Michigan 45, SMU 20.

[Hannibal]

LOL Indiana blew out the Ball State team that gave ND the same game as we did. ND beat Vandy by 5 points and the Commodores actually outgained them.

[Ghengis Jon]

Best thing about the game was the half time show.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Not for everyone, The dude sitting next to us who is probably pushing 90 said during the half-time show, I've got a Master's Degree from this institution and I can honestly say first time I've been embarrassed by this university. I'm about to walk out. He stayed.

To the Michigan marching band organization and John Pasquale in particular, your job is to entertain, not make political statements.

[Jeff Buchanan]

FROM THE STANDS

Maybe the most aggravating Michigan football game I've been in the stands for. The game was over officiated causing significant delays in it. The M offense couldn't establish any kind of rhythm consistently. Players were left standing around in the heat, probably 90+ and 70% humidity on the field, for extended periods while the refs gathered at mid-field to talk about every flag they just threw or the buzzer from the press box. Meanwhile the sun burned down on us and we got cranky. I can imagine a similar effect on players. The game lasted only about 30 minutes more than usual; it seemed like 2 hours.

We watched the full game later and slo-mowed most of the plays that deserved doing that. The refs got most, if not all of the calls correct and Doug Dillon, who absolutely knows the rules, including the obscure one that was called on SMU during their unsuccessful on-sides kick attempt. It was the correct call. The targeting calls were legit but I don't think most crews would have called the one on Kinnel (not ejected) when he was carried into the ball carrier by sheer momentum and there was clearly no intent to lead with the helmet. Hudson's targeting call and ejection were legit. The PIs were legit, you just couldn't see Hill or whoever live, holding the shit out of Porcher more often than not. He was mostly uncoverable and will play on Sunday despite his size. He has one of the best releases and speed to match that I've seen this season...... over and over again. I've seen college games this season where refs didn't call most of the handsy stuff on pass plays. Let them play was the mantra. This was a MAC crew who did mostly the opposite of that. BTW, the busted coverage on Porcher's blitheringly wide open TD catch and run on busted coverage by M was a very well executed play call by Dykes that fooled the shit out of Hill and Mettelus who were covering stacked receivers at the LOS.

The game: M had something like three sustained drives between the ones that were interrupted by a lot of standing around when a penalty was called. M was flagged for 137y on 13 penalties - which may be a dubious record. I think this substantially affected one's negative perception of the overall game, including a view that Michigan's offense sucked. It really wasn't that bad even though it was not particularly inspiring. It was plodding. However, Patterson was 14/18/1 (the INT more on the TE - McKeon who failed to come back to the throw, instead standing in the EZ allowing the pick). He threw for 3 TDs. His average throw went for 16.9y. M rushed for 204y at 4.8ypc clip. If I had not actually seen the game live and just saw these numbers, I'd exclaim, great game ..... but it wasn't.

I think there are legitimate complaints about in-game play calling although I've seen posts that note M is going to have to run plays against teams that stack the box and repeatedly A-Gap blitz because that is what SMU did about every run play so, they practiced that. But to not be able to score a TD until the 5th play from inside the 5 is troubling. Please note that M was 3/3 on 4th down conversions and you may correctly retort, why did it come to that?

I remain perplexed why pass-plays aren't being called to punish teams that bring their Ss up (SMU didn't but WMU did) and LBs crashing down on every play (WMU just had bad LBs, SMU doesn't and did). The short field would seem to be ripe for screens and slants off quick throws and we're not seeing these to the extent I think they should be thrown. Patterson can throw these balls so, I have to ask why not? Instead, we've seen M bash runners into 9 and 10 man fronts. That seems counter-productive to me. On the broadcast, Warriner was quoted as saying, when the OL met on the sidelines after a punt and in response to player's noting the LBs are crashing down on every play, (Warriner) "well, we expected that so win those battles." OK ........ I guess. I don't think M is going to win those battles consistently and in enough situations where sustaining a drive and scoring points is critical against teams with very good offenses that score points at will with play calling that reflects approaches to offense more consistent with the explosiveness of a whole range of them in modern CFB (Think osu in a class not matched by any BIG team this season, not even close).

The bottom line, though, is that M is winning games that they should win and not by just squeaking by as in the recent past. The problem for fans, in general is, that we have expectations that your favorite football team will just explode in a fireworks display of long TD runs and 60 yard pass plays, scoring 50+ points in the process. Opponents won't score at all. Some teams are doing that on offense, not so much on defense, early this season and M is not. But, despite stubbing it's toe in the opener v. ND, M is winning and winning in a pretty big way, holding opponents to fewer points, but not few enough for most, to win comfortably. My advice to M fans, as you'd expect, is to ease off on the fuck-hollering.

