MichiganCardinal

I get that he's a competitor, but you can't just reappear after rehabbing for 15 weeks and expect the team that's been rolling to bench one of their four or five best defensive players. Who cares who's out there next to you anyway, just go ball out.

Even before the injury, in his rookie season where he played 16 games (only inactive in week one), he was a pretty much total non-factor. Granted that 2021 team was a dumpster fire through and through, but the contributors today who were on that team (Goff, much of the OL, ASB, Alim) mostly all started coming into their own there down the stretch. You saw flashes of where they are today. I've never seen anything with Levi that's made me say, "yeah I see what Holmes saw" One sack and 15 tackles across 16 games as a rookie 2nd round pick didn't inspire confidence. Zero sacks and 3 tackles across five active games in 2023 says he won't be here next year... Is it possible without the injury we get a serviceable backup? Possibly. But a starter should be the expectation with the #41 overall pick. I'm not prepared to say that Holmes didn't miss on it and excuse it away by citing to the injury. I think he just whiffed. On one day two pick across three drafts, which is pretty dang good.

That's where I am at too. The Eagles are in shambles, I put that game at 50/50. But the Commanders haven't won a game in over two months. I'm sure they'll try to win, but they're just so totally devoid of talent and coaching, I think the Panthers might be able to beat them if that was the game on Sunday.

Ehhhh…. I’m ready to call him a bust. It’s debatable how much is injury related, but it’s his third season as a 2nd round pick and he’s a healthy scratch at the thinnest position group on the team.

Agreed. Even after Michigan won game one, I wasn’t super confident they could knock off the Alabama of college baseball.

I feel better than I did going into 2013 against Louisville or 2018 against Villanova, for what the cross-sport comparison is worth.

I wonder if they’ll do any sort of ceremony for it on Sunday. I’m sure they’ll nationally televise if they do, right?

I got an exact replica of that Axel Foley jacket for Christmas. I'm stoked to wear it on Sunday.

This is what I am leaning towards too, but I do think this year's PAC 12 is better than last year's Big 12. The 2022-23 TCU squad (which had already lost to Kansas State) probably doesn't beat Oregon twice. I also think this year's Michigan team is worse than last year's Georgia team. Though you're not claiming that M will beat them 65-7, so that's neither here nor there really. I have a really hard time seeing Washington getting Michigan to engage in a shootout. UW scored 31+ in 11 of their 14 games this season, which made up for some really bad defensive showings (42 to USC, 33 to Stanford, and 32 to Cal all stand out). Michigan didn't allow more than 24 all season, while also never scored less than 24 on offense. Something's got to give, and I seriously doubt Michigan is about to surrender 51 like they did to TCU. Even if Penix is on, I think Michigan will control the bleeding and take back the tempo of the game. It's worth pointing out again that Michigan's mistakes against Alabama probably resulted in 11 points of swing throughout the game, and they still won. They are just such a good and complete football team. Meanwhile though, you can't rule out Washington. They've been underdogs in three of their last four games. They are comfortable in this position. I won't make a prediction yet, but overall I do like Michigan's chances.

I'm good with that so long as that's where the MTF party is hosted.

I'm okay with a Sky Judge. I think the barrier there is what we saw when they made pass interference reviewable in 2019. It's just so incredibly hard to review subjective things like holding and pass interference, where the question is not "yes or no" or "in bounds or out of bounds", but rather "who contacts who" or "is that enough restriction". If I put 100 NFL officials in a room and play a clip of a pass interference that wasn't called, how many should have to raise their hands to say "yes this is pass interference" for them to reverse the call? 51? 75? 90? Each Sky Judge would have their own threshold to pass in order to flip a call like that, which I don't think is good for the game either, as we pause the game for a play to go into a black box that then tells us how to proceed. I'm not saying that the state of officiating is strong by any means, I just don't think there are easy solutions to many of the problems.

For those who are curious. He last called a Lions game when we played the Ravens in Baltimore. Before that, he worked Week 18 Sunday Night in Lambeau last season. He is also a professor at Texas Tech and enjoys long walks on the beach with his dog Fifi. I made one of those up, you can decide which.

