When: Saturday, September 3, 2011 - 3:30 pm ET
Where: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Spread: Michigan -13.5
TV: ABC/ESPN2 mirror (the Midwest will be on ABC, everyone else is on ESPN2)
You'll be Listening to: Mike Patrick, Craig James (SIGH), and Jeannine Edwards
Weather: Scattered Thunderstorms, High of 83. 82 at kickoff. Chance of rain = 40%
What to look for
Obviously, everyone is anxious to see, well, everything. How will the new offense look and how will they use Denard? How much better will the defense be? Will Matt Wile be serviceable as a punter while Hagerup serves his suspension? Can anyone put the ball through the uprights? Lots of questions than need to be answered.
Look for the offense to try to establish the run early and often. Denard will have his opportunities to run the ball, but I expect to see a lot of handoffs to try and determine if any of the backs are going to separate themselves. The coaches would love nothing more than to find their guy before the Notre Dame game. The gameplan will be pretty vanilla so as to not show anything to Brian Kelly as well. Borges will try to get Denard in to a rhythm with some easy throws to his backs and TEs and build into the downfield stuff.
Defensively, I think you will see some pressure pretty early. Mattison likes to make QBs uncomfortable and knows the best way to help his secondary is to force Carder to throw before he wants to. The coaches want a steady rotation on the DL to keep those guys fresh. I would expect to see just about everyone's backup on the field fairly early on as well, except for probably Martin and Demens. You should also see a lot of different looks as far as lining up and more late movement before the snap of the ball than we have seen in the last several years.
What will happen
Denard will look good and not so good. He will have his wow moments and break a few runs. He'll make some excellent throws and make us all drool. But, I expect he will also struggle at times and remind us that this is not the same offense we saw him explode in last season. Shaw and Toussaint will split carries and we won't be any closer to a feature back. Smith will be the third down back. Expect Michigan to start on defense unless Western chooses to defer. Weather may be a factor. Expect a little sloppiness and first game/new coach/new systems jitters for the first quarter. The secondary will make you sad more than once but will also make a big play or two. M will lead at halftime and pull away a bit in the second half.
Completely baseless predictions
- Denard does not run for more than 100 yards
- Neither does anyone else
- Koger has a big day
- The defense records at least three sacks and a pair of turnovers...
- ...but also gives up three or more big plays (30+ yards)
- Someone wearing a winged helmet makes a field goal
- Michigan 34, Western 13
Pretty good calls on this one. You were pretty close on just about everything. No field goal, and I don't think there were three 30+ yard defensive lapses, but still pretty darn good! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you. I suppose you'd have really been impressed if I'd predicted that the game would end near the end of the 3rd Q because of lightning, no?
ReplyDelete