11 Wolverines were selected in the most recent NFL draft
5 starters returned
Most of Hoke's good recruits are gone, most of Harbaugh's are underclassmen
The team's struggles are overwhelmingly because they're relying on youth

FWIW Year 3 after replacing a garbage coach is often a challenge. The fired coach's final recruiting class frequently contains many holes and few difference makers. Young players are put in before ready. Yes, the drop off is frustrating, but give these kids time. You guys will be fine.

Haven't read through entire thread yet, but not really down about this loss at all. We lost a coinflip tropical storm game. It happens. It happened to Ohio State's most talented team ever in 2015, and now it happened to us. The only thing that sux about it is it happened against MSU. Would much rather lose this way to Purdue.

Obviously the 2 fumbles lost when the weather was good is what cost us the game. Variance sux sometimes. I see no reason to get upset or draw any conclusions about the players/staff after ANY sideways rain game for ANY team. Still hard not to hate Isaac tho.

Does this team still have the ability to blow up Penn State's pedestrian OL and pull off an upset and get back into the B1G championship race? Sure why not. Nothing about the MSU game should change anyone's mind on that. The expectations today are still the same as they were before the season: 8/9 wins, and if we run hot (I.E. we actually win a game as an underdog for the first time in an eternity) maybe we get a sweat for 10 wins.

This is the type of year that nobody should ever get riled up about. We lost a billion players. This is a rebuilding year. Every game save Rutgers (hopefully) is gonna be a struggle. Enjoy the continual suspense. 2018 is the year. This is the year to relax and enjoy watching young guys try to figure things out.

For the life of me, I don't know how someone could say they aren't that down about this loss, this was the worst loss in Harbaugh's career and one of the worst in the none Hoke/RR eras for Michigan.

it's ILP, he's getting an asian massage from his gf while lying on a pile of twenties while he posts, **** does he care?

I mean, blah blah line sucks whatever, yes the roster has some holes obviously, we knew that at the start of the year

don't turn the ball over 5 times, you win, it ain't hard yo

lolololol. Losing a 50-50 monsoon game will NEVER be a hard loss to take. **** happens man. As far as a nice contrast: Losing that Penn State 2013 game, where Hoke and company did everything they could to lose that game.....Now that was painful. But when mother nature ****s you, all you can do is sigh and say nh ****ty universe and move on.

Could've been hundreds if I didn't suck so bad.

oh, I thought I shoulda said tens

Gents,

ILP is the voice of reason?

Things are much worse than I thought. We're doomed. 4-8 incoming.

I don't call anyone the voice of reason who refers to a game with a -5 turnover margin as a 50/50 game, regardless of weather.

Well technically it was a 50-50 half, the 2nd half, in the sense that any talent gaps between teams will no longer be relevant a la MSU vs OSU 2015.

The first half was fine, weather was good or good enough, and well, we had 2 turnovers, one being a really bad turnover by Isaac. Gotta protect the ball in traffic. But whatever, variance is an untamable mistress. The -5 turnover margin is a joke. The last 3 turnovers really don't count. Any team that's trailing in that mess is gonna be a turnover machine because they have to force it when basically every play in the playbook is wiped out by the weather, and the other team with the lead is gonna play exactly like Michigan State did: run run run punt and let the other team hang themselves. Anyone who actually complains about a -5 turnover margin either didn't watch the game, is ******ed enough to think playing Madden in the rain is the same as playing in a monsoon irl, or the equivalent of a Nebraska fan who doesn't want Frost.

The effective turnover margin was -2, and that was enough for MSU to grab a lead before the storm hit, and once that storm hits, the team with the lead will win probably 90% of the time. That's the reality of the situation. It's a ****ing bull**** situation that nobody should lose sleep over. I mean I wish it wasn't against Michigan State, but whaddaya gonna do. God if Isaac didn't fumble that football....

Reading Mgoblog and this thread, the level of irrationality is truly staggering to me. Like if we had real championship equity, and say this game ruined it, I could at least understand all the ******edness. But come on, this was always gonna be an 8-4/9-3 team. Why get all crazy over a monsoon game with THIS team. It makes absolutely no sense to me. So yeah, the reaction to this game is ridiculous on multiple levels man.

The last three turnovers don't count...'have to force it?' We were down by 4 points, not 20. The last turnover happened with almost twelve minutes left in the game.

