Are You Ready For Some Football?

I know that this is Minnesota weekend and that I should not look ahead, but I SCORED TICKETS TO THE UM-PENN STATE GAME!!!!!!!! Well, I should wait until the tickets are in hand, but the internet is truly an awesome thing. The tickets might be in the very back of the upper deck, but they are in the Michigan section and only 1.5X face, which is great given that tickets for this game are going for around 3-4X face. I think I lucked out and found a Michigan fan that just wanted to make sure that another Michigan fan took his tickets. Hopefully I don't get burned in the end.

Also, we booked our RV for the trip. Take a look at our sweet ride! We will be traveling to State College in style.

Don't worry though, I am still super excited for this weekend. I look forward to crashing another crazychica mini-reunion weekend tomorrow and watching some great Michigan football. Go Blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do Anyone Still Care About The WSOP?

Two years ago, the ESPN tape-delayed broadcasts of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournaments was a major television event. FlyingV and I often watched these broadcasts with various other poker addict friends. However, just two years later, I am watching ESPN's WSOP coverage for the second time this year, and that is only because ESPN is airing the final table of the WSOP .

ESPN's poker coverage sucks. Just about every other channel does a better job. You'd think that every other hand in a poker tournament consisted of an 'all-in' bet and a call if you only watched ESPN. They show about 10 hands in an hour of coverage. The rest of the time is wasted on human interest stories. Seriously, there are over two hundred hands played at the final table and ESPN only shows about 20-25 in a two hour episode.

Maybe my indifference towards the WSOP is due to the fact that I don't play much poker anymore. I really haven't played much poker since the horrific collapse at the end of the Vegas trip back in May when I went from up $550 to down $50 in 1.5 days. I have not gone to Foxwoods since January. I think I need to work on that in the near future. After all, I need to supplement my income! :)

Does anyone else watch ESPN poker coverage anymore? I know a few of you also used to watch every Tuesday night. Somehow I doubt that still happens.

Is This Really Happening?

The Tigers clinched a playoff berth today. Yes. The Tigers. Seriously, they haven't finished above .500 since the early 1990s. How did this happen?

The Tigers have been more impressive recently, and the return of Polanco will really help the offense that has struggled since he got hurt. If the Tigers hang on to win the division, I predict a World Series title for them. The confidence gained from beating Oakland will carry through to the ALCS against Minnesota or New York. However, if they end up with the AL wild card and have to face the Yankees in the first round, their trip to the playoffs will end in no more than four games. Hopefully they play strong over the next week.

Who's Excited for Minneapolis Next Weekend?

5 days until I get to crash a mini Crazychica reunion. Woo hoo!

Don't worry - the cowbell will be coming with me. I plan on being extra obnoxious at the game.

Classic Sparty

Anyone see the end of the MSU-Notre Dame game tonight? I only saw the 4th quarter. What a finish! I think Desmond Howard summed it up best after the game on the ESPN Gameday set when he said that this was classic MSU football and that "they always find a way to lose". He then went on to call them chokers. Now that is a true Michigan Man.

Although harsh, it's so true. For the third year in a row, MSU blew a 16+ point fourth quarter lead in a game. They may have escaped their collapse a year ago in South Bend, but they choked against Michigan two years ago and again tonight against the Irish. No killer instinct. No discipline. They were celebrating their supposed victory for several quarters and got exactly what they deserved. Another 'L' for Johnnie 'L'.

The faces on the fans at the game after ND took the lead with two minutes to play was priceless. How could they be so stunned??? They've seen their team choke like this annually for a few years now.

Too bad there won't be a huge undefeated showdown with MSU in two weeks. However, I love watching them collapse like this, even if it was against Notre Dame.

Quick Game Thoughts

Nice 27-13 win today. Four quick thoughts:

1 - MARIO is the MANningham!

2 - Offsense needs to find a way to score by doing something other than throwing the deep ball to #86. On the bright side, as teams key in on this play, other receivers should have more room to make plays. Arrington was solid today.

3 - Breaston might be an athletic marvel, but Michigan's offense will continue to struggle if he is used as anything other than as a #3WR. That's all he'll ever be on offense.

4 - I love this defense. Specifically, the D-Line rules. They are physical AND fast. It's been a long time since I could say that about a Michigan team.

