Game we should win, but will lose; game we should lose, but ....
Without breaking down all 12 games (there is plenty of summer left for that), what is one game we should win, but will lose, and also a game we should lose, but will win. My thoughts: LOSS: at Indiana -- first Big Ten road game, revenge for last year's ending and the belief they had us beat, improving team. WIN: at Penn State -- we will have our offense and defense settled by then (I hope), and they are having major QB difficulties. Of course, they will have time to correct their deficiencies, as well. Thoughts?
April 29th, 2010 at 12:56 PM ^
I don't think we'll lose a game that we should Win this year. I think we'll beat OSU.
I think with some of the reports about PSU's troubles on Offense, PSU might turn into a game we should win.
Beating Ohio State? Really? They are supposed to be a top three team, and we don't have the talent nor the experience to beat them in Columbus.
Force Pryor to beat us with his arm. We have the talent but not the experience. By the time that game 12 rolls around, that will change.
Oregon forced Pryor to beat them with his arm. He did. Ohio State is too good to lose, and that's the only game that I think Michigan doesn't have a chance of winning. I'd argue that Michigan doesn't have the talent that Ohio State does, but I'm sick of giving them credit. I'm just not going to get my hopes up.
Well, I guess you and I will have to agree to disagree on this then.
The plain fact of the matter that every game on the schedule is a "winnable" game. OSU is going to be stacked this year but this not mean that after 12 games we won't have a shot. God wouldn't we all love to shut Columbus up for a while. As bad as we were last year we had a shot, although there game plan was about as shut it down as they get. I believe that the team speed on defense is going to be the key this year! By the middle of the season GERG is going to have the D rolling IMO, and the O is going to be a scoring machine!
April 29th, 2010 at 12:57 PM ^
Really????
If RR is going to stick around, I have a feeling the Indiana game can't even be close.
Agreed. If we want to be a national power again, we need to start blowing the bottomfeeders out.
You know that over the last two years, WE are the bottomfeeder? I would gladly settle for just plain 'ol winning vs the bottomfeeders.
Given the record and potential for turnovers in the last 2 years, all Big Ten games are a question mark, IMO. Especially on the road.
April 29th, 2010 at 12:57 PM ^
I think come the PSU game we will be favored. I really think PSU is going to have a very subpar season. I can see us being favored when WI comes to town at the end of the year only because we will be at home. I can definitely see us losing that game.
On a related note, how did Penn State get good all of the sudden? It's easy to foget that they were terrible during the first half of the decade, recording 4 losing seasons in the first 5 years of the 2000s.
How does a program go from that to double-digit wins in 3 of the last 5 seasons plus a pair of 9-win seasons?
I know that Daryll Clark was a large part of their success recently, but he was only a 2-year starter, and PSU had 3 very good seasons right before that.
JoePa backed off and it just a figurehead now. The assistants run the show and they are a great group of coaches.
Its amazing how many coaches on that staff could be potential HCs for other teams. If anything, JoePa should get credit for keeping that staff together.
Sorry, no. JoePa sits around in the pressbox and poops his pants. If anything, the AD should get credit for keeping that staff together.
"If poopin' your pants is cool, consider me Joe Paterno!"
Maybe JoePa wasn't as washed up as people thought.
I have a feeling you're going to see similar improvement from Michigan over the next two years. Go Blue.
When looking at the program's success for most of their history since JoePa showed up, the better question is how they were so terrible in the first half of the decade. These last few seasons have been pretty much their historical norm.
Fair point.
Michael Robinson was a good college QB. He was the QB the year we stopped them from a possible National Championship game when Manningham caught the TD with 1 second left. And also had a couple good linebackers in Dan Connor and Paul Posluszny.
I think that a lot of the credit goes to Tom Bradley and Larry Johnson, Jr. Penn State's defense has been excellent for about six or seven years now. Even when their offense has been terrible their defense has either kept them in lots of games or won them. We'll see how they do developing their next crop of QBs. For the most part, QB play at Penn State has been poor and development very slow. Darryl Clark being the exception to the rule.
...that going from losing seasons to double digit wins isn't THAT hard...
Joe Pa really wants a NC to go out and their schedule has gotten really easy in the last 5 years. I live in Pa so I hear alot of PSU fans complain about it so they finally scheduled Alabama this year. Great move
Penn State is going to blow chunks this year
for every "hypothetical" thread that has or will pop up on this board during the next five months I would ....
... well honestly it will only be a couple hundred dollars, but still.
Me thinks the only game we lose is Wisconsin and maybe Iowa. We win everything else and have a nice new years playing in the Capital One Bowl.
True. 2 losses will most certainly put us in a BCS game, unless something crazy happens.
But I guess if OSU loses to only us, Wisco loses to only OSU and we lose to Wisco and Iowa like he suggests, that would put us in the Cap1 bowl. In fact, it could be worse than that if Iowa then loses to only Wisco and OSU. Both us and Iowa would have 2 losses, and since they beat us, they might get the Cap1 nod.
All unlikely and hypothetical, but plausible nonetheless.
eM0???? is that you????
Yeah, I don't know if PSU is a game we should lose. That might end up falling into the category of "game we should win but we end up losing."
I think we win all of our games. And we lose none of them. A little bold, but it will probably happen.
to guess when we have no idea how good anyone will be at this point.
i tend to look at how the schedule lines up.
i think Michigan can beat Notre Dame, but playing a very high pressure and emotional game the week before vs UConn will make the ND road game MUCH tougher.
we'll see. im just hoping RR can get Michigan to at least 7 wins. im sick of seeing Michigan get thrown around by top teams that they used to kill in years past.
The game we should win, but will lose is UConn.
The game we should lose, but will win is Iowa.
I think RR will have the boys jacked up for game 1. We will pull out the win against UConn.
The game we should win, but lose is UMass.
The game we should lose, but win is against USC in the National Championship Game.
That would certainly be the first time a team goes to the national championship with a loss to an FCS team.
Game we should win, but lose - Notre Dame
Game we should lose, but win - Ohio State
We need to get that OSU monkey off our back.
I think at Purdue could be a game we could lose. Hopefully we don't look ahead to Wisconsin and OSU. I think we'll beat PSU and maybe one of Iowa/Wisconsin. Any predictions for who will be favored in the MSU game?
Unless we look like garbage in a couple games before MSU, I'd be surprised if we're not favored against them at home.
Little brother should never be favored.
pretty bad. Lose their starting QB and RB and most their OL.
I hope RR hangs 150 on Hopes ass.
Add on top of that -- their recruiting in the late Tiller years was God awful. This is the kind of game that Michigan absolutely has to win and has no excuses for losing.
I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Penn State. They have the better team but they don't match up well. Specifically, they won't have a QB who can take advantage of what will probably be a terrible secondary.
With the very real possibility that we have several freshman and redshirt freshman starting in the first couple games (left tackle, running back, spur, free safety, cornerback) I am worried that, despite having a better team by the end of the year, we could lose to UConn or Notre Dame. If we beat them, I think we win all the other games we are favored. I think we will beat Iowa or Wisconsin either of which might be favored against us. I would trade two loses for a victory against OSU though.
to know people's thoughts on MSU's team this year.
Pros: A year of experience at QB, RB, LB, DL, and OL
Cons: We lose our best receiver, don't get better in the secondary (which was horrendous), a huge piece in Brett Swenson (kicker).
I think it will def. be a good game in Ann Arbor and no cakewalk for either team.
Spartan season, plain and simple.
Oct. 9th is a huge day for you guys.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:04 AM ^
should win but lose, wisconsin
should lose but win, iowa