#20 ND at Michigan

[Hawkeye]

This could be the best game between these two in years.

[OSU8085]

minor in...hemmingway out

What do you guys think, I think ND is actually for real this year but they can't lose this one

[Wolverine]

Not good about Hemingway being out. That will hurt. Looking forward to getting Minor in there. He was healthy enough for last week, but they didn't want to push it in a blowout.

I'm here and ready to go. It's going to be fun..

We need to get into Clausen's face a lot, something I think we should be able to do given the pressure Mike Martin was getting up the middle last week. Graham should be stellar in this one for us to win.

Offensively, just run the offense. It worked well last week and if they are going to win, it's going to be running it effectively. Hemingway's absence really hurts, but someone else has to step up. Odoms or one of the freshman maybe, Stokes? GO BLUE!

[MarvinMartian]

ND should win this going away if they're for real.

But let me say, I'd LOVE to see Michigan take down ND. Would make my day.

[StevenSD]

glad i can have this on at work :)

[william00777]

ND should win this going away if they're for real.

But let me say, I'd LOVE to see Michigan take down ND. Would make my day.

We agree! Man I want the Wolverines to win this not a good start with that big run.

[Champ]

Brown would have scored with a better throw.

[Champ]

Minor scores after looking like he would be stopped short.

[Champ]

Wow, Allen goes 41 yards on a screen for a TD.

[Champ]

Play overturned, Allen stepped out.

[Champ]

Stonum goes 94 yards on the kick return to make 14-3 after the EP.

[Champ]

Clausen hits Tate to make it 14-10.

[Champ]

Michigan might want to put somebody else on Floyd.

[Champ]

ND takes the lead and Floyd looks like he can't be stopped.

[william00777]

ND takes the lead and Floyd looks like he can't be stopped.

yeah they are pickin on 33 and the michigan secondary right now. They can't let Clausen continue to find Tate floyd and the TE.

[william00777]

I can't believe he missed that kick. Why didn't they roll forcie out in the red zone? or run an speed option the the long side of the field?

[Chris Raiden]

Wow, just bad bad defense there by Notre Dame. Tate Forcier jukes one safety out of his shoes and blows past the other on his way into the end zone.

Michigan 31, Notre Dame 20. You were saying Lou Holtz...

[Chris Raiden]

McCarthy with the pick of Tate Forcier!

Notre Dame's got a chance to strike here.

[MarvinMartian]

So, ND still in the Title hunt as some people have said? LMFAO!

[Chris Raiden]

So, ND still in the Title hunt as some people have said? LMFAO!
If they can pull off this upset, sure.

If not, ha! Not a chance.

[l.a. no-teamers]

^only Holtz has said that. And he can't be taken seriously ..

[l.a. no-teamers]

If they can pull off this upset, sure.

If not, ha! Not a chance.

Why would it be an upset if ND wins? I think you have it backwards

[Chris Raiden]

Why would it be an upset if ND wins? I think you have it backwards

Sorry, meant to say comeback, I'm already thinking ahead a game here...

[Chris Raiden]

TOUCHDOWN IRISH!!!

Armando Allen with the 8 yard scamper to put the Irish back on top. Now do they go for the deuce here?

[Chris Raiden]

By the by, any one else's sound cutting in and out on this, or just me?

[l.a. no-teamers]

what a great 2pt conversion play

[Chris Raiden]

Holy Statue of Liberty Batman!

And then take 15 on the kickoff...stupid taunting...

[l.a. no-teamers]

By the by, any one else's sound cutting in and out on this, or just me?

fine for me

[Chris Raiden]

And now it's fine, go figure.

Hopefully the HD feed on ESPN tonight's stable for a change.

3rd and 14, wide open, Forcier misses him. Rookie mistake.

[Chris Raiden]

Jimmy Clausen's going to get the ball back with a three point lead here with one mission in mind: run out the clock. No mistakes here.

[Chris Raiden]

Just not a great throw by Clausen there, deserved to be picked on that one. Needs to throw it more out in front and to the outside.

[Chris Raiden]

Two passing plays there, short bad punt and we've got an interesting scenario here with the Wolverines probably only needing 30 yards or so to tie it up with a field goal.

[Chris Raiden]

Michigan's in field goal range here with one timeout remaining.

[Chris Raiden]

Michigan down to the three yard line with 22 seconds. They're not thinking field goal here.

[l.a. no-teamers]

crazy drop!

[Chris Raiden]

82 just dropped the game winner right there. Forcier had him open and he dropped it.

[Chris Raiden]

Terrible coverage there on Matthews. Michigan pulls ahead and they're going to win this one barring a run back on the kickoff with Floyd out of the game.

[GangGreen2008]

TD Michigan!!!

[Chris Raiden]

Notre Dame has one timeout, 10 seconds, and 80 yards for the win.

Should be 11 seconds, home clock operator.

[Chris Raiden]

Game over.

