The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 10, 2005 - 5B The.Daily Dashboard After every game of the 2005 season, The Michigan Daily's football writers will take you fora ride in Lloyd's car. The gauges all refer to different variables that will fluctuate from week to week, depending on how the team and fans perform. Defensive Intensity is a measure of - you guessed it -how well the Wolverines manage to stop their oppo- nents. The Carr-ometer is a rough gauge of head coach Lloyd Carr's opinion of his team's play, as judged from his postgame comments. The Hypemeter provides out opinion of how well you, the fans, supported the Wolverines. Volume, consis- tency and awareness will all be considered. Rush Yards is a straightfor,- ward measure of Michigan's ground yardage total in each game. Since an effective. running game is crucial to postseason success - espe- cially for this year's squad, which is loaded at running back - this statistic figures to be a consistently impor, taut indicator. Defensive Intensity Carr-o-meter Hypemeter Rush Yards It's hard to put all the blame for this loss on the defense. Sure, the unit let Minnesota's Gary Rus- sell get outside and run for 61 yards on the final drive, but the defense did some things right, too. David Harris continued his tear with 18 tackles, and nine Michigan defenders finished with at least five. But the most intense moment of the game might have taken place after time expired. Harris, Alan Branch, LaMarr Woodley and Prescott Bur- gess sat on the bench and looked as if they wanted to kill someone or cry - or maybe both. If only their outside containment was better ... It was clear from the moment Carr walked into the press conference that this loss hurt him sig- nificantly. He obviously didn't want to be the coach that had a hand in the Gophers getting the Little Brown Jug back. But it was also evident that he was extremely disappointed in the Wol- verines' play. He reiterated throughout the press- er that he thought there were too many mistakes - dropped passes, misreads, poor pass protec- tion and missed assignments. Despite Garret Rivas missing two kicks, Carr let everyone know he still had confidence in the junior kicker. Maybe you were all a little tired from cheering for the hockey team on Friday night. Maybe not. Either way, it was an up-and-down day for the Michigan faithful. When the Wolverines threw their arms in the air and implored you to cheer, you willingly obliged. But about 50 percent of the time, those cheers didn't last long enough to make a real difference. Still, those pom-poms were waving at the start, and you basically went nuts when Steve Breaston returned that kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. All in all, not your best effort, but not too bad, either. Really, this stat says as much about the Wolver- ines' pass protection as it does about the running game. Mike Hart finished with 109 yards on 28 carries - not as electrifying as last week, but still respectable. His 20-yard scamper in the first quarter was particularly impressive. The sopho- more took the ball up the middle, stopped on a dime and ran to the right sideline before heading out of bounds. But the Gophers' defense sacked Chad Henne three times for a loss of 19 yards. Michigan will be hard-pressed to win a Big Ten game with 94 yards on the ground. I* rthtgan OWNU STAFF PICKS Predictions against the spread for 10/8/05 Minnesota (+7.5) at No. 21 Michigan Arizona (+37.5) at No. 1 Southern Cal Oklahoma (+14) vs. No. 2 Texas Marshall (+35) at No. 3 Virginia Tech Wake Forest (+21) at No. 4 Florida State No. 5 Georgia (+3) at No. 8 Tennessee No. 6 Ohio State (-3.5) at No..16 Penn State Duke (+35) at No. 9 Miami No. 10 California (+1) at No. 20 UCLA No. 11 Louisiana State (-15.5) at Vanderbilt Mississippi State (+27.5) at No. 13 Florida No. 14 Wisconsin (-7) at Northwestern No. 15 Texas Tech (-4.5) at Nebraska No. 20 Oregon (+10) at No. 17 Arizona State Virginia (+7) at No. 38 Boston College North Carolina (+13) at No. 23 Louisville Illinois (+6) at Indiana Best Bet Record this week Overall Gabe Edelson Ian Herbert Michigan Southern Cal Texas Marshall Florida State Georgia Ohio State Miami California Louisiana State Mississippi State Wisconsin Texas Tee Arizona State Minnesota Southern Cal Oklahoma Virginia Tech Florida State Tennessee Ohio State Duke UCLA Louisiana State Mississippi State Northwestern Texas Tech Arizona State Matt Venegoni Michigan Southern Cal Texas Virginia Tech Florida State Georgia Ohio State Miami UCLA Louisiana State Florida Wisconsin Nebraska Arizona State Boston College Louisville Indiana Michigan 9-8 (0-1) 42-35-2(2-3) Stephanie Wright Michigan Arizona Texas Marshall Florida State Georgia Ohio State Miami UCLA Louisiana State Mississippi State Wisconsin Texas Tech Arizona State Boston College Louisville Illinois Florida State 10-7 (0-1) 4433-2(44) Publisher Stanford Lipsey Michigan Arizona Texas Virginia Tech Florida State Georgia Ohio State Duke California Louisiana State Mississippi State Wisconsin Texas Tech Oregon Boston College North Carolina Illinois Michigan 7-10 (0-1) 3542-2(1-4) Best bets aren't so great after all; no one gets the pick right Ian looked pretty stupid last