MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

• The dude punted! What are you doing Paul Chryst?
• Michigan's offensive line kicked into gear in the 2nd half. JBB gave it to that kid.
• Patterson was not seeing guys downfield
• Michigan's breaking tendencies, making you respect the QB's legs
• Losing Singleton: they've got guys, but disappointing he pulled the trigger so fast
• Hornibrook was too uncomfortable to set his feet
• Paye held up against the best run offense he'll face, Aubrey back is a big deal
• Metellus isn't here to be a hero but he saved some bad situations. Kinnel came out okay in a tough battle.
• No slanting: trap coverage is gonna getchya
• Bosa leaving: Is it a story, or just a guy who got injured for the season?
• Speculation that he's been pressured to come back sooner than he should.
• Trying to shed Schiano
• Pump the breaks Joel Klatt; we've got a rivalry road game this weekend.
• MSU: Great run defense, why are you running on them? Oh, rain.
• Shea needs a check at the line for soft coverage.

Six. SIX! What are you DOING Turtle?

We are at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown.

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we would be saying all of this to our confused offspring.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, and Lantana Hummus

--------------------------------------------

1. Offense

Starts at 1:00

Denard blessed the Michigan quarterbacks so they ran for 138 yards and 2 TDs. Shea's keepers. Bless Ed Warinner. Bless your heart, Shea's vision in this game. Where was Bench Mason? A few too many "We did A, next comes B." Other goofy stuff: Joe Milton package, McCaffrey as a WR. Second half they finally learned to throw. JBB didn't allow any pressure, was grinding.

2. Defense

Starts at 24:20

Got pushed around by Wisconsin's big boys, managed to hang in there, though that was in part thanks to SIX(!!) carries by Jonathan Taylor. What does Chase Winovich have to do to generate a holding call? Yes this is the chart thing everyone's been talking about. Critical INT thanks to trap coverage. Hornibrook had one completion for over two quarters. Watson almost got the same INT as last week. M had a hard time with those jet sweeps. Got Randy Rivers moving around, which nerfs his accuracy.

3. What Are You Doing Turtle?

Starts at 43:22

So many bad decisions. Everything after the give-up punt is sad scoring. In the first half he forgot running the clock down was a thing. First play of the sad touchdown drive Hornibrook was almost injured. Wisconsin couldn't keep themselves off of Cheeseman. Shutting down Wisconsin was well worth 30 yards of penalties. Somebody held up a #ThankYouAce sign.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 57:55

NOTE: This segment had a recording issue (Brian and David were almost completely muted) so the quality isn't up to our usual standards. I spent many hours on Sunday repairing it because we have an exciting Big Ten West race going on. March of the B1G West QBs: David Blough hammers Illinois. Thorson's arm almost went off throwing to Flynn Nagel. Frost has aged 10 years per loss. Indiana can't stop tight ends and played Iowa. Rutgers forgot to field a kickoff. McSorley's average weekend. Ohio State's screen-a-thon.

MUSIC

• "Nice & Slow"—Usher
• "Walk Idiot Walk"—The Hives
• "Jump Around"—House of Pain
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

Murderwolf doesn't make a sound.

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we’d be all be very sad ex-SBNation employees with “real” jobs.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, and Lantana Hummus

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1. After Upon Further Review: Maryland

starts at 1:00

The Terps did a good job keeping Bush out of the game. Mone handled doubles really well. Donovan Jeter didn’t look too good but Kwity Paye just keeps getting better. Maryland was Shea’s best game of the season and he keeps getting better. Another good game for the offensive line.

2. Gimmicky Top Five: Greatest Cats

starts at 22:57

We welcome Michigan grad and Lantana CEO Matt Gase for a top five favorite felines. It gets weird. There is a secret hummus to be sampled.

3. Wisconsin Offense

starts at 47:04

Badgers rotate 8 guys on the offensive line. Their best offensive lineman is not even a starter. Jonathan Taylor is a patient runner and is very good on his own, even without the monstrous offensive line. Hornibrook has a weak arm but very accurate command. Slants could be a problem and safeties are going to be tested. This is Carlo Kemp’s final exam.

