Does Michigan have a disproportionate number of "miracle plays" against them?

I was saying the same thing last night, (I would add OSU's buzzer beater in the BT Tourney and the two Wisconsin miracle shots against us), but probably not. We remember ours and suffer as a result.

hard to not be biased in this type of "feelings-based" analysis. of course we all remember the michigan losses, but quickly forget the devastating losses by other teams.

to really answer this, you'd have to catalog every "miracle" play (and define what that means) and then crunch the numbers over say a decade or two. 

given that there's no reason to expect "miracle" plays more or less against any one team or the other, suspicion here is that the data shows that there is not much difference across teams, except of course for the normal expected variance.

 

How many times have we had last second victories though?

everyone loses close games.  It seems like Michigan loses more close games because we follow ALL THE MICHIGAN GAMES and very few of anyone elses games.

 

Texas could lose 4 straight games by buzzer beaters and I wouldn't know unless posted here because I don't watch SportsCenter and don't search through for all the BBall scores.

 

The end.

I don't know about "more" but we sure have had our fill more recently: Last night Iowa, The Game, and Orange Bowl from last season The punt play I could probably name 3-9 more if I put my mind to it.

No. We have had great plays against other teams that you are forgetting as well. We are not victims. We are winners. Don't fall into the "woe is me" and "everything bad happens to me" mentality. It is unjustified and as winners we don't need to walk around with the mentality of victims.

Although not "miracles" per se, I would add Scorekeeper Bob and the Desmond Trip to any list of historical dong punches.

Yes.  I think someone a lot smarter than me could actually research and prove this to be true. But I think to get the most accurate picture one would have to add to the buzzer beaters and hail marys things like the Webber time out, the Desmond trip and other game changing or game deciding weirdness or horrible officiating.  I'm thinking of writing a book - "Kicks to the Balls: My Michigan Memories."

And thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it.

Evan Turner's half court fiasco..that one pissed me off more than it should..The Call on Burke's block in the title game..OK, I'm done

"result challenged"

We just notice them more.

You could restrict this topic to basketball finishes under Beilein.  The Evan Turner shot, the Wisconsin half court shot, the death to backboards shot, the Kentucky 3 point shot in the Elite Eight.  I like any opponent's chance against Michigan with a second left on the clock.  So when last night happened, it really wasn't all that surprising.  

What made this one slightly different was for once, it was less fluke like and just came down to an incredibly perfect pass to set up the shot.  But the end result is still the same and it sucks.  

I'm wondering if that little high school arena at Northwestern is becoming a new house of horrors for us.   The last time we played there two years ago was the double overtime travesty where there were 5 separate times I thought we had the game won until NU drained a miracle 3 to keep the game going.  They did it again and again and again.  Two of them were well defended prayers thrown up that magically went in.  That game sucked too.  

Henne to Manningham to beat Penn State in 2005.

You want predictable?!  Go watch the NBA.  82 games so half of the league can make the playoffs and then every round except the first is best of 7.  Although the better team doesn't always win (and neither does the house in Vegas, but...), when was the last time an NBA team that was in the bottom half of the playoff qualifiers won the Championship, or made the Finals?  I can think of a Houston team with a less than stellar regular season record in the middle of the Olaijuwon dynasty; that's it.

Appreciate what you have!  There is a reason most of us prefer watching the NCAA tournament to the NBA Playoffs.

No, every major team feels this way, Michigan has had a lot miracle finishes go their way too. Burke's shot against Kansas, GR3 against purdue I think off an inbounds, Northwestern fg as time expired, nw hailmary to keep the game alive that a northwestern db had go through his hands, nd first night game, minnesota choosing to only run one play from the goalline last year, etc. have all happened in the last few years right off the top of my head and if I actually sat down to think about it I'm sure there are more.

like Patriots fans with 2 super bowl losses, Alabama with the Auburn fg return...then this years nation al Championship...they can probably rattle off 10 in the last 20 or so years.  

 

But remember 05 Penn State, Notre Dame with Tate, UTL 1 and 2..But also remember Iowa 16, OSU 16, and FSU 16...sigh  and MSU 15,..

I was thinking the same thing..OR how many different ways can Michigan sports teams BLOW games

It happens to everyone (atleast in basketball)

Tie game vs. a tournament team on the road and you lose on a set inbounds play. It was a good pass, layup and bad defense. 

Appalachian State shouldn't be in the OP's list. Focusing on the blocked field goal is like worrying about a chipped tail light after your car gets totaled.

No, we do not have a disproportionate number of Miracle plays against us. The reality is that we focus on the losses and conveniently forget about the way we won the same kind of game. for example, we want a miracle game against Kansas in the NCAA tournament a couple years ago. But we conveniently forget about that and focus how we lost a tight title game.