The Wolverines fell behind for the first time this season, and posted their first scoreless quarter of the season in the first quarter on Saturday. At the half it was a worrisome 10-10 tie. The inevitable let down game was upon us. The 111,000+ on hand to see the team that dominated the Irish were slowly coming down from the clouds to realize that all the games can't be easy. There was even a light spattering of boos as the team jogged to the tunnel.

But quite possibly the most dominating defense in all of college football came out in the second half and refused to let the offense lose. They were the motivating force, and made field position every bit as important as points. The Badgers went without a first down in the second half until the five minute mark of the 4th quarter. And because of field position gained through defense and Steve Breaston, Michigan's longest drive of the day occurred in the 3rd quarter and was a paltry 56 yards. It included a Henne-to-Manningham TD (the second of the day) of the 38 yard variety. After a 42-yard punt was negated by a 27-yard Breaston return, Michigan sealed it with 4-play, 33-yard drive into the maize-clad student section. Michigan wins 27-13.

The Good Numbers:

Mario Manningham: 7 receptions for 113 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Adrian Arrington: 4 receptions for 79 yards.

Wisconsin rushing yards: 12

PJ Hill, formerly the Big Ten's leading rusher: 20 carries for 54 yards

The Bad Numbers:

Michigan was 2 of 13 on 3rd down

Chad Henne had 3 interceptions

Michigan gave up 236 passing yards to John Stocco, his highest total this season

Steve Breaston, 2 receptions for 5 yards

The Tex Mex tailgate went very well, with breakfast burritos, barbeque beef brisket, chili dogs, a plethora of chips and dips, and countless other Tex-Mex favorites. Yucca also made its yearly appearence.

Real quick before I start, a shout out to Jake from Motown Sports Revival, who had the dubious task of sitting in front of me at the ND game. He has a great post about "Lloydball plus risks," which a phrase he used several times throughout the game. The post includes this little gem...

Big props to my dawg from UMtailgate.com. I had the pleasure of meeting him on Saturday. He sat behind me at the game and it was enjoyable to have someone as passionate as I am to share in the joy of Michigan's monumental victory. He also whipped out a king kong sized version of one of mgoblog's shirts appropriately titled, "Notre Dame: Returning to Glory Since 1993".

Translation: "I sat in front of this nut. He was huge and donned a shirt that was so gargantuan that it could have been used for making a homeless shelter." Thanks for the shout out Jake...hope we bump into each other again.

Have you settled down yet from the weekend? Me neither. Wins like the one on Saturday stay with you for a while...weeks, months, sometimes years. At the same time, the feel good moment of the century can disappear faster than ND TV timeout (poor example). A letdown this Saturday would be, well, devastating. So here's to the boys keeping their focus for the Big Ten opener.

First of all, unlike last week, I don't hate the Badgers. I love their town. Madison, Wisconsin is a trip we look forward to every other year, and from the Essen House toState Street Brats, it never disappoints. And rarely do the Wolverines disappoint when they take the field at Camp Randall, boasting a 22-5 record there.

Michigan has the nation's leading rushing defense, the ninth ranked total defense, and is second in nation in turnover margin. So, why not relax? The unranked and overlooked Badgers have a top ten national ranking in passing efficiency defense, pass defense, and scoring defense. And they have basically the same team as last year, a team that crushed the hopes and dreams of the 2005 Michigan squad, breaking a 24-year-old Big Ten opener winning streak with a 23-20 win in Madison.

The School: