September 25th, 2022 at 1:31 AM ^
After watching Clemson, Oklahoma, USC, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Oregon -- I don't feel so down about our performance. Some of those teams looked way worse against teams that I don't think are as good as Maryland.
September 25th, 2022 at 1:50 AM ^
Yeah, it was a rough day.
Beat Iowa.
September 25th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^
Rough day for a bunch of teams. Every year has an “upset Saturday” and top ranked teams take the L
September 25th, 2022 at 6:29 AM ^
Don't forget UGA letting Kent state hang around. Lots of good teams got caught playing with their food this weekend, it seems.
Edit: also Kentucky was in a game with NIU late, and Penn State couldn't pull away from Central until the 2nd half.
September 25th, 2022 at 7:40 AM ^
I like "playing with their food."
Trent : You know what you are? You're like a big bear with claws and with fangs...
Sue : ...big fucking teeth, man.
Trent : Yeah... big fuckin' teeth on ya'. And she's just like this little bunny, who's just kinda cowering in the corner.
Sue : Shivering.
Trent : Yeah, man just kinda... you know, you got these claws and you're staring at these claws and your thinking to yourself, and with these claws you're thinking, "How am I supposed to kill this bunny, how am I supposed to kill this bunny?"
Sue : And you're poking at it, you're poking at it...
Trent : Yeah, you're not hurting it. You're just kinda gently batting the bunny around, you know what I mean? And the bunny's scared Mike, the bunny's scared of you, shivering.
Sue : And you got these fucking claws and these fangs...
Trent : And you got these fucking claws and these fangs, man! And you're looking at your claws and you're looking at your fangs. And you're thinking to yourself, you don't know what to do, man. "I don't know how to kill the bunny." With *this* you don't know how to kill the bunny, do you know what I mean?
Sue : You're like a big bear, man.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:43 AM ^
Umm, yeah, so... Is this part of some literary reference I don't get, or did you just way overthink "playing with their food"?
September 25th, 2022 at 8:59 AM ^
It’s from the movie Swingers. Good movie, but somewhat oddly placed here.
September 25th, 2022 at 11:49 AM ^
You're so money you don't even know it, JJ.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:50 AM ^
Considering this was the first team we played with a pulse, we did well. We looked very much like a team playing their first game with a new QB and new pieces on defense, which is understandable.
Now, we have some stuff on tape to correct this week.
September 25th, 2022 at 9:16 AM ^
I guess you didn't watch the Ohio State game then. It's tough to watch them roll over good teams like a machine while we go back to 2017-2019 vintage Harbaugh bungling. All that was missing from that game was 3-4 egregious calls from Big 10 officials and we would have lost. I know Ohio State gets a bunch of 5 star players but how do they always look so much better coached than us?
September 25th, 2022 at 9:22 AM ^
Have you been dead for the past year?
September 25th, 2022 at 10:34 AM ^
We stopped making stupid mistakes last year, which is why we had such a great year. How many stupid mistakes do you think we can make in Columbus this year and still have a shot? Watch an Ohio State game and count how many unforced penalties they commit on third down, how many unforced fumbles, how many drops to kill drives, how many head scratching conservative play calls on third down, how many missed reads in the run game. We're basically a tier 3 team right now behind tier 1 (Alabama, Georgia) and tier 2 (Ohio State). I was hoping we'd make the jump this year, but after that Maryland game I don't see it happening.
September 25th, 2022 at 11:20 AM ^
Eh, we made plenty of stupid mistakes last year too, it was just that they were gone by the last 3 games. Don't tell me you thought we looked like a well oiled machine in last year's Rutgers game.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:05 PM ^
I was hoping we'd build off of last year's momentum, not reset to last year's Rutgers game. And the offensive strategy in this game - are we really going back to three tight end sets? We have wide outs like AJ Henning, Ronnie Bell, Andrel Anthony, etc. and our QB runs a 4.5 40 and we're dying to get Honigford and Bredenson out there to I guess create gap confusion. For fuck's sake just put your great athletes in a position to make plays and overwhelm these crappy opponents.
September 25th, 2022 at 9:35 AM ^
42-27
September 25th, 2022 at 2:01 AM ^
We squeaked by Rutgers and Nebraska last year. And Penn State. And lost to Sparty.
Bama should have lost to Auburn last yr. And despite being one of the best programs ever under Saban, they have lost their fair share of games they had no business losing.