Signs I am Getting Old

Every year around this time, my company sends a couple actuaries back to the University of Michigan to give a presentation to students on campus and start the recruiting efforts for summer internships and full-time positions. We always line the trip up with a home football weekend. This weekend, FlyingV and RytheRed are back in Ann Arbor watching the football game and getting ready for their presentation on Monday. Unfortunately, since I am not one of the two youngest Michigan grads here in CT, I do not get to go on the trip anymore. So sad. Now, I am sitting in my apartment by myself watching Michigan play like shit during the first quarter of their game against Wisconsin. Maybe today was not a good day to try and break my 'M' hockey jersey curse.

Game day loses it's edge a little when there is no one to watch the game with. I feel a little too calm right now, especially given that the Badgers are up 7-0.

GO BLUE!

Things to be Excited About

1 - Grey's Anatomy is back on tonight. I got hooked on the show after the Super Bowl last year. The season premier gives me a good reason to go back over to the old apartment tonight to watch the show with TheCrazyCanuck. I haven't spent enough time with her lately anyway.

2 - Michigan vs. Minnesota. Mpls Ju and Mouse wanted to make cheesy/clever shirts that we can all wear to the game next week. Here is the shirt I will be wearing:





I am disappointed that neither of the girst chose to put "Are you staring at my Breaston" on their shirts. I can't wait for the trip. 7 days!

3 - DrT - I think I've told all of you by now, so this isn't much of a surprise. I met an awesome girl a couple months ago and have been spending a lot of time with her these days. She does know about this site, so please keep your stories about stupid things I have said/done in the past to a minimum. (Mouse, I am looking directly at you)

4 - My job. Work has been stressful lately and the hours have been a little longer than normal, but it is because I have been presenting results on a key project that has consumed much of my work day for the past several months. Not that I really care much about "exposure" and office politics (I figure I'll eventually move up if I do my job well), but I have been in several meetings with senior management and my boss and a couple of us working on the project just put together our final results/recommendation and submitted a write-up to the CFO of my company this afternoon. That's kind of cool (if you are a dorky actuary like me).

5 - Softball Championship - We apparently get a stipend paid through our league fees for trophies. Our team is currently debating whether to get trophies or championship t-shirts. Also, the captain of SOP called Hawkeye and left a very kind voice mail congratulating us for our title (which Hawkeye forwarded on to our entire team). He also commented that P&C was the "best defensive team" he has played against in his ~15 years of playing softball in the company co-ed league. Very kind, indeed.

That is all for now. I know I haven't written much lately other than Michigan football and P&C softball commentary. I'll try and do a better job since I know you all care so much about what I do every day.

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting, till the end
We are the champions,
We are the champions,
No time for losers,
'Cause we are the champions, of the company intramural co-ed softball league!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

With authority! Cloudy/dark/rainy conditions didn't slow us down. We took a 6-4 lead into the sixth inning and blew the game open with seven runs in the sixth inning, capped off by UNICorn's 3-run blast. We added four more in the seventh just to pour some salt on their wounds. When all was said and done, we won game two 17-5. Not nearly as stellar of a defensive performance for us, but the bats were alive.

After two years of heartbreaking playoff losses in this league, an 0-6 record against SOP, and SOP ending our 2003 and 2005 campaigns, the 2006 championship was oh so sweet. I'm sure several readers remember that P&C's first ever game back in 2003 resulted in a blowout loss to SOP. There was no team I would rather have beaten for the title.

Here are your 2006 champions.



Pitchers & Catchers (17-1 record)

DE-FENSE! (clap clap) DE-FENSE! (clap clap)

Tonight was the first game of the best-of-three softball championship. series against Son of a Pitch. I won't refer to them as The Assholes since they were actually pretty nice today (and not overly bitchy).

For the first time that I can recall, P&C played an error-free game. Even when we shut out The Swarm last week, we made a couple of errors. The closest we came to making an error today was when I blocked a very hard ground ball, but wasn't able to field it cleanly enough to throw out the runner. They took advantage of that play to score twice in the third inning. It wasn't enough though. P&C won 5-2 thanks to a great game of small ball (3 runs scored on sacrifices) and we have a 1-0 lead in the series. Given how much SOP tries to pick on our weakest fielder, an error-free game is amazing. They took at aim at me for a good part of the game since they thought I was weak, but I was in the zone today. Too bad that zone didn't carry over to hitting. After hitting .750 during the regular season, I am hitting a pathetic .333 in the playoffs (excluding the mercy killing in the first round since that team wasn't any good). I need to stop hitting pop flies!!!

