Reasonable,  fair and accurate write up compared to the sky is falling crowd in the snowflakes  

Am I the only one who reads this column hearing Ace's voice?

I don't know. I must admit I am a bit more worried about this team than going in now. Unlike most around here, random stuff does not bother me much. I am not worried that they scored 14 points on pretty freaky turnovers. Most of that is luck driven and is not worth worrying about. Ditto for dropped passes. These receivers have proven over the years that they are pretty reliable (may be except for Bell). I am not to concerned that this is the new pattern.

However, I do worry whether or not this offense is really "smart". The thing that was really frustrating from last year was that the offense did not seem all that smart. It was clear opponents were reading what we were about to do and was able to overload run/pass defense and we could never figure out how to make them pay for overselling stuff.

I was really hoping that with the new OC, those days were behind us. But what I saw today was MTSU sending 5 or 6 guys regularly and only way we countered that was via long developing pass plays deep. What I hoped to see was exploiting what the defense was doing and punishing them for taking chances. I wanted to see more tunnel screens and 5 to 10 yard routes that would attack spaces where blitzing LB's left behind. But that never really happened. Whether or not that was due to OC no preparing correct plays or Patterson not know how to counter blitzes really does not matter as we are going to be screwed either way.

To me that was the most disappointing part from today. I was hoping we would be smarter. I don't think we were all that smart.

Im not sure why national pundits are picking us to win the big ten. This defense is a HUGE step down from the team that gave 62 to OSU. They then pick us to beat a team we are 1-14 against and say “Harbaugh better win it this year” like he is responsible for their ill advised pick. A win against OSU should be a huge upset and the fact that the media figures out how to make OSU motivated as an underdog is just crazy. 1 and god damn 14 and these people do this for a living. 

Kind of worried about the big 3 WR's and thier ability to stay on the field. Once it's clicking the downfield passing attack could be lethal but they are usually getting dinged up.

I didn't think they did a good job of getting the ball out quickly. They never really made MTSU pay for blitzing. We'll have to see what happens there. I thought all RB's pass blocked well.

They didn't throw slants.

I thought we'd see jukey type guys get short passes to get in space. We really only got RB screens. I like that they are throwing to the RB though.

I'd like to see Giles Jackson play offense.

Overall I like the offense. There were flashes. They just need more practice.

On defense, Dax Hill is going to take a minute. Don't remember seeing the freshman DT's. I don't know if that means they are a lock to redshirt. Dwumfour and Jeter's health become key if that is the case. But Dwumfour's ability to stay healthy so far in his career is shaky at best.

I was a bit of a debbie downer in the game thread last night.

In retrospect, I'll stand by the general sense of "god dammit you missed an easy play": the dropped interception(s), the missed tackles, Ronnie Bell's game in general...

Those aren't fundamental problems, and since we're not Alabama, I'd rather have a first game that goes this brand of "poorly" than a boring blowout where we look like gods. We now know some things to work on.

People who call for Shea to be benched...that's just classic Backup QB Syndrome. 

My feeling on the O is that it seemed Gattis had a script for the entire game. It felt like he had a set of plays he really wanted to rep independent of what the defense was doing. And their D, although small, was doing a lot of wild blitzing, and Gattis didn’t seem that interested in keeping them honest. He just wanted to rep his plays.

Given that he didn’t call the plays down to down at Bama either, this bears watching, but I’m not concerned yet.

It’s like the people that take the time to post on this site only read 10% of the content. 

The first half offense was more of what this team will be (with the exception of the QB as a WR I hope) and the defense will be a top 15 SP+ unit. 

There is a lot to learn in this offense and I will remain optimistic. Just need to expand the play calling. 

I also think that they are using these games as an opportunity to play everyone and practice specific sets. It’s just a scrimmage to them. Let’s survive (literally) Army and I’m sure come Wisconsin we will see a more cohesive offense. The 1’s will get the bulk of the playtime. 

I’d love to know what the people who saw a new offense were smoking. Other than the shitshow of using QBs as WRs, this was the same offense we saw last year. This was a run-first offense that will go into hyper-conservative mode very soon after getting a 2 TD lead in the 2nd half. We saw the same missed easy throws and drops that we saw last year, the same 2-3 drives a game where we had to settle for FGs or less when TDs should have been easy. We saw the same slow-paced and predictable offense that caused no problems for the defense with tempo. “Speed in space” was a hyped myth. We had no more plays than usual where a fast player got the ball in the open and used his speed to make a big play out of it. If I were an opposing Big Ten DC, I saw nothing in the way of speed to worry me.

I didn't watch the game -- can't: no TV here in the hollers of West Virginia.  

