It's important to keep in mind that Urban is one of the best game planners in all of football when given time to prepare for a single opponent. Alabama has shown little offensively that truly worries me, especially considering how well our D has performed.
Their defense is scary good and if we don't take chances, then I agree it will be a long day for us.
It always seems to be the case that when the offense struggles, you look up and Barrett had more carries than Samuel/Webber combined and more pass attempts than Samuel/Webber have combined touches.Vanilla play-calling in poor weather conditions - This is one of the only negatives i've witnessed with Urban at the helm. He tends to rely on Barrett's running ability when the weather conditions are poor.
It always seems to be the case that when the offense struggles, you look up and Barrett had more carries than Samuel/Webber combined and more pass attempts than Samuel/Webber have combined touches.
Makes sense. I did see they tend to really lean on him as a runner against better defenses. I think he averaged 20+ carries in the games against PSU, MSU, Wiscy, IU, etc. The per attempt numbers weren't great overall but if you can scratch out 3.5-4 YPC with a QB, it's easier yardage than some of the alternatives.
Will be interesting to see if Michigan opts for a heavy dose of man. They may just move the safety down and dare Barrett to throw. That game plan probably results in something on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of possible results but if they don't force the action early, given the passing results in some of those games, I would be disappointed.
I'd live with Barrett throwing for 250-300 yards vs. letting OSU just opt to zone-read them to death all game. Michigan hasn't been great against the more mobile QB's, so I'm sure Ohio State will try to press the run game early with Barrett.
Is OSU generally healthy on D right now?
I'm not sure what we saw in the MSU game will reflect what we see going forward. There will be a whole other level of preparation and focus now. Even so, LJ Scott is a great, great RB. He accounted for over 70% of their yards. Nobody else on that team did anything. As you note, Deveon Smith is pretty average. Michigan does not have an LJ Scott on their team. Neither does Bama, for that matter.We will see how this weekend goes. MSU has had a porous OL all year due to lack of experience. LJ Scott man-handled us as we were poor to shed blocks and didn't have the beef up front to clog holes.
Michigan and Bama give me the same worries. They will run downhill between the tackles, and we'll be prepared to stop it, I'm just not sure we can consistently do it. Individually I like all of the guys we rotate along the line, but we're light in the pants and prone to getting run at. Deveon Smith is average IMO, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has himself a day on Saturday.
Almost assuredly.Let's say OSU loses The Game... what bowl are we looking at? I would think a 2 loss OSU would be ranked high enough to get the Rose Bowl over a 2 loss Penn State and 3 loss Wisconsin (they'd be losing to Michigan in the B1G title game in this scenario).
Decent shot, but might need a Washington/Clemson loss.Do you think they still make the CFB Playoff at 11-1 with a loss to Michigan?
As a Michigan fan
Will be up at some point on Turkey Day.