4. A Short History of Huge Wisconsin Games

starts at 1:02:40

Wisconsin’s defense is pretty beat up. They can’t pass rush at all and have suffered a lot of injuries on the defensive line. Outside linebackers aren’t making plays and the secondary is also beat up. ILB’s are the strength of the defense. Wisconsin loves punting. Especially in enemy territory. Have a good kicker, but one important miss.

MUSIC:

Featured tonight: Marcus the Apex Predator.

• "Standards and Practices“
• "What Say You"
• "The Fury of Almost (All or Nothing)"
• “Across 110th Street”

If you or a friend made some good tunes and don't have a label out scrubbing for them we'd be happy to feature you.

THE USUAL LINKS:

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

Things discussed:

• Fundraiser for Ace: Passed $90k last night. Ace has been living this on the blog and now there’s a community on the internet who understands an of-misunderstood disease.
• Craig Ross UFRs the first drive: playcalling was good.
• Michigan running zone stretch! Well!
• Offense looked good—35 points in 9 drives feels better if it comes in a different order.
• Maryland’s worst pass rush performance this year. Hey-O!
• Hitting the Mendoza line of good blocking every game
• Wisconsin: doesn’t rush the passer. Badgers used to get injured and there’d be a Cichy or a Connelly. Now…?
• Patterson had his best game of the season against Maryland
• The holding call that wiped out a perfect TD pass was not as bad as the Higdon one, same genre
• There was an RPO in this game!
• Shea’s dad: “Let one guy go and Shea will take care of the first guy every time”
• Defense last year had a game from Aubrey vs Wisconsin; is he back?
• Dwumfour was about to pop before he went down.
• Hornibrook the best QB in the conference: gonna hit his slants, his receivers not giving him much
• Defense’s first big test of the year.
• Playcalling vs. Northwestern: Hankwitz has our number, Pep had a solid tactical win vs Maryland, who also had a bye
• If you’re running play-action and their LBs are dropping back 10 yards something’s going wrong.
• Caller: Shut up about the offense.
• Michigan hasn’t stacked back to back efforts in consecutive weeks. Time to do that.

Cookie’s mad.

We are once again at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown.

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we wouldn't get to do this for a living.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, and Lantana Hummus

--------------------------------------------

1. Offense

Starts at 1:00

Point for rain: reduced commercial experience felt fine. Feels much more like a football game when it’s not half commercial time. Getting 30-40 yards per drive and not scoring. Ben Mason hurdled a guy. Higdon is our favorite Michigan RB since…Toussaint? Hart? Patterson and Gentry are doing better against zone, except when Gentry cut away from all the blocking. Sean McKeon must be angry that Gentry didn’t get the reverse pass. Fun playcalls came out. Pass pro held up mostly, Patterson saved them when they didn’t. Ronnie Bell is a Guy.

2. Defense

Starts at 27:58

Playing Maryland is waiting for them to hit their big play and it didn’t happen—credit to Don Brown and the defense for having their assignments down. Did it without 3/4 of the starting DL. Uche had more great play off the edge—shoulda been a sack. Gary injury is precautionary, not hurting thanks to Paye. Gil had a Bush-like edge play. We did not like the call on Bush. Congrats to the viral holding chart since Michigan got two legit holding calls this game; if Michigan gets to normal. Brian Cook nicknames by sport: B-Cook (football), Cookie (hockey), Cooks, (baseball).

3. Special Teams, General Thoughts, Wisconsin Thoughts

Starts at 47:38

Other than THAT they did well on special teams—Ty Johnson is just fast. Ambry out there running sprints. Two guys back on 4th and 13s to nerf the Aussie directional kicker. Nordin up to 8/9 and isn’t missing chipshots. Late advice for Ty Johnson. Disappointed there was no Max Bortenschlager or Ralph Friedgen. Redshirt watch: Samuels redshirt burned. BVS not listed, probably getting his shirt now that Wangler is around. Anything project to Wisconsin? Ready for Stanford to go back to being bad so we’re not losing recruits there.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:03:22

Big Ten’s signature win is…Texas? TCU? How to beat MSU: PASS! Thorson with 17 passes on 1st down. State saved their yardage dignity with a 75-yard drive to run out the clock down 10. State is going to turtle against PSU and save it all for Michigan again—State has a base speed option running game? Arthur Sitkowski upped his INT count against Illinois. Indiana competitive until Parris Campbell in all the space. OSU defense is a little discombobulated, Haskins is tearing it up, has so many great weapons to throw to. Direct snap to a TE is peak Iowa but is it legal? Wisconsin gives up 500 yards of offense to Nebraska, loses Scott Nelson to targeting for our first half. Throw the ball the next 2 weeks.

