I left the east side of Cleveland around 7 am and got home at 7:30 this evening. It was a very beautiful mostly sunny cool day. The weather was great for football.

We parked for free on a city street about 2 miles away and had two good walks back and forth. What a site to see. People were selling their front yards for parking and things like water and lemonade to the people walking to the stadium. Game day in Ann Arbor is apparently what the city lives for. I saw numerous UC fans along the way and in the stadium.

The pregame was a true experience where the video board showed the history of Michigan sports. Of course for me the high light of the pregame was the UC band. I thought the Michigan fans were classless when the booed us. Whatever, we have a good ways to go to equal the Michigan pregame experience.

The game reminded me of my trip to Norman when we played Oklahoma. In both situations we fell behind early as I think we were nervous for the big stadium experience. In each case we rallied back but could not overcome early mistakes.

OMG - delay of game penalties. What is wrong with our play calling process. Perhaps the biggest one was at the of the first half that cost us a Gantz FG attempt. Whatever the procedures are for play calling they need to be changed. Moore seemed detached from the play clock.

OMG - dropped passes. I know Moore will get criticism for his performance - but if our guys could catch good passes Things would have been much better. If Devin catches the deep ball right in his bread basket the entire game could have been different.

OMG - speed. Michigan has speed. Several times their guy simply sprinted away from ours when seemingly we had the trapped. CTT was correct about our need for speed - too bad he did not recruit it.

OMG - punting. While their punter shanked at least two - our guy hits a woobly end over end that bounces back when it lands. We have to be able to do better.

All and all our guys showed well. I am glad I made the trip. I wonder if the AP or Michigan team will show up next week at Miami?

Nice summary. Thanks for posting.

Pasley is now our kicker, BTW. Fick has open competition this week and Josh came out on top.

I agree--great summary of game day and the game itself. While I agree, booing the band was classless, I was actually attending as a guest of a MI season ticket holder and they clearly knew my loyalty from the red and black. One-on-one, their fans were first class and you do get a sense of the history of this place.

Here's hoping CLF can clean up some of yesterday's mistakes by the team to extend the winning streak in Oxford and move on to have a winning season.

I'm sure any seasoned veterans in the band thought nothing about getting booed, it happens often when facing an opposing crowd. It's only concerning when they start throwing glass beer bottles at you... the good folks in Morgantown liked to do that.

Great time, tailgated at golf course across from stadium. Could not have been a nicer day, and honestly i thought we played better than i expected against a quality opponent. Most fun i've ever had at a game we lost. We just did not make the big plays, and they did. You needed to have a flawless day almost to win, and you cannot miss wide open guys down field, drop balls and turn the ball over for 16 points. We weren't "out physicaled" which after 30 years of watching Uc football was a nice sign. Um fans were very complimentary. Didn't expect a game well into the 4th qtr. For what it's worth you really couldn't hear either of the bands. Place is so big the sound just sails out of it. Beat Miami.

Thanks for representing those that went, I'll be at the Navy and Tulane games

Also had a blast in Ann Arbor this past weekend. The Big House was cool and all - and I'm glad I experienced it once - but I'll take Nippert's experience over that stadium any day.

Sure would be nice if UC was making these trips all season. That's what I spent most of the game thinking... this is how it should be.

(09-11-2017 07:03 AM)JPBearcat3 Wrote:  Also had a blast in Ann Arbor this past weekend. The Big House was cool and all - and I'm glad I experienced it once - but I'll take Nippert's experience over that stadium any day.

Yeah, for more than 1/2 of that game, it was one of the quietest college football experiences I have had for a long time. It sounded like we were in Oxford.

We too had a really good trip to Michigan. Left between 4 and 4:30 AM on Saturday morning. We were in the tailgate lot by 9:00 AM. Found a great spot on the golf course. Bearcat fans were tailgating in force. We had several groups of Michigan fans around us, all were absolutely first class.

