What are you realistic expectations for the season now?

Same as before.  8-4 bowl toss-up (win?).

I was able to look through some threads. 

Woof. 

I think a lot of it is overreaction. I agree that Oline needs to improve, but it is NOT the worst line in the country. I think we go 10-2/9-3

I also think ND may be a one loss team this year...which...we played a heck of a game, at night, at their stadium as a first game. 

What made me happy is the bomb to Nico Collins and short passes...think back to Florida, while Speight had that bomb to Tarik, he sucks in short passes. Shea can do both + move outta pocket

My predictions: 

- Shea will be VERY good. Probably best QB since Henne

- Oline will improve quite a bit (NOT like what most are saying that this is it...no improvement. I disagree)

- Teams trajectory will be more 2015 (improve week to week) than 2016 (solid then fall off)

- Wins vs MSU, PSU and close loss to OSU (sigh. again.)

I expect Norte Dame to be crushed alive in the college football playoff by Alabama. I watched Stanford, usc, vt and FSU. I don’t see ND losing more than 1 of those games. I expect Michigan to compete. I think we get going and take down some good teams. The schedule sets up perfect now until we reach the gauntlet of death. We’ll beat a ranked Northwestern on the road!!! Then probably fall to Wisconsin and TOSU. I think we’ll win the rest. 

Actually I did have this game penciled in as a loss as well as last game of the season so for now will stick with it and say 10-2 still

Zero expectations for this season at this point. All comes down to whether or not the line gels and the defense fixes its discipline issues as the season progresses. This team CAN be good but if they don't improve then they won't win anything of significance.

8-4 is a reasonable prediction.  I'd agree if I didn't think this team can and will improve a lot.  The talent is there.  Assuming we capitalize on who we have, I think we can go 10-2.  However, if the o line doesn't improve at least a bit and the playcalling stays conservative, 8-4 is about right.

What can I say.  Reality and being a diehard for over 40 years confuse me. 

GO BLUE!!

If I had told everybody here in 2016 that the collective MGoBlog psyche in 2018 would be barely more optimistic than it was in 2013 I'd have been sent to Bolivia.

I wouldn’t say “nobody” had this game penciled in as a loss. The point spread hovered right around a pick ‘em and definitely had ND as the favorite at some point. It’s not like Michigan was a 25 point favorite and lost.

This doesn’t change my expectations at all. This was I think the only true road game featuring two ranked teams in week one; it’s a tall ask to beat the #12 team on the road at night for anyone. Nobody in the big ten had even close to as difficult of an opener. Think Penn St’s or Michigan State’s dogshit efforts in their openers would’ve been good enough to win at ND? At most, only Ohio St and Wisconsin would’ve been able to win that opener. 

I still say 9-3, losses at home against Wisconsin and at Ohio State. 

I see this in 2 ways bc, on one side, I don’t think we looked all that good on Saturday and we will need to vastly improve in certain areas. 

On the other hand, I am also not convinced that we are in a different spot than we were before the ND game (if the original hope was a CFP visit). In my mind ND was the one we could afford to drop. Although being flawless going forward is a tall order, I still believe we would need to win at OSU regardless in order to reach a big ten title game. A loss in Columbus would mean that the bucks would still need 2 losses in the conference for us to go ahead of them. I think there is no doubt we would have to be undefeated from here on out anyways (even if we had beaten ND) so hopefully the team can learn from here and get it together. I know it’s overly optimistic but I think we’ve bashed them enough already. 

Remember:

Ohio State when they won the NC a few years back almost lost to Navy in game 1.

Then they lost to a bad Virginia Tech team at VT in game 2.

I know Warinner can improve the line during the season.  I predict 9-3.

Losses to ND (obvs), Wisconsin, and Ohio State.  I think they beat Sparty and Penn State, two other teams with OL issues.

7-5

Love Harbaugh.  Love Michigan, but he was 19-3 in his first 22 games and ascending.  He is 9-9 in his last 18 and descending.

Neg away

Apathy....5 years running.

6-6

Really.  OL play was that bad.

11-1!

If many of these predictions come true Harbaugh will be 1-7 against MSU and OSU.. yikes. 

11-1. Learn from the loss and move on we have two games to get things right

#14 UM lost to #12 ND in a close game on the road.  This game should not change our expectations unless you believed we were significantly better than ND, which I don't think most did.  Although granted, I think most thought although the score was close we would look more effective.  That game never seemed in doubt despite the close final score.

I still think 9-3 makes sense, although I think 8-4 is more likely than 10-2.  I see losses to OSU & Wiscy.  I see beating PSU and MSU (and the rest of the schedule).  But, we could split with those.  The season comes down to if Runyan & JBB can improve and/or are Mayfield & Hudson better if/when they get their chance.

Realistically, 8-4. Maybe 9-3 if a bounce or two goes our way, but 7-5 is more likely than 9-3. I think we’ll win one of the PSU/OSU/MSU/UW games. Probably PSU if I had to guess one now. But the rest are losses. Especially MSU and OSU barring miracles. The reason for that is squarely on the OL. Specifically the tackle positions.

