Michigan St/Michigan

What's up everyone,
I apologize for the absence of a post last week.. I was in Iowa City with some friends and I was unable to reach a computer. Anyways, its MICHIGAN/MICHIGAN ST WEEK, but before we dig into the rivalry, lets look at some of the shit that happened last weekend..

Scheelhaase eating turf.. left game with concussion 

I think my sub-conscience had the biggest influence in my decision to write a post last weekend (aside from my other excuses). What happened? Uhhh.. pretty much what I said a couple weeks back.. "Illinois is just bad..". They lived up to their reputation and were destroyed in a 45-0 blowout. (Side Note: Though I say Illinois is bad, and they are, they put up a fight against Wisconsin the weekend prior.. just keep that in mind as we get closer to Indianapolis). Michigan was better at everything.. Offensively, Denard and the backs picked up some yards. Defensively, Jake Ryan proved that he is a rising star in the B1G. Special Teams, Norfleet probably should have just hurdled the punter and he would have scored. Put simply, we're better. Any 2010 repeat was absolutely crushed when Scheelhaase was knocked out of the game. Riley O'Toole sucked and it was over pretty quickly.

The long hair makes you look 20 times more badass

Now that we are done with that...

Michigan State heads into the Big House this weekend. Michigan State is coming off a 19-16 OT loss in East Lansing to an "OK" Iowa squad. I honestly thought Michigan State was going to win, but they choked and couldn't finish. The offense continued to be inept and the defense was average at best.. This is the same team that was predicted to basically walk thru their division and make it over the hump to a BCS bowl.. Whatever though. I hate Michigan State so it is always nice to seem them suck. That being said, they still scare me coming into this weekend. The past 2 years, the Michigan State defense has done an exceptional job containing Denard. Even though their defense has been sub-par so far this season, rivalry games often bring the best out of players.. For Michigan to have success on offense, Fitz needs to grow a pair and stop dancing around in the back field. Make a cut, get your ass up the field, and when you have the room, THEN you can do your jukes. If he can't step up his game, Thomas Rawls is the next man.. I'm not sure why, but I just cannot look at Rawls the same ever since the hit he took during the Alabama game... (11 minute mark)

Look for Gardner to get involved Saturday. I like Roundtree, but Gardner is my favorite WR. He is the most athletic receiver we have and I love seeing the ball in his hands. Borges said he wants to develop a go-to WR and I hope it is one of the Devin's.

Most athletic players on the Michigan roster

Defensively, I think Michigan matches up well against Michigan State's offense. Michigan State has a new QB, new WR's, and a mediocre offensively line. The lone bright spot on their offense is Le'Veon Bell and he is pretty tank-ish.. Michigan ranks 3rd in the nation in pass-defense, but they will be tested more this week as opposed to weeks prior. The biggest challenge for this Michigan defense will be stopping the trick plays.. Michigan State's offense blows and Dantonio knows this.

This game is a toss up for me.. I think the game being in Ann Arbor helps, as well as past tweets that will only fuel Denard.. I have Michigan winning this game by a reasonable amount with hopes that Michigan State's offense will continue to sputter.

Other B1G games:
Navy>Indiana
Iowa>PSU
Wisconsin>Minnesota
Nebraska>NW
OSU>Purdue

Purdue/Michigan Preview

Hello Errrbody,
It has been a long 2 weeks, but Michigan is back in action this saturday. Our opponent? The Purdue Boilermakers. But before I delve into the preview, I want to review some things that happened in the B1G last weekend..

Overall, I was 5-1 on the weekend. Not too shabby considering a lot of the games were toss ups.

Ohio/MSU: I was surprised Braxton Miller didn't tear his ACL.. but I will give him credit where credit is due.. He carried his team to that victory. (Prediction: MSU>Ohio... 0-1)

Northwestern/Indiana: I figured Northwestern would win this game. They came out firing and got themselves a 27-0 lead. It seems as though Northwestern STILL cannot close the deal as they let Indiana back in the game late. No offense Northwestern, but almost everyone in the B1G is better than Indiana.. Your 5-0 mark is false advertising (Prediction: Northwestern>Indiana... 1-1)

PSU/Illinois: Pretty much called this one. PSU handled Illinois in a 35-7 smack down. Illinois is bad and PSU is playing with passion.. Pretty much all there is to it. (Prediction: PSU>Illinois... 2-1)

Minnesota/Iowa: I picked the right time with Iowa. They came out on fire (probably because it was homecoming) and handled Minnesota. Minnesota hadn't played anyone previously so their record was deceiving, like Northwestern's. (Iowa>Minnesota... 3-1)

Nebraska/Wisconsin: I kind of got lucky on this one. Wisconsin had a strong hold on this game with a 27-10 lead and let Nebraska back in. I still don't know how good either team really is though... (Nebraska>Wisconsin... 4-1)

Purdue/Marshall: I thought Purdue would smoke these cats.. They didn't and they only won by ten.. I mean if you're a Purdue fan, it is cool that they put up 51 points!.. but on the flip side, you also gave up 41 points to Marshall... uhh... (Purdue>Marshall... 5-1)

You struggled with these guys, Purdue? Michigan is a lot better than them

Leaving off our last B1G team, Michigan heads to West Lafayette, IN, to play the Boilermakers. Michigan is coming off its bye-week and Purdue is coming off a ten point victory over Marshall. Last year, Michigan handled Purdue at the Big House and is a 3 POINT favorite coming into the 2012 meeting. So where do I begin?.. Statistically, Purdue looks a lot better than Michigan on paper, but that means little in comparison to strength of schedule. Michigan has played Alabama, Air Force, UMass, and Notre Dame. Purdue has played Eastern Kentucky, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, and Marshall.. I think Michigan has clearly had the more difficult schedule. If you want to compare ND games, go ahead. Realistically, had Michigan only turned the ball over half the amount of times than they actually did, we beat ND by 14. I understand that Purdue was young and had a lot of talent last year, but I just don't see them as an elite team in the Big Ten. Michigan has been ready for this game for 2 weeks now and I really do not see them losing. The only way Purdue wins this game is if they come out playing inspired football for a full 60 minutes. If they can do that, they have somewhat proved themselves in my eyes.

Here are the keys for Michigan if they want to win this game
-Borges uses Denard's legs often, and his arm in moderation: Last week, the Michigan offense became too predictable and ND picked up on that. For some reason, Borges continued to put Denard in passing situations he clearly was not comfortable being in. As a spectator, this became evident probably after the first or second pick.

-We get pressure on TerBush: Last week, our defensive line did a solid job against the ND running game and had some success getting pressure on Rees. If they can improve, or even play like they did against ND, that will be a good sign for Michigan. Let's just hope the bye-week did not make them lackadaisical.

I would take this guy over GERG any day

-Fitz gets goin': Last year, Purdue was Toussaint's coming out party. He ran all over the Purdue defense in a solid win over the Boilermakers and carried that momentum through the rest of the B1G season. Fitz showed flashes in the 2nd half against ND (notice the O-Line stepped up as well) so hopefully that is a good sign of things to come.

2011: 170 yds rushing & 2 TD's.. 2012:???

Predictions of other B1G games
Ohio>Nebraska
Wisconsin>Illinois
MSU>Indiana
PSU>Northwestern

Wolverinenation had a cool picture.. Go Blue!!