Michigan @ Indiana, 11/14, 3:30p EST, ABC - ESPN/ESPN2 Mirror.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The DL has absorbed a ton of injuries starting with Mone, then Ojumudia. Both Glascow and Hurst are injured.

When Glascow went out the scheme and the effectiveness of the DL changed and not for the better.

The problem for the DL v. Indiana is depth. Durkin started the season with the ability to keep players fresh with a lot of rotation and little drop off. That's gone. I think we're going to see a much less effective Dl going forward, not just v. IU but against the remainder of M's opponents going forward.

[WingsFan]

The best run stopper and probably the second best pass rusher behind Wormley (who has been battling pneumona).

[klondike]

You will see the defense tail off the rest of season. The offense has to step up.

Every team Is feeling the pinch this time of year with injuries.

[Jeff Buchanan]

You will see the defense tail off the rest of season. The offense has to step up.

Every team Is feeling the pinch this time of year with injuries.

Well, yes, of course. Goes without saying.

The bottom line for dealing with injuries is managing their impact in the era of 85 scholarships (which sucks, BTW and should be increased).

My view is that JH/Durkin do have some pretty good players on the DL roster who either have already shown they can step up or are capable.

Just for background, here's what the two deep looked like after spring ball:

SDE: Mario Ojemudia/Chris Wormley
WDE: Taco Charlton/Lawrence Marshall
NT: Bryan Mone/Ryan Glasgow
DT: Wormley/Willie Henry

With Mone gone and Glascow injured, you can add Hurst to the NT list. Pallante is in their too but I don't know his status.

Ojemudia moved to WDE (Buck) but he's gone and Royce-Jenkins-Stone stepped in and has done a good job. Back-up is Lawrence Marshall who has repped but is a big step down from Ojemudia/RJS.

Wormley and Willie Henry are it at DT. Godin backs him up but huge step down there.

After Glascow went out, v. Rutgers it was evident that Durkin was prepared for it and did some moving around with both scheme and personnel. According to the UFR, it was less than optimum and we all saw it at the eyeball level (Brian captures the detail in the UFR).

Here's Brian's take on substitutions:

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Injuries biting into the DL a bit now. Michigan was rotating Hurst and Glasgow until Glasgow went out, at which point Hurst had to go the rest of the way himself. I do think they bought him a little rest by inserting Henry at the nose. Wormley and Henry played most of the game as well; Godin got one snap shortly after Glasgow exited. He must be close, but not close enough. RJS returned to buck. Ross spotted him in passing downs. I called those dime packages.

Since, as most of you know, Glascow has been seen on campus in a sling, I doubt he will play this Saturday and possibly longer. An athlete is put in a sling for one of a couple of reasons: (1) he has an AC separation of a degree from mild to severe, (2) He has a broken clavicle (collar bone), (3) He has a Rotator Cuff (RTC) Sprain or Tear - this kind of thing that involves a number of different muscles, 4 of them to be exact, and I'd include all of the muscles of the shoulder girdle (3 of the deltoids) as potentially involved.

I'm going to speculate he has a shoulder or RTC sprain. I watched the replay multiple times to see what kind of mechanics were involved in the injury. It's hard to tell but I doubt its a clavicular fracture and it takes more impact than I could detect to separate your AC joint to any degree.

He kinda rolled on the left shoulder. He looks like he got the protective device he was wearing on his left forearm caught on Laviano's helmet when he tackled him pulling his shoulder in the process. That points to a sprain or a tear of the shoulder girdle muscles (or RTC).

If it had been torn, he would have undergone a surgical repair pretty quickly. So, doubt its torn which leaves a sprain.

It's gonna be a day to day thing to see how he responds to therapy. He's a tough guy but I doubt the docs will let him play until they are convinced he's healed and has full rom and strength in that arm. At the more severe end of this type injury spectrum, that's 2-3 weeks of rehab.

I'll say this, I don't think there is a better set of orthopods and trainers than the ones that are employed by M's athletic department.

[lineygoblue]

You will see the defense tail off the rest of season. The offense has to step up.

I respectfully disagree. I think the defense will be fine.

But I do agree that the defense will be much better if the offense can produce time consuming touchdown drives.

[Rocky Bleier]

Who or what is a Glass Cow? It's Glasgow. Like the city in Scotland...

[lineygoblue]

I think that's just Jeff typing too fast for his spell checker to keep up ... :-)

[WM Wolverine]

Minnesota last won a B1G championship in '67 while their last outright was in '41. Even worse than Indiana ('67 & '45). Purdue shared the title in '00 though their last outright B1G title was '29...

