MichiganCardinal

I can’t recall a team selling out to win a championship in the NFL like the Rams are this year. Whatever happens, will be interesting to see where the Lions 2023 pick from the Rams lands.

I don't bet but if I did I would put a few units on the Lions +9. Steelers are not good. They've won by 7, 8, 3(OT), 5, and 2. Short week for Steelers Long rest for Lions Decker back, addition of Reynolds both may add some life to the team Steelers playing the Chargers next week in SNF, could be looking ahead Ben Roethlisberger is a walking corpse who should not be in the NFL. This is one of three non-shocking winnable games left (along with Bears and Vikings).

Allen was 2018. I don't think the Browns are upset with Mayfield though, and Lamar was also taken in that draft (though I would definitely put both Allen and Mayfield above him). I'd give it another two years before saying for sure.

I think it is worse now, but a step towards better (that has taken way too long to make another). The ideal of an eight, ten, or sixteen team playoff is not something grand that needs to be invented, it's literally already done by every professional league and the lower subdivisions of college football. The fact that this "step" of going from a two-team playoff to a four-team playoff has lasted eight years though is outrageous. At the same time I don't think the answer is to go back to when you had two teams simultaneously claiming to be National Champions like occurred before the BCS was a thing.

Couldn't just let me have it remain unspoken, could you? 😉

I've largely left college football fandom. I would still call myself a Michigan and Stanford football fan if asked, but truth be told I haven't watched a single snap of college football live this year. I'll likely watch Big Game (Stanford/Cal) and The Game, so long as nothing more important in the real world comes up. It's funny the way you put it (and not all that inaccurate), but I think the reasons everything sucks is more systematic than M's failure to beat a rival. The way the CFP overlords setup their system was to create a system where there is massive disparity. When only four teams of 130 playing FBS football (or realistically four of 65 in the Power 5) make the playoff, only those top echelon of teams (Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and a few others here and there) are going to have a realistic shot at reaching it, because that's where the 5*+ athletes who want to have a realistic chance at winning something playing football while in college are going to go. Michigan getting their ass kicked year-in and year-out by Ohio State should not, in and of itself, be the reason Michigan never has the opportunity for a National Championship. As traditionally important as that game is, it is still only one game. In the last ten years, Michigan has finished with a top 15ish team (so top 20-25% of Power 5) on four occasions - 2011, 2015, 2016, and 2018. Yet they have nothing to show for it, not because any of those teams sucked or underperformed, but because that is the way it's setup. Beyond that, even when a team not destined for the CFP manages to squeeze into it, they are destined to get smacked into place by the team that is supposed to (see: MSU in 2016). It's really hard for me to get motivated behind either Stanford or Michigan football, when I know that we have little chance of being a top-four team now or in the near future, and even if luck rolls our way and we chance into a four-seed on an off-year, we'll then need to beat a team cherry-picked to win a championship to actually win anything. When the playoff inevitably expands and talent disperses over the subsequent years to 20-25 teams instead of 4-8, I may come back, but for now I'd rather watch NFL football, where a team like the Browns or Bills (or...... maybe one day....) can realistically win a championship no matter their past ineptitude. Sorry, this got long-winded.

I texted a very similar prediction to a friend tonight. My only difference was ND at 8 over MSU at 9. Cincinnati had a very uninspiring escape against Tulsa today, they don't need to be giving the committee excuses to exclude them, they'll find reasons on their own.

It could, but I think Michigan is the better team than Penn State. Granted, Michigan is also a better team than MSU. I think it's more likely Ohio State and Michigan both enter The Game at 10-1 with a spot in the B1G Championship on the line and Ohio State wins by 40.

It will be fun to see Sparty's head explode when Michigan is ranked ahead of them in the next rankings. Will be interesting to see if Michigan with a win jumps Cincinnati. That would be a real tell as to their feelings on Cincinnati.

MSU is more likely to finish 9-3 than 11-1. Sets it up nicely for Michigan to choke their season away against Ohio State again.

I think this Purdue/MSU game was predictable from two or three weeks ago. In fact, I think someone here (not me) did predict it.

Ole Miss recorded nine sacks of Willis, which I’m pretty sure are recorded as negative yard rushes in college.

OBJ has been released by the Browns. Lions will have first dibs on him, but I would expect him to clear waivers because of his contract. If he was a one-year gig I would be intrigued. As it is, a $15million obligation until 2024 for an aging and overrated wideout is too much for this team.

I give Mel Tucker a lot of credit for what he's done at MSU, but he would be a smart man to jump ship ASAP, likely this offseason. He built that program through the COVID induced transfer portal, which is not a knock at all, it is rather genius. It's also not a sustainable model for success. If he wants to still be the "#3" team in the country in 3-5 years, he's going to have to either out-recruit Michigan (hasn't been done since Rich Rod) and Ohio State (hasn't been done in decades), or pull a Dantonio in his prime and coach 3* athletes to outperform 4-5* athletes at Michigan and Ohio State (preferably without being a douche who leaves the program in shambles). More money (which he obviously cares about) and a better recipe for success exists at LSU, Texas Tech, Washington State, and perhaps even Nebraska and TCU if they move on from their head coaches. I'm sure he would take the job at U$C too if offered, but that's just a dumpster fire.