Notre Dame loses, any shot they had at...anything is gone.

Tate Forcier is the real deal here folks.

[GangGreen2008]

Caught, but didn't get out of bounds, and Michigan wins the game!

[Chris Raiden]

Weis gambled big with the throws with Clausen. Needed to let his running backs try to make the plays on first and second downs, go for the big play on third and trust his defense.

Didn't do it.

[dunnDunnit]

Thank you, thank you.
Now I just wish the national media will stop slurping Charlie Weis credentials and realize ND is not as good as they think the public want them too be!

[william00777]

Weis gambled big with the throws with Clausen. Needed to let his running backs try to make the plays on first and second downs, go for the big play on third and trust his defense.

Didn't do it.

Yeah but they were two drops away from this being a brillant move by him. Tate makes those catches and it's a different story

I"m so glad ND lost. Think lou still sees a championship this year?

[Wolverine]

Okay son of a B, I just had all this stuff typed out and messed up. But I'm in too good of a mood to get pissed, so I'm going to type it again.

First off the sound was insanely loud. I don't know if it was the renovations to the Big House or it was a more amped up crowd, but it was louder than I've ever experienced. I've been to rivalry games that were close against Minnesota and Michigan State, and none of them compared to what I experienced yesterday. I don't know if it was the combined fact that it was ND and Michigan football is good again, or if it was the added luxury suites on each side of the stadium making a difference.

Tate - Tate was as good as a freshman quarterback could be. His one pick wasn't his fault as Greg Matthews sort of just stopped on the route. That's on G-Mat before it's on Tate. His touchdown run was insane and when he sees a hole, he's going to take it. However that is one thing that's a little frustrating at this stage of his career. He'd much rather extend the play than throw it away. It can come up with big plays like that most of the time, but he'll also throw in those negative ones like he did yesterday with a few sacks/tackles behind the LOS. He'll learn, but it's a little frustrating seeing him not throw the ball away when he's out of the pocket and can do so.

Cissoko - Also known in this thread as that "33 guy that kept getting burned." Here's the thing with that. Michigan wasn't really playing a press coverage on the ND receivers because of their talents. They'd rather give them the cushion, let Clausen complete it for 8-10 yard chunks and do whatever it is they did when their defense was successful. The one time they pressed up on the ND receivers was late in the 4th when ND had a lead. Tate burned Donovan Warren deep but dropped the ball. They had Warren on Tate for the entire game just about, and he did a good job with the coverage they gave. Cissoko with Floyd, not so much. I understand why they did what they did. Rather than being burned deep all game, they wanted to try and contain the ND offense and make it move the ball a little more methodically. It's hard to stop their defense, so you might as well try and contain it and I think they did a good job with that. The run defense however needs to improve and they could have gotten a little more pressure on Clausen, he had too much time to throw.

Brandon Minor - I don't think we would have won this game without him. He was the reason in the second half Michigan moved the ball as effectively as they did, because well, he was the one moving it. He was so huge in this one, glad he was back healthy. He also threw a HUGE block on Focier's final TD throw.

Stonum - What a return and someone needed to step up with Hemingway out and he sort of did. He made a lot of the underneath catches over the middle. He was great in this one.

Savoy - he was 82 who dropped that pass and Forcier overthrew a little when he was wide open. He made on big catch, almost had another.

Matthews - Big TD catch. That's all there is to it. There was no other guy to go to in that situation. Brilliant call by Coach Rod.

A few other things. The Tate pooch punt was awesome, really fooled everyone and worked beautifully. I also believe it was Stonum who got down there and saved it from going into the endzone.

People got pissed when Michigan took a penalty close to the endzone on 4th down to back up Olsie on his first FG attempt. It was a chip shot and at a weird angle. Well of course he missed it left. Oh well, sometimes you out think yourself. I don't know if that was Olsie's call or not, but if it was, better not let him call it again. Just make him kick the ball.

On ND.. Clausen had way too much time to pick us apart and that he did. I'll give him more credit than I have in the past, but if you can get a body near him, then you can disrupt things.

Charlie Weis really made one-too many coaching mistakes in this one. The way his offense was moving, there was no reason to go for two when they did. They had plenty of time and they were going to score another touchdown if they got the ball back. There was no need to make it a three point game. That of course came back to bite them when they had to go for two again just to have a three point lead. Didn't really matter since Michigan won by four.

He also messed up his time out situation. I can't remember the sequence of events, but I know the crowd noise got to Clausen and the offense at least once and forced him to take one time out. It might have happened the first time as well, but they were left with one time out and Weis screwed that situation up.

All in all, it was a blast. I'm glad we won. ND is a little less overrated than I believed, but it's true their defense still isn't quite there yet, neither is Michigan's, but ND's offense is crazy good, and they had their bright spots yesterday. The third quarter was absolutely fantastic, but they also were aided by the fact that they weren't constantly on the field in bad field position like they were in the 2nd quarter when ND scored all their points.