Game 2 is tomorrow and Game 3 (if necessary) is Wednesday. Go P&C!

Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Michigan 47, Notre Dame 21.

There is no need to analyze this game. I am still enjoying the moment. Who cares if Notre Dame turns out to be grossly overrated and loses several more games this year. This was about exorcising many demons from the Lloyd Carr era. After six years of losing the first road game of the season and 12 years without a win in South Bend, this win means a lot to all the psychotic Michigan fans out there (like myself).

This was the best Michigan performance in a big-time road game since Judgement Day 1997. If this team has that same killer instinct and swagger as the 1997 squad, Michigan will go into Columbus undefeated in November. However, it's probably a little too early for maize-and-blue tinted predictions.

I am pleased that Wisconsin and Minnesota are the next two games on Michigan's schedule. I would normally be terrified about a let-down game next week after such a big win. Thankfully, Michigan lost to both of their next two opponents last season and will be eager to get some additional revenge in each of the next two weeks. I will refrain from calling this Michigan team special just yet since Notre Dame might simply be not as good as advertised, but I might change my mind after a couple more strong games.

I am still in shock.

I watched the game with FlyingV and RytheRed, as is the custom out here. When Burgess intercepted the ball on Notre Dame's first drive, I was unable to enjoy watching Burgess cross the goal line. That is because FlyingV, while raising his arms and jumping off the couch in celebration after the pick, smacked me on the top of my head. I was keeled over and grabbing my head in pain while RytheRed and FlyingV celebrated the Michigan touchdown. Thanks a lot. When I yelled "deliver the pain" over 100 times yesterday, I didn't mean "punch Gary until he cries".

Extra trip to MI?

I received an invitation to a wedding in Michigan on Nov 11th. I was sort of surprised to be invited since I have not spoken to the guy much in the past couple years, but he is a good friend of mine from the MMB trumpet section. It should be a fun trumpet section reunion if everyone who was invited can attend. Too bad there is no home football game that weekend.

As long as I can work out the logistics, I'll be in MI that weekend.

Actu-fairies vs. Fi-nancies Take 2

Some of you may remember the big flag football showdown between the two financial programs at work last year. Today was the second in what could potentially be many showdowns between these two groups.

We didn't have as strong of a team on paper this year since we were missing a couple of our better football players. However, speed still kills. Also, the fi-nancies demonstrated poor game management by going for it on fourth down repeatedly while deep in their own territory. They gave us a couple short fields and allowed us to score two early touchdowns. The fi-nancies made a game of it, but the actuaries won 27-19 (and their last TD was scored in "garbage time"). It really helps when we have a 6'8 athletic player that was on the UNC basketball practice squad when they won the NCAA title. He could beat anyone on the fade route.

As usual, the touchdown celebrations were the key to our success. We opened with "The Headbutt". The person who scored the touchdown headbutted the rest of the teammates in the chest and we all dove backwards in pain.

Here is what we did for the second touchdown celebration:




For the third TD, we did a reprisal of the bowling strike. We stopped our celebrations at this point since the other team didn't seem as amused this year.

Here are a couple other game pictures from today's thrilling victory:


No containing WhiteIverson

Classic matchup of size vs. speed. Speed kills.


Actual quote from the sidelines during the game. "She may be a girl, but she is taller and more athletic than most of our team". Way to go, Hawkeye.

Beat the Irish!

More great Mzone material worth watching.

I am so pumped for the big game tomorrow.

The highlight from the 1991 game is one I will never get sick of. 4th-and-1. Michigan in field goal range leading 17-14 late in the 4th quarter. We all know that a Michigan team in the Schembeclher Era will either kick the field goal or run up the middle. That's what makes the Grbac-to-Howard bomb so surprising. Gary Moeller would have been second guessed forever if Howard doesn't make that catch and Notre Dame comes back to tie or win.

Watch the video. Do it!

Michigan-Notre Dame Preview

I bet you are all expecting me to write about how Michigan is going to lose today. I could write about everything going against Michigan this weekend in South Bend. I'm sure FlyingV is itching for the opportunity to call me a bad Michigan fan as well.

I have a surprise for you. My Michigan-Notre Dam preview is about how Michigan could actually win! That's right. Michigan can beat Notre Dame in South Bend, regardless of everything that is going against Lloyd Carr and the Wolverines. Maybe it was reliving the classic 1994 victory (see most recent post), but I am actually excited about this game, NOT afraid.