It was obvious going into the game that the offense has serious issues. I couldn't have cared less about championship equity going into this game, but we were double digit favorites in a night game at home. -5 turnovers was a gift, broken offense or not, it sucks, anybody who doesn't realize that is ******ed.

re: WRs, freshman WRs also mostly suck because (a) most of them don’t run anything close to a full route tree in high school; (b) are so used to just running past whichever Future Farmers of America 5-8 160 pound white clown is covering them that they don’t know how to use their hands, beat press coverage, shield the defender from the ball, not get run into the sideline etc, and/or (c) there are way too many of these The Opening style camps where the kids get rewarded for doing these idiotic And 1 routes with triple moves at the line that take 8 seconds to develop. All of these lead to being ****ty at getting separation, running proper routes, and winning 50/50 balls. Black was by far the best outside guy we had at doing these things, alas

Not to excuse the poor coaching that the OL has received (which I think it’s fair to say at this juncture) but it’s also fair to the coaches to acknowledge the impossibly bad luck they’ve received: Newsome injury for two years, LTT criminal activity, Bosch spazzes out, Chris Fox never plays a down, second verse same as the first

I’ll withhold panic on the 2018 OL because (a) Frey will be coaching it by himself, (b) Newsome returns, (c) seems like there can’t be any way Ruiz < Kugler, and similarly RS FR Filiaga/Stueber can’t possibly be worse than the factory of sadness at RT

Trailing meant we had to pass in weather conditions where passing was virtually impossible. If Michigan State was trailing when the storm hit they'd have a bunch of turnovers too. Those 3 extra turnovers reveal NOTHING about our team. If you can't understand this then you seriously need to get your head checked for brain tumors.

We are 2-1 vs MSU

Trailing by four points with a ton of time left did not mean we had to pass the ball. You do realize that each of those three turnovers came after we cut the lead to four, right? And they all happened before something like the 11-12 minute mark of the fourth quarter, right? And when did I ever say anything about the turnovers revealing anything about our team? All that I have said is that this game was not a 50/50 proposition. The better team gave it away with five turnovers.

I'm beginning to wonder if you were actually paying attention to the game. Prior to the final thirty second drive, Michigan ran seventeen running plays and thirteen pass plays in the second half.

Michigan drives after the final turnover:
run, run, run, pass
run, pass, run
final drive with 30 seconds left: all passes. So yeah, you're right. We were forced to pass the ball for the last thirty seconds of the game.

Lol at thinking the loss vs psu in 2013 is anything close to this msu loss. This was the one game we couldnt have lost this year. We could have lost to uf, cincy after big uf win, indy in trap game, psu vs top 5 ranked team, wiscy vs top 10 team, or osu.

I guess in your opinion there really isnt a bad loss since we can just sigh and say sh11tty universe and move on.

But it rained.

We were never going to be able to run the ball down the field and score a TD. It's beyond obvious that we would have to complete passes on any scoring drive that could win the game. This reality plus weather conditions that made passing practically impossible put us in a horrible spot where turnovers were extremely likely. I think we were the better team, and we lost in what was effectively a 30 minute game mainly because we had two unfortunate turnovers. To say we lost the game because we had 5 turnovers, indicates there's something about football or nature that you cannot or refuse to comprehend.

R U SERIOUS. Do you know what the word "contrast" means? The whole point of my bringing up Penn State 2013 was to illustrate the difference between the two outcomes. WTF is going on here. This post may be a new low for this thread.

Meh. It's a rebuilding year bro. Chill out.


Yes IMO, there is no such thing as a "bad loss" in a monsoon game. When the weather effectively equalizes teams, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Again, we just recently watched the most talented Ohio State team of all time lose to a pedestrian MSU team in 2015 because of the weather. **** ****ing happens.

I've thought you were the dullest tool in this thread since 2009. Now after electricladylnd's post I don't know what to think anymore. My whole world just got turned upside down.

At least we once had an inferior team that won cuz of the weather.

So if we played the second half again in those conditions and don't turn the ball over three times, the game is a coin flip to you. Weather has more of an effect on W/L than a -3 turnover margin in a half. No wonder you suck at sports betting.

How can you be this dense man. You can't separate the two. We had a -3 turnover margin in the 2H because of the weather! And guess what, if MSU was trailing and had to pass in that nightmare, they would probably go around -3 too.

And what I mean by coin flip is once that monsoon arrives both teams are essentially equal just like the greatest Ohio State team of all time is essentially equal with a pedestrian overrated MSU team in a sideways rain game.

I'm sorry the universe sux sometimes, but anyone who questions the coaching and players, or tries to draw meaningful conclusions, after that ****fest, is being as idiotic as a 15 girl who believes "everything happens for a reason".

I realized I just criticized nearly the entire Michigan fanbase, and practically everyone in this thread should hate me by now, but it's not my fault that humans tend to be pathetically dumb creatures seemingly most of the time.

PS: If I weren't a nihilist I wouldn't sports bet to begin with. No excuses tho. Sports betting is still pretty ****ing dumb.