3 Steps to Victory, A Recipe for Beating MSU

I'm going to keep this simple. I think Michigan can beat little brother this weekend if we simply do three things:

• Win the turnover battle
• Tackle better
• No defensive penalties

If we do those things, there is no way Sparty can beat us. The only team on the field this weekend that can keep us from winning is Michigan. We almost lost to Indiana because of self-destruction. We killed ourselves by giving up massive yardage in bad penalties and missed tackles.

Our offense is going to score huge amounts of points against a very weak MSU defense. They have never seen a Michigan offense like this. Just as long as our defense can keep the mistakes to a minimum, that's all its going to take to win this game. I hope that it doesn't turn out to be a shootout like the Indiana game did. And I think part of that might have been lack of focus by the players because of this looming in-state rivalry the following week. I mean, lets face it, who gets pumped to play Indiana anyway?

And that's it. It's that simple. Tate's arm is going to be fine...that concern seems to have been put to rest after news that he participated in full practice this week. And even if he's only say...80%, we still have Denard who will literally run circles around the MSU defense while Tate gets breather on the bench. Our offense will roll with either QB at the helm.

I think Rodriguez will have these guys pumped for their first road test of the season. There could be a drive or two in the beginning of the game where our young guys look a little tense...that's to be expected. So I think it will come down to guys like Minor, Brown and Matthews to help calm the nerves of our young QB and receivers. Like I said, our biggest opponent this weekend is ourselves.

I want nothing more than to see the famous SOS (Same Old Sparty) this weekend. However, usually their season tanks after Michigan beats them. Looks like they're just getting a little head start this year.

Here's to 1-4 little brah! And most importantly, 5-0!

Cheers! And GO BLUE!