Here are five reasons why Michigan can win this Saturday:

1 - Lloyd Carr is money in big games - Michigan plays much better against teams ranked in the top ten than they do against teams ranked 11-25 under Carr, probably because Carr knows he has to take more chances in order to win against the top ten teams. Michigan is also plays exceptionally well when they are the underdog in a game. The favored team always plays a little tighter in close games, especially when the favorite is at home.

2 - Michigan's Run game - Michigan has been running the football very well so far this year. Yes, it was against Vanderbilt and CMU, but it still is worth mentioning. Penn State rushed for a lot of yards against Notre Dame last week, and I think Michigan has a much better rushing offense than Penn State. Notre Dame's fantastic offense will not be nearly as effective if Michigan can run well and keep possession of the football for 35+ minutes. I think this is possible since Notre Dame's defense is not as good against the run as they are against the pass.

3 - Michigan's defensive front seven - Michigan has put together their best defensive line and linebacking corps in years. They are the strength of this year's defense. Woodley might have a huge game this weekend since he finally has competent teammates on the D-Line and will face fewer double teams against Notre Dame. Michigan's linebackers are also much faster this year with the emergence of Shawn Crable. It is so great to see that Burgess was demoted to the bench this year, because he is slow. The key is an aggressive defensive approach. The defensive backs are not good enough to cover the ND receivers, so the front seven must establish consistent pressure and not give Brady Quinn enough time to pick apart the Michigan secondary. Michigan might be prone to the big play with this approach, but the defense will also force turnovers if they can apply a lot of pressure. As long as Michigan's coaching staff uses an aggressive game plan on defense, Michigan can win.

4 - Notre Dame is overhyped - Notre Dame ends the season with a lower ranking than they started with as much as or more than any other team in recent history (though Michigan is up there as well). Notre Dame is getting a lot of hype after a 9-3 finish last year, but they haven't really been great in a long time. They whooped on Penn State last week, but I still content that Penn State is not very good this year. Notre Dame might not be as good as advertised.

5 - Favorite has historically underperformed in UM-ND series - Granted, the favorite in recent years has been Michigan, but ignore that for just a second. Notre Dame has not entered this game as the favorite in at least a decade, if not longer. Michigan has been ranked in the top ten going into the last 16 UM-ND games. Notre Dame has only been ranked in the top ten entering the UM-ND game once in the last 9 meetings. Michigan is 4-5 in those last 9 meetings and 6-9-1 in the last 16 meetings with Notre Dame. Clearly Michigan has not fared well as a favorite, and I expect them to feel a lot less pressure than Notre Dame this weekend. That's a good sign given how tight Michigan has played in their last 6 road openers (all losses).

The essential key for Michigan is taking the early lead. Michigan has struggled with the pass game and cannot be forced to resort to throwing the ball in order to come back against the Irish.

I will stop short of providing a score prediction, but I am confident that Michigan will cover the spread (+7).

Go Blue!

PS - Read this transcript of Charlie Weis's press conference this week. He definitely knows the Michigan team well, but he might be taking Michigan a little lightly this week.

Remember and Believe!

Michigan can win in South Bend!

Don't Look Now

After a lengthy period of rain, the softball playoffs finally started last week. After a 21-6 mercy killing of Bloomfield's Best last Thursday (who resorted to acting like pricks instead of playing nicely), we had a semi-final showdown this evening against The Swarm, who happens to be the only team to beat us all season.

The game was quite the struggle. Both defenses were stellar, and each team made only two errors all game. Thankfully, we took advantage of their two errors and scored twice in the bottom of the 4th and 6th innings and finished with a 4-0 victory. That's right, we just shut out a strong team in a 7-inning slow pitch softball game. In fact, they did not get a runner to third base all game and only had a runner on 2nd base two or three times. It was quite impressive. The game lasted about 40 minutes.

I am stuck in a bad hitting slump right now, but I made up for some poor hitting with perhaps my best game ever at 3B, so I was pleased.

The best-of-three championship series starts Thursday. I'm not sure who we are playing (either The Assholes or Beerbuddies), but it will definitely be a battle.

In Case You Rerally Wanted to Know

Wikipedia Rules.


Special thanks to DrT (who also rules) for the link.

