Week 1: Curb stomped by what appears to be an uber elite Alabama team.
Week 2: Struggled defensively against tricky triple option Air Force in a week of short preparation with a defensive coordinator who rarely faces the triple option and employed some flawed schemes.
Week 3: UMass lol. Just might be the worst FBS team in the country.
What have we learned through three weeks that we didn't know entering the season? Alabama proved Michigan cannot hang with Alabama, but can anyone? Air Force runs on everyone and Michigan was no exception. And UMass lol.
So after three weeks the fans and media really don't know a whole lot about where Michigan stacks up this season in regards to their competition in the Big Ten. The rest of the Big Ten looks so weak right now that Michigan might now be the favorites?
A rational argument could be made that Michigan is looking at 7-5 this season. A rational argument could also be made that Michigan is going to run the table and finish 11-1. Somewhere in the middle is the most likely scenario, around 9-3, but it's interesting things stand so unknown after three games.
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The Spartans, on the other hand, seem to be a team easy to peg at this point. While the victory over Boise St still provides questions because we simply don't know how good Boise is this season, there are a few certainties with respect to Michigan State.
- The defense is elite. Will Gholston is playing below expectations, but the secondary and linebackers are fantastic. The loss to Notre Dame is likely the only way to beat MSU. Kelly virtually shut down the offense in the 2nd half and just let his defense win him the game. Which brings us to...
- Turns out it is not so easy replacing Cousins, Cunningham, Martin and Nichol. Leveon Bell is outstanding (and will keep making highlights by leaping people) but the young QB and receivers need to be able to beat teams who stack the box against Bell. Against the Irish they failed to do so and it wasn't pretty. The offensive line has had major issues in protection and Bell's success, IMO, has more to do with Bell making plays than the MSU offensive line creating for him.
- MSU still may be the class of the Big Ten this year but they aren't going to walk through their schedule and dominate. They will be in tough games with OSU, UM, Wisconsin, Nebraska and maybe Northwestern.
We'll know a little more about UM after this weekend's game. On paper it looks like a tough matchup for UM. ND's front 7 on defense has looked really tough. But then again they haven't exactly played good offensive teams yet.
ReplyDeleteStill, this is the best team UM has played that isn't Alabama and is a common opponent for ND.
I think coming off UMASS, I cant' imagine Michigan spent a great deal of effort on that gameplan, the schedule might be giving UM a bit of a break here.
Still, going down to South Bend and winning this game would be by far the most impressive victory of any B1G team this year.
As for MSU, it really was like Deja Vu against ND. Except as Zach pointed out, this year's team is a lot different. No Cousins, Cunningham, Martin, Nichol, etc on offense.
Also not mentioned, MSU's starting RT Fou Fonoti got hurt on Thursday in practice. Very, very bad timing. I can't imagine Fridays are much more than a walk through. The line looked totally out of sync. They have significantly underperformed but injuries have definitely had a role in that so far.
Given how the game turned out, that Fowler drop just killed us. If it is 14-10 going into halftime the second half gameplans for both teams could have looked a lot different. In the stadium I couldn't tell if it was a drop or a good defensive play. Upon further review, it was a straight drop. Did he have to leap? Yea. But after leaping it hit him in the chest. That is a catch you have to come down with.
Any comments on Dantonio saying he got too impatient with the game plan? ND was stacking the box against Bell but he's the best player on that offense, gotta let him tote the rock.
ReplyDeleteAfter that he also stated that he should have went back to the original game plan. He liked the change of pace in the no huddle, but they should have then had a sudden switch and gone back to pounding the ball with Bell. Bell was averaging a hair over 4 yards per carry in that game. I cant even say he got that in garbage time. Because literally, every time he touched the ball it was 4 yards.
DeleteObviously it was mismanaged if he is saying he mismanaged it.
We need to win that game though for various reasons. Makes me sweat thinking about the rest of the year now.
I wouldn't sweat. You probably aren't going 11-1 but ND might turn out to be the best team on your schedule...though they did struggle with Purdue.
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