Michigan 49 @ Minnesota 24

[Tom W]

Michigan’s offense is just auditioning this week. It’s kinda crazy but it works so far. Close this out and just abuse Sparty next week.

[Fraquar]

If you don't get stops doens't matter how many point you score.

Which is why going for the FG there is idiotic. You manage the game the way it's been going, you need TD's not FG's.
Nothing in this game should suggest to the HC that he needs to kick a FG there. You need to score a bunch.
QB just has to make that easy throw - it's the only chance they had.

You've been watching too much Lions football. Lions get an early lead, think it's enough and settle for FG's instead of going for TD's. Next thing you know they are chasing the game.

[Cody_Russell]

Credit to Harbaugh and Gattis having the offense put on this performance. Proved me wrong this week.

Lucky enough M has Sparty next week and not spooky looking NW.

[Tom W]

You've been watching too much Lions football. Lions get an early lead, think it's enough and settle for FG's instead of going for TD's. Next thing you know they are chasing the game.

That’s exactly why there are more Wolverine fans than Lions fans in SE Michigan.

[BadWolf]

3rd and 21 and M calls TO...They must own stock in the commercials.

[Fraquar]

Credit to Harbaugh and Gattis having the offense put on this performance. Proved me wrong this week.

Lucky enough M has Sparty next week and not spooky looking NW.

This I think says more about the depletion of Minny's defense from last year than it does the Michigan offense.
A lot of what Michigan has gotten on offense has been too easy. I'm talking Northwestern defense in the down years easy.
Time will tell, but I haven't seen Milton have to make a difficult throw at all - and some of the open ones he's had he's missed. This game could easily be 63 or 70 right now.

[JRB]

Kwity Paye is tired of this game, and has decided to end it.

[Tom W]

They’re actually talking about Harbaugh’s pants..

[Whitley]

Which is why going for the FG there is idiotic. You manage the game the way it's been going, you need TD's not FG's.
Nothing in this game should suggest to the HC that he needs to kick a FG there. You need to score a bunch.
QB just has to make that easy throw - it's the only chance they had.

You've been watching too much Lions football. Lions get an early lead, think it's enough and settle for FG's instead of going for TD's. Next thing you know they are chasing the game.

You need to score on EVERY drive. If you don't score there then you have made time an issue much earlier than needed to be. You play the percentage that your defense is able to come up with one stop when it matters---that Michigan is going to have another drive that doesn't end in points.

If your defense can hold them, then you get the ball back down 15 instead of 18. Needing 2TDs and a two point but that is a lot more doable than 3 scores (and you are going to need the FG anyways) two of which need TD and 2pt conversions.

[Cody_Russell]

They’re actually talking about Harbaugh’s pants..

That scared me.
Thought they were going to announce something negative about an injury or something... but luckily, it was just a joke about Harbaugh’s pants.

This I think says more about the depletion of Minny's defense from last year than it does the Michigan offense.
A lot of what Michigan has gotten on offense has been too easy. I'm talking Northwestern defense in the down years easy.
Time will tell, but I haven't seen Milton have to make a difficult throw at all - and some of the open ones he's had he's missed. This game could easily be 63 or 70 right now.

It is a small sample size.
I’m not buying in yet, but this performance gives me more hope.

Minnesota AND Michigan have BOTH lost plenty of starters from 2019. Minnesota’s losses (mainly the defensive front) on defense should have been offset by M’s losses on offense (QB, WRs, 4 starting OLine).
M, despite all of the new starters, looked dominant on offense today.

[JRB]

49-24 is your final. I certainly would have taken that as an outcome, but there's a lot to clean up, and a lot that I don't think can get cleaned up. This team's going to go through a lot of growing pains, but they might be awfully entertaining.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I didn't watch most of this game as I had other plans - a first for me in my adult life as I'm pretty much down on M football. I saw enough. Harbaugh just reversed a trend of losing on the road in openers on the road, against ranked teams or a number of other shitty aspects of his coaching record.

