The Blue Board

Nice msu schtick, problem is this is about spot on accurate for their fans.

But in actual seriousness, this is a coin flip for me. Should be a good game.

I'm serious about my seriousness regarding this serious issue, I think it should be a seriously close game.

FIFY

I very curious to see how that line moves throughout the week.

Yes.

I lol''d,
1) Floyd>Cunningham
2) Martin isn't suspended
3) You're clearly an idiot.

Well then I fail at life...

Im also a questionable human.

The way I see it, this game could end up going in any direction. I can see MSU walking it 35-17 or something, I can see Michigan winning it by a similar margin (though I think Cousins will have enough success for MSU to score 20+)and I can see a much closer battle. You look at Denard and how erratic his passing success is and you are looking at like a 14-21 point swing just on whether he slings a few to opposing defenders or not.

I'd rather not discuss those parts of my past. Those were dark times for me.

Sorry for the delay.

Watched all but the first 5 minutes of the UM- Northwestern game. Wild first half. Thoughts:

1) First and foremost, extremely impressed with the halftime adjustments by UM. There's a reason they're outscoring the opposition something like 140 - 21 after the half. Northwestern apparently just wanted to keep trying the same thing, and paid the price.

2) The flip side is that the adjustments didn't come till after halftime. That's not surprising, nor is it cause for alarm. It's very hard to make tangible adjustments on the fly, especially in a game featuring a lot of first half TOs; your D is on the field so quickly that you don't have time to talk things over. We have the same complaint about Narduzzi, but have been very impressed with all of his halftime adjustments.

3) That said, the first half did happen, and if that happens against a better team, Michigan could have well dug itself a hole that it couldn't climb out of in the second half. Against both Notre Dame and Northwestern UM was trailing at the half; against ND trailed most of the game. The comebacks are exciting, but are not a method of sustainable success.

4) After hearing a lot about Toussaint I was disappointed in his performance, and really the RB performance outside of Shaw's few carries. 1.8 yards/carry is not going to cut it from your primary back. Northwestern has a veteran, though not particularly athletic front 7, and I thought they did a very good job on the UM O-line. Robinson broke a few runs, but I saw multiple tackles for no gain or for loss. Offensive line had problems run-blocking.

5) That said, O-line did a great job of pass-blocking, or at least chipping defenders enough to give Robinson time.

6) Not sold on Robinson as an accurate passer who can win on his arm alone. The interceptions were ugly, and several long completions were of the "jump ball" variety. It's great that Hemingway can go up and get those, but against a better secondary you're going to see a lot of passes batted away, or even more picked off. Robinson can be effective and accurate about 10 yards downfield; after that I really see it being a bit tenuous.

7) Robinson, and your receivers, do do a fantastic job when plays break down due to Robinson's ability to avoid pressure. Very impressed with Robinson's overall strength for his size; tough kid.

8) Special teams were not fantastic, though the coverage teams were a bright spot.

9) No doubt that the overall fundamentals and tackling are better, but they aren't at a top level yet. I saw several broken coverages and missed tackles. Blake Countess may be a very good CB in the future, but I'd limit his 1 on 1 time, especially if the thought is to put him on Cunningham. Blitzing was mixed in well, and definitely confused Northwestern in the 2nd half. Defensive line struggled to get pressure on its own without the blitz though. Has that been going on all year?

Anyways, those are my thoughts (in response to Ducksworth like 4 pages ago). Going to be a fun week of banter!