I guess this is kind of a rebuttal to all the "well we beat 2 ranked teams" posts.
It appears more and more that the Stanford win was a fluke in which the Cardinal was totally asleep after traveling to Evanston. And the narrow win at Duke? Well now Duke's best wins are against BC (0-4 in ACC) and Georgia Tech (0-4 in ACC). Let's also not forget that Minnesota was beyond banged-up when they came to town.
As the title states, I'm seeing more and more to be pessimistic about. The offense is an absolute mess, the defense has been totally exposed being pushed around at will the last two weeks, and special teams adds no value whatsoever.
Michigan admittedly looks quite strong, improving each week despite starting Iowa's 2014 QB reject. But Iowa was dinged-up on both lines, down to walk-ons and true freshmen on the o-line and missing their best player on d-line. And these were the areas where they dominated the most!
If the Stanford and Duke wins are red herrings, as I believe, where does that leave this team? Last year was a huge letdown, but there were significant injuries throughout the entire season. I worry that the supposed improvement exemplified by the 5-0 start this year is a mirage despite being relatively healthy. Is this a Glen Mason Minnesota team that looks good in weak non-B10 play, then gets smoked in conference and crawls into a crummy bowl game?
It appears more and more that the Stanford win was a fluke in which the Cardinal was totally asleep after traveling to Evanston. And the narrow win at Duke? Well now Duke's best wins are against BC (0-4 in ACC) and Georgia Tech (0-4 in ACC). Let's also not forget that Minnesota was beyond banged-up when they came to town.
As the title states, I'm seeing more and more to be pessimistic about. The offense is an absolute mess, the defense has been totally exposed being pushed around at will the last two weeks, and special teams adds no value whatsoever.
Michigan admittedly looks quite strong, improving each week despite starting Iowa's 2014 QB reject. But Iowa was dinged-up on both lines, down to walk-ons and true freshmen on the o-line and missing their best player on d-line. And these were the areas where they dominated the most!
If the Stanford and Duke wins are red herrings, as I believe, where does that leave this team? Last year was a huge letdown, but there were significant injuries throughout the entire season. I worry that the supposed improvement exemplified by the 5-0 start this year is a mirage despite being relatively healthy. Is this a Glen Mason Minnesota team that looks good in weak non-B10 play, then gets smoked in conference and crawls into a crummy bowl game?