Hockenson was injured his first year and TEs traditionally take one or two years to develop before contributing on a high level. We'll see what those rankings say five seasons post-draft, but I feel that comparing Hock to Tavai is pretty extreme. I think Hockenson will be a top-five TE in the league through the prime of his career, and I think he will be one of the few members of this present team still on the team when we do turn the corner. To back off my defense of Hockenson though, I agree with the consensus here that he was not worth the #8 pick in that draft, just as I don't think Okudah was worth the #3 pick in his draft (injuries or not). I'm not one to "Monday Morning Quarterback" NFL drafts, because it's very easy to cherry pick who you should have picked once you see NFL success, and much much harder to accurately predict which 21-24yo kids will rise and which will flame out once in the NFL. For instance, I think the goal posts shifting from "they should pick Tua" when they picked Okudah, to "they should have picked Herbert" when Tua has busted (so far) is indicative that being a GM is harder than it seems from the couch. Yet, neither a top-tier TE nor a top-tier CB made sense in the grand scheme of where either of those teams were, and did not set us up for success today.

The first four are all about common opponents and head-to-head comparisons that don't work in a three-way tie where they've all lost to each other. Michigan's non-divisional conference opponents are Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Northwestern, which are a combined 5-11. Michigan State's non-divisional conference opponents are Purdue, Nebraska, and Northwestern, which are a combined 5-11. Ohio State's non-divisional conference opponents are Minnesota, Purdue, and Nebraska, which are a combined 8-8. In such a scenario, Ohio State's victory over Minnesota would likely allow them to go to the B1G Championship game via tiebreaker #5, though that could still change in the coming weeks.

I think it's hard to compare him to Kelce or Waller, when teams are putting their #1 corner on Hock because he is all we have as a weapon. Kelce is going against linebackers while corners/deep help are focused on Hill; same to a lesser degree for Waller with Renfrow's help. The 2nd and 3rd string WRs on the Chiefs and Raiders are comparable if not outright better than whoever our top WR of the day is. We have Hock signed through 2023 with the 5th year option. He's due for a raise regardless of his draft position though because he's coming off a rookie contract. I don't think he deserves to be the top paid tight end in the league, though his agent may ask for it.

I think the Steelers game is also winnable. Lions are coming off an ass kicking and a bye week, Steelers have a short week after MNF and have not won a game this year by more than a possession.

I think at the end of the day, whether we finish 3-14 or 0-17, the regime will be given a couple of years. I just think it's hard to justify an 0-17 season to either the fans or free agents you are trying to court. Sure you inherited nothing, sure you are devoid of talent, sure you were a properly called delay of game penalty from a win, etc. etc.... But you couldn't muster one win in a 17-game season? Maybe I am making too much out of it, but I just think the mark of a winless season is a hard pill to swallow and recover from. If you hire a Hue Jackson (which I don't think Dan Campbell is), you need to be able to recognize it before he's 3-36-1.

That's fair - I'm distinguishing between the Ravens/Vikings games where they never gave in, and the Bengals/Eagles games where they were disinterested from the opening kickoff. I agree that Campbell hasn't been perfect, but I think his mistakes are not on par with those made by his predecessors in Detroit, and I think they are more aligned with being correctable in time than his predecessors as well. Or at the very least, he is deserving of more time than they were when they left.

The odds we lose the next nine games remains less than us finishing 1-16 or 2-15. Regardless of how poor we looked yesterday. Steelers, Bears, Vikings, and Falcons are all winnable games if the Lions team that went 60 minutes punch for punch returns instead of the team that rolls over and dies at the first sign of adversity.

Right now my concern (and I am sure their concern as well) is finding that win. 3-14, 2-15, even 1-16 (given the nature of the early losses to the Ravens and Vikings) is forgivable, and an acceptable start to the regime given how completely devoid of talent the roster is, combined with the injuries to their best players. 0-17 though is an absolute regime killer, right or wrong. It would just be so hard to come back from that. At the point we go 0-17, you have to consider replacing at least Campbell, whether the locker room wants to or not. Or at the very least keeping him on a short leash in year two if marked improvement is not seen with a second year of talent acquisition. I think there are still wins to be had on the schedule, but the team cannot come out dead every other game.

It feels weirder to ruin a Sunday by watching something you clearly don’t enjoy than to perform an unconventional function in a message board. I dunno, I’m not here to argue. A sport isn’t worth it. Just seems like if you don’t enjoy it, turn it off. YMMV.

Legitimate question. Why do you watch.

But Goff is a Libra! Doesn’t that negate coin toss losses? Matters just as much…..