Hey, SOMEBODY'S gotta start the conversation on Saturday's game...

...so why not I?

We're giving PSU 10 or 10.5, depending on which Vegas casino you believe.  For BETTING purposes, both sound reasonable. But to this mind, not for ON-THE-FIELD purposes...

No doubt my euphoria's influenced, in part, by personal enthusiasm brought on by our surging team's recent performances. So I'll try to be more analytical and objective the rest of the way here:

I simply don't buy Penn State. They struggled to survive an Iowa team that didn't score ONE POINT on offense, and couldn't protect fourth quarter leads against OSU or MSU. And all three AT HOME.

Don Brown has made no secret of his desire to get his top-rated defense on the field against the team that poured it on our young, learning group a year ago.  And the "multi-faceted" Trace McSorley?  Look me in the friggin' eye and tell me our D, at all levels, doesn't face a QB who does everything AT LEAST as well as T.M., every day in practice????  We've seen---most recently at E.L.---what Shea is capable in the way of IMPROVISION, and he's at least as much the raw athlete T.M. is.

The same apples to the running backs, WRs, TEs and O-Line our D faces every afternoon in the field house, too.  Except here, our offensive components have an even GREATER edge than at QB...to varying degrees, with our TEs being the biggest edge.

And speaking of "D", how does PSU's stack up with ours?   I won't even waste your time by going into that one...

Nor will I by comparing the COACHING advantages either way...

My call: after shaking off bye-week rust (may take one or two offensive possessions), we dominate the rest of the way (3+ quarters) for a solid---even humiliating---win, 31-10.

great points Mike ... my only concern normally is getting behind early because of the rust .... however it seems Don Brown has circled this game over all others , so that is a good thing especially going up against the intellectually overmatched Franklin

I'm going with 31-14 UM.

REVENGE tour baby!!! This one especially!!!

M 41 PSU 13

Ya'll see Chris Webber will be honorary captain? I just hope he isn't in charge of calling timeouts!!

24-10. Michigan.

michmike wrote:

...so why not I?

We're giving PSU 10 or 10.5, depending on which Vegas casino you believe.  For BETTING purposes, both sound reasonable. But to this mind, not for ON-THE-FIELD purposes...

No doubt my euphoria's influenced, in part, by personal enthusiasm brought on by our surging team's recent performances. So I'll try to be more analytical and objective the rest of the way here:

I simply don't buy Penn State. They struggled to survive an Iowa team that didn't score ONE POINT on offense, and couldn't protect fourth quarter leads against OSU or MSU. And all three AT HOME.

Don Brown has made no secret of his desire to get his top-rated defense on the field against the team that poured it on our young, learning group a year ago.  And the "multi-faceted" Trace McSorley?  Look me in the friggin' eye and tell me our D, at all levels, doesn't face a QB who does everything AT LEAST as well as T.M., every day in practice????  We've seen---most recently at E.L.---what Shea is capable in the way of IMPROVISION, and he's at least as much the raw athlete T.M. is.

The same apples to the running backs, WRs, TEs and O-Line our D faces every afternoon in the field house, too.  Except here, our offensive components have an even GREATER edge than at QB...to varying degrees, with our TEs being the biggest edge.

And speaking of "D", how does PSU's stack up with ours?   I won't even waste your time by going into that one...

Nor will I by comparing the COACHING advantages either way...

My call: after shaking off bye-week rust (may take one or two offensive possessions), we dominate the rest of the way (3+ quarters) for a solid---even humiliating---win, 31-10.

I'm not really trying to start anything here but I actually started a College Fantasy Football league this year and I have both Higdon and Sanders on my team. Sanders and Higdon have basically the same amount of rushing yards but Higdon has 17 more carries, edge Sanders. Higdon isn't used as a receiver much, he only has 4 receptions this year. Sanders OTOH has 15. Higdon's edge comes in ball security though as he has not fumbled this year, Sandres has twice.

All in all both are good backs, call it even (although if forced to pick one I'd have to chose Sanders). Therefore your claim that we have the advantage there is false, at best it's a push. I do think Shea is a little better than McSorely if only because McSorely tweaked a hamstring last week but that kid is definitely a gamer. WR's and TE's are basically a wash but honestly I'm not that well-versed on PSU's talent, but they do have some. I can't complain about our O-line this year but PSU's is most likely better. However will that stand up against our D which is most assuredly better than PSU's?

Franklin has had at best a questionable year but you've gotta think that they'll put a game together sometime. With the way PSU hates us (I've got friends who went to Penn State and they DO NOT like Michigan) I'm leaning to a closer game. 27-17 Blue.

Dual threat QBs always worry me dating back to Syracuse and Donovan McNabb, Troy Smith, Vince Young, JT Barrett.

wshoes wrote:

Dual threat QBs always worry me...

And isn't it mind-soothing, Shoes, knowing we finally have ONE OF THOSE OF OUR OWN to run the offense and scrimmage/prepare the defense?

michmike wrote:

...I simply don't buy Penn State. They struggled to survive an Iowa team that didn't score ONE POINT on offense, and couldn't protect fourth quarter leads against OSU or MSU. And all three AT HOME...

+1

michmike wrote:

...Don Brown has made no secret of his desire to get his top-rated defense on the field against the team that poured it on our young, learning group a year ago...

I'm not be completely on board with this this statement. Did we field a Defense comprised of mostly underclassmen last year? YES. But did or did not that team still finish in the top 10 of almost every major defensive statistical category last year? YES.

Bottom line.... Penn State worked our defense last year. I can admit it. We were out played. We learned and moved on. I definitely see the point you are trying to make however, I would advise you to be careful to suggest otherwise.

michmike wrote:

...And the "multi-faceted" Trace McSorley?  Look me in the friggin' eye and tell me our D, at all levels, doesn't face a QB who does everything AT LEAST as well as T.M., every day in practice????...

+1  -  I assume McCaffrey is a handful as scout team QB. The kid can emulate just about any other Qb that Michigan will see this season (even Haskins)

michmike wrote:

...And speaking of "D", how does PSU's stack up with ours?...

I am pretty sure that they have one of the top pass rush Defenses in the conference (and nation). It is clearly something that Michigan O line will be keying on this week.

michmike wrote:

...My call: after shaking off bye-week rust (may take one or two offensive possessions), we dominate the rest of the way (3+ quarters) for a solid---even humiliating---win, 31-10...

31-10 is bold but if things go right early I wouldn't be surprised. Inversely I wouldn't count out a nail biter. Gonna be fun either way

LOL eggo. When I got to your last line i read it and thought way to put yourself out there. lmao.

We could kill them or it could be a nail biter.

Just thought it was funny.

EGGO---  In my line about our D facing a QB at least as good as McSorley every day in practice, I was referring to SHEA, not Dylan!  But you have a point: the second D (and probably the first, to some degree) practices against Dylan Mac as well. And he seems like the whole package (except for experience), a'la Patterson.

As for PSU's pass rush, I don't have a lot of information on that. But I do have plenty of information pointing out the inferiority of their defense as a whole. Not only unable to protect 4th qtr. leads AT HOME vs. OSU and MSU, but giving up 32 first downs and 552 yards their last trip away from home (to Indiana). HUGE edge for us on that side of the ball.

As Joe paraphrased your prognostication, I don't know about "killing" them, but am fairly confident that a solid (i.e., 14- to 21-point) victory is more likely than our winning a nail-biter.  And BOTH of the former are FAR more likely, to my mind, than them winning by ANY score.

when I said we could beat them handily I basically meant cover the spread by maybe a FG or so. I would never have guessed that score.

Sucks that DM is done for the year though.