Michigan Football, Team 138, 2017 Season.

[AlabamAlum]

Haha

[drok]

They play Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland. It's unfortunate to say that I think Rutgers is the most likely to win of the bunch. Ugh.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[drok]

And this assumes that OSU beats MSU.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[iam416]

So if Ohio State beats MSU... and Nebraska beats Penn St...
All M needs to do is win out and they win the B10 East.

So, M would win a 3-way tie with OSU and MSU? If OSU manages to beat Sparty then I'm assuming a 4-way tie (if M beats Wisky): OSU, PSU, M, and Sparty all at 6-2.

I think Sparty is a lock to go AT LEAST 6-2.

I think a 4-way tie means OSU goes (if they beat Sparty). PSU and OSU would be tied at 2-1 vs the tied teams and then OSU beat PSU. But that conclusion is based on absolutely no consultation with the rules.

In any event, Sparty is going to house OSU.

[Cody_Russell]

Ah shit, keep forgetting one of Sparty's losses is to ND. Yea, I'm not sure how the tie breakers go in that scenario.

[iam416]

In any event, Sparty will, for all intents and purposes, win the B10 East on Saturday.

[froot loops]

Let's hope.

[WingsFan]

-Win Out
-OSU beat MSU next week
-MSU lose to MD or RU
-PSU lose to RU or NEB or MD

Need all of that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Those last two? Not gonna happen.

I do think MSU can beat osu if Lewerke has an Iowa Stanley type game v's osu's defense. Possible but not likely, IMO.

[Cody_Russell]

MD is a free win now. They are on the QB that was 5th string to start the season and is a walk-on.

No B10 East title for M this season. Best case scenario? Win out and hope for a NY6 bowl game.

[Hannibal]

Win out and hope for a NY6 bowl game.

LMAO

[Detroit Dan]

Michigan is vastly improved. We all thought Rutgers was horrible, but they beat Maryland. Minnesota played MSU fairly evenly, I believe.

And this is not really that surprising when you consider that Michigan starts 6 true sophomores on defense, plus Winovich, Kinnel, and Furbush in their first years as starters. On the offense, same thing with a new QB and all new receivers and more than half the o-line. Not surprising to see a ton of improvement as the year goes down (not to mention next year).

And I do see a method to Harbaugh's madness on offense. As he said in postgame presser,

We always look at it as it’s always important to have the good running game. There’s a patience to it. Some people would even say it’s a stubboness but just patience. Keep fine-tuning, keep working at it, and it pays. It pays big dividends, being able to run the football. Lot comes off it: play-action passes, boots.

As the announcer said yesterday, "if Michigan had a passing game they would be a serious contender" (or words to that effect). And now that we do have a strong running game to go with our strong defense, that is a distinct possibility. I see improvement with the receivers and tight ends. The right tackle spot is a major hole, but if we can patch that and break out in the passing game, the sky is the limit.

[hack]

I don't care about a thing other than beating OSU this season. That's all that matters.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Let's take a look at Dan's post in the context of our preseason predictions. These ranged from 7-4 to 12-0 with 8-4 as the most probable occurrence; 9-3 not far behind that.

IMO, the running game is much better than I expected, the passing game much worse. It's a wash but I'll say JH has made the most out of a bad QB situation. IMO, he and his staff got way to much criticism in the handling of the QB situation when Speight went down.

The defense is better than expected but not delivering the short field turnovers that Harbaughffense needs to feed on to make it efficient. It has, indeed, demonstrated explosiveness on D and O lately and those are positives. I'd be careful on putting too much weight on this given that Minnesota's Ss were really bad and almost singlehandedly behind the Evans and Higdon run fest.

I'm still expecting two more losses to Wisky and osu. However the probability of those losses has diminished. Analytics will be useful this week in determining by how much the win probabilities for M have increased.

Regardless of those, the OL and the RBs are playing with a lot of confidence. That might have a positive, albeit intangible, impact in Madison and v. osu in Ann Ann Arbor. I do think that the run game is objectively improving because both the OL and the backs are getting it. We can only look from the outside in on play execution but if you're following the UFRs closely you can see what a player is supposed to do on a given play and if they do it or don't. There is much more doing than there is not doing and it gets better every game. You'd expect this with a young OL but we've really not seen an offense or a defense get better by and into November like this one has, in a long, long time.

Whether the run game has the potential of carrying this team in the next three games is debatable. I don't think it is. OCs are going to have to call passing plays at the right times and Peters along with the receivers are going to have to execute them. My biggest concern remains as pass-pro. It has not shown much consistency and remains a highly exploitable aspect of M's offense. Delayed blitzes over the center and edge blitzes from the right are problems.

On the defense, M continues to be vulnerable to slants and screens over the middle with Kinnel and Metellus easily picked upon. Get McCray matched up with a receiver and big plays ensue. Brown has started doing something different with the combination of Bush and Hudson. Whatever it is, and we might figure it out on the UFR this week, its creating havoc; at least it did for Minnesota remembering that the Gopher O is limited with Croft at QB. Note that early Croft had success running the ball but that stopped almost completely later on.

Nordin was much better than expected but has now sort of fallen back to just OK. Hopefully he'll be on track v. the next three opponents two of which he is going to matter. Kick coverage and returns have plateaued. I'm a little disappointed that DPJ and Thomas haven't done a lot better.

So, as usual, and mean this as a complement, Dan is quite optimistic. He and Hannibal seem to even things out here.

[WM Wolverine]

I don't see us as favorites against either the Buckeyes or Badgers but we have a shot to win one for our 9th regular season win. Really want to see OSU next week to see their issues over a full game.