Since I know this is the first place you all come for your college football blogging, I just want to say how surprised I was by the Michigan game today. Oh, I expected them to lose, but I expected them to lose because the defense wouldn’t be able to keep Notre Dame from scoring the dozens of touchdowns that it would take to overcome the Wolverine offense. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to see the defense finally show some steel, and unpleasantly surprised to see the wheels come completely off the offense. An offense which, by the way, was the only reason on paper that Michigan was ranked so absurdly high during pre-season, and even after the pathetic performance of the defense against Northern Illinois last week.

But what’s really amazing to me is that despite how badly the offense played (and particularly the quarterback, who really singlehandedly lost the game today), they came so close to winning it so many times. They just didn’t seem to want to. Also frustrating was how much they teased their loyal fans throughout the game, continually barely keeping hope alive, so we wouldn’t turn the game off and go do something useful. No team that gets inside the twenty yard line three times (and gets a first and goal on the one) and can’t come up with a score deserves to win.

Well, the bloom is off the rose, and it’s clear that this is a rebuilding year for Michigan. Carr should have changed quarterbacks sometime during the second half–he might have been able to eke out a win if he had. But at least now, there will be no false sense of grandeur, since there’s no way that they’ll maintain their lofty position in the polls (they never should have been that high in the first place, in my opinion), and get more serious about coming back. If Notre Dame goes on to have a good season, it won’t be shameful to have lost to them early, and while it’s extremely unlikely that Michigan will get to the Rose Bowl now (and in fact always was, despite the nonsensical early ranking), they still have a good chance at the BCS. I’m encouraged by the defense that I saw today, once they settled down, and the old saying is that it’s defense that wins championships.

If Michigan can play up to their potential on both sides of the ball, they’ll have a good season. But if the offense can’t get it together, or do better than they did today, it will merely be a long one.

[Evening update]

Halfway through the fourth quarter of the tOSU-Texas game, it’s clear that Michigan has a lot of improving to do to win the B10 championship this year, even disregarding the slaughter in Ames today, which will have a certain blogger who delights in mocking other people crying in his pork-fortified soy milk. The Buckeyes look pretty damn good.

[One more update, in the last few minutes of the game]

I’ve seen what seems to me to be an unusually high number of bad fumble calls today, only to see them reversed today after review, in both the Michigan and Ohio State games. I’m wondering if the refs are getting more sloppy in their play calling because they know that the ruling is reversible?

[Final update]

Well, with Ohio State’s loss (though they still look like scary opponents for Michigan in November), it was a disastrous day for the Big 10. Three teams in the top ten, and all lost today.