Lucky Number Seven

The Iowa-Syracuse game turned out to be much more intense than any of my Iowa friends ever imagined! Here is my game day review:

Tailgating:
There are only two big time Division 1A football schools in New England (unless you want to count UConn). Given the lack of big time football, I wasn't expecting the tailgating atmosphere to be very exciting at Syracuse. We met up with a former co-worker who currently lives in Syracuse (and scored several tickets to the game for us). Their tailgate was quite impressive. However, there was not much tailgating around us. We were eating in a parking lot reserved for season ticket holders, yet most people did not arrive until about 1-1.5 hours before kickoff. I definitely was not in Big Ten country anymore.

Game Atmosphere:
When full, the Carrier Dome is the loudest college football stadium in the country despite only having a capacity of 52,000. I remember Michigan having major problems playing in that stadium back in 1999 because of crowd noise. Unfortunately, give that Syracuse went 1-10 last year and was a 21 point underdog yesterday, the stadium was only about 80% full. Given that the game was surprisingly close, the stadium was still extremely loud late in the game. I was impresssed.

Syracuse has the best mascot in the country. Seriously, it's a piece of fruit! :)

Given the large quantity of empty seats, we moved over to the Iowa section shortly before kickoff. Only about 10% of the ~40k fans in attendance were Iowa fans, all concentrated in the corner of the endzone.

And finally, I have to make some sort of band comment. The SU band does not hold a candle to any big ten band I have seen. I think that playing in a dome does not help since it's very tough to hear them in that sort of environment.

Game:
The game was not supposed to be close. However, Iowa prevailed in double overtime. Drew Tate didn't play, so Iowa turned to their backup QB (who happens to be a Bloomfield, CT native). The backup QB sucked. He threw four interceptions, and some of them were just ridiculous. Syracuse did not turn the ball over all game. However, Syracuse is just a terrible team. How else can you create four more turnovers than your opponent and still lose?

I thought the first sixty minutes of the game were quite sloppy. However, the overtime play was very good. In the second OT, Iowa scored a TD to build a 20-13 lead. Syracuse drove down inside the Iowa two on a pass interference call and had first and goal. They earned an additional set of downs a couple of plays later after another pass interference call, but Iowa completed a remarkable goal line stand after seven plays inside their two yardline. Seven plays! SEVEN PLAYS!! Best goal line stand I have ever seen.

Iowa will be a better team when their star QB returns, so I think this game was a fluke. The only other concern I noticed was Iowa's pass defense. The rest of their game was actually pretty solid. Their TE#87 (Chandler) is awesome, but I already knew that after watching him shred up Michigan's D last year.

Here are some pictures from the trip. I'll let RoopDogg or UNICorn chime in with road trip related stories if they choose.

Great cookies for the tailgate


Syracuse getting fired up before kickoff




Iowa takes the field

Group picture before kickoff (yes, I am wearing an Iowa shirt since my maize Michigan shirt was considered unacceptable attire)

Syracuse's student section coordinates well

Their mascot is an orange!


Five people in a small SUV is mighty comfortable

I Lead a Busy Life

I'll keep this quick since it is 12:45AM and I have to be up at 6AM (stupid 7:30AM work meetings...).

I have been home and awake for all of 1-2 hours the last couple days. That won't change much until Sunday since I am leaving for Syracuse straight from work tonmorrow with RoopDogg, UNICorn, and Hawkeye. We are going to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes wail on lowly Syracuse on Saturday afternoon. GO HAWKS! Unfortunately, since the game is a 3:30 kickoff, I will not be able to see any of the Michigan game (we'll be tailgating) or any of the big Ohio State-Texas showdown (we'll be driving back to Hartford). Seeing a college football game live makes it worthwhile though. I'm not worried about the Michigan-Central Michigan game anyway.

I went to the Motley Crue-Aerosmith concert tonight. Let me say that I am not a fan of Motley Crue, and I was upset that their set was longer than Aerosmith's set. The only thing I liked about Motley Crue was when the guitar player smashed his guitar at the end of their set. Almost worth the price of admission by itself. I don't like their music and I thought they were terrible live. Other than that, I enjoyed watching BiPolarMan next to us go nuts during the entire Motley Crue set and then sit in his chair and not move or sing along at all during Aerosmith. We were trying to figure out what drug BiPolarMan was on since his enthusiasm could not have been natural during the Motley Crue show. I saw more people "air guitaring" tonight than I have at any other concert I have attended. There was also a ridiculous amount of pot smoking around us. What a hideous smell. At least Aerosmith was awesome. They played most of the well-known songs, but I wish they had played/finished with "Dream On" (though I had no problem with them finishing with "Walk This Way").

