Michigan @ Purdue, Saturday, 9/23, 4p Eastern, FOX/Stream FSGo

[Cody_Russell]

I do not think Purdue has the pass rushers that will bother Speight/ the M o-line. Only one sack this season and that was by a converted LB to DE, Danny Ezechukwu.
Purdue does have some decent DTs (Jones and Lorenzo Neal), but they are more of run stuffers. Kugler, Bredeson, and Onwenu vs the Purdue DTs should be a fun matchup when it comes to the run game.

Pass rush? ... If Uluzio has a rough day, that would be disappointing given the edge rushers Purdue has.

[klondike]

Special teams and defense will score 14 points outright and be responsible for more. Not worried about a loss but style points could be an issue.

[The Oracle]

No such issue as there's no such thing.

[Rocky Bleier]

Cody has cooled me some on Purdue, but I'll still take them against the spread of 9.5 points. Michigan offensive sputters should keep it close.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Upset alert ..... Purdue fans are talking upset, some of them are convinced it will happen.

Here's why it won't.

M's run game is rounding into form. If you read the Airforce UFR, several plays we're one missed block or cut away from TDs. ONE. The trend is on a positive slope.

Speight will trend towards the norm. He's been bad, no question. Not seeing open receivers. I doubt that continues. As well, he's not been getting a lot of support from his receivers. He's also been under a lot of effective pressure. Purdue will try but they don't have the horsepower. Wilton should have a bit more time to settle in.

Purdue can keep this close if they take care of the ball and Speight underperforms. But in the end, M's talent, D, ST and run game will win it.

[Hannibal]

Air Force's hyper aggressive scheme forced us to have seven or eight guys quickly identify and execute their assignments on almost every play. We had no counter for it. The UFR showed a ton of RPS minus plays and also minuses for missed assignments, but IMHO a lot of those individual player minuses are closely tied to scheme. Simply counting on your guys to execute perfectly is a very Debord/Hoke-ian thing to do. This means putting your guys in a position to fail while giving the defense a large margin for error. A good scheme turns the tables and, instead, puts the defense in a position where they have to execute perfectly to shut down a play. And if they don't, you burn them. The long TD scored by Air Force is a perfect example of this. There was almost no margin for error on that play.

As far as I can tell, Purdue doesn't run that same type of scheme, so we should have more success. I'm also expecting a bounceback to come eventually for Speight. He was money against bad defenses last year.

[Jeff Buchanan]

........ "no counter for it....."

I agree with this. Brian in his UFR agrees too. His question was, if AF is going to put 9 guys in the box, Ss 7y from the LOS, the offense facing that has to make the defense pay for that, did it? Not really.

I think the answer to that gets bank to practice reps. JH wanted to run the ball; that's what got repped. That's what gets called. I also agree that's a very Hoke/ Debordian thing to do. Brian rembarks on this criticism, "are you going to question JH's record on this sort of thing?" Well, I think that response to that particular criticism of M is very mgoblogian.

I think the criticism is appropriate. My sense, hope may be a better word, is that we're going to see a few new things v Purdue.

[WM Wolverine]

Blough threw 25 picks last season and from what I saw their OL isn't average for the B1G; Hurst, Gary, Winovich, Bush will regularly be greeting Blough and forcing him to throw before he wants to. M's defense is going to get some sacks, INT's, and probably TFL's too...

Red zone issues aren't the result of talent but bad luck, inexperience, and lack of focus. And play calling... Those should start working in our favor more and more plus the Boilermakers don't have the ability to rattle Speight, blitz and pressure him to make mistakes. Speight will have time to throw and look like he did much of last season.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Agree ....... another good reason why M will win.

[Hannibal]

........ "no counter for it....."

I agree with this. Brian in his UFR agrees too.

Sorta -- he also dinged individual players very heavily for not adjusting their assignments to pick up Air Force's aggressive attackers. I agree that at least a half dozen times we were one little mistake from either breaking a big play, punching the ball into the end zone, or sustaining a drive. But when the defense gives you little to no tolerance for error, those things eventually happen. New starters makes it harder but this is 2017 college football -- you are always going to have some new starters here and there. You've got to build your offensive strategy around that. It looks like there is a lot of pressure on the blockers to not only quickly identify what is going on in front of them, but to execute as a team. It can't be easy to learn and execute. For a few years the inability of the OL to do this consistently has been blamed on individuals (e.g. Kalis or Poggi) but the trend is starting to pile up.

But at any rate, I don't think that it will cost us this weekend. If I am wrong, it will be because of turnovers and/or penalties.

[Cody_Russell]

Blough threw 25 picks last season and from what I saw their OL isn't average for the B1G

Very true. Average at best. Bad recruited talent, competent coaching.
Purdue has tackle issues. The LT is a redshirt freshman, very young. RT sucks. They have given up a lot pressures this season. Blough has helped against that with decent mobility. If Purdue goes to Sindelar, scary. He is a statue in the pocket, but has a "better arm" than Blough.
Gary and Winovich should feast in potential 1v1 battles vs the Purdue OTs.

[Detroit Dan]

I'm with Hannibal -- bounce back performance by Michigan while Purdue returns to earth. Michigan 35 - Purdue 13.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Fox Sports has the end of the Cubs brewers game on. Bottom of the 9th Cubs up by 1. So, there's still 10-15m left in that game unless it goes to Extra innings.

You can stream the on fox Sports Go.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Extra Innings on your local Fox Network. Listening to IMG radio. Kick-off has been delayed until 4:17. Still not streaming. Who knows.

[Cody_Russell]

Thanks Jeff. F***ing Brewers had to tie it up there...
Hopefully FOX Sports Go doesn't crash/ have streaming issues if the activity drastically increases.