Another Harbaugh Choke Postgame Thread

[THE_WIZARD_]

All of youse are ungrateful bastages...

AA...the omission of you was purely accidental. I would totally kill you as well...

XOXOXO

STFU

[AlabamAlum]

That’s better.

Hot rod hearts
Out on the boulevard tonight
Here come those hungry sharks
Up from the bottom for another bite

[THE_WIZARD_]

You're the one that I want...ooooh baby....oooh oooh oooh...

[lineygoblue]

Take it to the OSU thread, Donny and Marie ...

[THE_WIZARD_]

No.

Liney:

No.

[Cody_Russell]

Sparty with the all green uniforms choice for the game. I expect to see white pants for M.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Just finished reading Seth's UFR NWU Defense. Sure it's the wildcats FFS but good things happened a lot aside from the one bad thing (the 75y TD run) and the sorta bad thing - screens. But that's being nit picky as this was a complete domination made less dominant by a decision by the refs to not call holding on Hutchinson repeatedly seconds away from thunder sacking Hilinski and call a PI on DJ Turner that should have been called on the receiver he was defending. It's not even close and prompted Seth to write this:

Even in a pandemic, the ~$2 million it would cost the conference to hire full-time officiating crews with medical benefits and weekly training is chump change, would net them the best officials in the world, and would be a selling point in recruiting against the other conferences since nobody hates bush league refs more than elite, hypercompetitive athletes. Grading them openly and allowing them to engage with fans would enhance performance and give those wronged a sense of justice. Mickey Rule Books has been an enormous success.

Anyway, DJ Turner appears to be able to cover MSU's Jalen Nailor. That might amount to one or two big plays from him instead of twelve. Yes, MSU's OL is not as bad as NWU's but I think Thorne is going to be under a lot of pressure. Tucker will have him short arming it to negate that, probably to the edge where M has shown some weakness.

What about Walker? McDonald did some neat things hiding who and what position player was coming down to the A-gaps. Hilinski would do his pre-snap reads, decide hand-off to Wlker or pass to his primary target and at the sanp have 1.2 seconds to find him. Helinski had no time to execute a route tree or wait for the receiver to come open. He'd throw there to find winged helmets batting balls at the LOS and creating opportunities for INTs. It wasn't pretty. The same sort of thing happened to any and all ball carriers playing for NWU. Didn't matter. Runs inside were disasters.

Again, M should be able to limit MSU's running game sufficiently to protect the kind of offense Harbaugh has set about designing for McNamara/McCarthy. I said I'd come back on Thursday and revisit my pick for MSU to win by 3-4 points. If what I saw of M's hamblasting of NWU - which was just as much about McDonald RPS'ing Fitz as it was that NWU is bad - M can win this. I don't think it will matter that M's offense is limited by McNamara's skill set. It is good enough, in combination with a run game that isn't going to get stoned, to put 27 or more points on the board. M's defense is good enough to hold MSU's offense in check. I think M wins this by a TD maybe more. For now, I'll go with

Michigan 27, MSU 20

[Hannibal]

I'm saying MSU 31, UM 23. They are going to burn us with big plays. We will dominate TOP but kick too many FGs.

[Jeff Buchanan]

MSU doesn't have a better offense that Udub, Neb or Wisky only slightly better than WMU. No way MSU is scoring 31 off big plays. I'll grant it's game 8 so teams get better, the game is in EL. the refs will have an impact, shit happens and all that but no, 31-23 MSU ain't happening.

[THE_WIZARD_]

HARBAUGH!!! 27 TUCKER!!! 13

[lineygoblue]

Yea, I don't see this being a high scoring affair. Not sure what the O/U is right now, but the under is probably a safe bet.

Michigan may have a slight advantage in special teams. Moody can make anything inside the 40, and occasionally 50+. Robbins has had an excellent season in the punting department. If Michigan can keep MSU deep in its own territory and give them a long field on each posession, it will be a big help. But, they can't allow themselves to be gashed with big plays right after pinning MSU deep. They did this against Nebraska, and to some degree against Rutgers.

I'm still concerned with MSU's WR's matched up against M's DB's. M's DB's have been burned a lot with catches, and they'll likely get shafted on some PI calls as the visiting team as well.

When M has the ball, there's no doubt in my mind that Tucker will BEG Michigan/McNamara to throw the ball. He's going to have 8 men within 5 yards of the LOS on every snap. McNamara will read that, and he's going to need options to audible out of running plays, to take advantage of what MSU is giving. I'm not sure Harbaugh/Gattis will allow him to do that. Do they trust his (McNamara's) judgement in those instances?

If I were planning to go up against M's offense, I'd be shooting a corner blitz from both sides in every running situation, and give instructions to my blitzers to head straight for the RB. Totally ignore the QB. Dare him to keep on the RPO (If Gattis has the guts to call one), and go straight for Haskins/Corum. If McCarthy comes in its likely (probly 70% or more) that a run is being called with JJ keeping the ball on a option. Its what they do.

I'm still having difficulty visualizing how Michigan wins this one. Sparty feeds off its home crowd, and among the intangibles will be that they want to prove that last year was no fluke (even though it was), and they want to prove they're the better team. Michigan rarely gets a fair shake in officiating at EL, no matter what the sport is.

I think:

MSU 20

M - 14

I hope I'm wrong.

[lineygoblue]

HARBAUGH!!! 27 TUCKER!!! 13

Stop drinking the booze that is supposed to go into the wing sauce.

[THE_WIZARD_]

...Bloody Mary Wings...

Liney...you are a GENIUS!

Not genius like HARBAUGH!!! but closer to Wile E. Coyote...

[froot loops]

MSU certainly has a better offense than Washington. Good grief.

[froot loops]

I would be surprised if they had 8 in the box against Michigan, they are more bend but don't break.