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Michigan 52, Indiana 7
The only identifiable risk to M's BTC unbeaten streak, now at 31, is some kind of letdown after two dominating B2B performances on the road. I'd add, like nothing I've seen prior to this season. Don't count on that letdown happening. This is a very confident and focused team.
IU experienced some resurgence during Tom Allen's early tenure as HC there. He was hired by former IU HC Kevin Wilson as DC building a strong defense from scratch and shortly thereafter rose to the HC job when Wilson resigned. Allen had early recruiting successes and playing IU in Bloomington became a scary proposition. They were fun to watch on offense as IU featured great dual threat QB play. Allen's IU beat Michigan in the 2020 shortened COVID season and it's been downhill for IU since then. Allen leads the Hoosiers against M in Ann Arbor with a 0-2 BTE record and 2-3 overall. They are bad at everything. They rank #109 in total offense (worse than Nebraska) and 69th in total defense. They turn the ball over a lot and have suffered 6 interceptions in 5 games.
I rather enjoy M's drubbings they are inflicting on clearly inferior football opponents. Everyone keeps talking about wait until M's last three games when they actually have to play good football teams - that would be PSU, Maryland and osu, the PSU and Maryland games away. I'm beginning to think M's productive offense and stingy defense may not be as heavily opponent dependent as M's critics claim they are. OL play (overwhelming) and the front 7 of M's defense play (suffocating) has gotten so good over the last 6 games that is hard to see even those last three opponents beating M - if victory is as dependent on the play in the trenches that football analysts say it is.. It's going to be an almost certain win and that little ESPN dial that displays win percentage is going to start out at above 90%. By how much will, IMO, depend a lot on IU's turnover rate, short fields delivered to M and/or interceptions run back for TDs. If IU turns it over a lot, M will score in the 50s. Ho Hum.
IU experienced some resurgence during Tom Allen's early tenure as HC there. He was hired by former IU HC Kevin Wilson as DC building a strong defense from scratch and shortly thereafter rose to the HC job when Wilson resigned. Allen had early recruiting successes and playing IU in Bloomington became a scary proposition. They were fun to watch on offense as IU featured great dual threat QB play. Allen's IU beat Michigan in the 2020 shortened COVID season and it's been downhill for IU since then. Allen leads the Hoosiers against M in Ann Arbor with a 0-2 BTE record and 2-3 overall. They are bad at everything. They rank #109 in total offense (worse than Nebraska) and 69th in total defense. They turn the ball over a lot and have suffered 6 interceptions in 5 games.
I rather enjoy M's drubbings they are inflicting on clearly inferior football opponents. Everyone keeps talking about wait until M's last three games when they actually have to play good football teams - that would be PSU, Maryland and osu, the PSU and Maryland games away. I'm beginning to think M's productive offense and stingy defense may not be as heavily opponent dependent as M's critics claim they are. OL play (overwhelming) and the front 7 of M's defense play (suffocating) has gotten so good over the last 6 games that is hard to see even those last three opponents beating M - if victory is as dependent on the play in the trenches that football analysts say it is.. It's going to be an almost certain win and that little ESPN dial that displays win percentage is going to start out at above 90%. By how much will, IMO, depend a lot on IU's turnover rate, short fields delivered to M and/or interceptions run back for TDs. If IU turns it over a lot, M will score in the 50s. Ho Hum.
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