FBDIII

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius

Russell Crowe, also known as Gladiator, also known as Jim Braddock, also known as John Nash, flew to Ann Arbor Saturday to feast on leprechauns. In the movies, he cuts off heads. In real life, he throws phones at people. Only badasses do that type of stuff. And that badass is now a Michigan fan and drinking buddy of one Lloyd Carr. Watch him with Carr after the game here.

Jimmy Clausen never had a chance. All he could think about was that one time when he and his friends got in their speedos and watched Crowe in The Beautiful Mind. Or maybe it's just because the Notre Dame football team can't actually play football. Charlie says that his team is going back to training camp and starting over. I don't think that will work. The only hope they have now is if the Wolverines teach them how to play the game of football for the second time. I guess once wasn't enough, because that Irish offense is one of the worst that you will ever see. You may never see another that bad. The Michigan defense though deserves credit for what it did. It attacked all game long on 1st, 2nd, and, 3rd downs, sacking the emu more times than I could count. It was always around the ball, and the players actually looked fast. How good is the defense? Well, it's not losing-to-Oregon-by-32 bad or getting-gashed-by-App. State bad. It's also not shutting-out-a-team good. This defense will look good against teams that don't spread it out with a running quarterback. The defensive line will be able to handle the running games of most teams left on the schedule. A potential stumbling point could come in Illinois, assuming Juice Williams doesn't suffer an injury before that meeting. We will see Brandon Graham become a All-Big Ten player, and Taylor will bounce back to previous form. Will Johnson will go unnoticed but will be just as good as Taylor this year. Jamison and will have a good season.

On offense, we won't be able to run on 1st down 90% of the time against good defenses. Other than Hart, we don't have an idea of what we'll see in the next couple games. I'm guessing Henne won't play against PSU but it's not a certainty. Mallett will have to face a good defense, but how good is it? Comparing Penn State and Michigan, Notre Dame gave up more yards to Michigan and Notre Dame gained more yards Penn State. Don't read too much into this though. The numbers were lopsided in the favor of Penn State and Michigan in both games. The only constant: Notre Dame bad.

I think we can expect to see a similar defensive game plan against Penn State as we saw against Notre Dame. Maybe not as many blitzes, due in part to the potential for Penn State to run screens to Derrick Williams and Deon Butler. They also have some big targets in Quarless and Golden. Scott will get the bulk of the carries, with Kinlaw being a change of pace back. If Penn State runs out of a spread formation more than not, they could have more success against our run defense. If not, we should be able to limit them to less than 100 yards. X-factor = A.J. Wallace returning kicks. With most kickoffs being returned now, this could prove to be a pivotal part of the game.