MICH (1-0, 0-0) vs. Notre Dame (1-0)

Are you ready for a rivalry game? Well dudes I hope you are, because the “Season” kicks off for real this Saturday in South Bend. Michigan, who I might add, holds a 21-15-1 record vs. the Fighting Irish (whoa racist much?), makes the trip into the LoLoosier State looking to give RR that elusive second road win. Can it be done? Well some charts and graphs and pictures make everything all right.

Notre Dame Offense:

Can you say yikes? Our young secondary has the tough task this week of trying to cover Michael Floyd. If we had Charles Woodson playing corner for us, I would probably feel a little bit better about this matchup. Instead we have JT Floyd and James Rogers. This game will test how well these guys are ready for the big stage. Notre Dame is going to be able to throw the ball, make no mistake about it. Notre Dame’s run game comes in after turning a very good performance against Purdue. Armando Allen played well rushing 18 times for 93 yards. Cierre Woods also played well rushing 7 times for 58 yards.

Crist had some problems hitting his receivers down the field. All of the trademark Brian Kelly short stuff was executed well, but there were a couple of times that he went down the field to Floyd and came up empty. I know that ND will test the Michigan secondary this week, and will take plenty of shots down the field. This will be a HUGE challenge for them. If Michael Floyd finds holes in the zone 20 yards down field look out.

Passing Offense	Rushing Offense	Total Offense	Points Scored
205 yards	153 yards (4.3 ypc)	358 yards	23

Keys to stopping the Irish:

First of all we have to stop the run. Jordan Toddman ran the ball 20 times for 105 yards and a score against our D. We must do a better job against the Irish. If we can force ND to become one dimensional, this really improves our shot at winning. The second key is to put pressure on Crist. Whether it is by blitzing, or just with normal pass rush, this has to be done. We cannot afford to let him have all day in the pocket.

Notre Dames offense didn’t looked completely gelled against Purdue. While I have no doubt Brian Kelly is going to make ND a winner again, it takes time to install a new system and get your pieces in there. Here’s hoping the offense hits a bump in the road Saturday.

Notre Dame Defense:

Well the news is somewhat more optimistic when the Irish are on defense. Although Notre Dame racked up 4 sacks and a couple of interceptions in the win against Purdue, Purdue moved the ball pretty well. This included a 24 yard touchdown run by Robert Marve, and we know how fast Marve is (LOL). ND did put good pressure on the Boilermakers QB as I said earlier getting 4 sacks on the dude.

Purdue moved the ball well though, or at least through the air they moved the ball well. Marve finished the day 21/42 for 220 yards and 2 picks. If he doesn’t turn the ball over we probably have a very close ball game. Purdue’s ground attack wasn’t nearly as effective as the passing attack. They ran the ball 32 times for 102 yards. Not a great day was to be had by the Purdue running backs. What impressed me the most about the Irish defense was the tackling. They really seemed to wrap the ball carrier up well.

Rushing Yards Allowd	Passing Yards Allowed	Total Yards	Points Given Up	Turnovers forced
102 (3.2 YPC)	220 (5.2 YPA)	322	12	2

Keys for moving the ball on the Irish:

First key is to take some shots down the field. Notre Dame is going to put 8 guys in the box knowing what Denard Robinson can do. This means we are going to have some shots to go down the field. With all of the speed that Stonum has, we need to go over the top to him at least a couple of times. The second key is to do what we did against UConn, let Denard hum this offense right along. If he makes good decisions on the Zone Read, we should be able to gash Notre Dame for a lot of yards on the ground. The third and final key is to HOLD ON TO THE GODDAMN BALL!! Turnovers have killed us these past couple of years, so do that and we should be okay.

GRADES?

Position	MICH	ND	Advantage
QB	A-	B	I know its only one game, but Denard Robinson looked like a star in the making against UConn. Crist looked okay against Purdue, but MICH has the advantage here.
RB	B+	B+	Our Running backs played well. Sure they didn’t have a whole lot of yards, but when your QB is rushing for 200, you don’t need a lot. Allen and Woods both played well for ND, this is a push
WR/TE	A-	A	Can we stop Michael Floyd? Probably not, but stranger things have happened.
O Line	A	B+	Our line played so well against UConn, they smashed dudes in the mouth. ND played Purdue so I believe nothing about them. Plus with Wenger being out this hurts the Irish
D Line	B+	B	I’m going to give us a slight advantage here. We didn’t generate a lot of pressure on Frazer and these guys must do better against ND
Linebackers	B-	B+	Even though Mouton played well against UConn I still have some doubts about these guys. Hopefully they can continue the good play against ND.
Secondary	C+	B-	Well we didn’t get torched, that is a good thing, right? ND’s secondary didn’t look great against the BoiLOLermakers.
Special Teams	C	B+	We only punted once and it wasn’t a great kick but took a great bounce. Our Punt Return unit still needs to hold on to the ball, and or Kick Returners didn’t make a whole lot of noise against UConn, oh and the field goal unit wasn’t very good either.