MUSIC

• "Throw Some D's (Edited)"—Rich Boy
• "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme"
• "Badger Badger Badger"—MrWeebl
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

NOTE: The beginning of this recording got clipped so I had to steal it off the YouTube recording. The badness only lasts 1 minute.

Their tight end sucks and I hate him.

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we’d be all be very sad ex-SBNation employees with “real” jobs.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, and Lantana Hummus

--------------------------------------------

1. The UFR Segment

starts at 1:00

Shea Patterson didn’t have his best game. But it is wasn’t his worst game. Northwestern dropped a lot of guys into zone and made him uncomfortable. Michigan being in comeback mode changed the offensive gameplan a fair bit. Nico Collins is now the short yardage receiver. Run game was fine. Blocking was solid. Brian issues an apology to Michael Dwumfour. Devin Bush didn’t do 65 crazy things. It’s time for full time Josh Ross..

2. The Ufer Segment, wsg Director Dan Chace and Bob Ufer?

starts at 24:36

We welcome Dan Chace, the director of Football's Valhalla: The Bob Ufer Story, which premieres TONIGHT right after the podcast at The Michigan Theater downtown. Also with us: Ufer impersonator Dennis from the OC.

3. Maryland Preview

starts at 38:48

Maryland beat Texas! But it was a terrible game to watch and was played in “4 inches” of water. DJ Durkin is gone from this team and so is the Cover 1, the 4-3 over, and they’ve filled the team with transfers, including a guy that got passed by Illinois. Safeties play pretty deep and have a guy resembling an MSU safety. The Terps bring Kasim Hill and Piggy back from last year along with a fleet of jet smurfs.

4. Gimmicky Top Five: Strongly Held Opinions About Things That Don’t Matter

starts at 58:07

Reid McCarthy from Ann Arbor Elder Law joins us for this segment. Brian wants his will to include mailing dinner plates to random people. The guys talk a lot about Star Wars, mostly about how the prequels could have been good:

MUSIC:

Featured tonight: Motorboat of the NYC/Hoboken area. Their drummer has always been here.

• "Motorboat“
• "James Darmody
• "Russka Vodka"
• “Across 110th Street”

If you or a friend made some good tunes and don't have a label out scrubbing for them we'd be happy to feature you.

THE USUAL LINKS:

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

Things discussed:

• Down 17-0 coming off a bye week?
• Skill positions erratic play: not sharp, balls dropped, not sitting in zones
• Niko you are not a slot receiver.
• Frustrated by Shea: not seeing open guys in front of him, had to pull out a few plays that were already there for him.
• Northwestern did a good job anticipating what Michigan was going to run: playcalling allowed them to anticipate what to do with their linebackers.
• Where were the smoke screens? Iso plays were a good wrinkle.
• Northwestern got by thinking there's no such thing as a Michigan zone read, M been preserving QB health?
• Give it to Ben Mason on any 4th and short. That's why you got the Big Big Boys.
• The defense: Unfortunate to give up 17 points on 200 yards.
• Winovich's Elite Day, the young DL stepped it up. Carlo Kemp dissuaded a throw to the TE
• Glasgow was fine in Hudson's stead.
• Cornerbacks: keep calm and don't grab a guy named flynn nagel
• The slants: good strategy, some bad play, still only gave up <5 YPC. M plays zone about 1/3rd of the time
• NFL talk: Pat Mahomes for MVP?
• Maryland: the insane stuff. Their offense is not the kind that works against Michigan's team speed.

QUINN QUINN QUINN QUINN

1. We Are Qualified

Welcome to the podcast! We introduce ourselves, talk about what we plan on doing this season, and generally set the table for this endeavor. We then dive into last season and how the team did, and overall expectations for this season.

2. Offense Preview

Michigan lost its entire first line and more than 50 goals. How will they replace this production? The Centers are strong, there is some talent on the wings, a couple promising freshmen, and many possibilities for a fourth line. Michigan will likely look to committee to replace the first line's production from last year.