Illini have periods where they can contend, otherwise they are every bit the B1G's doormats as Minnesota, Purdue & Indiana. Wisconsin and Northwestern were doormats till Alvarez arrived for Wisconsin and Barnett for Northwestern... Iowa till Hayden Fry arrived...

Six of those 7 programs are in the B1G West, the B1G East has Indiana & Rutgers to serve as doormats.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I'm going to have some fun with this.

Advanced Stats as rehashed by a poster of Diaries at mgoblog has Michigan with the best probability (33% +/- 2%) of going to the CCG in Indianapolis. The next highest probability at 20% is osu winning out and going.

Obviously, M has to win out. I don't think that is going to happen and I'm going to start with IU.

Spent a good deal of time detailing injuries to the DL and predicting a significant drop off in performance not so much as it relates to poor performance of a particular player but more to do with a lack of depth that prevents the rotating necessary to keep the DL fresh.

I don't like the match-up between IU's Jordon Howard and a Glasgowless, DL. IU gashed Iowa's, yes that Iowa ranked #5 in the latest CFP Poll, for 145 yards on 20 carries. IU amassed 405 yards against a very good Iowa D. The difference in that game was Iowa's offense versus IU's horrible D.

Which Jake Rudock is going to show up on the road in Bloomington? If I knew the answer to that question, if I had seen Rudock perform on the road in a manner that could guarantee M could match any offensive production IU might manage, I'd feel a lot better about this game. Jake Rudock is the wildcard. If he plays like he played v. Rutgers, M will win. If he doesn't and he plays as poorly as he has played in every road game he has played in, M will lose.

If I were JH and his consortium of schemers and play callers, I'd roll out a game plan that looked a lot like the one we saw v. Rutgers. Heavy on the screens as IU's D plays very much like Rutger's D.

I thought Rudock and the O got in a rhythm and it wasn't one that was balanced between running well and passing well. The run game was meh as it has been for almost every game M has played and that is because 3.5 guys on the OL do the right thing and 1.5 guys biff. You can read the UFR to find out who the culprit here is. That's not going to change and neither are any of the RBs.

So, Rudock has to feel it ..... IT being the TE passing and screen game. I really don't think any defense is going to back out of its propensity to bring a S up and just ignore Rudock throwing deep. I also don't think said biffing OL guy is going to suddenly become great nor do I think RBs are suddenly going to see cut back lanes or little creases that might be available.

I'm preparing for disappointment that the 33% chance that M is going to win out is going to drop to 0% after their visit to IU and I explained why above ...... Rudock being the wild card that will prove me wrong.

[Mike]

That is world-class sandbaggery.

[Ghengis Jon]

He can be a master at that. I think he learned it from Talent.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The truth of the matter is that you two know the feeling .......

That dreaded feeling that has followed us all around for the last 8 years until HARBAUGH!!! ..... and for me, it's not gone yet. I am the quintessential Doubting Thomas. Show me the wounds, Jesus, or more appropriately, show me the wins, Jim.

I just can't shut that off. The feeling that, oh well, the team is going to shit the bed ..... again.

For the better part of 40 years, starting in 1969 with Bo leading M to a win over osu, there was always, I mean ALWAYS, hope and excitement before the beginning of each season and the start of each game.

Blown up, erased, extinguished over the course of the tenures of the last two coaches who were, just fucking awful. They brought Michigan fans, like me and like you, to where I am now thinking that there is certainly something bad that is going to happen.

It's going to take me a few seasons of doing well to convince me Jim Harbaugh is going to lead Michigan football out of the wilderness and to the promised land.

[WM Wolverine]

M's defense can have their worst game of the season BY FAR and the Hoosiers defense will still allow M enough points to win the game. It might be closer than some think, but the Hoosiers defense is too generous for M to lose.

[Jeff Buchanan]

.......the Hoosiers defense will still allow M enough points to win the game. .......

Spare me. The horribleness of the IU Defense in giving up points to M is entirely dependent on how well Rudock can exploit it.

In the three road games played so far, Rudock has not played well shitting the bed in two of them.

I don't get the lack of concern here. Sure, M has something like a 70% probability of a win ...... if everything goes well. But there are three games, on the road where things have not gone well and M not only has to score more points than IU does but M also has to score enough points to keep the officials, who will be on the field calling penalties on phantom plays, from taking a win away from them on some bogus last gasp play by IU.

[UMStan White]

there wasn't a bigger cheerleader in the UM nation than you Jeff when Dickrod was hired. You couldn't wait for him to change the world. Now that Harbaugh is here you've become Hanni Jr.