Michigan 27, Northwestern 19
via @cjzero, obviously
I can't. I just... I can't. Thank you, Northwestern, for being Northwestern.
Consider this an open thread to celebrate(!) a victory(!!) featuring multiple touchdowns!!!
(Shhhhhhh, don't ruin it by mentioning the multiple overtimes part.)
Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog
November 16th, 2013 at 11:44 PM ^
I changed it (still cached for a while)
November 16th, 2013 at 7:53 PM ^
won a game in which they did not get a 3rd down conversion in regulation...in 13 tries.
BIG TENNNNNN!!!!
I almost feel bad for Northwestern. Almost.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:56 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 7:57 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 8:07 PM ^
They converted two in overtime, ended up 2-18.
I think you may be thinking of a couple of 4th down conversions...Michigan was 2-4 on 4th down.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:17 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 7:55 PM ^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIeWjLC_SB0
Victory !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 16th, 2013 at 7:55 PM ^
Borges deserves a raise, scoring 27 points against that defense in the pouring rain is quite the accomplishment.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:16 PM ^
But "that defense" is horrible, horrible, horrible.
November 16th, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 10:36 PM ^
That's correct, he deserves more money, but only in the form of a severance check.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:58 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
I'm not sure 0-5 in the conference is "a pulse"
November 16th, 2013 at 10:24 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^
I hear that, but at some point "you are what your record says you are*." NW is in last place in probably the most inept major conference.
*Bill Parcells
November 18th, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^
Big 12 is the most inept and it isn't close.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:58 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 8:30 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 8:40 PM ^
November 17th, 2013 at 4:44 AM ^
It worked on me. That's what caught my eye on TV. I thought, oh shit missed it, until I saw the "real" refs calling it good. Almost tripped me up again on the replay.
The man has a future as a ref.
November 16th, 2013 at 9:38 PM ^
but he is a B1G president. Hopefully Fitzgerald doesn't fire him.
November 16th, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^
He looked drunk? Are you sure it wasn't the echo?
November 16th, 2013 at 8:31 PM ^
I watched that and thought "you glorious jackass, now you have gone and made an idiot of yourself on national tv". This is even better.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:35 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 9:28 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 9:26 PM ^
Any word if Morty was drunk or suffering a mild stroke?
Too Soon?
November 16th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^
November 17th, 2013 at 4:52 AM ^
You know, sometimes a delay can make you appear drunk
November 17th, 2013 at 8:35 AM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 8:00 PM ^
instead of going for it on 4th, the last play would have won the game, rather than merely tying.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^
You're assuming the next five minutes would have unfolded exactly the same way. Northwestern in a tie game is going to approach things very differently than it did with the lead.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:07 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 8:11 PM ^
I wouldn't say his comment is that off base. If we kick that FG, it's very possible we hold NW the same and have a shot to win at the end. Obviously that's not guaranteed, but it's not that crazy either.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:22 PM ^
But NW is probably going to have a much more aggressive gameplan if it's tied. As it was, they were content to bleed the clock.
In any event, I liked the decision to go for it on 4th down. You're inside the 5 - why not? If you get a TD there, that's a dagger, whereas a FG just ties it up. If you don't get it, you still pin them in the shadow of their goalpost.
November 16th, 2013 at 9:52 PM ^
At least as it happened to turn out, we found our way into FG position only because--since we were losing--we had to convert on fourth down in our territory. Had the game been tied, we would have punted and never would have been in position for the "game-winning FG." Of course, none of us knows what would have happened, but there are multiple reasons to think that getting into position for a game-winning FG in regulation would have been harder than it was to be in the position for the tie. None of this makes Hoke's fourth-down call the "right call." Personally, I didn't mind it, but--if he knew it was four-down territory--the call on third and one should have been different.
November 16th, 2013 at 10:39 PM ^
I sure minded it. That was a dumb call by Hoke. It's not like the offense was rolling.
November 16th, 2013 at 10:47 PM ^
Given that the offense was struggling, why kick the FG, which only ties the game and necessitates another scoring drive?
November 16th, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^
why throw away three easy points and go for a very low percentage chance of the conversion?
Given that the offense was struggling, expecting them to be able to execute a 2-minute drill to get back into field goal range was also rather low percentage. Against those odds, they pulled off the play with less than a second to spare.
Tying the game gets you to overtime, where your drives start from the 25 and thus scoring becomes much easier.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^
was the obvious play to tie; not going for it. if hoke was going to be aggressive there, why the hell weren't they aggressive on any of the other possessions at the 10 yd line. why kick the field goal to make it 9-6. it makes zero sense. they also threw just one pass in the endzone in all those trips in the reddzone.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:34 PM ^
This was the only possession in which we had a 4th and short inside the 10. In all the others, we had 4th and goal around the 10-yard line, so they aren't comparable.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:40 PM ^
It was 4th and 2 (probably more like 4th and 1.5). I don't think that's particularly a low-percentage situation. Teams probably convert that a majority of the time. And if you get a TD on that possession, your chances of winning are a lot better than they'd be if it's 9-9 with 5:00 to go and the other team has the ball. Giving the other team the ball potentially last in a tie game is not a comfortable position to be in.
If Hoke kicks the FG there, I'm sure there'd be many, many people complaining about him playing not to lose, just as there were against PSU. I guess the bottom line is that fans complain about whatever doesn't work.
November 17th, 2013 at 4:47 AM ^
It's only wierd if it doesn't work.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:24 PM ^
Because after the FG, Northwestern would have gotten the kickoff inside their own 10 yard line and been conservative in a tie game? Sure...
November 17th, 2013 at 8:44 AM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 8:18 PM ^
Points were precious in that game. Kicking the FG meant that if the offense could do no more, at least the score is tied. We came very close to not having another chance, with that 4th down being the difference in the game. A bad decision is still a bad decision even if you get away with it.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:25 PM ^
I have a hunch if we'd kicked, and gone on to lose 16-9 or 12-9, there'd be tons of second-guessing of that decision, too.
Hoke did what most people have been calling for - he went for the win.
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