Today will be my last day of posting for awhile...

...considering tonight I board a BA overnight flight to Geneva, Switzerland (sister/bro-in-law) then Manchester, UK (my clown-prince jokemeister, he of the "Really Stupid Pictures" fame/infamy)!!! Return to the States 11/1.
And the only "FOOTball" I'll likely be watching this weekend will be West Bromwich Albion against Manchester United...yep, that kind of foosball...

Going to be a very intriguing matchup with Nebraska Saturday, though. From what I (and most of you) have seen, heard and read thus far, it's a weaker Husker defense than the one we torched for 45 last year. BUT---
(1) this one's at Lincoln, where the Huskers seem day-and-night different (no pun intended), and (2) at least 14 of that 45-pt total can be attributed to Husker gaffes on special teams.

Still, it must be added that this U-M defense seems to have improved tremendously over the past five weeks...probably at a faster rate than our defense improved last year. And the fact Burkhead may
watch the game (though as Fish points out, Abdullah is a legit. threat, in different ways, too).

I'll stick by my earlier statement that I'm hoping Matty's gamplan is to dare Martinez to beat us through
the air. (Sound familiar, fellow U-M fans?)

It's early, but given I ain't gonna be here, here you are: GOOD GUYS IN BLUE 27, Good Guys in Red 20.

(That's a sop to the Cornhusker fans and players, whom I've read are classy, in the main).

I see more points from the guys in Blue mike.

IT's too early for my prediction though.

Have fun on your travels!

Safe travels Mike!

'shoes

Bon Voyage, enjoy the trip, wish I was going, have agood time..

Thanks, all...I'm looking forward to it. Despite my age, it's nonetheless my first trip across the "pond"!!!

Back to this forum's underlying subject, I see the Legion of Unbeatens being whittled down by at least three(3) this weekend: Miss.St. for sure,
Notre Dame probably, and OSU better-chance-than-not.

Addendum: speaking of OSU, and their by-now-well-known, but nonetheless baffling defensive struggles:

Can we think of another major program whose once-formidable defense was ignored, then destroyed, by an "outsider" coach intent on installing his own "spread" offense??? Interesting parallel, eh?

Enjoy the trip. I'm a little jealous. You can keep up with the blue on the internets.

Very jealous of your trip!

I'm curious, how will you 'follow' what's going on with our boys in the Maize and Blue?

Visit one of those fancy places known as an Internet Cafe?

Admin wrote:

Very jealous of your trip!

I'm curious, how will you 'follow' what's going on with our boys in the Maize and Blue?

Visit one of those fancy places known as an Internet Cafe?

Yes, of course I'll keep tabs on the scores, ours anyhow, but an internet cafe won't be necessary...both my "hosts" are well-connected, online.

Have a safe trip, Mike. It's too bad you're going during the Nebraska game instead of the UMass game.

But yes. Our 3 rivals have an extremely tough road ahead of them this Saturday, as do we. In a perfect world, we beat Nebraska while OSU, MSU and ND all come out losers. (And the Tigers win too.)

Please be a perfect world, Saturday.

michmike wrote:

Addendum: speaking of OSU, and their by-now-well-known, but nonetheless baffling defensive struggles:

Can we think of another major program whose once-formidable defense was ignored, then destroyed, by an "outsider" coach intent on installing his own "spread" offense??? Interesting parallel, eh?

exact same thing for a while now Mike.

Great minds........

THEstjoemfan wrote:

michmike wrote:

Addendum: speaking of OSU, and their by-now-well-known, but nonetheless baffling defensive struggles:

Can we think of another major program whose once-formidable defense was ignored, then destroyed, by an "outsider" coach intent on installing his own "spread" offense??? Interesting parallel, eh?

exact same thing for a while now Mike.

Great minds........

Ahem, WolverineHistorian, I think someone's talking about you... (sure as hell not about me).

