Michigan 31, IU 10. Post game discussion.

[THE_WIZARD_]

No appreciation at all.

disheartening

[WingsFan]

Minter adjusted well at the half. 263 yds for Michigan - only 29 yds for IU

[iam416]

Indiana in Bloomington is a nightmare. Great job dominating by HARBAUGH!!!

[WingsFan]

JJ posted a 300 yard game with 77% completion and feels like a bad game to me.

[lineygoblue]

Random rants ::

Everything I've heard so far regarding Mike Hart is encouraging. Last report was the hospital in Bloomington wants to keep him under observation overnight. Probably to make sure he didn't have a stroke. If he hasn't had a MRI yet, that's likely on the schedule. I've been thru that process before. Its not fun, but its a good precaution.

The first drive of the game was excellent. After that until halftime, it was some of the worst Michigan football we've seen since 2020.

But as pissed off as I was then with that performance, I'll give credit for the halftime adjustments. Defense started acting like a defense, and the offense started taking advantage of Indiana's suckdom in the defensive backfield. I'm also glad Harbaugh didn't fire Minter at halftime, but the jury is still out on Mr. Minter, IMO.

There must have been at least a half dozen plays where Michigan ran Corum to one side, and 11 red Indiana shirts followed him. Had McCarthy faked the handoff and bootlegged, he'd still be running. He'd likely be passing Coldwater by now.

Good on Corum for sucking it up and playing tough in the 2nd half. He was visibly shaken by what happened with Hart, and I think that affected his performance.

Harbaugh said that the so-called "throat slash" that drew the UC penalty was actually a brow-wipe, as in wiping off your brow. The heavy flagging crew hit him with the throat slash UC. Harbs said afterward he'd make sure the young man doesn't 'wipe his brow' again. Whatever it was, it wasn't worth 15 yards and an automatic 1st down. That led directly to Indiana's TD.

And this was most definitely a heavy flagging crew. They have that rep, and when Fox Sports notices it, its GOT to be true.

Kudos to McCarthy for his 2nd half performance. The "int" was a pass I'd encourage him to throw again. It hit Bell right in the hands, but was just an inch or two out of reach. He'll be completing that throw all the time in the future. If he stays into his senior year, look out.

A few more kudos to the DL for getting after Bazelak in the 2nd half. I think nearly half of his pass attempts were into the 10th row of the stadium in the 2nd half.

As they say in Ohio, the only thing that matters is scoreboard. Horribly ugly win, but it goes in the W column.

Next up Penn State. Right now, I make them a 10 point favorite.

[WingsFan]

Now this is a throat slash, no penalty.

[Tslisher]

Rough first half, dominated the second half. Was Mike Hart’s collapse to blame?? Something was just off. Hate it how after all this time we still feel unprepared for a tempo offense. But, great job in the second half to win the game comfortably going away. Second half defense was just amazing. Sack after pressure after sack. Nice job boys, on to Penn State. I think we are going undefeated into the osu game. We shall see what happens then. Need 2 good halfs for that one.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think the ufr will tell us a lot about the "shitty" play calling. Harbaugh has a tendency to use predictability to create a successful wrinkle. The repeated counter trey, that set up the loop d' loop and bell TD v. Iowa is an example.

I think we'll see there was intent to tip plays (Klatt opined) to set something up. 3 plays that look like burned downs turn into a 50 yard TD run or big pass play on subsequent posessions. Im not worried about the long ball. It will come. If McCarthy wasnt moving the sticks id be worried. He is.

Theres a lot of skepticism regarding how good M actually is from hawt takes comming from sports writers. I'm not buying the skepticism. M was challenged on the road and prevailed. This is a darn good football team. Not perfect but moving toward that. The expectation that ever play produce a big gain and every possession produce a TD is just unrealistic.

I thought Klatt's observation that the Allen style offense isn't sustainable over 4 quarters. You cant expect your D to remain competent when the O is runng 100 plays and not scoring points. We saw that as whatever he was on though the first half, burned out along with his players in the 2nd. The D and O got crushed. Critics are letting the first half struggles color the entire game.

[iam416]

The skepticism is because they were "challenged" by a really shitty team. Now, I disagree. I think M is probably Home or #2, But that's why there's skepticism.

[Jeff Buchanan]

That first half shit show has to be understood in context when considering skepticism about how good M is. Allen dictated the game flow in the first half with a passing game v. an M D that appeared unprepared for. That's on Minter. M opened in C2 zone looking for IU to throw intermediate or long. That was their scouted MO. For reasons I don't understand, after McCarthy drove the field on 7/7 passing plays on M's opening TD drive. Moore appeared to work to feature a run game, constantly getting off schedule and asking McCarthy to save the possession on 3rd down. We've seen this tendency when M leads but this was a bad approach with Allen dictating loading the box. Moore should have punished that. He didn't. 10-10 was the result.

Minter switched to a C1 - man on IU's opening possession. Allen tried to punish that going with the long ball but his OL couldn't hold off M's pressure. 7 sacks when the QB dropped back. Punt, punt, punt. Meanwhile M starts dictating game flow. 3 unanswered TDs to win going away.

I'd say, Allen surpised Minter early and should not have. Minter's players also appeared to be confused in the first half trying to implement zone and man v. a quick passing game to the flats..LBs in particular were bad match ups when dropping into zone resulting in pitch and catch throws for 6 easy yards.

That got fixed at the half. Road games are hard. When a beloved coach collapses on the sideline, they get harder. The first half deserved skepticism. The entire game shouldn't be colored by that.

[Hannibal]

I think the ufr will tell us a lot about the "shitty" play calling. Harbaugh has a tendency to use predictability to create a successful wrinkle. The repeated counter trey, that set up the loop d' loop and bell TD v. Iowa is an example.

I think we'll see there was intent to tip plays (Klatt opined) to set something up. 3 plays that look like burned downs turn into a 50 yard TD run or big pass play on subsequent posessions. Im not worried about the long ball. It will come. If McCarthy wasnt moving the sticks id be worried. He is.

Theres a lot of skepticism regarding how good M actually is from hawt takes comming from sports writers. I'm not buying the skepticism. M was challenged on the road and prevailed. This is a darn good football team. Not perfect but moving toward that. The expectation that ever play produce a big gain and every possession produce a TD is just unrealistic.

I thought Klatt's observation that the Allen style offense isn't sustainable over 4 quarters. You cant expect your D to remain competent when the O is runng 100 plays and not scoring points. We saw that as whatever he was on though the first half, burned out along with his players in the 2nd. The D and O got crushed. Critics are letting the first half struggles color the entire game.

Setting three posessions on fire to set up one play that gains 20 yards is a 1990s philosophy. No good offense does thus anymore. A good offense frightens the defense on every play. The obscene point totals racked up by teams like Clemson, Alabama, OSU in recent post seasons shows that we are in a different era. Did you watch OSU vs MSU yesterday? If so, did you notice that they didn’t have to punt three times to set up one big pass? Every drive other than the pick six was a massacre.

[Hannibal]

I think that we miss Josh Gattis badly. It did take him two years to build up chemistry with Harbaugh but once he did, he tore up defense after defense last year. Best playcalling year that we have seen at least Michigan since Gary Moeller was our coach.