This is my weekly feature to look back at summer previews, get egg on my face, look over what Michigan did, and then project the rest of the year as we get more real time data.  Last week's taking stock report can be found here.

Prelude:  I did season previews on most UM opponents - I skipped UNLV, Indiana and Rutgers out of boredom, and OSU out of fear.  The rest are below

• BYU, Oregon State, Minnesota, Northwestern,
• Penn State, Maryland, Utah, MSU

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Dear readers - the deeper we go into the season the more off my summer views will become as naturally teams will evolve from what we thought they would be and injuries happen.

This summer I predicted there would be a bye week this week. 

I was correct. 100/100.

A Look at Michigan

The planned destruction of Minnesota Gopher football continues on pace.  I cannot divuldge any other details.  Harbaugh was so confident of it he went to a HS football game.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY (DOD!) RANKINGS

Basing games on WHEN they are played and WHERE this was my general view on degree of difficulty for each opponent coming into the year and adjusted weekly,    Again this is not how good the team is in a vacuum but how they match up vs UM.

Stock Up

• Indiana (+1) -  The MSU game was deceiving as Indiana did Indiana things the last 6 minutes.  But going on the road vs a top 10 team (even if you believe they are only top 20 worthy) after hosting OSU and showing well there means this team has some danger to it.  Especially as they don't rely on the run like most Big 10 offenses so that will cause some issues.  I see Indiana scoring in the 20s vs UM as Sudfeld is the real deal and they have some nice WRs.  If Howard is healthy at RB (he looked 70% vs MSU and still did better than any UM RB could) in a few weeks he also poses danger although I expect UM to stymie him most of the day.  But he is the type of RB that on any 3 carries in a game could go off for 50 - hence the danger.  Thankfully Indiana's D is its normally crap self although they do seem to have a good player or two on the DL.  Being a road game and having a competent QB and good RB - they pose more matchups problems then most teams.

Stock Down

• Northwestern (-1) - Nebraska is not a good team.  This was not a good game - the parts of it I could stomach to watch.  Northwestern's QB had a few big runs, and NWs D had a big INT return for a score.  Somehow that Northwestern offense held the ball for the last 4+ minutes as Nebraska could not stop them to get the ball back.  Translation - Nebraska's D sucks.  Connor Cook is going to make mincemeat of that unit.  Justin Jackson was shut down for the 3rd week in a row and I wonder now if he is hurt or last year got to his head.  He is not the same player of a year ago.  The leading rusher was the QB Thorson (9 carries 126 yds) and he was his normal mediocre self in the air (13 of 28).  NW is still living off their Stanford win in the advanced stats and the Duke win is looking decent.  With their schedule they probably still have a path to 8+ wins but its front loaded in terms of quality wins.