What about the remaining schedule? M is more likely than not going to beat Nebraska, with or without A-Mart but there is the Frost factor in his hatred for M and his ability to fire-up the team ....... apparently just like Sonny Dykes did with SMU. SMU played WAYYYY better than I, and the majority of fans, thought they would. Porcher was unstoppable. He had 11 receptions for 166 yards and 2 TDs and both QBs hit him for big gains against what was thought to be a very good back-end. They are good, IMO, Porcher just had a lights out game. Otherwise the SMU offense was pedestrian (319 yards off 209y passing and 110y rushing (Porcher, alone, accounting for 166/209). On the road v. Northwestern looked challenging at the start of the season, now, based on how Fitzpatrick seems to be managing his team, not a difficult road win. After that, both Maryland and Wisconsin at home look winnable. MSU, I don't know man, Dantonio will have the team ready. It's a winnable but very difficult road game for M because, it's Michigan and Harbaugh has yet to notch a signature win, he's won 1 sure, but ...... against his rivals. PSU comes to Ann Arbor and I've not thought much of PSU with McSorely and Franklin without Saquan and Morrehead but, PSU is destroying its opponents after a shaky start in their opener. Fucking openers! Then there is @ Rutgers, IU and @osu in that order. Right now, I think IU is going to be a tough win if they stay healthy. But, M's D, decidedly more talented than IU's, will be facing an offense so much like their own it's scarry. M's defense should be strong against Mike DeDord's O. I think Patterson wins the QB battle v. Peyton Ramsey and M's D makes the sledding tough for Mike DeBord who also likes to run into 9 and 10 man boxes ..... but, he probably gets a bad rap because, from what I've seenof IU's offense, he's got some surprising diversity in his O these days.

A separate paragraph for osu. M is not going on the road to c-bus and winning as it stands right now. osu is too explosive on offense and too good on defense to beat a plodding, methodical to a fault, Michigan offense. So, 10-2 regular season is possible but 9-3 or even 8-4 is equally as likely an outcome, maybe more likely. Either way, M is not going to the CFP and based on what I'm seeing from the teams that will (Alabama, Clemson, UGA and osu), they don't belong there.

[Hannibal]

Not for everyone, The dude sitting next to us who is probably pushing 90 said during the half-time show, I've got a Master's Degree from this institution and I can honestly say first time I've been embarrassed by this university. I'm about to walk out. He stayed.

To the Michigan marching band organization and John Pasquale in particular, your job is to entertain, not make political statements.

What was it?

[Hannibal]

I thought that the refs got three really bad calls wrong. The first was the spot on Evans's fourth down run. He was short by at least half a yard. And then the penalty that they called on Sonny Dykes was an absolute joke. The other was a pass interference on Kinnel (?) where the ball was thrown way out of bounds and was not, by any means, catchable. The targeting was 100% legit. Matt Millen was complaining about it but he is a dumbass. It was a bad play by Hudson. He just launched himself head first without even using his arms to tackle. Too bad he will be missing for the first half against Adrian Martinez and company. We're going to need good space players. Nebraska's offense is going to be nothing like what it was against Troy.

Every year when I watch college football I see something weird that I have never seen before. That bizarre call on the onside kick was one of them. I still don't understand what happened there.

I think there are legitimate complaints about in-game play calling although I've seen posts that note M is going to have to run plays against teams that stack the box and repeatedly A-Gap blitz because that is what SMU did about every run play so, they practiced that. But to not be able to score a TD until the 5th play from inside the 5 is troubling. Please note that M was 3/3 on 4th down conversions and you may correctly retort, why did it come to that?

I remain perplexed why pass-plays aren't being called to punish teams that bring their Ss up (SMU didn't but WMU did) and LBs crashing down on every play (WMU just had bad LBs, SMU doesn't and did). The short field would seem to be ripe for screens and slants off quick throws and we're not seeing these to the extent I think they should be thrown. Patterson can throw these balls so, I have to ask why not? Instead, we've seen M bash runners into 9 and 10 man fronts. That seems counter-productive to me. On the broadcast, Warriner was quoted as saying, when the OL met on the sidelines after a punt and in response to player's noting the LBs are crashing down on every play, (Warriner) "well, we expected that so win those battles." OK ........ I guess. I don't think M is going to win those battles consistently and in enough situations where sustaining a drive and scoring points is critical against teams with very good offenses that score points at will with play calling that reflects approaches to offense more consistent with the explosiveness of a whole range of them in modern CFB (Think osu in a class not matched by any BIG team this season, not even close).

Harbaugh's scheme, man. The only way to keep defenses honest is to throw low percentage passes downfield that you need a great offensive line to protect for. Sometimes, you hit those. Most of the time, you don't or you get sacked because the defense is bringing more guys than you can block. It's a formula good for 17 points against a good defense. Or less. I love that counter-pitch play that SMU used to burn us on a 4th down conversion. I don't know why we don't run that since we run the fullback enough to make defenses respect it.

