T1B

NU vs Idaho

- Offense looked sloppy. RF QB Martinez is still lighting it up on the ground. He is second in the nation for QBs behind Michigan. Big test this week. Needs to hold onto the ball. Fumbled it 4 times, but only lost it once.
- Defense is looking better, but these lesser teams, WKU and Idaho, got some surges on the ground. That is not good.
- Penalties - I thought Bo Pelini was going to blow a gasket. I listened on the radio (watched it later) and you could hear him cursing at the officials throughout. They called several calls on players that were literally 20 yards away from where the play ended for several unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Welcome to the Big 12 send off from the Big 12 officials. We will get screwed all season long. Bank on it.

In my opinion, we look like a team that's lost their best linebackers, their best DT in Suh, and are starting a Redshirt Frosh QB. The QB alone has split a lot of fans because of some rumors that he pouted and skipped practice a few weeks ago for being demoted to 2nd string for inconsistent play. Others are bitter that Zac Lee is being punished for having off season surgery on his throwing arm and missing Spring Practice. Zac may be a much better game manager and passer (when his arm is healthy as it wasn't the last half of the season), but I can't fault the coaches decision to go with Martinez. This isn't Tee Ball we're playing here. You start the guy you think is going to be your best bet. Martinez is like that sports car you see on the lot that needs some work. I think they went with him because they had three gimme games to start the season in order to get him experience. Yes, the guy is explosive, but he's inconsistent.

I think they threw all sorts of game calls at him, which is why it was really inconsistent. I predict the game plan against Washington will be conservative to best utilize what he does best.

Our No 8 ranking is generous. I'd rank us at 15 personally. I have a feeling the team wasn't that focused and were looking ahead to Washington. They did the same thing last year before the Virginia Tech game. A lot of our fans thought we'd get throttled in that game because of the mediocre play the two weeks before.

michigan has just the one player but things have gone well enough so far.

C&Ped from Week 1 thoughts thread:

Houston-Texas St. wasn't televised in week 1, so I'll give my .02 on the UH vs. UTEP game.

No Donald Buckram in the backfield for the Miners meant an easy win for the Coogs. They ran the ball effectively without relying much on Keenum. The QB's deep ball was underthrown a couple of times and he also threw a bad pick in double coverage which ultimately resulted in Keenum's neck injury. He went low for a tackle on the int return and was knee'd in the head. He looked to be okay while resting on the sidelines but the staff remains mum on his status for next Saturday against UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

The front seven was okay. UTEP's QB, Vittatoe, is a dual threat and he was able to elude blitz packages with ease and hit the open receiver often. Missed tackles by our secondary was a major issue. That can't happen against better opponents. Jamal Robinson was atrocious. He looked like he took a page out of Headache Smith's book of tanking a game to cover the line. Every single time the ball was thrown his way, he was either out of position or offere up his best impersonation of a matador making a tackle. I hope he is benched or gets his act together against the Bruins next week or their receivers are going to have a field day with us.

All-in-all, it was a stellar effort by the Coogs and I think they will probably beat UCLA this upcoming weekend if they take care of the ball. It's gonna be fun to watch

I'll give my thoughts on Michigan State after they play somebody. When I saw 30 point favorites (basically) vs FAU I jumped all over the Owls knowing MSU goes permanently into the prevent O after anything beyond a 6 point lead against mid majors. Or they just lose the game entirely.

Uhh, the running game looks promising. That's all I got.

Michigan

The offense will score plenty. There are may options beside Robinson, though you wouldn't know it from the first two games. They will spend the next two weeks diversifying the attack. I am very stoked at the way Robinson throws the ball, when there is a run/pass option this offense is scary good. After Umass and BGSU, UM should be 4-0 and with Indiana first up in-conference 5-0 is probable. After that can 8 or 9 wins be possible?

The d is still bad. The linebackers overrun everything and the db's are athletic but very young. The d-line needs to get pressure on the passer or they can be picked apart. The overall tackling is poor, but 2-0 is still 2-0.

I'm liking the direction of our team. Pretty young in most spots, but I saw some promise after Saturday. We had a great game plan set up for UF, but the execution fell apart at the end of the first half.

We were running the ball the way I have wanted for a long time. Took our opening possession 96 yards and chewed up 10 minutes on the clock. Unfortunately, we didn't get back to that until the second half and we ran right down UF's throat and were driving to go ahead in the game until the bad exchange on the handoff turned the game around.

I was hopeful that we may win 8 games this year. That might be more of a reality in seeing how we have a better running game and actually have a game plan going into a game.

Once again the Badgers fumbled away a TD opportunity deep in the red zone. They are leaving points on the field left and right. They won’t get away with that once they start playing real teams.

WolverineSteve wrote:...the db's are athletic but very young.

as in not athletic enough to backpedel 50 yards while covering kyle rudolph but young enough to think you can? i also like gordon trying to long jump 10 yards to knock down that first second-half td. sigh.

Shoelace has been unreal...understatement of the year. The offensive line is much improved...or at least they finally have the line playing in way that is conducive to the spread option.

The defense is mediocre but at least it's a step up from last year.

The kicking game is awful.


I feared an 0-2 start and they've definitely surpassed my early expectations. This team should be 5-0 going into the Michigan State game.

M Club wrote:

WolverineSteve wrote:...the db's are athletic but very young.

as in not athletic enough to backpedel 50 yards while covering kyle rudolph but young enough to think you can? i also like gordon trying to long jump 10 yards to knock down that first second-half td. sigh.

