The Official Iowa vs ][V][ichigan Game Thread

[b311j]

Early tweets coming from Iowa City have the temperature with wind chill ranging from -1 to 9 degrees. For all of the out of the area players, welcome to real BigTen football. And for pete's sake, someone get Brady a coat, with a hood, with a headset affixed to the hood, and make him wear it!

Good news out of Fort Hoke yesterday as "one of the young guys" will get the start at running back. The Fitz story is great. To come back from such a gruesome injury is fantastic. But I'm selfish and I want to see Michigan win. The Derrick/De'Veon experiment I thought went well against a fairly stout NW defense. It was nice to see running backs be able to push forward for positive yardage after contact.

What has happened to Devin's vision? By my rum-induced blurry vision last week I counted 8ish instances his pass hit a NW guy dead in the chest. We only win that game because Fitzgerald luckily didn't teach his defense how to catch the ball that week. How does Devin not see the guy sitting back in that passing lane? It was 4 quarters of "what the hell are you doing?" followed by 3 OT's of "there ya go!".

-Gallon continues his streak
-Devin throws 3 picks leading to 10 of Iowa's points but he only gets sacked twice this week
-][V][ D forces 2 fumbles.
-Hoke wears at least a 3/4 sleeve something or other


It's the 2nd to last regular season game. Sadly this game is our best chance to watch Michigan win again this season. It's going to cold. It's going to be hard hitting.

It's Saturday.....

Michigan football is a religion and Saturday's the holy day of obligation ~ Ufer

][V][GoBlue!!!

 

[hungry]

funny thing is, before last week, Northwestern led the big 10 in interceptions...

 

[b311j]

funny thing is, before last week, Northwestern led the big 10 in interceptions...

They did always seem to be in good positions. Just too many times it was glaringly obvious they were in position. Devin has to tighten that up today.

 

[rumseyhouse77]

Hopefully the cold weather will focus DG's mind and vision. I think the NW backs were surprised that the ball was thrown right to them. Those passes are picked next week unless God is looking down and shines favor on Michigan.

The backs need to have another good game and DG and receivers must get on track early for Michigan to win this game. Expect the D to have a good game.

GO BLUE!

 

[Michlady]

@chengelis: Brady Hoke clothing news: polo shirt with long sleeve undershirt, sleeves rolled up. You can't get fashion updates like this anywhere!

 

[Michlady]

Green warming up with #1s

 

[bamf_16]

In 2010, Michigan entered the Purdue game giving up 65, 41, 38, 34, and 35 in its previous 5 games. After holding Purdue to 16 points after 5+ weeks of questions about the youth of the Michigan defense, the question was, "has Michigan's young defense 'figured out' the 3-3-5?" I was among the optimists who hoped they had, despite some glaring mistakes still being made, among them playing a 251 pound DE in a 3 man front. Then we got to watch the UM defense get bitchslapped as it gave up 48 to Wisconsin, 37 to OSU, and 52 to Mississippi State.

Last week has some of the same feel. Fitz infamously gets 27 in 27 at PSU, (forget the Indiana game; that defense is non-existent), -48 as a team in East Lansing, -21 at home against Nebraska, then last week's running game comes out of nowhere, like the offensive equivalent of defense at Purdue in 2010.

Where I'm somewhat optimistic again is that last week we seemed to see a disappearing act of the stretch run, a play that UM's OL simply does not run well. Last week we saw a lot more ISO, some trap blocking with Bosch, and interior zone blocking with Glasgow and Magnuson, which quite frankly is what the OL does best, but it's not the best blocking scheme for Fitz. Without a smallish RB pussyfooting into the line, a couple bigger backs and more physical OLine wore down a defense, which we haven't seen a UM running game do in a long time.

Hopefully the doubt is gone about what Green & Smith can do behind a different blocking strategy and we see more of the inside zone, trap, and iso schemes with Smith and Green. But I swear to God, if we see UM go back to the outside stretch and ask 6 guys to do what they don't do overly well for one guy who isn't going to be playing next year, I'm going to flip shit.

In my grand scheme, Green and Smith share the load again, the blocking schemes look similar, and UM sees most of its ground production in the last 20-25 minutes of the game. This has the feel of an old Jerome Bettis with the Steelers type game, with something like 14 carries for 36 yards in the first half, 15 carries for 70 in the second half against a defense that's just had enough of trying to tackle 230+ pounds running downhill while getting bulled by big OLinemen.

Of course, that means today, UM puts up 48 points from the spread and Gardner runs for 125 yards.

 

[erg57]

@chengelis: Brady Hoke clothing news: polo shirt with long sleeve undershirt, sleeves rolled up. You can't get fashion updates like this anywhere!

thx. was waiting for this

 

[Michlady]

It does pics me off how much we wasted with fitz. Green could have come in more earlier

 

[Michlady]

Some of the kids in short sleeves. Brrrr

 

[hungry]

Maybe he had ball control issues in practice

 

[bamf_16]

Wasted a TON with Fitz. I understand that sometimes you do things not for what's in the best interest of NOW, but in the best interest long term. Sometimes you do things now not for immediate success but for the long term of the program.

I have NEVER understood playing an inferior player because of his experience. If there are intangibles he brings, that's one thing. If he's the better pass blocker, has surer hands catching the ball and/or not fumbling the ball, ok. But seriously, what is the rationale for playing Fitz?

I thought he was the better pass blocker, but lately his pass blocking has been embarrassing to say the least. He doesn't catch the ball out of the backfield much if at all, (9 catches on the year) and he's gone at the end of the season. What did this team gain from Fitz being in the game ahead of Green and Smith?

Not production.

Not pass blocking.

Not surer hands.

Not making some type of blocking calls.

Not a benefit of wearing down a defense.

Not an investment in the future.

I just don't get it.

 

[Michlady]

Wasted a TON with Fitz. I understand that sometimes you do things not for what's in the best interest of NOW, but in the best interest long term. Sometimes you do things now not for immediate success but for the long term of the program.

I have NEVER understood playing an inferior player because of his experience. If there are intangibles he brings, that's one thing. If he's the better pass blocker, has surer hands catching the ball and/or not fumbling the ball, ok. But seriously, what is the rationale for playing Fitz?

I thought he was the better pass blocker, but lately his pass blocking has been embarrassing to say the least. He doesn't catch the ball out of the backfield much if at all, (9 catches on the year) and he's gone at the end of the season. What did this team gain from Fitz being in the game ahead of Green and Smith?

Not production.

Not pass blocking.

Not surer hands.

Not making some type of blocking calls.

Not a benefit of wearing down a defense.

Not an investment in the future.

I just don't get it.

Exactly just did nit want to try to toe that all. Lol

 

[hungry]

After a bye again?

Did Nebraska have a bye before the game against Michigan?

 

[hungry]

Brady looks cold

 

[Michlady]

Going to have to run. Catch frozen ball ouch

 

[gobluebigjon]

Go Blue

 

[Jessica]

GO Blue!

 

[bamf_16]

Fitz starts. What. the. fuck.

 

[Jessica]

Hope Rawls is ok.. :-/