Michigan @ Michigan State, Game Day - Post Game Discussion.

[edindetroit]

It wasn't quite the game many of us hoped for but it's good enough. Paul Bunyan came home and I expect he'll spend about 80% of his time in Ann Arbor over the time that Harbaugh is on the sidelines.

I hope it is for a very long time.

[UMStan White]

"They had time if they had been able to score on 4th down."

Uh.. but they didn't as the defense stuffed them. Your comment is as ridiculous as saying at the start of the game they had time to win if they outscore us. This game was never in doubt after UM's second possession. Hell after Speight's interception, UM held MSU scoreless and went 98 yards to score.Pepper's run at the end of the game was shoving a hot pole up Dantonio's ass. He got what he wanted" going for two "sent a message".

[UMStan White]

" Someone is counting it as a Spartan victory... "

Oh you mean like half the people on this board.

[CGVT]

" Someone is counting it as a Spartan victory... "

Oh you mean like half the people on this board.

Ha!

[BlueInCostaRica]

For all the hand-wringers, here is something to consider:

With the exception of Texas AM blowout of New Mexico State, I believe M had the highest MOV Saturday of any top ten rated team.

[WM Wolverine]

About four of them lost too.

[iam416]

Playing even mediocre teams on the road can be difficult. I'm still flabbergasted by M's schedule, but at least they've finally played a team with a pulse on the road.

[Tslisher]

Hey, a win is a win. No it wasn't perfect. Yes, I got nervous but the game really was in hand pretty much after the half. We are 8 - 0 and have a much needed win over a rival. One down, one to go. The Harbaugh effect is ahead of schedule.

For those of you whining about a win - just go look at the Ohio State game against Northwestern, or the Louisville game against UVA. Or even Clemson, Florida State or Washington vs. Utah. None of the top teams had stellar wins. All of them went down to the wire. It happens - get over it. The important thing is to get the W, and like the other top teams (and yes, I'm counting M as a top team now) we found a way to win. That's all that matters.

[BlueInCostaRica]

About four of them lost too.

Yes, that would be your basic negative MOV. Always a bad thing for your team.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Some PFF grades in their take on the game.

Speight played well and continues to improve. He graded out at 71.3 but his one INT hurt his score, IMO, out of proportion to his overall performance. Take away the one INT and he grades out at 89.7 and pushing elite. My view is that he's a bit better than Ruddock at this point having mastered the long ball, as good at the short to medium stuff (see hitting Darboh or Butt perfectly) and has a bit more pocket awareness and escapability than Ruddock ever had. This is good (0-59.9=poor, 60-69-.9=below avg., 70-79-9=avg., 80-89.9=above average, 90-100=elite).

M's offensive standouts as follows:

Darboh 86.1
Mags 80.4
Butt 78.7
Kalis 75.4
D. Smith 74.4

M's defensive standouts:

Taco 84.9
Hurst 83.3
Peppers 78.8
Stribling 78.2
Lewis 74.2 (His numbers were hurt by the 2 PIs - he was targeted 8x and had 2 completions, 2 PBs and 1 INT)

MSU's top rated player was RB LJ Scott at 78.4. He got his most run (22/139/6.3) off the RT/TE where he had 9 carries at 12.8ypc. One of these was a 40 yarder. WR RJ Shelton also had success there on a couple of jet sweeps.

The way Brown deploys his defense and depending on whether this is the boundary side or field side of each offensive carry for Scott/Shelton makes it hard to say who gave up the edge here. But that R side was a weak spot on M's D and made so, accoring to PFF, by some great blocking by MSU's TEs and WRs downfield. That was not the case on the left side where there were 8 attempts and 30 yards gained. The middle was strong: 4 runs/2y.

My take on the D is that while the front, nominally made up of Wormely, Hurst, Carlton, Gary and Peppers (when he played up close to the LOS) was weakest when Scott or Holmes ran straight at Peppers with the Ss, Thomas and/or Hill disappearing out of the 2hi S thing I spoke of earlier. Depending on where Lewis played at the CB spot, he probably made a couple of nice tackles in space to hold down edge runs in his direction. I saw two of them for sure.

Sure, Peppers is great because he's playing everywhere but he definitely hurt the D today in the run game - best example was him getting crumpled by an MSU TE block that opened a lane for Scott on one of his big runs. He's undersized for the role he's been asked to play and Dantonio exploited that. ufm is going to see that on tape if he doesn't already have a feel for it. While Hill and Thomas have been adequate at the S spot. You can see why losing Clark was a big deal.

For MSU on D, and the eye ball test confirms this, McDowell (79.6) and LB Ed Davis (70.9 and coming off a knee injury a year ago) blew up a lot of the Higdon and Davis plays that heretofor had been a staple of M's inside run game. Deveon did a bit better including a big run on M's first drive where he saw an opening between C Mason Cole and LG Ben Bredeson and instead of missing it, hit it and got a big gain. He's shown a good deal of improvement doing that and credit to Ty Wheatley. Honorable mention to Bredeson who appeared to me to play well. So did Braden at LT.

On MSU's back end, S Grayson Miller and CB Darian Hicks were solid and played way better in both the run and pass defense than expected.

So, M is good. PFF had an article out this morning picking M to make the CFB playoffs with Alabama, Clemson and Washington. Of those four, only Alabama grades out higher collectively than M but the margin is big. You think of M as having a great D, right? M's is above average by PFF while Bama is elite - and that is not just at one spot. It's all over the field.

The thing with Bama's O is that The Nick has installed a bit of RPO using QB Jalen Hurts and his contribution to the rush game makes this team hard to defend. A lot like ufm's team last year. Like osu seems to be wont to do these days - lose unexpectedly - I wouldn't hate it if Alabama lost to LSU and Auburn eliminating them from the CFP scene ...... dream on, that's not going to happen thou.

For all you M hand wringers out there, enjoy this. M is back.

[iam416]

Alabama is just better than everyone else. Probably way better.

M will make the CFP this season and not next season.

M is on a collision course with Clemson. A loss at Iowa changes it to Alabama. However, a loss at Iowa could effectively eliminate Ohio State from the CFP. If Penn State wins out and M loses a game before playing OSU, then OSU can't win the East and is probably out of the CFP, though they'd have a raft of quality wins.

So, oddly enough, I have to root for M until PSU loses. But that's assuming OSU can beat M, which they can't.

[AlabamAlum]

Just root for Bama. Turn away from the dark side.

[Tslisher]

I don't know - both teams have weaknesses as we've seen. I'd put the M/OSU matchup right now as about a tossup. If it were at the Big House, I'd say 60/40 M, but being in the shoe makes this a harder contest.

[Jeff Buchanan]

MSU was bad to begin with and played much better against M in EL than what their performances up to that point would indicate by any subjective or objective measure.

osu is good, they will play better than their past performances v. M in the shoe. Barrett is still a threat and MSU demonstrated you can move the ball against M's D taking it to the edges and not worryng too much about passing it. You can bet JTB, a much better passer than anything MSU put out there, Samuels and Weber will get some yards. Whether or not they can turn them into enough points to beat M, like MSU couldn't, remains to be seen.

Red zone scoring D continues to be the best part of M's overall defense. The D tends to give up yardage on big plays like Brown's deployment of it will do now and then.

talent, your black and white prediction of osu not being able to beat M is way premature.

[AlabamAlum]

talent, your black and white prediction of osu not being able to beat M is way premature.

He's a sandbagging dolt.