FFL 2006

Please root for the following NFL players in 2006.

Our league has ten people and we start 1 QB, 1 RB, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 QB/RB/WR/TE Flex, 1 K, 1 DEF.

Round - Name - Position - Team
1 - Larry Johnson - RB - KC
2 - Matt Hasselbeck - QB - Sea
3 - Willis McGahee - RB - Buf
4 - Jake Delhomme - QB - Car
5 - Tony Gonzales - TE - KC
6 - Kevin Jones - RB - Det
7 - Donald Driver - WR - GB
8 - Lee Evans - WR - Buf
9 - Rod Smith - WR - Den
10 - Keyshawn Johnson - WR - Car
11 - Miami Dolphins - DEF - Mia
12 - Antonio Bryant - WR - SF
13 - New York Giants - DEF - NYG
14 - Lawrence Tynes - K - KC
15 - Dallas Clark - TE - Ind
16 - Michael Bennett - RB - KC

I'm 'IN'!

Here is a picture of the new toy I purchased this weekend. I decided to join the rest of Connecticut and switch to Verizon. Now I finally have decent service in most parts of the state. AND, I can send/receive text messages (although I still think text messaging is dumb and have yet to take advantage of this feature).





Moving my phone book over from the old phone and figuring out the features of the new phone is definitely a pain in the ass.

Non-Michigan football related thoughts from the weekend

Here are some non-Michigan football related thoughts from the first week of the college season.

• I couldn't watch that much of College GameDay on Saturday. I was so sick of the Notre Dame hype machine leading into the first week of games. WTF was GameDay doing at the GA Tech-Notre Dame game when there was another game going on last weekend where both teams were ranked (Tenn-Cal). Just because ND went 9-3 last season doesn't mean they deserve the ridiculous hype they are getting in 2006. My favorite graphic on GameDay was one summarizing every season where ND started the season ranked in the top 20 since 1996. In all but 2 or 3 of those seasons (including when they started 1996 ranked #2), they ended the year unranked. In every season where they began ranked in the top 20, their end of season ranking was lower than where they started. I think UNICorn is onto something.

• Penn State's passing game was impressive. Akron is a very respectable MAC team and I expected PSU to struggle more on Saturday. However, Penn State's inability to run the football needs to be addressed before next week's game in South Bend. Penn State can pass at will against less athletic teams since they have some very impressive WRs and a strong-armed QB. However, when the other team can match up against PSU's athletes, they will struggle mightily if they cannot establish the run.

• Was Tennessee underrated or was California overrated?

• The Big Ten was an impressive 11-0. Well, it was not that impressive given that the toughest opponents faced were Vanderbilt, N. Illinois, and Akron. Next week will definitely be huge for the Big Ten. On a side note, did anyone else notice that Purdue gave up 35 points to Div 1-AA Indiana St? Purdue is going to be bad this year.

• Colorado lost to 1-AA Montana State!!! I'm speechless. It's one thing to lose to 1-AA teams if you are Duke, but Colorado? Imagine if this happened at Michigan. How would we react to such a humiliating loss?

• Miami-Florida St is on tonight. Anyone care to petition the NCAA for another rule change that states "Whenevr Florida State misses a field goal in a game against Miami, the game will result in a double forfeit"?

• I never get sick of the identity theft commercials. The latest one that aired a lot during the Michigan game was hilarious.

• I am thankful that we only have to put up with one more football Saturday of those stupid MNF season premiere commercials. So annoying.

Michigan Game Thoughts

Today was the first Michigan football game of the year. If I were a Christian, I am sure that today would feel a lot like Christmas Day. However, since I am Jewish, I don't really know if that is a fair comparison.

Michigan beat Vanderbilt 27-7. It was a good start to the season, but not good enough to beat Notre Dame (even though ND did struggle today as well). The defense was much better than I thought they would be. The offense had a lot of the maddening errors appear to be easily correctable (false start penalties, dropped passes). I expect Michigan to look much better next week.

Here are some more detailed/uneducated opinions of the game today.

