The 'Michigan hasn't played anybody' myth...

Because Michigan fans are miserable in general and newsflash we have lost to Ohio St a bunch of times.

If anyone thinks that our first 3 games are predictive of success in the big ten, they haven’t been watching Michigan football the past 20 years. 

Sure, we could go 7-2 or 8-1 in conference. We could also go 5-4 and finish 3rd in the east yet again. Neither would be shocking at all, except maybe 8-1.

We’ve looked great so far this year. Just enjoy the ride and stop trying to predict what will happen next. 

I am sure your post will change everything. I mean, you actually LIST who the teams we beat have beaten! That’s a GAME CHANGER!!!

It is fair to say we have played all of our games at home and each of our first 3 opponents are not Top 50 teams, so yes, we have looked good against inferior teams on our own field.  However, we should be excited about Michigan's overall level of execution and consistency.  Execution and consistency will get altered against better teams, especially on the road.  However the coaching is making a big difference and the team is building a strong base to grow from in the weeks ahead.  

2018 OSU beat Maryland 52-51 in OT. The next week we lost to OSU 62-39. Teams matchup well and poorly against different teams, and teams put emphasis on different games.

Not to say you're wrong - it's just waaaayyyyyyy too early to draw any kinds of conclusions from our existing data points for me.

Does Washington have a pretty good defense? Yes. Is WMU an upper tier MAC team? Probably. The NIU/GT/Clemson scenario I got nothing. Per FFFF, NIU Defense was expected to be trash and was trash, and in the NIU/GT game, the GT offense was trash. I did not watch the GT/Clemson game, and only know that there was a long-ass weather delay. The 14-8 final score seems to reinforce GT having a trash offense. Clemson lost to Georgia earlier this year in a low scoring game, so I don't know if they're having a down year, just some poor offense, or any combination of above.

The team looks pretty good and it's been fun so far and I will leave it at that, if only for the sake of my mental health.

I am not underestimating this years team.   I have not seen the offensive line look this good in years.   I think my thing is just can't bare to be hurt again.    I don't want to get my hopes up this early in the year only to find out we have other glaring flaws in a few weeks.    If Michigan looks like this a few games into the B1G sched, then Sats will again be my favorite day!    

Its not as much to me about who we played, but can we maintain consistency all year.

I mean dismantling bad teams  in such overwhelming fashion is not something that has happened the last couple of years and it is something that teams that are in fact good do. On the flip side cautious optimism is understandable given how many times UM fans have been burned before. I am encouraged by how they look, but true unbridled excitement I'll save for if they go into Madison and win. I mean let's face it winning against good teams on the road has been a huge issue under Harbaugh.

Not sure I agree completely with your analysis - but absolutely love the positive spin.  Something we need more of on this board at times.

While Michigan took care of business for 3 straight weeks and I’m thrilled about that, they still have played 2 MAC teams and a 1-2 Washington team. That doesn’t quite move the needle. The next few weeks will be telling. 

Western is a solid offense and NIU beat Georgia Tech but both are still pretty bad teams. However, there has been a lot of over-reacting to Washington to the point where everyone is acting like that still wasn't a solid win. They have a good defense and we put up 31 points

Just a tip, the transitive property does not work in football.

Anyone who has watched football for longer than a month can tell you that.

More importantly, Michigan football has never beat a good team and will never beat a good team as noted by the last 2 decades of football. Every team Michigan beats is a bad team because they lost to Michigan. Have you never read r/cfb or listened to sports-talk radio?

/s

I mean, few teams have played a particularly tough schedule.  Iowa has beaten two ranked (at the time) teams, and PSU has now beaten two good teams even if I think Auburn on the road is pretty overrated.  But like, ND nearly lost to 0-3 FSU, 1-2 Toledo (which just got smoked at home by 1-2 CSU), and a 2-1 Purdue team that looks to be mediocre at best.  OU barely beat 1-2 Tulane and a Nebraska team that lost to Illinois.  Getting worked up about strength of schedule 3 games into a season always leads to limited analysis.

Michigan's schedule has been fine and they've beaten all their opponents with authority.  That's all you can ask for.

Long story short, we played two MAC schools and the main draw of our non-conference schedule ended up losing to Montana.  So, we're not going to get much hoopla for beating them. 

The fortunate thing is we ended up looking much, MUCH better against Western and Northern Illinois than I thought we would.  And Washington still has plenty of time to salvage their season given how awful the PAC 12 looks.

