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I believe Phil Parker is a genius when it comes to coaching DB's but I am a little worried that Iowa's secondary is going to get torched in this game.

4 of the top 6 DB's are either out or just coming back from injuries.  This limits the schemes Iowa can play and forces Parker to play some untested freshmen.  CB DJ Johnson and safety Jack Koerner both look vulnerable if they are forced to play a lot.

Iowa had some success last year with the 4-2-5 alignment,  but Iowa does not have enough DB's to play it, so odds are they will be playing a traditional 4-3 a lot on Saturday.  A good passing team.could exploit this.

Some disagreements:

1) I don't believe Iowa has a better defense than Michigan. At least not yet.

I had said before the season and still believe Ms "D" is not that special.If the Wolverines are going to win it'll have to be thru the air.A quick peek has Iowa's defense ranked no 5 Nationally and Ms at 22 https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/22.Four of the Top Ten Defenses in the Country(statistically) are in the BIG.UW,tOSU,Iowa,MSU.Penn St's is @ 14

Iowa had some success last year with the 4-2-5 alignment,  but Iowa does not have enough DB's to play it, so odds are they will be playing a traditional 4-3 a lot on Saturday.  A good passing team.could exploit this.

Shea hasn't proven to be a good passing team to this point

I like Iowa with the "W"

because Stanley is better than PAtterson

Iowa gave up a bunch of nothing to MTSU and Rutgers, gave up 2 big plays to ISU (granted this is with a depleted secondary) and let Miami OH dink-and-dunk on them. 

Iowa has a good defense, but for some reason it's really been struggling with making plays behind the LOS.  It's been good at keeping stuff in front of them and putting pressure on the QB, but those hurries better start translating to sacks and interceptions because even a blind squirrel is going to find a few nuts every now and then.

Nope - he's been getting double-teamed a lot as a lot of teams are game-planning around him specifically.

Maybe he'll erupt this weekend on a bigger stage.

I would expect Michigan to double Epenesa, especially since it doesn't sound the rest of the DL is anything special. If Michigan can hold up well in pass protection, Patterson should be able to have a good game like he did against Rutgers. Michigan will still run it enough to keep the LBs honest.

Defensively it sounds like Michigan matches up rather well, too. Apparently Iowa's interior OL isn't that great either, which mitigates Michigan's lack of DT depth. Iowa's RBs are decent but not great, so I think the defense can contain that pretty well. I'm primarily concerned about giving up any big pass plays.

Otherwise, the biggest concern is turnovers. Obviously, Michigan has had some bad ones before last week and also hasn't really been able to force many this year.

It should be a close game. I'll say Michigan wins 27-23.

Iowa has a good defense, but for some reason it's really been struggling with making plays behind the LOS.  It's been good at keeping stuff in front of them . . .

And this is typical for a Phil Parker Iowa defense.

A.J. EPENESA isn't getting sacks?

Perhaps he is saving himself for the NFL.

It should be a close game. I'll say Michigan wins 27-23.

It would be a negative world without at least some optimism for Michigan, from a Michigander.