Offense
The running game was sharp today. We had little difficulty gaining key yards on the ground. The first drive was sweet. I can't remember the last time Michigan scored a TD on the first drive of the year. I was thinking about it all day and I believe it was back in 2002 when Chris Perry busted a 60+yd TD run against Washington, but I am not 100% sure. Kevin Grady is clearly in Lloyd Carr's doghouse already. His fumble problems from last year have apparently not been resolved. At least he looks a lot more mobile, as evidenced by a very nice TD run. He'll be an awesome change of pace back if he can learn to hold onto the football.

Contrary to what some people think, I believe Chad Henne was pretty good today. I'll admit, his numbers sucked. However, he demonstrated improved mobility when the pass protection broke down. Henne also had many strong throws in good locations, as evidenced by two wonderful TD passes. It's not his fault that his WRs can't catch and his offensive line was pourous.

The receivers were terrible. Breaston is an electric talent, but Michigan loses a receiving threat on passes over 15yds whenever he is on the field, which makes it much easier for other teams to defend us. He is simply not a good receiver. Breaston should not be on the field unless there are two other receivers out there for a given play. The dropped passes by Breaston and others were maddening and must be resolved ASAP. Someone needs to step up as a reliable WR along side Manningham and Ecker.

I was extremely concerned with the offensive line. The pass protection was terrible against a sub par defense, and Henne scrambling a lot as a result. There were too many false start penalties. If Michigan is unable to pass protect well this season, Henne might get sacked a lot and possibly injured. Given the lack of depth behind Henne, that could be a fatal blow to the 2006 Michigan Wolverines.

Overall, I was very disappointed with the offense, and so was Carr if you read his comments.

Defense
The defense was stellar today, but it was against Vanderbilt. There was great pressure from the defensive line without that much blitzing most of the game. Woodley was a beast. Crable was fantastic. Leon Hall was invisible, which is awesome. He shut down half the field. The ball was never thrown to the guy he was covering. The coaches recognized this and started blitzing Hall every play late in the game. Reminded me of Charles Woodson in '97 when no one would throw his way.

The defense finished the game well. I was shocked that we blitzed late in the game. Michigan appears to be making a conscious effort to change their late game strategy after all the meltdowns last year.

Special Teams
Breaston was afraid of the football. It's been years since I was nervous about our punt return game. Special teams were unimpressive all around. I wonder if moving DeBord from special teams coach to offensive coordinator is going to hurt this part of the team.

Coaching
I liked the aggressive play calling and the attention to the run game. I think I will like Ron English at defensive coordinator. Michigan finished the game well. The 3rd down pass late in the fourth quarter to go up 27-7 was uncharacteristic. Michigan used to run the ball there and pooch punt on fourth down in order to run off more time. I couldn't believe that Michigan actually went for the jugular. The defensive play calling was also great down the stretch, as mentioned above.

GO MICHIGAN! Beat the Chippewas! I won't be able to watch this game since I'll be in Syracuse for the Iowa game, so I won't have any detailed post game analysis next week.

I'll post other non-Michigan football related thoughts later this weekend. I need to get some sleep since CableGirl and I are leaving for Boston no later than 10AM tomorrow.

Random Thoughts from CT

I'm back in CT after ten days of traveling. The return trip tonight was definitely in doubt since the earlier flight to CT was cancelled and it was really rainy/windy in Philadelphia, but I made it back after only a 45 minute delay.

CableGirl is in town right now, so I don't have time to post any stories from the DR trip right now. It's nice to have visitors from out of town friends since all you "out-of-towners" rarely come out here. The main purpose of her trip was to watch a Michigan football game with another obsessive Michigan fan and to see a Red Sox game (she's never been to Fenway Park). We're going over to FlyingV's tomorrow to watch Michigan crush Vanderbilt with FlyingV and RytheRed. We'll might head out to Boston tomorrow after the game and hang out there for the night and take in a Red Sox game on Sunday, but those plans are up in the air since the baseball game will probably rain out on Sunday given the ugly forecast this weekend.

I tried to be a good host and take the couch this weekend so that CableGirl could have my room, but she refused to let me be hospitable since "I have not slept in my own bed in ten days". I think she also finds the sofa to be more comfortable. How come none of you let me be a good host when you come visit me in CT? Seriously!

The first football game really snuck up on me this year. I guess it's because I've been away for ten days, but I am not fully psyched up for this game yet. I need to listen to the fight song a few times tomorrow morning and then I will be ready. GO MICHIGAN! BEAT THE COMMODORES!!!!