Young mistakes. These kids are fresh out of HS where they were the fastest guys on the field. They will learn, make better decisions, take better angles. Better to learn these lessons in victory than defeat. Cam Gordon has been playing defense for about a month, he will get better.

Iowa

Completely dominated Iowa State in every phase of the game. The offense looked like a well oiled machine. The offensive line is very good, even with two starters not in the lineup. Stanzi has looked much improved....no INTs in two games...and the running game has been great with Adam Robinson and Jewel Hampton. DJK and McNutt are great receivers and there are others who give Iowa a deep receiving corps.

Defensively, the D Line is living up to the pre-season hype, as has the secondary, and the linebackers have been better than expected after the graduation of Pat Angerer and A.J. Edds. Overall, the defense looks dominating.

Special teams: The kickoff team will need to improve before the conference schedule begins, as they had a couple of lapses against ISU.

Overall, Iowa looks very good but, judging from their drop to #10 in the Coaches poll, they remain under the national radar. That's okay with me. They'll face a bigger test this week with a trip to Arizona, and I'm anxious to see if they pass that test looking as dominant as in the first two weeks. From what I've seen so far from Iowa and the other teams in the first two weeks, I'd say that Iowa is underrated, but it's the final ranking that matters.

Notre Dame

The Marcus Allen-esque observation to be made is that we're a much different (and better) team with Crist in at QB than we are with anyone else on the roster at QB. I'm not saying it's not possible that there's another team in BTPCF with a more significant talent gap between the #1 QB and #2 QB, but I certainly don't know of a team that fits that bill.

As for other comments . . .

- While ND Nation quite predictably went into meltdown mode after the loss to Michigan, much of it directed at Kelly, I think Kelly may have done the best job of gameday coaching against Michigan that I've seen out of a ND head coach in a long time. With Crist out, he was able to shorten up the first half in order to keep us in the game. And ND was able to make defensive adjustments to slow Robinson down in the second half.

- I like the heart this team shows. In both of its first two games this year, ND has had an opportunity to shut it down in the fourth quarter, but refused to do so. I wish I could have said the same about the '08 and '09 versions of this team.

- I'm really liking Calabrese. Not one of our bigger-name players, to be sure, but a guy who plays with a lot of heart and intensity, and whose motor goes for 60 minutes all the time.

- Even being without our starting QB for almost the entire first half, and seeing our defense look like dog doo-doo for the entire first half, we still had a real chance to win against a team that, at least at this juncture, looks to be significantly improved from a year ago.

- It's obvious that we still have a long way to go to get to where we need to/should be as a football team. Even so, there's still a lot to like about this team.

Those are the positives. As for the negatives . . .

- Although Kelly made necessary adjustments against Michigan, he was a little slow in doing so. He should have gotten Rudolph more involved in the passing game immediately after Crist went down, instead of waiting until the last drive of the first half. And he didn't make the necessary defensive adjustments on Robinson until halftime.

- Further on Kelly, the decision to pass up a chipshot FG at the end of the first half in favor of a try for a TD with Nate Montana under center was a bit of a head-scratcher. That FG may have changed the entire dynamic of the second half.

- We still need to get a lot better on defense. And I'm generally not a fan of the 3-4, although I have to admit that the Front 7 personnel we have are probably better suited for a 3-4 than a 4-3.

Colorado at Cal: what the fuck were they thinking? Cal could have won by pretty much the same score if they'd used their freshman team. CU looked like they were using their freshman team

At Large wrote:NU vs Idaho

- Offense looked sloppy. RF QB Martinez is still lighting it up on the ground. He is second in the nation for QBs behind Michigan. Big test this week. Needs to hold onto the ball. Fumbled it 4 times, but only lost it once.
- Defense is looking better, but these lesser teams, WKU and Idaho, got some surges on the ground. That is not good.
- Penalties - I thought Bo Pelini was going to blow a gasket. I listened on the radio (watched it later) and you could hear him cursing at the officials throughout. They called several calls on players that were literally 20 yards away from where the play ended for several unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Welcome to the Big 12 send off from the Big 12 officials. We will get screwed all season long. Bank on it.

In my opinion, we look like a team that's lost their best linebackers, their best DT in Suh, and are starting a Redshirt Frosh QB. The QB alone has split a lot of fans because of some rumors that he pouted and skipped practice a few weeks ago for being demoted to 2nd string for inconsistent play. Others are bitter that Zac Lee is being punished for having off season surgery on his throwing arm and missing Spring Practice. Zac may be a much better game manager and passer (when his arm is healthy as it wasn't the last half of the season), but I can't fault the coaches decision to go with Martinez. This isn't Tee Ball we're playing here. You start the guy you think is going to be your best bet. Martinez is like that sports car you see on the lot that needs some work. I think they went with him because they had three gimme games to start the season in order to get him experience. Yes, the guy is explosive, but he's inconsistent.

I think they threw all sorts of game calls at him, which is why it was really inconsistent. I predict the game plan against Washington will be conservative to best utilize what he does best.

Our No 8 ranking is generous. I'd rank us at 15 personally. I have a feeling the team wasn't that focused and were looking ahead to Washington. They did the same thing last year before the Virginia Tech game. A lot of our fans thought we'd get throttled in that game because of the mediocre play the two weeks before.

Hard to gauge the team after playing cupcakes, we'll know considerable more after Saturday. Do need to clean-up the turnovers and dumb penalties, if we do that I think we'll be OK.