Michigan @ Indiana, 10/14/17, Noon ET, ABC/ESPN 3

[hack]

I don't believe Harbaugh is suddenly/instantly far more stupid and satiated than ever before. Something is wrong, but that's not it.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Thank you.

[Rocky Bleier]

First drive. They slice through Spartans' defense on the ground. In the red zone, second and third down were incomplete passes into the corner of the end zone. Settle for a FG. WTF? John O'Korn throwing to young inexperienced receivers not named Tarik Black. Playcalling sucked. Was it? (a) Harbaugh, (b) Hamilton, (c) Drevno, (d) Borges.

[Rocky Bleier]

I don't believe Harbaugh is suddenly/instantly far more stupid and satiated than ever before. Something is wrong, but that's not it.

No one said he's stupid or satisfied/bored. However, he may need to simplify things for a struggling offense, or stick with what's working. He might be correctly called "stubborn."

Anyway, that's enough here. I'm going to find Liney and have a beer...

[froot loops]

All of the goals you have are still attainable. Getting to the top is hard, very hard. Hiring Harbaugh sometimes was viewed as the Office Max Easy Button. You lost a lot of guys to attrition, that counts. Move on, you beat Indiana and go from there.

[WingsFan]

stfu

[Jeff Buchanan]

..... again ..... thank you.

The sky is not falling even though it appears to be.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Wynn opened the line at 7.5 and it got bet down right away to 5.5 or 5.

This may be the best opening line for M since the start of the season.

M has been massively over-rated. Some knew this; others live in a fantasy land of championship expectations.

With M's D it is probably still a top 25 CFB team and for now, #17 is probably about right.

I think M handles the Hoosiers something like 21 -10 as long as M wins the turnover stat. More later after I have a chance to look at the match-up this week.

[maxreturn]

Relax......this thing about Harbaugh looking disinterested or checked out is getting some run among the various blogs.

IMO, it's BS.

The NCAA rules committee rushed in some new rules for the 2017 season intended to curb bad sideline behavior. It appeared, all the whining considered about Harbaugh from officials and his jealous peers, these were aimed at him. So, no shit, he's a bit subdued on the sideline.

Moreover, he has to be exasperated. He's got a shit OL, including a turnstile at RT, RBs that fumble way too much and a QB he knows is a risk every time a pass play gets called in. And Dantonio has his number and is bragging about it. Sucks to be JH.

Give the man a break.

Disagree. He's a big boy making big money. If he can't take the heat...

[hack]

It's time to stop it with ``as long as Michigan wins the turnover battle". They insist on losing it.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It's time to stop it with ``as long as Michigan wins the turnover battle". They insist on losing it.

Well, it's fundamental football, Hack. Several posters commented pre-game that if M turns the ball over to Sparty, they'll lose and they did. No mystery there.

Fumbles are random, INTs not quite as much. JOK sailed a wet ball in the pouring rain over Perry's head .... that's an unforced error; he also gave two other's up late in the game trying to make plays in a comeback bid and admitted it.

So, if you want to hang 3 turnovers on O'Korn in the shit storm that was the 3rd quarter and with a wet field and wet balls in the 4th and pin the loss on him, that would probably be what most would expect, including O'Korn.

Fans ought to stop stewing about this loss recognizing that the bad parts of it are dramatically exaggerated by who the loss was to. The players post game remarks indicate they think all their goals are still in front of them. One loss doesn't erase the possibility of achieving them. I've already expressed my doubts but, who am I, or any of us really, to look those young men in the eye and say, "you're not going to do it."

I just watched the entire game as I did not see any of it live except the last 46 seconds. I'm bewildered by the condemnation of the play calling and I'm pretty sure, if there is a UFR, the play calling won't be any where near as unjustified or bad as the fandom declares it was.

There was one call in the late 3rd qtr, a draw-play on third and 4, inside MSU's 40, I think, that if it works the play callers are geniuses. if it doesn't, they're all idiots. Such is life in FBS football with unrealistic fan expectations. I also thought there was maybe one run play that got stuffed because the formation tipped it off and MSU guessed right with a run blitz. You run a counter there and that goes for a big gain ..... RPS -1. I do think there is not enough of these counters and constraints in M's offense but what do we know as fans.

Everything we thought the M offense with O'Korn at QB needed to do against MSU's aggressive defense M did in the first half. There were plenty of crossing routes underneath LB coverage and a lot less missed assignments in pass blocking. MSU played very disciplined LB and S coverage (credit to being prepared for that) and most of those plays went for minimal gain/no YAK as tackling was crisp and I'm not convinced McDoom, Crawford and DPJ are the precise route runners they need to be to get separation that produces YAK. Perry is. There were few deep downfield throws and the two I recall were exceptionally well covered.

In the run game, MSU did very little stunting that I saw. I might have seen one play where I thought MSU slanted and it was picked up well by M's OL. MSU played man-up, gap defense out of a 4-3 with the Ss filling admirably. The OL continued to have problems at the second level holding blocks. Too many defenders easily shedding them and making plays. That's the difference between 4y and 12. But the play calls were correct and so were the schemes; just not executed well. We know this. Who knows if we're going to see improvement here.

To the edge, always to the left side, some of the same stuff .... TE's not sealing defenders inside. Cole was very effective and I'll bet the UFR will show that. Ulizio and JBB who each got about 1/2 the snaps at RT, gave up the edge rush way too often putting O'Korn at risk and allowing back side pursuit. This isn't a coaching thing it's vision and smarts and that comes with experience. O'Korn, per his MO, broke the pocket too often and too soon. The guy can keep plays alive though. His problem is that he's a bit over-confident and had probably 4-5 throws he should not have made while trying to keep the play alive and we'll see that on tape if there is one from the UFR. 2 of them resulted in INTs. O'Korn will definitely see them. He might make corrections, he might not.

So, I just can't, on more technical look at it, fault the play calling or call for firing the offensive staff. If the UFR says I'm totally wrong on that, well, so be it. My eye is not as good as I'd like it to be.

[WingsFan]

Fumbles are random

Not really.

Dantonio on butter-fingers LJ Scott - was 'a little nicked up' before the game and didn't have one carry all game.

While on the other side - fumble prone/twinkle toe - Issac changed the momentum of the game with his predicable fumble. Coaching!

[klondike]

I don't believe Harbaugh is suddenly/instantly far more stupid and satiated than ever before. Something is wrong, but that's not it.

I think he has resided himself to the fact that he'll never progress beyond 2nd or 3rd in our division as long as Urban Meyer is still coaching. The best Harbaugh can hope for is a year or so that can catch OSU when they have an off year. Other than that it's going to be a struggle to compete in the B1G now the Penn State is progressing as well. Its just not feesible he will be on top like he wants. It won't surprise me if the NFL comes a knocking with a big $$ offer he will jump.

[WingsFan]

Good post klondike, I would have never believed it a year ago or even 6 months ago. This NFL shtick is not working and Andrew Luck is not walking through the door. Harbaugh was asked about his 1-4 record vs msu/osu and he was not comfortable at all with the question - finally saying 'What do you want me to say? I don't know Dennis". How is he going to react to the 1-5 question in 6 weeks.

[WingsFan]

Nick Saban went 26-1 in years two and three at Alabama, notching a national championship in year three.

Urban Meyer won national titles in year two at Florida and year three at Ohio State and has come in first or tied for first all five years at Ohio State.

James Franklin won the Big Ten in year three at Penn State and won nine games in years two and three at freaking Vanderbilt.

Chris Petersen won the Pac 12 in year three at Washington. Jimbo Fisher won the ACC in year three and Dabo Swinney won his division in year three at Clemson.