 

Prediction:

Okay I’m gonna try and be fair about this as I can, even though I am a huge homer. I expect Michigan to win this game, but its gonna be close. Notre Dame will rack up some yards on us, but hopefully they find a way to score one less point then we do. MICH 38 ND 27

I came out the winner last week. Which isn't really surprising. Now on to the the chart!!!!

Notes and News

• This week is a bit more saucier
• BAM!!! 
• Seth and I drink way less Blue Drink than DB,SCS and Hulk
• Neither Seth our I wanna pick ND but this ninja feels our secondary is just too ripe for ND and Kelly. 
• FSU is back!! Get out the bow and arrows.
• Is this an OSU blog? Oh god...
• SC and UGA go splits.
• I picked all of Hulks since he was a no show. One more week and your gone sucka!
• Name that damn moon!(see last week)

 

Vlad Emilien has decided to leave the MICHIGAN football team for greener pastures, probably of a FCS school. Vlad suffered a terrible knee injury in high school and their is a lot of speculation that he never recovered from that. We watched him get burned by Roy Roundtree in the spring, on a 96 yard touchdown pass from Denard Robinson. He was listed 3rd on the depth chart behind starter Cam Gordon and  walk on Jared Van Slyke. Van Slyke is now out for the year with a busted clavicle.

This puts some freshman 2 and 3 on the Depth Chart at free safety. I have to believe that Marvelous Marvin Robinson and Ray Vinopal are your second and third stringers. GULP. Freshman at the FS position is never a good thing, so Cam you better stay healthy. Yes I know Cam is a redshirt freshman.

Vlad MM wishes you the best of luck, and hopes that you can get it together and be a contributor for another school. Just whatever you do don’t go to a Big Ten school, we don’t need that. 

Offense
Was running like a well oiled machine. WR blocking well, O-line was crushing Uconn for the most part. Denard was "narding" fools. The running backs left a bit to be desired but as a unit ran for over 100 yards. You would just love to see that running back step up and be that world beater. It would make Denard even more dangerous. I was very surprised we didn't see any Mike Cox. Not sure if Rich was holding him as a secret weapon(doubt it) for ND but surprised he did't get one carry. WR's played well and didn't drop any passes. They had sure hands. Even Kevin Koger showed his early 2009 self in catching the balls that came his way. Devin's run had me scratching my head since he read the option right and had a lane but tried to break it outside to where Uconn player was blocked. This resulted in a loss but he's gonna learn his way.

Defense
As most haters have said "they dropped passes" "UCONN ISN'T WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!" I have heard it all and most of it from a co-worker who was a WR on the MSU 2000 team(I won't name names).
Yeah Uconn wasn't that good. They were not sharp. Do I think they are a Big East offensive juggernaut? NO. Do I think they could fight for the Big Title? Yeah I think so. The bend but don't break was used to the extreme. Their were a good number of holes in the secondary. I hope that can be tightened up a bit because I feel like a dink and dump Kelly offense could have a field day with it. The line played soild but didn't get the push I was hoping for. The Uconn O-line is huge and a very seasoned so they were no push overs. I think we held a lot of blitz packages back so I hope to see a few of those un-leashed on ND. LB played alright, room for improvement for sure.

Random Notes
-Too much Denard.. Yeah there is such a thing.
-Gordan was head hunting must the game.
-Shaw can't have Shaw moments, it could cost us huge down the line.
-Roundtree lose could be big for ND
-Martin did pretty well for getting double teamed all day. Gets bigger every year.
-Roh got some nice pressure.
-Carvin looked good for the half that he played. Got to the ball fast, didnt seem to be thinking too much. I can see why coaches started him. Need him back asap.
-Secondary still looks like it can still get taken to the cleaners. ND will try their best to.
-TATE... No comment.

Because blogger sucks and is incapable of uploading charts, I present the Midnight Maize Top 25 in Google doc form.



Dropped Out: Pitt 15 North Carolina 20 Oregon State 25
Others receiving votes:
Pitt 10 UNC 6 Fresno State 6 Oregon State 4 Arizona 3 South Carolina 2 Michigan 1