The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, November 13, 2006 - 5B MAIZE GAUGE The Michigan Daily football writers break down the weekend's stats that don't show up in the box- score. The defense-o-meter measures the intensity of the defense, the Carr-o-meter judges Lloyd Carr's demeanor following the game and the hypemeter measures the fans' game performance. DEFENSE-O-METER 414 The defense made last week's poor showing against Ball State a distant memory. It held a solid Indiana offense to a season- low 131 yards on offense, includingjust 26 on the ground. That brings the season average to 30 yards per game. CARR-O-METER 4/4 Carr was thrilled after the game, and why not? He's steered Michigan to an 11-0 record heading into the biggest game any of us have ever seen. Now it's time for Lloyd and his staff to get down to business gameplanning for OSU. HYPEMETER If it were up to us at the Daily, Indiana would lose its cer- tification as a public institution. Saturday's showing was 4 atrocious. Michigan fans drowned out Indiana fans from the opening snap, and by game's end, it was like a home game. STAFF PICKS Predictions against the spread for Nov. 11 This week, Jason and Randy Sklar upgraded their cheap seats on ESPN Classic to the enclosed seating of The Michigan Daily staff picks. No.2 Michigan (-19) at Indiana No.1 Ohio State (-23.5) at Northwestern No.3 Louisville (-7.5) at No.15 Rutgers No. 4 Texas (-17) at Kansas State Georgia(+13) at No.0S Auburn South Carolina (+13.5) at No. 6 Florida No. 21Oregon (+8) at No.7SouthernCal No. 8 California t-14) at Arizona No.9 Notre Dame(-12) at Air Force Cincinnati(+19) at No.10 West Virginia No.13 Tennessee (+5.5) at No.11Arkansas Alabama(+18) at No.12 Louisiana State No. 14 Boise State (-14.5) at San JoseState No.16 Wisconsin (even) at Iowa Texas Tech (+9) at No.l17Oklahoma No. 18 Wake Forest (+8.5) at Florida State No.19 Georgia Tech (-14) at North Carolina Kent (+29) at No.20 Virginia Tech Duke (+28) at No.22 Boston College Miami (even) at No.23 Maryland Nebraska (-1) at No. 24 Texas A&M Wyoming (+18) at No. 25 BYU Purdue(+3) at inois Minnesota (-2) at Michigan State Temple (+36) at Penn State Best Bet Record overall Record ~ ; '. ., . -:: 3 i . .... _ _y Scott Matt Bell Singer indiana Michigan Northwestern Northwesterr 'n Kevin Stephanie Wright Wright Indiana Michigan Northwestern Northwestern Louisville Texas Auburn South Carolina Southern Cal California Notre Dame West Virginia Arkansas Alabama Boise State Wisconsin Oklahoma Wake Forest Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Boston College Maryland Texas A & M BYU Purdue Minnesota Temple Georgia Tech 12-12-1 (0-1) 103-101-8 (3-6-1) Louisville Texas Auburn Florida Southern Cal California Notre Dame Cincinnati Tennessee Alabama Boise State Wisconsin Texas Tech Wake Forest Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Duke Miami Texas A & M Wyoming Purdue Michigan State Penn State Tennessee 10-14-1 (0-1) 99-105-8 (4-6) Louisville Texas Georgia South Carolina Oregon California Notre Dame West Virginia Arkansas Alabama Boise State Wisconsin Texas Tech Wake Forest Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Boston College Maryland Nebraska BYU Ilinois Minnesota Temple California 10-14-1 (0-1) 95-109-8 (5-5) Louisville Texas Auburn Florida Southern Cal California Notre Dame West Virginia Tennessee Alabama Boise State Wisconsin Texas Tech Wake Forest Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Duke Maryland Nebraska Wyoming Purdue Michigan State Tempie Notre Dame 9-15-1 (1-0) 95-109-8 (5-5) Michigan Ohio State Rutgers Texas Auburn Florida Oregon California Notre Dame West Virginia Tennessee Louisiana State Boise State Wisconsin Oklahoma Florida State Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Boston College Maryland Nebraska BYU Purdue Minnesota Penn State Wisconsin 11-13-B (1-0) 111-93-8 (5-4-1) Pickers continue to struggle. Mediocrity is the new bench- mark here at the Daily. Scott Bell topped the weekly standings with a.500 mark, but still trails the celebs by eight games. Jason and Randy Sklar, co- hosts of ESPN Classic's "Cheap Seats," kept the celebrities on top with a respectable showing con- sidering how the rest of the Daily football writers performed. Their pick of Wisconsin as their best bet was enough to put the celebs on top of that category, as well. Bell would also like to let it be known that he's accepting thank yous for picking against Michigan this week. During Michigan's hot streak at the beginning of the year, he continually picked against Michigan. Then, the