We bought 4 tickets in row 57 around the 20 yard line on stubhub for about 60.00 a piece. (I kept checking my phone all day Friday waiting for the perfect deal and was able to pounce when I found the,). The seats were great. The concourse level is row 56, so we only had to walk up one row to get to our seats (and were right next to the concourse exit). The disadvantage of those seats is we were surrounded by Michigan fans, but almost every one of them was great. Talked to them about their program, shared a few jokes about Ohio State and they were very complimentary of how our front 7 played (particularly the defensive line who made it really hard for Michigan to run up the middle). There were two fans the row behind us that seemed like they were ready to be jerks, but with how well we got along with everyone else they mostly kept quiet about it.

Now to my thoughts on the game itself:

I thought the defense was fantastic. Giving up only 20 points to Michigan is a heck of a job. (16 came via pick six and a safety on a punt). Michigan beat us with their speed a few times by getting outside on a run or a receiver finding space down the middle, but UC was mostly in position all game long. UC largely won the battle up front with their defensive line and Michigan really struggled to run at us. I thought the defensive line pressured well enough that the corners were not overexposed in the passing game. We did a pretty good job most the game of crowding the center of the field and making it hard to get us there. Very impressive performance across the board by the D.

The offense is clearly a work in progress but I want to start with a few positives. I thought the gameplan on offense was really solid. Michigan is fantastic on defense and UC managed to create opportunities to make plays. The wide receiver screens were effective. They got their receivers in some areas where they were open.

The big problem on offense was UC just missed too often when there was a play to be made. The first int was on a third down, where UC got what they wanted. The receiver ran his route to an open area, but Moore threw the ball well behind him and it was intercepted and taken to the house. UC should have picked up the first down instead they gave up a key 7 points. The drive before Michigan shanked the punt Moore had a similar miss. Michigan was playing a cover two look to the right side. They covered the inside guy running an out, and left the outside guys little slant/curl open. Moore again threw behind the receiver, who was open for a first down and UC punted.

The next possession was the biggest miss of the game. 17-14 game and Michigan shanks a punt. UC starts in Michigan territory and just doesn't execute. They punt and Michigan gets a big TD drive. Next drive UC moves the ball... has a third and long but Michigan only plays a single high safety (they did this many times) and UC rightly attacked down the sideline. This time it was an absolutely perfect throw from Hayden Moore and it went right through the arms of a receiver. That was a touchdown pass and Moore lead him right up the field. 24-21 in the 4th quarter and things could go much differently. However, that's really what it came down to... UC was in position to execute several times, the right play call and even decision was made, but UC just failed to execute either by dropping the ball or Moore delivering a poor throw.

A couple other thoughts. My only real complaints from the staff were: 1. Right before the half where they got into field goal range, but were out of timeouts. With 9 seconds left and being inside of 50 yards you just have to go ahead and kick there. Without any timeouts far more bad can happen than good. We may have been able to hit from 47... 52 just didn't have the leg. 2. The play that ended in a punt safety was absolutely a go for it situation. It was late enough that the game wasn't going to get excessively out of hand. There were only 7 minutes left and UC was down 13. It was a short distance for the first down. If you don't get it...maybe Michigan scores a TD to go up 20 and you run it out, but who cares? That is not a big risk when the upside is staying alive. 3. They need to get the play call in earlier if they are going to make decisions at the line based on the defensive look. They did that well the first drive of the second half, but struggled much of the day which lead to some delay of game penalties or unneeded timeouts. Other than that, I thought the staff called a good game.

Also, I thought the officials were largely excellent. The celebration penalty was a joke, they gave Michigan a ridiculous spot on 3rd down (but that was overturned anyways) but other than that I didn't not see many big misses or awful calls. You don't always get that in a Big Ten stadium. Fun game. Michigan fans were first class. UC showed a ton of heart and potential on defense. Offense has a way to go, but those windows should be bigger against everyone else on the schedule. Looking forward to next Saturday.

(09-11-2017 10:18 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  We too had a really good trip to Michigan. Left between 4 and 4:30 AM on Saturday morning. We were in the tailgate lot by 9:00 AM. Found a great spot on the golf course. Bearcat fans were tailgating in force. We had several groups of Michigan fans around us, all were absolutely first class.

