<p>^ why not? when denard was out, we were at the 15 yd line. Jesus, Bellomy just couldn’t complete the passes. Oh well, I’m glad our defense did well though.</p>
<p>romani, had Denard been healthy, Michigan would probably have beaten Nebraska handily. If you read my previous posts, you would see that I certainly gave Nebraska a lot of respect, and rightly so. However, with Denard, Michigan controlled the clock, had good field position and the defense was well rested and dominant. When Bellomy was forced to take over, our offense almost never got past its own 40 yard line, forcing Micigan’s defense to be on the field way too long, and often with very poor field position. Of course, there is no way of predicting what would have happened for sure, but I defenitely think Michigan had Nebraska with Denard.</p>
<p>Hpefully, Denard will not miss more games and Sparty can beat Nebraska next week. ;)</p>
<p>This makes the Ohio game a must-win.</p>
<p>Garder will be given just as much of a chance to start next year as Bellomy will. He’ll have a full offseason to get back into the qb position and he still takes a few snaps in practice this year. Obviously Bellomy isn’t mentally or physically prepared to play right now and we basically have no offense without Denard. We would have won this game if he didn’t get hurt.</p>
<p>Hopefully people will actually appreciate Denard now. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say “I can’t wait until Denard leaves, so we can get a true qb” or “They should move Denard to RB and put Bellomy at QB” I would be rich. </p>
<p>It sucks though. Like you guys said we would’ve won if he wasn’t injured. We were on the verge of going up 10-7. The defense played a hell of a game and proved that they are great. If Denard is healthy the defense isn’t on the field for virtually the whole second half then they don’t get worn out like they did at the end.</p>
<p>Now we need Nebraska to lose to either PSU or MSU. I don’t really think Nebraska is <em>that</em> good of a team, so they should drop at least one more game. It very well could be next week. State’s defense will not let Nebraska score more than 20 points and their offense may have found its groove at the end of that Wisconsin game. </p>
<p>If Denard doesn’t miss any more games then we will be 8-3 going into Ohio Stadium with most likely a division championship on the line and an undefeated season on the line for them. Should be fun, I think we can take 'em.</p>
<p>And Wisconsin’s quarterback is out for the year, their season is basically shot. I don’t see them being competitive against any team in the Championship game. We could’ve virtually clinched a bid to the rose bowl yesterday if we won. Uggghhh.</p>
<p>I watched the game last night at a Michigan bar with my uncle who got his MBA from Ross and none of the Michigan alums there seemed anywhere nearly as enthusiastic about this team’s prospects for the rest of the year as 5-6 Michigan posters on this thread.</p>
<p>You are all underestimating Northwestern which is a well-coached team that will probably give Denard & Co. all that it can handle. Minnesota should be an easy win and Iowa looks a little weaker than most of us thought so Michigan should win handily against them as well (a little payback for last year too might I add). Michigan will simply not be able to handle OSU at Columbus however and will end up 8-4 for the season most likely with 9-3 being a somewhat unlikely possibility and 7-5 being a little more likely of a scenario than the former.</p>
<p>I predict that Michigan will not go to the Rose Bowl this year but we"ll see what happens.</p>
<p>Michigan is more athletic than NW. Our D is much better. With Denard back we should iwn that game. We should also beat Iowa and NW.</p>
<p>OSU is obviously the top team out of the remaining teams but they haven’t looked unbeatable. Their D has looked very shaky at times. With Denard, we definitely have a shot to win that game. I don’t think you could</p>
<p>
Without Stave, Wisconsin is likely to lose the last two games against PennState and Ohio. And if Indiana manages to beat them and win one of the games against Iowa or Purdue, they will go to the Championship game with the tie breaker. What a joke. But it shows what a key injury could do to a team.</p>
<p>Michigan has had the type of season I expected. Our loss to Alabama looked bad at the start of the season, but in retrospect, it was not a bad loss at all. Only one other team lost by less than 30 points to Alabama this season (we lost by 27). Alabama’s remaining 6 wins were by more than 30 points. And Michigan’s 14 points were the most scored against Alabama in 2012 (and that’s including the BCS championship game against LSU).</p>
<p>The Notre Dame loss now does not look so bad either. Notre Dame is a legitimate top 10 team, and we lost to them at night in South Bend. It took Denard’s worst performance for Notre Dame to win by 7. </p>
<p>At least against Notre Dame, we had DR. At Nebraska, not having DR really hurt our ability to sustain drives, keep our defense fresh and of course, score. Despite our defense being put in such a bad position all of the second half, Nebraska only managed 23 points (fewer than any other game this season).</p>
<p>Going forward, I don’t see Michigan losing another game until OSU. Northwestern is very solid and well coached, but I don’t think DR and company will lose any of their last two game in the Big House. </p>
<p>OSU will be tough, but it is on the road, so I give the advantage to OSU. If this game were in Ann Arbor, I would have given the edge to Michigan.</p>
<p>Bottom line, 9-3 at best, 8-4 at worst. Of course, all of this is assuming Denard is not hurt. If he goes down, so does Michigan.</p>
<p>Any news on Denard?</p>
<p>No news yet.</p>
<p>He’s fine, going to play against MN.</p>
<p>Can we invest in some elbow pads for him?</p>
<p>Unbelievable that we didn’t put in Devin last week.</p>
<p>Devin’s the man!</p>
<p>Wow, 35 points on Minnesota on the road without Denard. Pretty impressive stuff. I hope we get Denard back next week though.</p>
<p>You can’t put in a guy that hasn’t been taking any qb snaps in practice to play qb in the middle if a game… Although it’s a legitimate complaint about how the coaches thought Bellomy was a legitimate backup qb, causing the move of Gardner to wr.</p>
<p>^It couldn’t have gone any worse. Bellomy was 3-16 with 3 picks. Gardner’s athleticism alone would have been better, and it’s not like he forgot how to throw or didn’t learn the week’s gameplan.</p>
<p>Sparty fails miserably.</p>
<p>Yeah but at the same time I’m glad their fanbase will finally shut the f*** up about their football team. Their defense is the most overrated single unit in NCAA football.</p>