3. Defense Preview

QUINN HUGHES!!! This is the strength of the team. The defense is skilled, experienced, and only replacing one player. We explore the potential 6th D and talk about what to expect from the rest of the returners. We also talk about Hughes because it is fun to. We touch on the goaltending, will be mostly the same but that can work with the quality of D and system the team has. Strauss Mann takes the stress off of having to get a 2020 goalie.

4. Sieves and Scumbags

We talk about how well the schedule sets up the first month of the season.  The conference will be tough, most teams are improved.  We also talk about season predictions.

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• NHL 94 (Genesis) Intro Theme
• Blades of Steel Theme
• "Brass Bonanza!"—The Hartford Whalers
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

I do love watching Pat Fitzgerald getting all pumped up and having to kick rocks after

We are once again at the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown. Poster in the cover is the work of @CWReade

The Sponsors

We can do this because people support us. You should support them too so they’ll want to do it again next year! The show is presented by UGP & The Bo Store, and if it wasn’t for Rishi and Ryan we wouldn't get to do this for a living.

Our other sponsors are also key to all of this: HomeSure Lending, Peak Wealth Management, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Michigan Law Grad,Human Element, and Lantana Hummus

--------------------------------------------

1. Offense

starts at 1:00

Shea was shaky, couldn't find his receivers despite coverage sack-level time. Tackles mostly held up against the Gaz. We must be the only spread zealots who demand more fullback dives. Shea's legs are a Threat, got the Mitch Leidner throw down. Drops at inopportune times. That holding call on Higdon might be the worst holding call in the history of football. Section on Nico Collins.

2. Defense

starts at 33:11

Northwestern bunched their yards in the first quarter and didn't do anything else. Clayton Thorson was hitting small windows. Michigan get everyone's best shot. Kinnel was less solid this game. Dwumfour is still a bad run defender, becoming a useful pass rusher, could be a player next year. JUCHE! Chase Winovich is unblockable, but you should still try to block him.

3. Special Teams & Feelingsball

starts at 54:07

Will Hart is a Ray Guy candidate. Pooch kicks. Tacky blocks in the back. Redshirt counter. Game theory: now or never drive took its time. If you're going to line up to draw them offsides, snap it when they're offsides. All 4th down situations were good.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

starts at 1:09:57

How's the school of Dan LeFevour been reduced to this—MSU could have lost if CMU had even a decent MAC QB. Jamie doesn't like the second trip through Borgesland. Lol Frames Janklin, burning a chance to get the ball back to get in the world's worst playcall. Miles Sanders came down, PSU still giving up TFLs. Gus Johnson called Gaziano "The Gaz." The OSU comeback was 85% screens, they're not automatic to convert 4th and 1 anymore.

MUSIC

• "Mama Said Knock You Out"—LL Cool J
• "Help I'm Alive"—Metric
• "Go It Alone"—Beck
• “Across 110th Street”

THE USUAL LINKS

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

Things discussed:

• Nebraska is in Year Zero: don't take this game too seriously
• Michigan's offensive identity: Down G? The thing about Down G is if the LB reads it right the defense has it dead to rights
• The Down G wrinkles keep it viable. Bubble screen off Down G action and Jet Sweep and Flaring a TE
• Dylan McCaffrey has grown up a lot at Michigan—good to see his arm gets downfield
• Nebraska's pass rush is the worse we'll face.
• Warinner/Ruiz effect: unblocked guys not getting through as much. Stopping the Gaz is another matter
• The officials: A lot of curious calls. O'Neill Crew calls a facemask thanks to replay guy.
• Craig says the safety call was correct (made by someone upstairs) because what if someone catches it? Throwing is directing it not establishing possession. 
• Targeting/Not Targeting: Hudson puts his helmet in the QB's chest. Sam thinks last week wasn't this week was because he's leading with the head (does facemask count?). Two NFL quarterbacks got freak injuries so you can't hit low on the quarterback now. They totally missed the very real targeting on Ben Mason
• NW: Clayton Thorson is the Mitch Leidner of this year's Big Ten. The Gaz. "Paddy Fisher."
• Nick Bosa: Is he going to take the whole year off, or just every game but The one?
• Brian had a daughter in the middle of preview season and forgot to tell anybody