Harbaugh did not need our playbook. He had two and a half games of film to watch.

So did UCLA who had 2 games to watch and Boise St. who had 2 years and 1 game and Nebraska who had all of the last 2 years of game film with Taysom to watch yet BYU still averaged 400+ yards of offense in each of those games despite how overly predictable it is. So how could Michigan whose defense was pathetic in its first 3 games suddenly become the second coming of defenses seemingly overnight??? Even as I have pointed out that BYU's offense is overly predictable by a considerable margin. There is still a margin of error in which the defense would miss an assignment, blow a coverage or just plain guess wrong but Michigan's defense made no mistake at all not even when the 2nd and 3rd string defense came in during the 4th quarter and are more error prone than the 1st string from lack of reps. Michigan's defense still was able to make the right call. You look at the accuracy in which Michigan defensive calls were correct it was astronomically high (around 100%) far more than can be accounted for by simply watching 3 games of game film of an overly predictable offense.

If BYU offense had say 10 plays in it for simplicity sake. There would be 10 plays that could be called in 10 different orders or 100 player per 3 downs that would have to be stopped which equates to 300 different plays a series to have to defend. The odds of Michigan or anyone else could be as accurate in knowing which plays to call to defend those plays and when to call them is astronomically low yet Michigan knew precisely which defensive play to call and when to call it and at such an accurate rate requires a lot more knowledge than can be gleaned from the mere watching of game tapes no matter how predictable the offense is.

Yet BYU's offense performed well against 3 teams that would crush Michigan defense and UCLA's stadium holds at least as many fans as Michigan's stadium and Nebraska’s stadium held 95,000 fans and UCLA and Nebraska's fans were twice as loud.

Which begs the question if Michigan can get that kind info from watching film from 3 games of an overly predictable offense then why couldn't Nebraska who had 2 years of game film of that same overly predicable offense with Taysom running it and UCLA who had 2 games of game film to do it with and Boise St. who had game film of 2 years and 1 game to do it with and why no one in the last 3 years with this overly predictable offense has been able to get the kind of info to defend BYUs offense as effectivily as Michigan did???

Which also begs the question is why wasn't Michigan able to glean that kind of information from watching game film of it first 3 opponents as accurately as they did from watching BYU's game film???

Sorry but the only way Michigan could have had the kind of defensive turn around and to be as accurate as they were in there defensive play calling is if they had BYU play book and with enough time to practice with it.

You must have forgotten that football is a physical game. It's not Harbaugh vs. Bronco in rock, paper, scissors. If your receivers don't separate and your line can't hold blocks, Jim Harbaugh could be calling the plays from the bathroom using a dartboard while blindfolded, and we still wouldn't score a point.

Michigan didn't blow a coverage because the coverage was always "man," and they always stuck to their guy like glue. The whole defense simply did what Bronco always preaches - play assignment sound. When you do that, win your 1-on-1 matchups, and don't miss tackles, you just win. Period.

A couple of comments from someone who doesn't pretend to be football expert:

Even the announcers mentioned that Harbaugh was playing every play "as if they knew exactly what the play call was". No accusation - but they did seem to know exactly what was coming at them.

From the part of the game I was able to watch, I saw that the main method used by their defense was to get hold of the BYU receivers and never let go. Pretty hard to get open when they've got you wrapped up. What was mentioned by some of the BYU players later was the need for them to be tougher and more physical in those situations. So if there is no such penalty as holding, find a way to get away and get open, rather than just looking for a flag.

I think as tough as the experience was, it will make the team more determined going forward.

No I didn't forget, but again Nebraska, Boise St., and UCLA were every bit as physical as Michigan. If your statement that Harbaugh could be calling plays from the bathroom using a dartboard while blindfolded, and we still wouldn’t score a point was true then please explain how #6 UCLA, Nebraska, and Boise St. all of which are better defensively than Michigan weren't able to do it?