Michigan @ Iowa, 8pm EST, Game Day, Post Game Discussion.

[UMStan White]

For the record, those weren't "roughing the kicker" penalties. They were running into the kicker penalties. Difference is personal foul fifteen yards and automatic first down verses five yard penalty. If you're gonna chart the calls, at least know what you are talking about.

[Mainevent]

It's a disappointing as hell loss, but at the end of the day, they are right about where I expected them to be at this point in the season, 1 loss heading into OSU (assuming they don't flame out against IU). I thought it would be another year before they were a title favorite, so they were looking ahead of schedule.

That said, the teams I expected to be tougher (Iowa and MSU) are not good and so the change in expectation was to be undefeated heading to Ohio. Still, as has been pointed out, they still hold their fate in their hands and can redeem this loss by running the next three games.

[hack]

Come back at me when you have more than semantics, Stan.

[Jeff Buchanan]

For the record, those weren't "roughing the kicker" penalties. They were running into the kicker penalties. Difference is personal foul fifteen yards and automatic first down verses five yard penalty. If you're gonna chart the calls, at least know what you are talking about.

Let's be clear, the question on officiating was the call on the second 5 yard penalty assessed on M. You should be able to run into or otherwise tackle a rugby style punter when he is outside the tackle box. At that point, the distinction between roughing or running into is not at play. Only thing at play is whether the initial contact on the rugby style punter was inside or outside the tackle box. I thought it was close. Hope we get some video of that from Brain at mgoblog in his UFR.

[iam416]

The officiating was bad (inconsistent) but not the proximate cause of the loss.

Correct. Though there were really only 2 questionable calls -- the roughing the center and the facemask. The others were fine and predictable to anyone at all familiar with B10 football. M's interior OL got whipped. And M's interior DL wasn't dominant. Very, very odd.

I thought it would be another year before they were a title favorite, so they were looking ahead of schedule.

They won't be a title favorite next season.

[hack]

I didn't see how the roughing-the-center call was questionable. You don't expect to get the PI on that interception on the road, but the roughing-the-center call is pretty easy to officiate in comparison with the judgement call when a DB and WR fight for the ball. Michigan had one called on it earlier this year. Is what it is.

[iam416]

Also, the 2nd running into the punter didn't result in anything. Iowa missed a long, ill-conceived FG. M got the ball at the 28 and went down and scored a TD.

[entropy]

Iowa was up for this game to "save" their season. Michigan over looked the haweyes. They are 18-22 yr old kids. It happens.

I really thought Michigan's offensive game plan was vanilla. They basically played to the strengths of Iowa's D. Butt should have had a record day.

[Hannibal]

By the time 2019 rolls around, we will have one six point win against a 6-7 OSU team sandwiched between two seven game losing streaks. This loss didn't change my perception of the season one bit, which rests entirely upon the results of our two rivalry games and a CFP appearance.

[WM Wolverine]

re: I didn't see how the roughing-the-center call was questionable.

-

It goes uncalled quite often, many times more blatant than what we saw against M... It was called correctly, for a change.

Play calling was more getting too cute than vanilla. Too many sweeps to the edge when it wasn't working, Peppers play was brutal in such a critical spot... M didn't play Iowa like they've played similar defenses imo...

Two uncalled PI in 4th quarter that would've ended the game. Three or even four long balls where the WR beats his man that Speight misses, one after he hurt his shoulder...

[WM Wolverine]

In a close game/ 4th quarter, officials will watch roughing the center more closely as teams will attempt to block the kick.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a really good analysis of where M football is right now and why pre season 10-2 predictions as a ceiling were accurate. The Speight injury, while having the potential to rally a team, is a big deal.

I can see 9-3 with M struggling v IU and loosing as a very realistic possibilty.

http://theozone.net/Ohio-State/Football/2016/News/Michigan-Monday-Saturday-Nights-Arent-Always-Alright-for-Fighting

[iam416]

I read that earlier. I have the same reaction he does to every DeVeon Smith carry. There is an appreciable, clear difference between him and Evans. I hope to god HARBAUGH gets Smith another 12-15 carries in Columbus.

[Hannibal]

IMHO breaking tackles is the most overrated quality in running backs. That's not to say I wouldn't like to see some of our guys do it more -- namely Ty Isaac -- but generally the best running backs do their best work before contact.

[Hannibal]

By the way -- isn't the advantage of MANBALL/Harbaughffense supposed to be that you can pick up a first down at the end of a game and put it away? Remember that old argument? Harbaugh's manball offense has been charged with putting a game out of reach by getting a first down (without taking any risks on first or second down) on a final posession four times now by my count, and they are a stark zero for four in that department (2015 MSU, 2016 Wisconsin, 2016 MSU, 2016 Iowa). Last year, we ended the game against MSU with three straight three-and-outs. This year, we ended the Wisky game with two straight three-and-outs. Against MSU this year we gained a paltry one first down in the entire fourth quarter and against Iowa we fell flat on our face at the end when a first down would have ended it.

This is nothing new either. I think that I can count on one hand the amount of times in the entire Lloyd, Mo, and Carr eras that we were able to run the clock out on offense hoding onto a slim lead.