• First game errors, yep.
• Offense with Milton is better than same offense with Patterson. This is due to Milton can run the RO. His long ball sucks and to contend M has to have that. Still the O was very efficient (see stats). Thank you Josh Gattis. Impressed with the little bit of OL play I watched. They'll get better and M should have decent run game in this short season.
• Any time you can shit on PJ Fleck and his stupid show boating, cheer leading style is a good thing for CFB. Fuck him and that may be the best part of this win against a clearly depleted and ill prepared 2nd team Gopher team. The punter was hilarious.
• Don Brown's defense is an antique. Against a shit Minny OL, the D got shredded on the ground. The O may or may not be able to keep up when the D simply sucks.
• Not a contender but better out of the gate than 2019.
• Is this an IU osu BIG East COntest?
• Losses to IU and osu probably PSU and Wisconsin. Don Brown will be responsible for all of them and Gattis will be and should be pissed off about that.

[lineygoblue]

Not much more I can add to the comments about this game. I predicted a 7-10 point win for the Goofers, and I was wrong. I don't mind.

Except for Michigan's first possession, Milton didn't make any major mistakes. I believe he was only sacked once, and his designed runs were well executed. I saw the OL get out in front of him several times, and lay some excellent blocks. That's a dimension Michigan has not had for a while. Milton definitely has a strong arm, and if it ever becomes both strong and accurate, he's going to be very good. At least he didn't do anything as a first time starter to hurt the team. No major mistakes that put the team in bad positions. That's all in his favor. I'd grade him out at about a B-.

RB's look to be solid. Gattis was running in a lot of different combinations making it difficult for Minnesota to match up. Charbonnet, Evans and Haskins all looked good. Corum is the RB of the future. All solid performances. Only drawback was several 'no gain" runs where RB's took the ball and ran square into the butt of the blocker in front of them. Reminded me of the days of BJ Askew, but I'll excuse them due to the win.

WR and TE all played well. Butler, Sainristill, and a couple of those new kids looked good. Good hands, and they ran good routes. Again, if Milton can get them a catchable ball, this could be a fun team. Big IF.

Defensively, I thought we gave their RB too many second chances where he bounced off the first contact and gained yards. Got to wrap up and put them on the ground on the first hit. I believe he had about 150 yards rushing, and that will kill us against better opponents. Corners got beat a few times. Dax had his moments, as did Paye and Hutch. I'd grade the defense out at about a C-.

Key sequence of the game was early in the 2nd half where Minny's drive stalled at Michigan's 4 yard line, and then Michigan took the ensuing possession and scored a TD. That's a 14 point swing. Had Minny scored on that possession, and then held Michigan to a 3 and out, they could have gotten the game back to a one score contest. But, that turned out to be the dagger that ended the Goofer's hopes of stealing the Jug.

Agree with Jeff's comments about Fleck. He's a cheerleader and a snake oil salesman. I couldn't believe him jumping up and down after Michigan's first missed FG in the FIRST QUARTER, acting like his team had just won the game. I mean, seriously? You're jumping up and down and running down the sideline over a miss FG in the freaking first quarter? Ye gads .. you need to switch to decaf, Coach.

On to MSU. No mercy. Michigan 76, MSU 3. Smash them.

EDIT: .. oh yes.. the kicker. I think it may be a good idea to get another look at Quinn Nordin. Moody was awful.

[Hannibal]

Don Brown is a one trick pony with a crap scheme that just piles up gaudy stats against the likes of Rutgers and Maryland. Any hope that we had that he might have learned from the numerous assrapings that he has suffered at the hands of teams with good athletes should be gone. He's obviously never going to change. Against the Goophers it was same shit, different day. The defense was an absolute sieve against a Minnesota offense that has mostly 2* and 3* athletes and was down two OL starters. They got shredded against the run and Minny had receivers running wide open all night long except against Green and Hill, who looked pretty good. They were lucky that Morgan was off target on at least a few easy throws. OSU will put up 60 against us minimum. They might break 70.

[Hannibal]

Josh Gattis had a pretty good game. One thing conspicuously missing was the zone read though. Or at least the arc read that Patterson could have scored a TD on every game if he had been willing to keep the ball. Milton is a good runner but they will need the option to keep scoring like they did against Minny.