[Ghengis Jon]

Not for everyone....To the Michigan marching band organization and John Pasquale in particular, your job is to entertain, not make political statements.

I missed that portion. A mid eighties lady three seats over from me had a stroke during halftime. Despite a shattered foot, I was up the steps like a gazelle summoning help. It wasn't 30 seconds before both police and medical staff followed me back down to the row. Hats off to the staff for response time.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hanni, on the "uncatchable" pass. That rule is an NFL rule that does not apply in CFB. I did not know that. You cannot interfere with the receiver after the ball is in the air. My issue is that interference seems to be subjective and different conferences crews are going to call CFB PI in various ways. That's a problem.

The half time show was definately anti Trump. You did not have to be smart to understand the link between various historical presidential quotes displayed on the big screen and then narrated and Trumps presumed misdeeds. It was nakedly inappropriate for M to do this but also not entirely unexpected for the U to think it was fine.

On the ko penalty. The kicker that lines up deeper than the line, can not be replaced by another player from the line during the play. SMU lined up with the kicker and move toward the tee as expected but another player slid behind the players on the line and kicked the ball laterally. It bounced right into an M players chest who was not lined up for an onside kick. So, both illegal and not executed well. If iy had taken the expected bounce it might have worked but still illegal. The refs got it right even though it didn't matter. 5y penalty on SMU that advanced the ball in M's favor to the SMU 45 from the 50 where M first touched it.

[Hannibal]

Hanni, on the "uncatchable" pass. That rule is an NFL rule that does not apply in CFB.

Is that new? Because I have seen balls ruled "uncatchable" quite a few times in the college game.

[Kstat]

Not for everyone, The dude sitting next to us who is probably pushing 90 said during the half-time show, I've got a Master's Degree from this institution and I can honestly say first time I've been embarrassed by this university. I'm about to walk out. He stayed.

To the Michigan marching band organization and John Pasquale in particular, your job is to entertain, not make political statements.

Clearly, the 90-year old man needs a safe space.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Is that new? Because I have seen balls ruled "uncatchable" quite a few times in the college game.

I did some research on this and what I found was that the word "catchable" is broadly interpreted in both the NFL and CFB. In CFB the rule stopped being strictly applied in the not too distant past. Uncatchable means that is most likely not in the same zip-code as the receiver. This is because of the freakish ability of recent wide receivers to leap in the process of catching the ball. Unfortunately, it's another problem of inconsistent, subjective application of the rules by different conferences and by refs within each conference. I know this stuff is hard to quantify beyond what is essentially an eyeball call but I think many rules could be made less subjective with an eye toward a let them play approach unless player safety is involved. But I see an increasing number of game changing and driving ending or enabling calls made these days. It's troubling.

I did not know this but this is the first year that NFL refs are full time professionals. It is way past time for college football conferences to jointly address the probably adequate but not anywhere near as good refereeing as what it ought to be considering what is at stake in the multi-billion dollar sports entertainment industry. I generally don't like to criticize the referring because it is frequently an excuse for poor play. OTH, the problem I had with Saturday's game in Ann Arbor was the delays in the game caused by the combination of media time outs and penalty flag discussions/booth buzzers and on-field reviews by this particular crew. There is too much at stake these days to have games refereed by part time guys who might like doing what they do as a hobby but most don't have the requisite skills and time on task to be, on balance, an asset to the game instead of a liability.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The UFR Offense is up. Cliff notes:

Pass-Pro was very good.

Run blocking wasn't. Brian was trying to figure out if the things he saw were subtle changes to try to cause the LBs to miss-read the run play or if they were dorf's He's pretty sure they were dorf's. Moreover these mistakes were on plays that by the end of last season, they weren't making them so, ????? He ends this section by saying he does not think they will get repeated. Sort of wishful thinking IMO.

Harbughffense love him some TEs and they were all over the place on the OL in multiple different sets. Their blocking sucked and their receiving was just OK. The blocking thing is keeping the RBs from breaking big and instead they get ankle tackled after a 9 yard gain by a S getting through.

Patterson is really GOOD. He's elite when he has protection. It's nice to see a QB hit an open receiver in stride for 6 or throwing a perfect back-shoulder fade to the endzone in a tight window. Patterson did miss a couple of open guys most notably on the INT he threw trying to get the ball to McKeon on the goal line. Gentry was open in the middle of the field. Oh, and DPJ is living up to his recruiting hype. Gentry, aside from some blocking issues, is a threat capable of running seam routes exploiting teams that sell-out to stop M's run game.

Some of the videos are worth looking at if you want to see power blocked correctly (also incorrectly) and understand what Down G looks like. Brian does a real good job of making what seemed to be a pretty bad run game actually pretty good - that part is worth reading.

https://mgoblog.com/content/upon-further-review-offense-vs-smu