Stock Flat

• OSU - Unfortunately finally Urban Meyer came to the conclusion that a lot of us had held for many months - JT Barrett is more scary than Cardale Jones as the QB of THE Ohio State.   Barrett was sickingly efficient (14/18, 233 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT) thru the air ... and scary again on the ground with his second straight 100+ yd game.  Elliott did Elliott things and the variance between OSU and UM's offenses with Barrett at the helm is disconcerting.  Yes it was only Rutgers but OSU is doing OSU things under Urban and that is getting better as the season moves along.  OSU's defense also continues to improve shutting down a relatively good QB in Chris Laviano (10/20, 117 yds) and eradicating Rutger's 1 NFL talent on offense in Leonte Carroo.  I think OSU's D is the unsung hero here as it has generally been grading out very well and when I look at mock drafts for NFL they have a multitude of early round NFL players all over it.  This version of OSU is scary and I'm not sure where the "we match up great with OSU" stuff I am reading on the board the past few weeks is coming from, but hey "rivalry game" "1969" and stuff like that.
• Utah - I've long held Utah is not a top 5 team but more like 15-20 but until they lose you have to respect them and give them the top 5 ranking.  They actually have done better than I though the past few weeks although that Cal game was very losable.  But they found a way each week until this week.  Utah this year reminds me of some of the early Dantonio teams in terms a lot of 3 star talent that comes together to be a better team than the individual pieces would show.  Then you look at USC's roster of players and you see Michigan / Penn State of the past 5-7 years.  So this was a game that made sense to lose - talented team, removed of a locker room issue with their coach and with nothing to lose playing an overachieving team that is not super explosive (when not playing Oregon) and simply doesn't have the same level of athletes up and down the roster.   Travis Wilson had a decent game outside of the 4 INTs (24/36) but protecting the ball is job #1 so saying he had a decent game except for the 4 times he handed the ball to USC is not an accurate statement I suppose.  Kesler played error free ball for USC and JuJu Smith (a guy Hoke was after in the same class as Peppers) did cool stuff that playmakers do.  I think both Juju and Adoree Jackson have now been converted to offensive players?  They came out of HS as secondary players (just imagine the secondary of Juju, Adoree, Peppers, Lewis).  Anyhow - sigh.  Playmakers.  As for Utah, still has a great chance for a 2-3 loss season max.
• MSU  - Speaking of playmakers.  Connor MF Cook.  Damn.  That dude made himself some serious cash the last 3 weeks.  He has no run game for defenses to really respect and yet is single handidly winning games (well except for *THAT*) nowadays.  But even considering *THAT* MSU had no offense vs Michigan aside from Cook.  Same vs Indiana. Same vs Rutgers.  30/52 for 398, 4 TDs and most impressive no INTs... after throwing 52 times.  Watching the game I don't even recall a near miss of an INT that is Cook's usual thing.  Some of the throws were just remarkable at the college level.   Frankly I have no idea why MSU did not do that strategy vs UM ...they seem to love getting themselves in 3rd and long and then unleashing Cook on 3rd down.  Thankfully they played Debord style vs UM.  Also frustrating watch was Indiana getting more pressure on Cook then UM did.  But it didn't matter.  This game they saw it was going to be a shootout as Indiana could actually exploit their young secondary (something UM was totally incapable of) so they let Cook go off all game.  I dont give a damn how he projects in the NFL; it doesn't mean a thing in college level terms which is what we are dealing with.  He is straight dealing right now and for all those who say MSU has zero chance vs OSU ... IMO you fail to comprehend what an equalizer a QB playing at this level can be.  Until a stake is put through zombie MSU's heart, Dantonio runs out of souls to sell (torrential monsoon rain on Indiana's 3rd drive, promptly ending as MSU took over post punt) and/or Cook is out with injury they have a chance in any game if he is playing at this level. 
• BYU -  BYU beat Wagner 70-6.  I was unaware Wagner played football.  So was Wagner.  To put this in perspective Wagner lost 43-14 the prior week to THE St Francis Red Flash.  Yes seriously.
• PSU - Reading thru all the PSU-Maryland game recaps and it sounded like a typical Brady Hoke game with all the associated follies; turnovers, penalties, goofy decisions.  I was not a big fan of James Franklin and as each week passes I feel ever more content he is basically Brady Hoke with a better defensive coordinator than Mattison was.  Maryland (!) was the team that finally stymied freshman RB phenom Barkley (20 carries for 65 yds).  They had to turn to Hackenberg who actually had a game for himself.  Chris Godwin averaged (!!) 33.8 per reception on 4 catches.  The longest was 40 so this was not one huge catch skewing his stats.  PSU's D - like UM's for decades - is pretty good vs conventional offenses but really sucks vs dual threats.  They had held OSU to 21 thru 3 last week before Barrett was inserted at QB and then the wheels fell off.  This week a crappy Perry Hills ran all over the defense.  No seriously - he ran 26x for 124 yds.  So PSU's D is sort of Jeckyl and Hyde - against conventional offenses it is troubling; vs dual threat QBs its Michigan of (pick any year from 1992 to 2014).   Unfortunately we have a conventional offense with a mediocre QB and an average OL which is going to face multiple players of McDowell, Calhoun level.  I continue to forecast #M00P in this game as both defenses stymie the offenses.  I will have to research how bad or good PSU's special teams are because it's going to be difficult to count on one as bad as MSU's to give UM's offense all the breaks they received vs MSU.
• Minn - Minnesota had a bye so did not offer me a chance to drop them in the DOD rankings.  Minn is a poor man's Northwestern.
• Maryland  - Maryland gave PSU a game I suppose but Maryland's offense is very much UM's offense with Rich Rod in terms of its all abou the QB.  Caleb Rowe was not a runner, Perry Hills is.  So hard to compare apples to oranges.  Maryland is 2-5 and 0-3 in the conf and still probably better than the crap teams below them in the ranks.
• Rutgers  - Rutgers poses some sort of threat I guess but I've had them this low all year because this is a home game, Rutgers has 1 NFL level offensive player and a joke for a defense.  All these things OSU exploited.  If UM lets Rutgers pass game go off on them, then it shows some fraudulent cracks IMO as we have played so few decent passing QBs. Rutgers shold not get more than 10-13 in this game if OSU could shut them down completely in Jersey and Rutgers D is poor enough UM should easily get into the 20s/30s.
• Oregon State - OSU lost to a garbage Colorado team and program.  At home.  Colorado had a 14 game losing streak in the Pac 12 before this game.  (last win 2013).  They had a 12 road game losing streak in conference (last win 2012)  Thanks Beavers.  Remember when you got all excited a hung over Stanford team let OSU stick around for 30 minutes before deciding to show up a month ago?  That was cool.  Seth Collins was replaced at starter by Nick Mitchel who promptly went 9/24 with an INT.  The 2 rotated all game.  Which is like Threet vs Sheridan.
• UNLV - UNLV had a bye thus did not have a chance to fall to 13th.  They play Boise State next week which could beat them into the year 2016.

Overall

Rabble rabble rabble Rudock.  Rabble rabble rabble playmakers.  Rabble rabble rabble.

Next Week

Pain.  But depending on how early we get a big lead and shut down the offense, maybe less pain than some assume.  But pain.