Michigan - Purdue Review: Sad for the Seniors

I'm sad for Brandon Graham, Brandon Minor, Carlos Brown, Zoltan Mesko, and all of Michigan's seniors. When they came to Michigan, they never thought they would not be going to bowl games.

That was a given, right, being a Wolverine. Anything from the Rose to the Alamo was an option. Well, not in 2008 and for all intensive purposes not in 2009 either. Michigan had two good chances to get to six wins by beating Illinois and Purdue teams near the bottom of the Big Ten.

They now have to face Wisconsin on the road and Ohio State in the Big House, two teams at the top of the Big Ten.

In a day where the Michigan offense showed some life, the defense flat lined. Purdue was shutout by Wisconsin last week and looked liked New Orleans Saints on Saturday. What cures the offensive blues? The Michigan defense does. Look at Illinois, they beat Minnesota on Saturday.

If the next two weeks play out like most of us think, Michigan will have started 4-0 and finished 1-7 with their only win coming against a D1A school Delaware State. That is just pure disappointing all around. Nobody thought Michigan was heading for a New Years Day Bowl after 4-0, but most people thought they could find two more wins on the schedule.

Is the team better then last year? Yes, on the offense side of the ball. The defense no.

What about next year? I don't see a lot of improvements coming next year either. Brandon Graham will be heading to the NFL and Warren may join him if he thinks he will be drafted in the first couple of rounds.

Cheers:

• The Brandon Brothers - Minor and Graham both had good days.
• The offensive line showed some improvement.
• Roy Roundtree played well in the slot.

Jeers:

• The entire defense is terrible.
• Greg Robinson.
• Rich Rodriguez (please stop getting out coached by Danny Hope).
• Jason Olesnavage a missed extra point and the missed field goal in the fourth.

Teams are going to pull out the stops to be the Wolverines, Michigan first better understand that and second start playing that way too. They just don't have enough talent to beat teams straight up.

Thank goodness Michigan Basketball starts next week. Michigan is ranked No. 15 in the nation and will have the dynamic duo of Manny Harris and DeShawn Simms coming back.