After a much-needed bye the Wolverines head west to Madison this afternoon for their Big Ten opener against the #13 Badgers at noon EST. Coming into this game the Wolverines own a 51-15-1 series advantage that's hard to fathom since Wisconsin has been so good lately. The teams have split the last 10 games but Michigan hasn't won in Madison since my freshman year of 2001.
It would appear that last weekend's bye came at an ideal time as most of Michigan's walking wounded appear to be healthy enough to try to erase the mistakes that caused a scary double-OT win over Army. Hopefully a team that's more or less at full strength on offense can finally show off the promise of its new "speed in space" scheme against a relatively undersized Wisconsin front. Meanwhile, the defense will have to contend with yet another stud Badgers RB in Jonathan Taylor plus a typically beefy OL. The wild card is QB Jack Coan, who's yet to face a defense as good as Michigan's.
This will be a very difficult early road test, and after the results of the first two games I'm looking for Michigan to right the ship and come out firing on all cylinders. Leave the old school, Big Ten-style football to the Badgers and light up the scoreboard early and often!
Didn't see the game, but just watched the recap. Rough day for Michigan fans.
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely our worst performance this year, but things have been a bit better lately, and Wisconsin's looking pretty tough all around again.
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