We bought 4 tickets in row 57 around the 20 yard line on stubhub for about 60.00 a piece. (I kept checking my phone all day Friday waiting for the perfect deal and was able to pounce when I found the,). The seats were great. The concourse level is row 56, so we only had to walk up one row to get to our seats (and were right next to the concourse exit). The disadvantage of those seats is we were surrounded by Michigan fans, but almost every one of them was great. Talked to them about their program, shared a few jokes about Ohio State and they were very complimentary of how our front 7 played (particularly the defensive line who made it really hard for Michigan to run up the middle). There were two fans the row behind us that seemed like they were ready to be jerks, but with how well we got along with everyone else they mostly kept quiet about it.

Now to my thoughts on the game itself:

I thought the defense was fantastic. Giving up only 20 points to Michigan is a heck of a job. (16 came via pick six and a safety on a punt). Michigan beat us with their speed a few times by getting outside on a run or a receiver finding space down the middle, but UC was mostly in position all game long. UC largely won the battle up front with their offensive line and Michigan really struggled to run at us. I thought the defensive line pressured well enough that the corners were not overexposed in the passing game. We did a pretty good job most the game of crowding the center of the field and making it hard to get us there. Very impressive performance across the board by the D.

The offense is clearly a work in progress but I want to start with a few positives. I thought the gameplan on offense was really solid. Michigan is fantastic on defense and UC managed to create opportunities to make plays. The wide receiver screens were effective. They got their receivers in some areas where they were open.

The big problem on offense was UC just missed too often when there was a play to be made. The first int was on a third down, where UC got what they wanted. The receiver ran his route to an open area, but Moore threw the ball well behind him and it was intercepted and taken to the house. UC should have picked up the first down instead they gave up a key 7 points. The drive before Michigan shanked the punt Moore had a similar miss. Michigan was playing a cover two look to the right side. They covered the inside guy running an out, and left the outside guys little slant/curl open. Moore again through behind the receiver, who was open for a first down and UC punted.

The next possession was the biggest miss of the game. 17-14 game and Michigan shanks a punt. UC starts in Michigan territory and just doesn't execute. They punt and Michigan gets a big TD drive. Next drive UC moves the ball... has a third and long but Michigan only plays a single high safety (they did this many times) and UC rightly attacked down the sideline. This time it was an absolutely perfect through from Hayden Moore and it went right through the arms of a receiver. That was a touchdown pass and Moore lead him right up the field. 24-21 in the 4th quarter and things could go much differently. However, that's really what it came down to... UC was in position to execute several times, the right play call and even decision was made, but UC just failed to execute either by dropping the ball or Moore delivering a poor throw.

A couple other thoughts. My only real complaints from the staff were: 1. Right before the half where they got into field goal range, but were out of timeouts. With 9 seconds left and being inside of 50 yards you just have to go ahead and kick there. Without any timeouts far more bad can happen than good. We may have been able to hit from 47... 52 just didn't have the leg. 2. The play that ended in a punt safety was absolutely a go for it situation. It was late enough that the game wasn't going to get excessively out of hand. There were only 7 minutes left and UC was down 13. It was a short distance for the first down. If you don't get it...maybe Michigan scores a TD to go up 20 and you run it out, but who cares? That is not a big risk when the upside is staying alive. 3. They need to get the play call in earlier if they are going to make decisions at the line based on the defensive look. They did that well the first drive of the second half, but struggled much of the day which lead to some delay of game penalties or unneeded timeouts. Other than that, I thought the staff called a good game.

Also, I thought the officials were largely excellent. The celebration penalty was a joke, they gave Michigan a ridiculous spot on 3rd down (but that was overturned anyways) but other than that I didn't not see many big misses or awful calls. You don't always get that in a Big Ten stadium. Fun game. Michigan fans were first class. UC showed a ton of heart and potential on defense. Offense has a way to go, but those windows should be bigger against everyone else on the schedule. Looking forward to next Saturday.

A truly woulda, coulda, shoulda game. I think it took us a while to realize their pants went on the same way ours did. Just like at Oklahoma - we seemed in awe of the situation and then settled down. We need to fix the delay penalties and Moore has to make more accurate throws.