two weeks prior to this week's game, he picked Michigan - and the Wolverines struggled. This week, he sacrificed a correct pick in the name of getting Michigan back on track for the Ohio State game. Kevin Wright continues to pick California as his best bet and continues to look like a moron. Oh well, Kev, at least you keep getting your name in the paper. The race for top spot among the Daily writers could still be anyone's ball game. Matt Singer has been consistent enough to stay in the.race, and may be ready to pounce on Bell this weekend. BELL - From page 1B five days. Oh, and don't forget special teams. Do you guys remember Steve Breaston? No, not the Steve Breaston who seemed to be con- tent as a third option in Michi- gan's passing attack this season. I'm talking about the Rose Bowl- record setting Steve Breaston. You know, the one who ran circles around Texas two years ago in Pasadena. He returned a punt for 83 yards and a score to go along with his 100-plus yards receiving on Saturday. Yeah, that guy. It might be good to get him fired up for the Ohio State game. Think he heard about Ohio State alum Kirk Herbstreit calling him "worthless" leading up to The Game? Well, maybe thoughts of the Buckeyes seeped a little bit into the players' minds. But why not pre- pare for Ohio State in the process, as long as you're not overlooking the Hoosiers while doing it. Finally, with the game in hand, one person cracked - kind of. "Of course, you think about it - 'I can't wait'til next week,'" said junior running back Mike Hart, who also hinted that the team might have looked past Ball State last week. "Probably when the game got to when we were up by 28 points, I knew it was over. You're just happy on the sideline. I wasn'tcsitting there talking about 0-State, but you're happy thinking about it. "I guess you could say you were thinking about it. You just know that you got through this game, and you were undefeated. I wasn't thinking about game plan and stuff like that. It was just like, 'We're 11- 0, they're 11-0.'" Mike, I think we'll let that one slide. Funny enough, the person who let his guard down the most was the head of the program: Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, who I'm guess- ing had his hand in planning the gag order in the first place. "I don't think I'd talk about that if it happened," Carr joked when asked if he thought about Ohio State during the game. That charade didn't last long. The coach of Michigan's last national title team (1997) went on to say that the Buckeyes were admittedly in the back of his mind on Saturday - though he tried get- ting rid of them. But guess what? The ridicu- lous circus regarding The Game is finally upon us. There are five more days of talk ahead. But come Saturday, nothing that's happened so far this season matters. No 26-point wins against Notre Dame canhelp the Wolverinesslow down Troy Smith. Will the fact that Michigan's defense knocked out two Nittany Lion quarterbacks in Happy Valley mean anything in Columbus? I don't think so. Now Michigan, which still sits comfortably at the No. 2 spot in all major college football polls, doesn't have to worry about mak- ing it to The Game unblemished. The one thing left for the Wol- verines is to close the door on the team that has ruled from atop the college football world all season. Just one more hurdle to climb to complete the Revenge 2006 tour. Less than one week away. And one game to prove that Michigan is just that: No. 1. - Beli can be reached at scotteboumich.edu. THE MICHIGAN DAILY TOP 10 POLL 7. Notre Dame: Charlie Weis is back. Sure, the Wolverines handed him a bigger loss than dropping a dozen donuts on the ground, but the Fighting Irish are slowly climbing back into the rankings inthe Daily Top 10. &.West Virginia: Thec Mountaineers pr vedtatth g East isn't its highly touted as those hin h ofrec 'm ade it out to bc,. Still West V'irginia hs chnc t xmove back tip Nwhc.n it faces Rutg~erst n hex seao 9. Louisiana State: After losses to Florida and Auburn when those schools were ranked in the top five, the Tigers have bounced back nicely. JaMarcus Russell has led his team on a four-game winning streak. 1 10, Wisconsin:ti .ur zny,6 h agr ae' Also receiving votes: Wake Forest, Boise State, Louisville, Nebraska, Texas. CHECK OUT OUR BLOG, "THE GAME," * FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS LEADING UP TO SATURDAY'S GAME. WE'LL ALSO BE DOING LIVE UPDATES FROM THE GAME IN COLUMBUS. Running back Jerome Jackson holds up a finger after Michigan's 34-3 victory over Indiana. MICHIGANDAILY.COM.