I think Gary Andersen summed this game up best, when he said the Beavers will leave Michigan knowing exactly how physical a team they are, and each player will know how physical they are, too. He said something like, “put your pants on or get run out of the stadium.” lol. Michigan is an old, mature team and they’re at home. This is some David and Goliath shit right here.

The defensive side of the ball looked physical last week, so I expect them to be fine, provided the Beav’s offense doesn’t put them in a bind. The offensive line needs to get more push. Period. Isaac’s mulligan card has been played. He has to go all out or sit. Josh Mitchell has a lot of Riley left in him, and he needs an exorcism, statim. The wide receivers need to do a better job blocking on the edge, too. Left some big plays out there last week on sweeps and wide plays because of soft blocking. Again, remnants of Riley. If the Beavs leave plays on the field this week they will lose.

The offense had a one step forward, two steps back rhythm last week. That’s an easy way to put your QB in a bind, which won’t end well on the road. Beavs can’t kill themselves with sloppy play and procedural and holding penalties. It’s probably the #1 factor in winning this game. #2 would be, as GA said, being extremely physical.

From the Beavs perspective, I think they need to put their corners on an island and use the other parts to cause as much disruption as possible. Based on what we saw of the MI QB last week, if he beats OSU’s corners 1 on 1, so be it, tip your hat, but he was a weakness, and the Beavs have to force him to win the game. Andersen beat this QB twice while at Wisconsin (last year he threw for 300 yards and 2TDs).

Andersen said he expects Michigan to try trick plays, double moves, and a physical run game. He seems to know this QB and knows what Harbaugh wants to do.

Keys to the game:

• Can the Beavs get a ground game going between the tackles?
• Force MI QB to win the game.
• Eliminate the ghost of Riley (procedural penalties, holding calls, soft play).
• Hit the big plays when they are there (this will be a test for Collins).
• Baldwin needs to call a better game — can’t call a screen in your endzone. The play calling was rough, but I think that was to (a) give MI nothing and (b) baby Collins/MM. I expect a wide open playbook and more exciting offense this week, with more big play opportunity and more TE involvement.
• When adversity strikes, which will probably  happen early in this game, they  have to be mentally tough and overcome it.

Regarding Collins and MM, I don’t want to get into that each week. For now it’s Collins, and that’s just the way it is. If he can throw the ball to the WRs at an acceptable clip, I’ll gladly back the guy and hope he leads OSU to victory. He definitely has the confidence (ignorance is bliss?) to win a game like this. I’d label him a wildcard in this game. I’m expecting a bad game passing, several INTs, but hoping for the best. But, Collins can go nuts for all I know and put up 400-500 total yards. Just don’t know enough at this point. Incomplete data set.

In summary, Michigan isn’t vintage, but they’re experienced, physical, and have Harbaugh. It’s going to be a battle, possibly a blood bath. My gut tells me: the Beavs have a shot if all goes perfectly and they hit every big play, have no penalties, mentally and physically are “up” for the game, etc, but realistically Michigan has everything in their favor.

27-13, Michigan

Anything goes, have at it.

Beavgopher — feel free to invite Nebraska fans to the thread. I’d love to hear their thoughts as that game moves along. I’m going 20-17 Nebraska, accounting for the -7 Riley factor!

To the dudes asking me to admit I’m wrong: (a) why do you care so much, especially when I’m right 99% of the time and you never admit it lolz? and (b) when I’m convinced Collins can pass I’ll let ya’ll know.

Moving on, Collins made one big boy throw…and it was dropped. Anyone could have thrown the first TD to Bolden. Villamin bailed him out on the other TD. He’s a great runner, but very predictable in that he always wants to run over pass.

Some positives from Collins: he actually made good decisions in the passing game, for the most part. Obviously 152 yards running is a huge positive. Confidence.

Regarding McMaryion, I don’t get too hung up on his INT coming on a bad play call. He has to make the right play there. But I also saw him drop in a long pass right on the money that would have been a long TD, only to get hit with a PI call. It just seemed like he had really bad luck tonight, and now might not get another shot barring injury. It felt like too short an audition, and that’s what is unsettling.

What is more disturbing is GA backed out on his word after just 1 game. He said he wouldn’t pull a kid for a mistake because that was no way to play. Yet that’s exactly what he did. GA’s reputation is great coach who keeps bailing on schools. Now he went against his word again. If he wants a hyper-competitive environment where one mistake costs you a job, then he should say so. Then the players know what’s at stake. But to explicitly say that’s not how you’re going to do things because it isn’t fair to the kids, then you do it…to me that is a lack of integrity and also a manipulative form of motivation. Even though the Beavers won, I leave this game with a disgusting feeling, and it has to do with how GA handled that QB situation. It is like he used McM to motivate Collins, whom he had selected all along. Is that valid tactics? I’ll let you decide.

The defense stood out tonight. The scheme and aggressiveness. I don’t know how much of it was Weber State. To me, Weber State looked well coached, at the very least. It’s hard to know since there was no benchmark for either team — e.g. Michigan could make OSU’s D look bad.

The three big takeaways for me:

1. Gary Andersen backed out on his word after one game. To me, this is huge. Maybe it’s not to the players or you guys, but I hated that.
2. The D looked good, aggressive, etc. Schemes look so much better.
3. The jury is still out on Collins. He was pretty good in the 2nd half tonight. How does he translate vs D1 defenses?

So the adrenaline and buildup of the GA era is over, for both us fans and the players. The players were pumped to have a new coach and get pushed hard, and fans needed this, but now it’s all over. We have our benchmark, and now it’s about seeing how these performances translate versus better opponents. The night overall felt like a whimper, and I think a lot of that was how GA handled the QBs and backed out on his word. If that didn’t happen, I’d be feeling much better about this ugly win.

First game thread of the Gary Andersen era, bitches! Let the party start early.

Not much to add. I’m changing my 46-13 prediction to 45-13 because 46 is a tough number to get.

Go Beavs.