The problem is that I trust most every other position group on the team to allow us to win every game on the schedule. But the tackles are just so awful right now that it almost completely nullifies any progression in the rest of the offense. If you have a bad OL, you have no offense. Not one you can count on consistently anyway. And the OL simply has to get better. If it doesn’t, Nick Bosa could probably kill whoever is left standing at QB by season’s end.

I'll say 8-4, losses to Wisconsin, OSU, and NW. I don't think Sparty is that good, and I think we can beat PSU at home. However, I don't see us beating Wisconsin or OSU with this kind of OL play, and NW could be a road game against a ranked team.

9-3

The talent is there. If warriner can improve the Oline over the season instead of watching it collapse   into further suck.

7-5

If its a repeat of last year.

When you are 0-17 against ranked teams on the road, you have to expect that to continue, so losses to MSU and OSU.

I will pencil us in to beat Neb and PSU but lose to Wisconsin.

That’s 4 losses. Let’s hope NW doesn’t managed to become ranked.

Just like I said from the offseason(maybe not on this site), but I see us losing three of the big five games.

I think Wisc we can win at home. Then likely win at MSU, in my opinion. Loss to tOSU I think is obvious and expected at this point at the shoe. Losing to ND and PSU.

9-3 season. New Years day bowl. People still wanting to fire Harbaugh and get another coach and start the cycle all over again.

Edit: Lemme just say that I don't think there is a better coach we can get with a proven resume. Thus, this year is whatever. Next year with MSU and tOSU is the put up or shut up year for Harbaugh, in my mind.

I think Harbaugh will get this team going and is gonna surprise a lot of teams.But based on all these depressing expectations where does Harbaugh stand as far as his job knowing he's losing more than half the team next season with another tough schedule?

Realistic: 9-3. Beat PSU and MSU. Lose to Wiscy and OSU

Hopeful: 10-2. Beat PSU, MSU, and OSU or Wiscy.

I mean this team has the talent for 10-2. Why cant we pull off an upset over Wiscy or OSU? Penn State and MSU have pulled off big upsets in recent seasons to steal the Big Ten title. WHY CANT WE?

Lose to MSU and OSU. Split Wisconsin and PSU. I don't care about the Utah State game. MSU always shows up for Michigan. 

14-1

Realistic 8-4 and that will take some a couple of quality wins.  Regardless, I think 10-2 is possible if the guys decide to simply make some key plays and actually get some good bounces. 

Much rides on the next five games.

For everyone losing their heads about the offense, didn’t most people predict that we would win a tight and low-scoring game? Most predictions had us with right around 20 pts for the game.

The vast majority of people did not think our defense would surrender 24 pts to ND at all. No way. 

And yet everyone is bitching about the offense like they somehow severely underperformed to their expectations. What were you expecting when you predicted a 17-10 Michigan victory? 

Why are most people giving the defense a free pass while simultaneously crucifying the offense? 

I predict that our defense (which we know is good) doesn’t suck that badly in a game again and that our offense improves. Let’s not forget that we scored 17 points on a really good defense and easily could have scored 24 points if not for a few very correctable errors (botched field goal +3, we score from the 2 yd line instead of kicking a FG, +4). 

The only game I’m willing to concede is Ohio state. We would really need to pull something out of our ass to win that game. 

Every other game will be winnable, super tough ones versus Wisconsin, and Michigan state.  But winnable 

6-6 may be the ceiling.   I'm not convinced this team can beat Maryland or possibly even Nebraska.  Other than QB what we saw last Saturday may have been a bit of a step back from last season.  the drop-off from Cole to Runyan was cavernous and the interior of the D-line really did take a noticeable hit with Hurst gone.  I didn't really see any gains anywhere.   

We lost every single 50/50 ball in that game.   Even an early PBU was a lost 50/50 as the ball was underthrown to the point where it should have been picked off.   ND made several defensive players miss in space and broke some tackles.   Michigan made ZERO misses in space and Patterson was the only player to break a tackle.  

Since arriving at Michigan, if my math is correct, Harbaugh is 5-8 in 1 score games.  When MSU went down by 1 point against USU late in the game I had zero doubt they'd engineer a scoring drive to take the lead and that their D would close out.   Ditto for PSU closing out their game.   

When we got the ball at the 35 yard line, down 7 with 1:48 did ANYONE have even a shred of confidence that this team would put together a TD drive and send the game into overtime?   I sure as hell didn't  

My heart says 9-3 but my head says 8-4. I think the next few weeks will show us a lot. If we can either cut down on the mental mistakes from the current tackles or get the young bucks to a passable level, we could do very well. I imagine we will be able to run the ball against everyone but OSU at least a little bit. If Warriner can't get these players to a passable level by the time we play Wisconsin, I'm not sure who can.

Based on watching ND and all other B1G teams this week, I would say every B1G team minus OSU would have lost their opener if they played vs ND in South Bend