Michigan 26. Iowa 0. 2023 Big Ten Champions

[klondike]

You just have to wear Iowa down. They will give you little chunks of yards but not big plays. If UM is patient, no problem. They also wait for you to make mistakes and turnovers.

UM can't get greedy and clever. Just run it and short passes for long drives. There, Harbaugh, just gave you the blueprint. Now do it..

[Cody_Russell]

What’s the O/U of Iowa 1st downs in this game? 6.5 maybe. Keep in mind that McNamara Iowa had 4 1st downs vs Penn State.

The only way Iowa keeps it interesting is if:
- Iowa’s punter has an elite performance. Think Ndamukong Suh in the B12 championship game, but a punter. Consistently pinning M inside the 20 yard line.
- M turns the ball over at least 3 times. Might need 4 or 5 turnovers.
- Iowa defense randomly rises up like they did in 2016.
- McCarthy injury. Either his current ankle injury aggravated or something new.

Sorry Iowa, it’s not happening. M, OSU, PSU… any of these B1G East teams would do the same. It’s simply an imbalance with the divisions.

[Jeff Buchanan]

If you like Xs and Os, the link below is for you. Seth of mgo explains how OSU's Jim Knowles took away JJ's legs. A game between Knowles and Moore, within a game. Knowles considered the threat of a JJ keeper to be a potential game changer and planned his defense accordingly. Note that JJ did not keep on multiple hot reads he had, appeared planned and that's a tip of the hat to Knowles and recognition of the high skill levels of J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer (study the link to see how OSU used these two and denied Michigan from getting big plays from JJ keepers).

I haven't looked closely at Phil Parker's defense nor have I seen him credited with using the approach (A Greg Schiano invention) that OSU's Jim Knowles deployed to take away the big play threat of a JJ keeper. It's pretty clear that Knowles decided very early on that he was going to install this scheme against M and probably practiced it starting way back when keeping it in the bag of defensive tricks.

Since it's out of the bag now and M has seen it, and Minter did have a counter to it that got both Corum and Edwards first down runs that extended critical drives, it would not surprise me if Parker didn't use it. It's also worth noting that while Knowles got excellent results from his D, there was enough in Sheronne Moore's offensive back of tricks that delivered a win for M.

I think it is possible for Iowa to turn the B10's CCG into a slug-fest, look for M to make a mistake, get a short field and score some points making this game uncomfortable to watch. Like M had enough offense to take down OSU's defense, I suspect that will be the case v. Iowa even considering the kind of game Ferentz will try to force on M. Nevertheless, there's been so much talk about M crushing Iowa and more talk about who M will face in the CFP, it would be a mistake to let that talk get into the players and coaches heads.

https://mgoblog.com/content/neck-sharpies-where-were-jj-keeps

[Mike]

Harbaugh pulling no punches in his presser. I wish more were like this!

[WingsFan]

When ?

[Jeff Buchanan]

You know, I'd worry about "bulletin Board" material if this wasn't Iowa. I read FFFF Iowa Offense earlier today. I don't know how to describe the article? Sad? Discouraging if your an Iowa fan? Seth starts out by proclaiming that in all the FFFF film studies he's done, Iowa's offense is the worst he's ever seen ...... and the objective numbers bear this out. There is no "danger man," the one guy on an offense that you have to account for. There isn't one and Seth tried to assign that designator to one offensive player. Seth cites some PFF numbers. They are embarrassingly low. It is true that injuries at the skill positions, in particular at WR and TEs, have hurt Iowa's offense. But, he notes Cade's injury had only a minor impact on the offense. He just wasn't doing that well before his knee injury. His replacement, a Badger transfer, is grading out poorly. His problems is that, well, everything. His accuracy is bad and he's throwing to receivers that can't catch balls that actually get to where they are supposed to be.

Declaring that "Iowa has no chance" is rather unsportsmanlike but doing it is another fuck you, Tony. It's almost like a throw down challenge. Go ahead and pile on with another charge.

[WingsFan]

That presser FYI if anyone watched Iowa has no chance is fake

[lineygoblue]

After about 3 seconds I saw that it is a fake video.

[Mike]

AI is a dangerous thing but it’s fucking hilarious.

Death, taxes, the Iowa gameplan. Lol

[Tom W]

But everybody does it..

[Cody_Russell]

Damn! Imagine what AI can do 5-10 years from now. Scary.

[Tslisher]

Yes, I saw that was fake about 5 sec in, but scary tech man.

[Mike]

"We were able to conserve resources by not even sending our special ops guys to check them out". LOL

[Jeff Buchanan]

No sign stealing necessary, obviously. Holistically, this game is a huge mismatch. Sports commentators are trying to find another CFB team like Iowa that has a top 5 defense in almost all the statistics that define that component of a team and ranks 124th on offense. Apparently, that's never happened in a CCG or, before CCGs started appearing, in a post season bowl. So, this is unique in post season play? If I was an Iowa fan I'd dread this match-up. Having perused all the appropriate sports web pages, not a single one of them write that the game could be close by the start of the 2nd half. I certainly can't disagree with that unanimous prediction by sports writers.

After a certainly less than dramatic football game, the most important part of this CCG is the drama that will play out between Harbaugh and Petitti in the post game ceremony. Worth the cost of travel to Indianapolis and the price of a ticket to see it in person. Sadly, I'll be watching from home.

No sense in talking about Iowa's offense. It's not going to change it's stripes for this game compared to a regular season of awful. The key to any kind of offensive football success is the QB. Iowa features a very bad one statistically and by the eye-ball check. I'll leave it at that.

Iowa's defense is elite. Especially on the back-end. Because of that, Phil Parker can take risks blitzing knowing that the 2 deep C2 shell (Zone) he deploys can shut down big plays. Last week against Illinois, Parker called a blitz 40% of the time. Iowa's season average is lower than that and I expect to see blitzing maybe 25-30% of play calls. When Parker does blitz, these blitzes are not exotic relying mostly on LBs and DEs. Even at lower blitz rates out of the gate, they are going to be problematic with the reformed M OL with Zinter's absence owing to a season ending injury last week Parker will amp up the blitzing as the game goes on if that approach delivers. The blitzers, however, will leave something downfield uncovered. The best passing attack leaves the long ball on the shelf and settles for short throws underneath - not focusing on M's TEs but rather on sending any of M's speedy receivers underneath to collect JJ's throws and outmaneuver LB coverage - a mismatch. Getting away from TEs and featuring speedy receivers underneath would be a departure for Harbaugh/Moore. I can see Edwards in play here too. An important part of that departure in play calling is that success there for M will reduce Parker's blitz percentage.

If the Iowa defense has a weakness defending the run game, it is in the interior DL. Patient, inside power is probably a good bet and M can simply grind out yards doing that again as they did last season v. Iowa in the CCG. That will be boring but will work in the long-run. M fans will start to blow-up. If Parker feels like he has to stop M's interior oriented run game, he'll bring a S up, put his corners in man and Moore/JJ will likely punish that. Don't expect JJ to have keep or give reads. There will be no planned ROs.

M 34, Iowa 6

[Hannibal]

Last time UM played in a game this big that I had absolutely no worries about was the last time that we played against Iowa.