week when he was the only one to pick against Michigan. But he got the last laugh this week with his Minnesota pick. Maybe now the rest of the beat will ditch its hometown bias. Stephanie was bummed that she ruined her perfect record on best bets, but winning the week made her feel a little better. Now she's in the lead for best bets and overall record. Gabe and Matt had solid weeks, each finishing one game above .500. But Matt feels pretty dumb about picking Michigan as his best bet. (He is from Minnesota, after all.) For a celebrity, Stanford had an average week, tying Ian with a 7-10 record. Most impressive, Stanford was the only one to pick Oregon, which beat Arizona State by 14. Well done. Boston College Louisville Indiana Wisconsin 9-8 (0-1) 4037-2(2.3) Virginia Louisville Indiana Ohio State 7-10 (0-1) 42-35-2 (2-3) * VENEGONI Continued from page 1B Glen Mason would only let him put the ball in someone else's hands. But somehow, that worked for the Gophers. With less than three minutes remaining, and with its starting quarterback out, Minnesota looked content to take it to overtime and see what happened. Instead, the Gophers won a game that they'd been waiting 19 years for. After the loss, no Michigan player or coach hid the fact that he knew Minnesota was going to run on that fateful third-and-10. But even with that knowledge, the defense let sophomore Gary Rus- sell scamper 61 yards for a first down to take the Jug back. No one really could explain what was going on. "We were in what we call 'backer support,' where that ball should be turned in by our out- side linebacker," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "I think he got blocked. From my van- tage point, it looked like the ball got outside of him. Then we didn't get the rotation we needed because we knew they were going to run the foot- ball. That's the frustrating, discouraging thing about that play." Said senior co-captain Pat Massey: "We didn't play well. That's for sure. Especially when we have the game in our hands like that and we don't come up with a stop. It's a poor performance." Frustration is probably the perfect word for what most Michigan fans are feeling right now. Many were probably asking, "How the hell can they give up a play like that when they knew Minnesota was going to run the ball?!" That's difficult to answer, and I don't have the solution. But this game is just an example of how the Wolverines' season has gone this year - a few highs and way too many lows. Early on, the game looked like it was Michigan's for the taking. The Wolverines marched down the field and kicked a field goal. I'm pretty sure most Michigan fans were thinking that this was going to be just like many of the last 16 games. Luck and good fortune were on the Wolver- ines' side. On Michigan's first drive. Mark Losli LIONS ROAR? Penn State heads into its first matchup with the Wolverines since 2002 as the only undefeated team left in the Big Ten. While the Nittany Lions are riding high, Michigan has suffered its worst start in 1i years. But that doesn't mean Penn State will cruise to an easy victory. If the recent history between these two storied pro- grams shows anything, it's that nothing is predictable when Michigan and Penn State face off. Michigan has won the last five games despite the fact that Penn State was ranked higher in two of the contests. Here's a look back at the last five games in the series. 2002 - No. 13 Michigan 27, No. 15 Penn State 24 (OT) Quarterback John Navarre connected with Braylon Edwards for a touchdown to tie the score at 21 late in the fourth quarter and send the game into overtime. Michigan won the toss and chose to begin overtime on defense. On the Nittany Lion's thirddown play, Michigan cornerback Marlin Jackson broke up a pass to force Penn State to kick a field for a 24-21 lead. The Wolverines took posses- sion, and, on third-and-one, tailback Chris Perry scored a touchdown to give Michigan a 27-24 win, 2001 - No. 15 Michigan 20, Penn State 0 Michigan handed Joe Paterno his first home shutout in 36 years of coaching. In a display of defensive dominance, the Wolverines held Penn State to just 25 rushing yards on 26 carries. Michigan's defense recorded four sacks and two interceptions and recovered a fumble. Linebacker Victor Hobson notched nine tackles to lead all Michigan defenders. On the offensive side of the ball, Navarre finished with 246 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-31 passing. 2000 - No. 20 Michigan 33, Penn State 11 Tailback Anthony Thomas amassed 171 yards on 35 carries in the Wolver- ines' win - the 21st time he topped 100 yards rushing in his Michigan career - and moved into second place on the all time rushing list. The Nittany Lions started the scoring with a field goal late in the first quarter but didn't score again until the middle of the fourth. Michigan quarterback Drew Henson finished with 212 yards and two touchdowns on 14-of-29 passing. 1999 - No. 16 Michigan 31, No. 6 Penn State 27 With 1:46 remaining in the second half, quarterback Tom Brady threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Marcus Knight to give Michigan the victory. The Wolverines came back from a 27-17 deficit to upset the it:>..,... ...