Illinois

Uploading to the MGoVideo YouTube channel has been disabled due to a copyright claim by the Michigan Marching Band for their Wizard of Oz halftime show video. I guess they didn't want 40,000 people to watch it embedded on MGoBlog and annarbor.com for some reason. I'll be uploading all new videos to my new channel: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/bigtentracker

Edit: There's some motion blur on this video that I didn't notice while editing. I'm going to try reconverting it before I edit the offense.  

I avoiding posting anything after the last few losses, but I'm pleased to share my homage to Saturday's win.

Since I couldn't find a good picture of the final play, I created one by combining other pictures; so it's not completely accurate.  i hope you like it.

This may be the best internet rant I've seen, ever?   It tackles virginity, weight lifting, money, stereotypes, caps lock, misspelling, and symboled out swear words... it's... perfect.  Courtesy of the Illinois Rivals free board...

YOU HATERS OF ANOTHERS THOGHTS ARE BITCHES. I KNOW NONE OF YOU GET SEX. I KNOW NONE OF YOU LIFT WEIGHTS. I KNOW NONE OF GOT MONEY. I KNOW NONE OF YOU GOT A LIFE. WHAT KIND OF BITCH CRIES ABOUT CAPS? THIS FORUM IS FOR FOLLOWERS. B!TCHES WHO CO SIGNS ONEANOTHERS THOUGHTS. @#%$ SUCKERS IF YOU WILL. I WOULD LOVE TO VISIT YOU B!TCHES DOWN IN YOUR RED NECK ,COUNTRY, FARMING PART OF ILLINOIS. BUT YOU ARE YELLOW BACK COWARDS. I AM A REAL MAN WITH REAL THINGS TO SAY. YOU WHO HATED ON ME ARE ALL @#%$ SUCKING, DADDYFCKING,COWARD ASS,CAPS OFF BITCHES. YOU CANT KICK ME OFF THIS FORUM I CHOOSE TO LEAVE. GO SUCK NICK SMITHS @#$@ AND TELL HIM HE'S GOOD. YOUR IN LOVE WITH SKINNY ASS WHITE BOYS WHO GET BEAT DOWN. YOU MUST HATE BIG BLACK MEN DOWN LOW. YOU ALL ARE FAKE ASS FANS. THATS WHY YOUR ALL LIVING LIKE YOU DO. YOU LOSERS. DONT EVEN RESPOND B$TCHES. IM GONE. IM GOING TO COME DOWN THERE AND @#%$ YOUR DREAM GIRLS YOU HILLBILLIES.

Also, while I pretend to have your attention, there is one stat I haven't seen about the game yesterday... was 65 the most points a team has ever scored in a losing effort?  I've seen all the combined point total stats, but I'd have to go out on a limb and say that scoring 65 points and losing has to put you at the top of a list somewhere...

EDIT: I guess this actually isn't in reference to the Michigan game.  This is the 5th most recent post on the Illinois board, but it came from April of this year... that's pretty pathetic.

So the numbers put up today by Illinois and Michigan were unbelievable, but I thought it would be interesting to consider them with a bit of context.  So consider this:

Today's combined score of 132 is

• More than the total number of points given up by the 1997 team (114).
• Only 33 points less than the total given up by last year's NC winner Alabama, and that was over 14 games (165).

The 67 points given up the Illini is:

• More than the combined points they have given up in Big 10 play (62) if you exclude OSU.  
• Represents the most points scored by UM this season, and makes UM the only team in the country to score 61+ against two FBS teams this season.  

The 257 net rushing yards by UM is

• 5 yards less than Illinois gave up the past two weeks combined (to Purdue and Indiana).
• More than doubled the average rushing yards given up by the Illini this season (117.5 yds/gm).
• A little less than half the total rushing yards given up by the Boise St. this year, the #2 rush defense in the country.

The 419 passing yards by UM is

• 2.2 times the number of average passing yards given up the Illini this season (184 yds/gm).
• 259 yds less than the total number of passing yds by Georgia Tech this season.
• This might be a little convoluted, but if 419 yds is considered in terms of miles, the distance between Ann Arbor to Urbana (~347 miles) is less.

The combined 49 2nd-quarter points is

• Equal to or greater than the final scores for 7 games this week featuring at least 1 ranked team.
• More than the combined scores for every Big 10 game this weekend, save for the 56 put up by PSU-NW.

The 561 total yards given up by UM is:

• About 2.5 times more than the average total yardage given up the 1997 team (223 yds/gm).
• But, only .5 yds/play more than the defense usually gives up per game (6.07), and factoring out the OT scoring was just about equal per play for the season.

Miscellaneous:

• UM's 3rd-quarter shutout of Illinois was only the 2nd time during league play the defense had accomplished the feat (the other time was the 1st quarter against MSU).
• Illinois was credited with only one sack on the day, which is below the average for Illinois (1.88/gm) and only raised UM's total for the year to 4.  Think about that for a second and then think about 2008.

So yeah, not all great news, but I am still constantly amazed by what this offense is able to do against legitimately good defenses.

*counting their missed FG as the defense holding them.

Yeah, we gave up a lot of points to Illinois.  But our defense stepped up more times than the score would indicate to someone just glancing at it.  We turned the ball over 5 times and still won.

Illinois had 16 drives.

They had 1 turnover.

They had 1 missed field goal.

They had 3 made field goals.

They had 5 touchdowns.

They had 6 punts.

Side note, only one team this year has made Illinois punt more than 6 times, and that was Purdue (obviously though they didn't have as many possessions in any other of their games).

Oh, and we held Illinois scoreless during the third quarter, too.

The guy that Tate slammed into on the sideline apparently works at ABC 7 Detroit news.  He interviewed Tate after the game, and Tate's reaction was priceless.  Watch the Video on the linked page.  I would embed if I wasn't an idiot.  Great, great, amazing game.

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/sports/don-shane-injured-during-michigan's-win-o...