Michigan Football: Indiana at Michigan — Staff Predictions
Posted at 7:00am — 10/19/2013
Michigan Football: Indiana at Michigan — Staff Predictions
GBMWolverine Readers:
Here is our take for the game today. What is your predictions … agree or disagree with us? Come to the message board and make your prediction.
Doc4Blu:
Indiana 27
Michigan 34
Sep 21, 2013; East Hartford, CT, USA; Michigan Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke greets quarterback Devin Gardner (98) after a touchdown in the third quarter against the Connecticut Huskies at Rentschler Field. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY SportsErocWolverine:
As I stated last week in the predictions how much trust do the coaches have in Devin Gardner? Well after 3 turnovers in the first half and combining for 14 points for Penn State it turned into ultra conservative for the Michigan offense.
Is it unfair to put so much pressure on Devin Gardner? Yes and No. He is the leader/quarterback of the team and you want your best players playing well. I don’t know to many teams that can play well when their best players aren’t. It happens sure, but not that often. We must have Davin playing his best not only in this game, but the remainder of the season if Michigan wants to have a good season.
Now we face a Indiana team that moves down the field on just about everyone so don’t be alarmed if they get a lot of yards. The key is what happens to them inside the red-zone because they haven’t kicked a lot of field goals this year (3-3) so we must try and slow this offense down along with getting them out of their comfort zone and frustrated with their play.
Two weeks ago, Indiana took over in the fourth quarter against Penn State after PSU coach made a dumb move by going for it on their own 35 and Indiana capitalized or seized the moment and took over the game from that point forward. Michigan had a similar situation in their game last week against PSU and their coach making a similar mistake as well, but Michigan didn’t make them pay and actually hurt themselves as well because they got a INT the next drive as well and out of those two drives on their own side of the 50 only gained 3 points. Michigan must take advantage of the other teams mistakes and make them pay for dumb mistakes or turnovers.
When Michigan turns the ball over it seems the opponent either gets free points or takes advantage of it.
Well my prediction last week was wrong, but I wasn’t counting on Devin having three turnovers again as well. Maybe going into these predictions I should just ASSuME Devin having multiple turnovers, and giving the other team so many points before toe meet leather?
This week I predict Devin will probably have 2 turnovers which is good for him lately, but somehow Michigan will find a way to win this high scoring game.
Indiana 37
Michigan 42
Oct 12, 2013; University Park, PA, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Devin Gardner (98) signals during the second quarter against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew OMike Fitzpatrick (The Michigan Man Podcast):
A couple of weeks ago I thought this game would give us an opportunity to run up some points, get more young guys some playing time, and let us head into the bye week to get ready for the stretch run. The bye week lies ahead, but now the IU game looks like a serious challenge. This week I’ve seen on the blogs, and in other football chronicles, that most observers give IU very little chance in the Big House on Saturday. The main reason being the talent differential. Really? We could have said that about the first six games too, and we know that differential wasn’t much of a factor. Let’s get real. After six games, it is what it is. There are no more smoke and mirrors, no miracle fixes, no overnight improvements. Team 134 has to show up, play physical, and most importantly, STOP THE TURNOVERS.
I think we’ll see some points put on the board this week. IU has a tough offense to slow down, and our offense has a tendency to cough it up far too often. If we can stop the self inflicted errors, and play good fundamental football, mark this down as a Michigan victory. As I’ve said all year, I don’t know what to expect from team 134 from week to week. If for no other reason, this is a big game for confidence sake. This young team needs to “make” some positive things happen on Saturday, and should be able to against the absolute worst defense in the Big 10. It’s never too late for improvement, and it has to start tomorrow. The five game stretch ahead of us in November will not allow for the kind of play we’ve seen from this team through the first six weeks. Not if we want to be in contention for the B10 title game. I’m cautiously optimistic! GO BLUE!
Indiana 31
Michigan 41
What Devin Gardner shows up this week? Talk about Jekyll and Hyde for the season and seemingly the coaches don’t know which one will come to play as well and that is tough on how to game-plan and also your strategy going into the game and how you might have to change your philosophy and how you handle your game-plan because of how your quarterback comes to play.
If he continues to turn the ball over this team will not go very far that is for sure. If he stops the mental mistakes, the bad reads, turnovers, and stops locking on to Gallon this team could be fairly good because they are scoring a lot of points even though they are struggling on offense, but they cannot continue giving away free points and giving the other teams great opportunities with the ball.
Defense had played decent this year so far, not great or not bad either, but they have had their moments of both. They must find a way of slowing down Indiana and forcing them to get frustrated and also make them feel out of place in their offense which has been pretty much being able to do whatever they want this season averaging 500 yards a game on offense. Their problem has been their defense something Michigan needs to exploit and take advantage.
High scoring game as long as the weather cooperates.
Indiana 34
Michigan 45
Apr 13, 2013; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines offensive line gets set during the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY SportsYostmeister:
The Wolverines had walked the tightrope too much this season and finally fell off.
I hope it was a wake-up call considering the talent level they have.
Indiana will score points, but will also give up a bunch. If Michigan gets into a track-meet with the Hoosiers, they could get upset again. (I have not witnessed an Indiana win at Michigan Stadium in my memory.)
The key to the game is the obvious reduction of turnovers. Ball possession offense will keep the Indian offense off of the field and give our defense rest. In turn, while on defense, the team must make key third down stops.
In the end, another nail-biter.
Indiana 38
Michigan 41
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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