2014 Ohio State got smoked by Va Tech early in the year. And on and on and on.
People seem to underestimate how hard it is to be on your game week in and week out and how different matchups just cause trouble for many teams. Even really good playoff and Championship level teams. And man oh man are those people ever annoying, especially in the game threads.
September 25th, 2022 at 4:06 AM ^
Learned long ago to avoid Game Day threads..they bring out the worst.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:13 AM ^
This was my point...
Pick your favorite year of Michigan Football during your lifetime and count the close games.
Even '97 had 5 games within 10 points. You already talked about last year.
I guess I just don't understand the complaints. This wasn't a completely inept win. This wasn't like the Rich Rod or Hoke days when you'd play terrible and win a game because they other team just played a little worse. Those games where we barely beat average Northwestern or IU teams struggling to be bowl eligible.
This was a B1G football win. If this win was a problem, I recommended quitting college football because it's going to get "worse." I'd say go root for Bama or UGA, but they're not exempt from close or close-ish (like this one) games either.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:25 AM ^
Also, don't be surprised if Iowa is a lot tougher than it seemed in December's 42-3 route.
We hit on two huge plays early, but it was "7-3" for most of the game and then the wheels completely came off for them after Johnson's blocked punt.
Between the Edwards/Wilson score to the blocked punt...it was a field positon game with few big plays. That stretch (while playing against Iowa on the road) is far more indicative than the rest of that game.
But people are going to lose their minds because of how easy it looked for 2 drives in the 1st and the entire 4th quarter, and if it doesn't look that way or better...the sky will be falling.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:52 AM ^
I’m hoping Iowa doesn’t pin M inside the 15 four times in a row like in the BTC. In all reality they certainly could.
September 25th, 2022 at 9:18 AM ^
It was 14-3 for the big chunk. We hit the 2nd TD (the Donovan Edwards pass) on the first offensive play after our first TD, so it was 2 offensive snaps in a row. THEN we relaxed a for a long time because Iowa's offense couldn't do anything.
September 25th, 2022 at 9:56 AM ^
It wasn’t 7-3 most of the way but 14-3. Corum scored early on and then Edwards hit Wilson on the trick play. Then the second quarter was a puntfest.
September 25th, 2022 at 10:19 AM ^
That's not what I was saying...
What I said was take out those two plays (which you can't, they count and they're part of the game)
And it's "7-3" which is why I used quotes for the majority of the game.
The point I was making was the period between Wilson running into the endzone and Johnson blocking the punt will be more indicative of the Iowa defense we face on Saturday.
People will ignore that period because the final score was 42-3 and it felt easy. We'll conveniently forget that it was a field position battle for a large part of the actual game.
September 25th, 2022 at 11:27 AM ^
I agree with your overall point. In one of the preseason podcasts (iirc), Seth or Brian called that game a "slow motion blowout" and I think that's a perfect description. There was no sense of a "dagger" moment where Iowa collapsed until MAYBE the late Schoonmaker catch that led to a TD. Instead it was a feeling of "there's no way THIS crappy offense scores 11 on us" after the Edwards-Wilson TD.
September 25th, 2022 at 2:48 AM ^
Man can that guy run. Glad we aren’t facing him this year.
September 25th, 2022 at 2:49 AM ^
I wish anyone success that had to put up with Scott Frost for that long
September 25th, 2022 at 5:51 AM ^
So maybe Adrian wasn't the problem and it was Scott, and his mom, who were the problem.
September 25th, 2022 at 5:52 AM ^
He's a good player. He definitely fumbled at the end of the Michigan game last year though
September 25th, 2022 at 6:21 AM ^
Fumbling is such an integral part of this game, including historically. I'm not always sure I get why people take it so personally.
September 25th, 2022 at 5:55 AM ^
From ESPN,
'Northwestern beat Nebraska in Week 0, and it hasn't won since. Georgia Southern stunned the Cornhuskers in Week 2, then lost the following week to UAB. Oklahoma delivered a rout of Nebraska last week, then could not stop former Huskers QB Adrian Martinez on Saturday, as Kansas State knocked the Sooners from the ranks of the unbeaten, 41-34. Nebraska is like the VHS tape in "The Ring." All who come into contact with it are doomed to perish within seven days.'
September 25th, 2022 at 8:54 AM ^
Brilliant reference. Don’t watch Husker football.
