The Blue Board

MSU is likely going to be the best defensive team we've played all year. And if they try to do everything in their power to keep Denard from running, he can easily make them pay too.

If you're defense is coming out with the idea to force him to throw and keeping him from running then they are already vulnerable to Denard's play action. If the safeties jump on his little play action move (and many...many...many do.) you have a streaking TE or WR going right down the seam.

Denard hits that guy a lot... and there are times he misses him (to my great frustration :) ) But my main point is, it's just not as easy as saying "We are going to force him to throw." Because when you do that, you do open yourself up to the pass, no matter what D you may have. Like I said, it's one thing to say it, another to do it. Just like I don't see MSU shutting down our running O, I don't see them making Denard a pass only QB either.

Don't get me wrong here though, just like I said earlier, I think that MSU is going to be the best Defensive team we've played, and I think that we are going to struggle at times throughout the game moving the ball. I just feel you're either under estimating Denard's passing, or overrating your D.

So you think DR will only throw the ball 2-3 times all game then? That might be Borges' best option.

Well for starters as most of my fellow Michigan guys have said we have to stop the run. However, we simply cannot be forced to sellout to stop the run our Cousins will kill us with play action. The biggest thing with stopping the run is not giving up big plays, especially for TDs. Try to contain the big plays to 15 to 20 yard runs at best and live to play another down. It only takes a couple good plays in a row to get a team into 3rd and long. We can give up 100 to 120 yards rushing and it not be a major difference in the game.

In the passing game, I think we rotate a safety over the top of Cunningham but i wouldn't go all out trying to actually stop Cunningham. We just need to control him some so he doesn't have an absolutely huge game(like 150yds and 2+TDs). Cunningham is going to get his. He will more than likely have 7+ catches for like 100yds. We can live with that if we are able to stop the other guys in the passing game.

I don't think you will see as much blitzing out of Michigan as most of the MSU fans think. Mattison will try playing this more straight up, stop the big play, and dial up some run and pass blitzes at the right opportunity. I think our best bet is to play a bend but don't break defense and stiffen up in the red zone. The Michigan coaches have to trust that the players will eventually make plays to stop State's offense, especially the defensive line guys. If Mattison gets impatient and really aggressive i fear that State could hit a couple big plays in the passing game. Now if our DL comes out and dominates the line of scrimmage then State's O is in big trouble.

Don't spy Denard. I hate the spy; there isn't a guy on our team that has better lateral speed than Denard's straight line speed (duh), so unless the DL is forcing Denard to hesitate, all the spy would do is look silly trying to run Denard down from behind. It also removes a defender from most plays (like, umm, passing plays) making it easier for Denard to complete passes down field.

Contain, OTOH, is where you start.

If I see the D-ends make a single inside move (unless it's 3rd and 25), I'll go crazy. Stay in your lanes and keep Denard between the tackles. The more bodies he has to go around, the slower he is. I really think the D-tackles are the key to forcing him to throw quickly. That'll be the key, getting Robinson to get rid of the ball before he's ready. Forget sacks; if we get 1, I'll be estatic, but the better results are poor, forced passes and minimal rushes after the pocket's collapsed. I'm glad we have athletic OLBs, as they're going to be tested.

For the spy, NW did something weird putting Marks out there on defense. For comparison's sake, it would be like you taking out a LB and putting in Martin on defense and have his job be just watching and containing Denard.

Oh I completely agree that your front 7 and defense is much better than Northwestern. Sorry, I wasn't saying that that was something you should do. Just an interesting thing to see.

I would feel much better about this game if you didn't stop him so effectively last year. That scares me a lot and makes me think we could see a lot of the same this year: running game getting shut down, Denard panicking and throwing an INT. The only thing that makes me think that may not happen this year is Borges. He's been brilliant so far, and it'll be a wonderful schematic battle between Borges and Narduzzi (?). Should be fun to watch.

We'll be watching the game exactly three days from now Can't wait!

But this isn't last year, no matter how many times you say it is.

I'm positive it wasn't Verbatim :)

And last year was last year. if you're truly believe you know what's going to happen this game because of something that happened last game... well... have fun with that.

I agree with you about Borges not going away from the run if we are getting 4-5 yards a pop. Borges has shown this year that he is more patient with sticking with the run. I think this goes for our RB's as well. Last week against NW we ran the ball 50 times and didn't hit 200 yards rushing. They will stick with the run even if its just marginally successful.

What changed for us? How about our Offensive Co-ordinator/philosophy for one? We have a competent one now. It wont be Denard left, Denard right, Denard up the middle ... with a bubble screen here and a bubble screen there. We'll be more balanced than last year.

Denard is still "tearing up teams" that is my point. You blitz and he will find running lanes.

This poster said it was only because of the competition faced. I pointed out that we could say the same thing aout the Spartan defense. We could also say the same thing about the Spartan run game.

In the future I think things will happen!!! HALOL