Michigan 31, BGSU 6

[WingsFan]

Clunker of a game, it happens. get ready for the B10 JJ still needs to know not every play will work, throw it away!

[WingsFan]

Jim Harbaugh is back next week. I’m glad that we’ve set the standard that a 25 point win is a ugly/boring bad win. Back to work next week. Michigan can get serious and turn the hell up. Several missed assignments, and unforced errors that can be corrected. If they were going to have a game like this, good to get it out of the way now.

[lineygoblue]

JJ got a dose of humility tonight. He's not perfect, and that was shown to him face to face. It looks like the team will be glad to have Harbaugh back, because it looks to me like they miss him. JJ could have used him on the sideline tonight, especially after that 3rd pick. They showed JJ on the sideline with headphones on, but then he took them off and slammed them to the ground.

There was a lot of sloppy tackling tonight. BG was making yards on 2nd and 3rd effort. Got to get the opponent on the ground.

Props to Scot Loeffler for having his guys ready to play. They were tougher than I thought they'd be.

Rutgers will be the toughest of the 4 opponents we've faced so far. They gave the '21 team a lot of trouble before losing. Be ready for more of the same.

Coach up JJ, let him watch video of what he did wrong, lets start the real season.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I was in the stadium for this cluster fuck of a disaster. There were nearly 110K fans that watched the horror show. The new lighting is kinda cool but $44M for the scoreboard and lighting updates? What a waste. The scoreboard arrangement of information is poor. Whoever designed it should be pilloried on the Diag. It's certainly digital and can be changed but they need a graphic designer that has actually watched a football game and knows what stats and data need to be on the board. The old one was good with that. Not sure who provided the vido of the game (BTN or In House Camera's?) but it was pretty awful with missed replays but plenty of stupid "Fan Cams"

All I need to mention about commercial breaks is that with 11 seconds left in the game and M about to run the victory formation, the BTN took a 2m:50s media time out. That happened last week too. During these game breaks there is now entertainment of various types. The best was the black lab that caught Frisbees, the worst was the poor girl trying to catch punts for money - everyone one of them hit her in the chest - hard - but she couldn't bring them in. Caught the last one and did win $50 but I bet her chest hurts like hell.

I took very little positive from this game. JJ's performance was inexplicably uncharacteristic based on his performance in the first two. Something was amiss in this game after JJ threw his first of 3 INTs. After two back-to- back dominating series, the second of which ended when JJ threw into coverage that he didn't see in the end zone. In 4h of miserable broadcast time and 60 minutes of actual football, M ran 43 plays. FOURTY THREE. There were only 13 pass plays, 11 completions and 3 interceptions. 30 run plays - so a huge departure from 50/50 run pass of the first two games - I think that was purposeful on M's part as well as dictated by BGs strategy. The run game looked improved but spotty. Blockers aren't getting down field to clear the second level or are missing back-side pursuit. From what I could tell the lanes were there at the LOS but there was routinely an unblocked S to keep Corum or Edwards from breaking through for a big gain. That is now a systemic thing, not something that looks fixable. BTW, Edwards is not an inside power runner and shouldn't be assigned that role.

If getting a winning stinker out of the way, putting in the hard work to prepare for the next game and moving on, this was it.

[WingsFan]

Not up to 22-level performance. Definitely getting better, one play can change an entire game. JJs 1st interception was one of those. The offense was clicking really for the first time and getting ready to take control of the game. They were not the same after that play. Corum is also starting to show his old form, along with no new injuries I know of.

[Tom W]

LOL@ Jeff’s assessment. It’s spot on. How about all of irritating flashing orders to “make noise” and the fact that the sound system still sucks?

[Hannibal]

Need to win the B1G this year, because it's obvious that the underclassmen have no talent. Our backups haven't scored a point yet in about 45 minutes of action against three total cream puffs.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I have to say -- from what I've seen of M, the OL isn't where it has been.

That said, the DL looks very good.

That's talent's post in the M v. Rutgers game thread. In reading Sunday's "Hawt Takes" then late Sunday and Monday's more thoughtful takes, there are some good reasons (not excuses) for M's less than dominating run game. The performance of M's OL was hyped pre-season and obviously has not lived up to expectations. A post today at mgo reported that the OL transfers couldn't practice with the team for spring practice and as it opened fall camp and are now learning new material.

The other reason is that the run offense was to feature a heavy dose of outside zone runs. That play was run once by M v. BGSU, resulted in a TFL and was shelved. It had also been run several times in the two previous OOC games with poor results. The speculation was that transfers Nugent (C) and Hinton (RT) are good at power, bad at zone blocking and were learning. So, talent's observation about OL performance is accurate.

The UFR offense that will be up at mgo on Wednesday is likely to show that the run game emphasized inside zone and power run plays. This was Nugent's strength at Stanford so, that may account for M's improved (still not great) run game v. BGSU. Still, M should have paved all three OOC opponents on the ground but didn't. Rutgers is going to be a good test. 3 games in, they're giving up a measly 2.6 rush yards per attempt and 69 rush yards per game. They're less impressive in pass D giving up 207 passing yards per game and 10 yards per pass attempt.