September 25th, 2022 at 9:08 AM ^
UM will break this trend Nov 19
September 25th, 2022 at 6:29 AM ^
I didn't see the game, but a scan of the box score shows the total offense numbers are relatively close. Often, it's turnovers that tells the story, but this game had none. But this caught my eye:
3rd down conversion: KS 8 for 17; OU 4 for 13
4th down conversion: KS 2 for 2; OU 1 for 2
It looks like Kansas State moved the chains when it had to.
September 25th, 2022 at 7:35 AM ^
I kept looking for Bill Snyder on the K state sideline
September 25th, 2022 at 8:55 AM ^
KSU ran the ball quite well all over the field. Jon Duece (TB) squeezed through DL holes and wiggled away from tackles on almost every run. Classic football game - a few runs to get the D looking at Duece, then pop a PA and Martinez was good enough throwing to keep OU honest. His scrambles and called runs just gutted OU - he had a 51 yard scramble on 3rd & 16 in the 4th. It ripped hearts out because OU had just scored to get back within 7.
That was a legit 2-TD win that KSU just took, there was nothing fluky about it (like so many other upsets already this year). The OU defense was very B12-ish - not good at tackling and easily confused. Their offense was just out-worked.
September 25th, 2022 at 10:12 AM ^
22 was Deuce Vaughn. 5’6” nightmare to try and tackle due to his jukes.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:00 AM ^
I wish Oregon State could have held on against USC.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:19 AM ^
Seeing him in action against the Wolverines as a freshman left me very impressed. I assumed at the time we would lose a game to him one day based on his ability to carry an offense.
Adrian Martinez - 4 TDs on the ground plus one in the air. 148 rushing yards. 234 in the air.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:21 AM ^
I have to imagine for any Nebraska fans who watched that game, it stings for them really bad to know that Frost squandered that kid’s talent for four years, and that he’s able to go somewhere else and excel.
Sure looks like his problems at Nebraska were a Nebraska problem and not an Adrian Martinez problem.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:41 AM ^
Maybe, but KSU only scored 10 points in a loss to Tulane last week.
September 25th, 2022 at 1:03 PM ^
Exciting game, especially the fourth quarter. I was struck by the Huard's way of saying Frost and the QB Coach at Nebraska had to take heart and be proud of Martinez in this set of shining moments. I was thinking the opposite...that Frost would just be an ingrate and be thinking "where was that" kind of stuff.
JJ and Cade should watch the film take a few notes on reads and decision making. Loved how Martinez managed the team on the field and protected the ball when he took chances with his legs. Maryland showed why we need a healthy Cade as fully engaged as possible even if JJ stays a clear cut "starter."
Definitely think Frost is the epitome of an overcompetitive peevish orc-like creature going back to the split natty bidness. I lost my respect for Osbourne due to this but never blamed Frost as a player.
The mighty mouse halfback Duece is very exciting. Jitterbugging is always fun to watch.
Despite the flaws, I like listening to Huard do games most of the time.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:37 AM ^
I love kids who play like this-he was phenomenal. Being Michigan fans out here in the middle of the godforsaken state that is Kansas-sets our teeth on edge with regard to most things "Kansas". In this game, I could not dissuade my 13 year old grandson from rooting for OK to beat the tar out of KSU-despite it being in Michigan's best interest that KSU pulls off the upset.
September 25th, 2022 at 8:46 AM ^
Could--could--prove helpful to Michigan if we keep improving.
September 25th, 2022 at 9:05 AM ^
He was the same Adrian Martinez we saw at Nebraska - good enough to throw the ball honestly, and scary as hell when he scrambles. The difference was coaching. Chris Klieman was far more controlled in his demeanor and play calling. The called QB runs made sense within the offense, and he used his TB inside and outside so well that OU never knew what was coming at them. There were no throws (that I saw) where he was throwing into tight coverage or forcing it somewhere. His WRs were screamingly wide open, for the most part, so he wasn't tasked with winning the game himself - which Frost all but expected from him. He looked a lot more comfortable than we ever saw him.
Also, the OU defense didn't do itself any favors. Pretty clear that its not the same type of unit that Venables coordinated at Clemson. It's very B12.
September 25th, 2022 at 2:15 PM ^
Agree with this. Martinez had a couple of touch throws mixed in that surprised me but a lot of open receivers.
Comparing the "progress" of Penix and Martinez et al. will be interesting to watch the rest of the season. Transfer, extended life QBs are like a wild card in poker. Not sure if I like it but it seems to have an effect of evening the playing field.