I know it's a common criticism, but I'm not sure how much moving them to full-time would help. I don't think the issue is in the number of hours they put in. In-season, they are effectively full-time, putting in more than 40 hours per week when you account for travel (probably even if you don't). They are reviewing film on Wednesdays and Thursdays, flying in on Friday, having meetings galore to prepare for the game on Saturday, and working the game on Sunday, before flying back on Monday and doing it all over again the next week. Before the season, they are putting in hours starting in the Spring, with meetings and trainings all over the place. I would guess it averages to 10+ hours weekly, even accounting for the deadest portions of the offseason. Is there an argument to be made that their work as an accountant or a lawyer or a teacher detracts from their performance as an official? Maybe, but I'm not sure I see the connection. At the end of the day, my performance at work should be evaluated by my supervisor on the basis of my performance at work. Not "yeah but maybe you could do better if you didn't do other things where you're not here"... It would feel weird to have an employer tell me due to a change in policy, I can't play an instrument in a band, or collect and sell knick knacks, or whatever, off the clock... For the record I do neither of those things... If I did though, I'd probably feel like those things make me a better employee, not worse, and I'm sure NFL officials feel the same about their "other" jobs... Not to mention I'm just not sure what they would do year-round that they're not already doing in terms of preparation for games. What I think accounts for the largest portion of criticisms in NFL officiating is really irreparable, and it's just in the evaluation and promotion systems in place, and in how people get good at any skill - repetition. You look at MLB, NBA, or the NHL, and there is a tiered system in place to promote officials. An MLB official has probably worked over 1000 baseball games in their life before working his first MLB game. By the time they are in AAA, they are being evaluated in over 100 games per year (900+ innings and who knows how many pitches) to see if they're ready... NBA and NHL is less so, but still probably well over 600 games... An NFL official though? If we generalize and assume an NFL official is hired at 35 after working ten years of college football and five years of high school football, that means they've worked about 170 football games in their life ((12 games * 10 seasons) + (10 games * 5 seasons))... At the tail end where they're being looked at closely, there are still only 12-15 opportunities each season to really evaluate these officials... And if they're in an off-ball position like the back three, there are plenty of games where they don't even make a call! You can make them full-time, but you can't create more high level football games for them or their recruits to officiate. But then you have problems like Brad Allen not paying attention to who he is talking to. That's not fixed by telling him he can't be the CEO of some nonprofit. He just needs to do better.

This is a really good analysis of both teams and a great preview of the matchup.

I think the Rams sitting their starters is a slight nod of respect to us FWIW... A 7-seed has yet to beat a 2-seed since they expanded the playoffs. If McVay thought there was a significant difference between playing the Cowboys and playing the Lions, they could play their starters and probably easily beat the 49ers backups for the 6-seed. I don't think he'll try to lose for the 7-seed or anything crazy, but I don't think he's any more afraid of going into Dallas than he is of going into Detroit.

Here is is for the AFC if anyone was curious.

Not as the three. As the three-seed it's either Rams or Packers. As the two-seed it could be the Rams, Packers, Seahawks, Saints, or Bucs. The Vikings have a 1% chance at the 7-seed, but they would have to beat us first, making us the 3-seed. I like this graphic I found. I don't know if it incorporates sitting starters into its percentages or not, but it has it as a coin flip between the Packers and Rams right now for the 6-seed.

I think that's generally the case no matter who we play, unless by some crazy stretch of fate we get New Orleans, Minnesota, or Tampa. In any event, whether we play the Rams or Packers... or the outside chance against the Seahawks... or the Cowboys, Eagles, or Niners beyond that... we will need Glenn's Dallas defense, not his Los Angeles, Thanksgiving, or Chicago defense.

I won't lose sleep either way. Hooker doesn't need practice to become a Detroit hero in the NFC Championship Game. He was born with that ability.

I don't think so either, though they are going to carry him into the postseason as their designated survivor QB. It might not be a terrible idea to give him at least a few game snaps just in case complete disaster strikes.

I think the odds of Jordan Love repeating his performance from Thanksgiving in the wildcard game are not great. That's why I would prefer the Packers, though both are dangerous teams. It would also be fun to end the Packers season two seasons in a row.

Ben Johnson should spend some more years as a coordinator so he can better connect with his players before becoming a head coach.

The fact they got five and Amon-Ra wasn't one of them is an absolute joke. He's better than either Mike Evans or Puka Nacua. While I'm at it, Gibbs is better than Swift and Kyren Williams and Goff is better than all three of Dak, Purdy, and Stafford. It's okay though, they'll be too busy preparing for Vegas to attend anyway.

This is what I expect too. I don't blame him, that LSU money is no joke.