I did listen to it on Sirius radio.  I'll offer my annual lament: Jim Brandstatter is not a play-by-play man.  He's just not.  Listening to games he calls is a painful experience.  At points I was literally yelling at my radio: "What was the result?"  Brandstatter would scream "It's a pass!" and then ramble on for 10 or 15 seconds about something other than what happened.  Only later -- and sometimes not at all -- would he offer the result of the play.  Tracking down-and-distance with his call is impossible.

The University must not care too much about its radio voice for football.  Brandstatter is an embarrassment compared to almost every other play-by-play guy I've heard on Sirius.  

/rant

Players at Michigan try to run over defenders against cupcakes and wind up getting hurt.  Players at other schools play smarter and step out of bounds or minimize hits to save themselves for bigger games.

There are a bunch of concerns after this game.  It happens.  It's week 1.  I won't be concerned if they get them ironed out and they look better next week.  If they don't look better,  then I'll temper my expectations.  It takes 3 data points to make a trend. 

Watched the entire game and the summary is fairly accurate.  Anyone who thinks they can prognosticate an entire season based on one game is crazy.  The elements for a great season are in place and I was very pleased to see an updated offense with motion, unbalanced formations, and designed QB runs (instead of scramble because the OL can’t block).  The DL is trying to rebuild after losing some really good players and the DB’s looked solid.  It’s all good stuff and there is no reason to believe that the team can’t tighten up and execute.  Harbaugh’s post game presser exemplifies those facts.  While I can’t defend the chicken little snowflakes, their angst is understandable to a degree after the devastating effects of R-Rod, Hoke, and the expectations laid at Jimmy’s feet.  CFB is much more dynamic and M is in good shape.

My hawt takes:

1. Giles Jackson is going to have 2-3 TD returns this year.  That guy has some moves and legit speed.  Would love to see him on punts too.   (Levert Hill might be a good returner, but we need him playing corner.  Give that job to Jackson.)

2.  Charbonet looks like he's going to be legit.  It will be interesting to see how he and the line perform against B1G defensive lines.   Turner had a couple of moments.  Who didn't love Wilson's block.

3.  Major drops by Bell, McKeon, and [I forget].  Can't have that. Would have been a different game if they made those catches.  Good thing Gattis is a WR guru.  I can see that we'll be really dynamic once the drops are gone.

4.  Pass protection seems good.  Can't believe with a 70 lbs average weight advantage we couldn't punch it into the end zone on fourth and hone.  I thought run blocking was our strength.

5.  2 QB stuff has got to go.  Slowed the offense to a halt and was a mess. 

6.  Play by play guys mentioned that we weren't getting any penetration on D without running blitzes.  Worried that Kemp and Dwumfor are just guys.  Getting Jeter back might help.   When do we pull the cord on Hinton and Smith?

7.  Vincent Gray looked great.  Announcers loved him.  He got the TV award whatever that is.  

8.  Ambry Thomas with a pick 6 and fumble recovery.   Got to like that after we thought he was going to be out this year.  

Not to parrot everything that was said on the broadcast, but Army might side track the planning a little, but having the bye week after is perfect to get ready for Wisconsin.  Everything seems fixable except for the D-line right now.  ...and they might not be that bad.

It’s a testament to how underused our top WRs are that 7 combined catches for Collins and Black is considered good. Alabama's top 2 had 15 yesterday.

It's not just game flow. Alabama-Duke followed much the same script early on, with Bama only up 11 at the half. Tua and Patterson also had roughly the same number of attempts. Michigan just doesn’t go to their top guys much.

Put another way: Bell (7 targets) got more looks yesterday than Black (5). McKeon (5) got more than Collins (4).

I think Charbonnet  on offense and Thomas in the secondary are much improved upgrades over last year.

However, the rest of team is playing the same and we will be hard pressed to end the season with only 2 losses.

Middle Tennessee last year lost 49-7 to Georgia and 45-13 to App State - just sayin

Best summary I heard was that this was a comfortable win that wasn't that comfortable to watch. 

That said the real test will be next week.  They often say the biggest improvement is between weeks 1 and 2.  I think next week gives us a better idea where things are. 

Reaction to the game is directly related to expectations.

For those whose preseason notion was that Michigan was going to go through the regular season undefeated or with one loss at most, beat OSU, win the conference championship, and get to the playoff, yesterday's game would be concerning.

For those who think Michigan will be a pretty good team but not good enough to avoid 2 or 3 losses, including OSU, the game was right in line with expectations.

This was a solid first game against a good opponent.  

Charbonnet is better than I hoped.  His pass protection darn good for true freshman.

OL play was OK despite starting two redshirt freshman at tackle. I thought Patterson looked like he might have been playing hurt after he was blind sided.

I thought the pass rush up middle was lacking.