Joking aside, WH, Joe (and all), I'm not as worried as many of you seem to be about the game at Lincoln. No, not because I'll be abroad at that moment; Blueblood stays in your veins everywhere! But because Nebraska's defense doesn't look anywhere near the type that can bottle up DR (e.g., 'Bama, ND) even if fired-up and at home, and ours has really come on the past several weeks. And I see very little aerial threat from Martinez...and against the likes of whose footspeed our defense has plenty of practice, eh?

OK I'm bringing up old sh!t here but I went back and found the thread titled "Let's get some WAY TOO EARLY 2012 predictions..." dated Mon Jan 23, 2012

In that thread there are a lot of general statements and predictions not only about game outcomes but also of players, depth, etc. It seems that even though we were riding high on our recent Sugar Bowl win the forum still seemed fairly grounded.

Anyway, here is one of my posts...


September 1 vs. Alabama (in Arlington, TX) - L
September 8 Air Force - W
September 15 Massachusetts - W
September 22 @ Notre Dame - W
October 6 @ Purdue - W
October 13 Illinois - W
October 20 Michigan State - W
October 27 @ Nebraska - L
November 3 @ Minnesota - W
November 10 Northwestern - W
November 17 Iowa - W
November 24 @ Ohio State - W


10-2 but we don't win the division.


So I called the 10-2 but said we wouldn't win the division because I thought it would come down to a loss at Nebraska. I guess I wasn't expecting Nebraska to have two losses on their record by the time UM went to Lincoln. And since we've seen Nebraska's D digress I now also feel that Nebraska WILL lose a game to either MSU, PSU or Iowa. With the progress of the UM D I feel a lot better about both a UM win this weekend and a 10-2 season.


Some points to the game to think about...

1. As I've stated a few times before Nebraska will not have the cluster F on special teams as they did last year. They won't fumble the ball or muff punts and they sure as hell won't allow Dileo to pick up a first downs on a field goal trick plays.

2. Nebraska stadium at night is LOUD. They will be in it the entire game.

3. Nebraska's D won't be able to contain our WRs/TEs and their D line won't get as much pressure as they need to on Denard. That is a recipe for disaster for them.

4. UM will focus almost solely on the Nebraska running game. Contain Martinez and it's game over....UNLESS, Martinez gets time to sit in the pocket and get comfortable. Martinez is a lot like Denard in that people don't give him credit for being as good of a passer as he is (or can be). Every once in a while he gets hot and in a rhythm. I would hate for that to be against UM.

5. TURNOVERS, TURNOVERS, TURNOVERS. We did a hell of a job against MSU and that kept us in it and worked out good for us. It will be key again.

6. Special Teams... Hagerup is damn near the most underrated player on the team. His kicks have turned the tide in field position and that has given the D a few downs to figure things out and adjust before the other team in the end zone. Gibbons/Wile are a formidable team. For the first time in a few years I'm confident in our ability to put points on the board in the event we don't get into the endzone.

7. This will be a B1G style game like last week against sparty. I saw a stat that said that the team (MSU or UM) that gets the most rushing yards won the game 39 of the last 42 (now 40 of the last 43). It's obvious for a few reasons but mostly in time of possession. I think the Nebraska game will come down to the wire. I hope for our sake we have the ball last.


I am switching my pick and am predicting UM - 27 Nebraska - 23

Oh yeah, almost forgot... have a fun and safe trip Mike. Bring me back something nice!

Great post Sandy- good analysis.

'shoes

wshoes wrote:

Great post Sandy- good analysis.

'shoes

Second that.

mike, you're making me feel like a small-timer. I also most likely won't be here much over the weekend as I'm going to Florida in a few hours. I'll come back to Michigan Sunday afternoon (I'm assuming that It'll be weeks for you) but I'll be down in Southern Florida all weekend. Anyone know of any Michigan bars that I can watch the game at in Marco Island? I'm guessing probably not, and I'll most likely watch the game from my hotel room anyway (I don't like watching games around people who don't care).

Anyway, enjoy your trip mike and Go Blue!