown looked really good, I was impressed. I'm concerned about Golden Tate and his speed. If the DL can put pressure on Jimmah, and the secondary can contain Tate, we have a good chance.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:01 AM ^
will be in max protect all game long, just like they did last year. It's tough to get consistent pressure on the QB when 7 guys are blocking. But, this should allow our secondary to double up on Floyd and Golden. A few months ago this was a game that I predicted Michigan could win. After watching both performances last week (Michigan and ND), I am sticking with my prediction. Though it's going to be a nail biter all the way through.
September 8th, 2009 at 12:54 AM ^
This should be a good barometer for the rest of the season. Michigan will face maybe 2 teams in the Big Ten that will have talent exceeding ND.
My prediction for this game hinges on the health of Booboo and Minor. If they are 100%, I will be predicting one way. If not, especially with Booboo (if he can't go), Michigan will have an interesting depth stress test when they spread it out and pick on (our) Floyd.
I hope we can engineer some solid ball control and, please oh please, have no turnovers, because ND has some players that can make the big plays on both sides of the ball, just like we do.
I wonder if we will see Vlad after the safety play of week one?
It would be a mistake to think that Clausen is weak-armed. His issues often surface, as with many QBs, between the ears under pressure.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:01 AM ^
I think Denard is gonna keep them honest with a couple runs early followed by a Tebow-esque stutter step pass downfield for a TD. Maybe a jump-throw? Probably!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:30 AM ^
I think they have to use Denard properly for him to keep them the defense honest. No more repeated draw plays. The are gonna have to let him throw some high percentage passes, screens, checkdowns etc. That will build his confidence and keep the defense honest. He is still developing, and as he develops he will become more explosive than he already is. He's going to be ridiculous.
September 8th, 2009 at 1:27 AM ^
Simple: Notre Dame has to play in the Big House this year. One early touchdown by Michigan and a mistake by ND will be all it will take for the crowd to both intimidate and drown out ND giving us the momentum. If Michigan wants to send a message to ND early on they have to get on the board first, get the crowd as loud as it has ever been and COMPLETELY cover Claussen's passing lanes. If you can shut down Claussen you will shut down ND.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:55 AM ^
I didn't watch the game. Does the shutout say more about ND's defense or Nevada's offense? I thought going into this game that Nevada's offense would have given ND fits.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:56 AM ^
A NOTRE DAME AD POPED UP!!!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:58 AM ^
Am I the only one that thinks last year's game is not indicative of what is going to happen on Saturday? Yeah M played much better than the score would indicate and turnovers did them in last year. That was last year. That was a different team, especially on defense.
I just don't understand the whole "well we beat them last year except for turnovers so we have them this year."
Notre Dame is more experienced on both sides of the ball than last year too. I know everyone wants to win and I think M can, but it is not a given that M will outplay them similarly to what happened last year (sans fumbles).
September 8th, 2009 at 12:56 PM ^
I don't think neither UM or ND showed too much during week one, and both ran somewhat vanilla schemes on both sides of the ball. The one thing with the ND game was the horrendous DB play of Nevada. On two of Floyd's TD's the DB was a joke. On the the quick hitch to Floyd at the LOS, the corner completely misses the tackle and Floyd scampers to the end zone. The other was a jump ball that Floyd made a nice play on, and the corner tries ripping the ball out instead of wrapping Floyd up... 6 more points. ND could have very well scored on those two drives regardless, but Nevada had one of, if not the worst pass DEF in the nation last year.
I am greatly encouraged by our ability to hit and tackle based off of the WMU game, but this is a different beast, a rival, and a team that has some real good talent. I still think we have a lot more unanswered questions than ND does, and we should find some of those out this Saturday.
GO BLUE!