We haven't reached the "meaty" point of the schedule yet and we still have yet to leave the comfortable confines of the big house.  So it's natural to be more in the wait and see approach.  But I'm very, VERY happy with what I've seen from us so far. 

My guess is the opponents are being downplayed because if there is a mess up or a loss, it wont hurt as much. Somewhere here signs of PTSD are showing up. 

You made a whole post in response to another poster belittling the team? Down baddd

On the bright side, the last time Michigan really dominated its easier opponents like this was probably 2016?

We can hold 2 thoughts in our heads at once.

Thought 1 - Michigan has beaten 2 MAC teams and a struggling P5 team that might not get above .500 in the PAC12 (or they might because the PAC12 kind of stinks?). None of those schools would finish about .500 in the Big Ten and what a lot of fans are focused on is beating PSU/Wisconsin/OSU/MSU. Beating the NW/Illinois of the Big Ten is essentially what Michigan has done to date. Which is better than last year, but we all know what actually matters is still to come and at a significantly higher bar.

WMU is a good MAC team, but they're still a MAC team. They beat Pitt, who is a 7-6/8-5 ACC team coached by a guy who screws himself a non-insignificant amount every year. Also, beating Tennessee hasn't been a good transitive win for like 9 out of the last 10 seasons.

Washington lost to a FCS team, has a bad offense coordinated by a bad OC, and never tried to really adjust to Michigan's punching them in the face over and over and over again. Their HC doesn't look like a good HC.

NIU beat GT, which is another middling ACC program (their Clemson loss looks ok but Clemson looks like they're struggling this year). Then they lost to Wyoming so not exactly impressive.

Thought 2 - Even when you account for who Michigan has beaten, they have been impressive. Paving a P5 defense with good DTs and LBs is a legitimately good thing. They could do that because Michigan's defense was never going to give up more than 13 points to that offense and Washington decided to never really make them throw. Popping big play after big play against NIU was fun and reminiscent of the 2016 and 2018 teams that had the talent and scheme. You can only beat who is on your schedule, but the schedule hasn't exactly been a murder's row.

We can be satisfied with what we've seen to date. We can also know the actual tests are coming and will be significantly harder than giving the ball to Corum and saying, "hey, see that G5 LB? Break his ankles, pants him, and then date his mom."

Michigan has beaten 3 bad teams like you would expect a very good team to beat 3 bad teams. We still don't know much until we face Wisconsin (or god forbid Rutgers)

The team hasn't been this far ahead in execution in decades, 

If they improve at a normal rate, they could easily be the better team in November.

Seems defense is back in fashion, glad we have one.

The last time Michigan under Jim Harbaugh came out looking this good early in the season was 2016, which was arguably his best team and the one season we should've won the conference championship, so there's reason for optimism.  Still the pull of BPONE is strong and road games against Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michigan State, and Penn State all loom ahead.

It’s like OP doesn’t realize that football is too emotional, random, and stupid for the transitive property to work.

If OP is in middle school, that’s cute. If OP is old enough to drink, we got us here a Dunning-Kruger fit for upper management.

It seems we have this discussion every year a few games into the season.

If you pay attention, you can usually tell during the non-con games what kinda team they have.  This year, it's obvious the team is playing really well and executing the plays at a level higher than I can remember.  They are dialed in, focused and on a mission.  When adversity comes their way, lets hope that all continues.

I don't get you people who act like we are Alabama after 3 games because we've beaten 3 good teams and I don't get those people who think we suck after 3 games because we've beaten 3 bad teams.

Do you people not have the patience to wait 2 more weeks to get better data? We'll know after Rutgers (no slouch) and Wisconsin (good) a lot better where we are.

We've shown we are better than last year, probably 2019. They look organized for the first time in awhile. I don't think we've shown we are better than Harbaugh teams previous to 2019. That's all we can glean from where we are right now.

Anything else is speculation based on insufficient data. Take a valium or something.

Fresno St. beat UCLA who beat LSU who I think could beat Florida (the one ? in this) who lost to Bama by a 2 pt conversion.

So... what that means is... absolutely nothing.

In the end, the Ws and Ls on whole speak for themselves. 

Now, let me completely contradict myself. Look at Sparty's schedule. They get us at home, no wisky, no iowa and their schedule, since miami blows again lines up for them to get to probably 9 wins. that, on the surface, is pretty incredible given where we thought they were.

They believe in their new coach and they appear to have the same "toughness" quality that MD instilled. Shoot the messenger if you like, just going off what i've seen.