I think if we wanted to "fight back" we should have done it by beating them soundly in the game of football.  Sure a push here and shove there don't hurt too much and might express dominance, but where's the line drawn?  Fighting is a part of the game of hockey and is allowed to a certain degree, but it is not in football and back in the days of Sir Charles and Mr. Ray, they may have jaw jacked and tried to phycically dominate guys, but most importantly, they beat their opponents at the game of football.

However, I do agree that some of the play calling could have been better, and we did get pusehd around and beat up quite a bit.  The fact that this is THE GAME from Sparty's persepctive means their always going to give us their best, and we need to rise to that calling ourselves in years to come, which I believe we will do.

We have recruited some very solid players along the line this year, and with Pipkins committing as the highly ranked stud DT (although I would have liked to see another DT commit myself), we will be in a great position to win those physical battles for years to come.  I feel your pain man, but trust me, the pendulum is going to swing back to our side very soon.

There's taking the high road, and then there is letting your star get destroyed while he is helpless and doing nothing about it.  

I'm not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but MSU had no personal fouls against Wisconsin.  Between Hoke and Belema, only one of them would actually consider putting out a hit on an opposing player.  I don't think those items are completely unrelated.  

I was actually surprised that Brian didn't have something to say similar to his 'Animals' post following the 2009 Michigan-MSU hockey game; the first thing I thought of after seeing the helmet twist was the Conboy/Tropp attack on Steve Kampfer. Gholston should have been ejected after the first egregious foul, and his overall actions should see him missing the rest of the season.

Interesting fact: Yzerman's last fight ever was against some guy named Chris Chelios.

As for your prediction on the rest of the schedule, I really feel that our chances of going 2-3 are less than going 3-2. Purdue and Illinois are extremely favorable, and that leaves us going1-2 against Iowa/Neb/Akron State, which is very, very probable (please God). I have us going 9-3 with a respectable bowl game. I wonder what our Bowl Jerseys will look like....

My only problem with this is that I clicked on the Charles Woodson fight clip and went on a youtube spree and watched about 10 videos and forgot I was reading this.

I don't want the players to retaliate, because that really isn't their job; the refs are paid to keep stuff like blatant punches and neck cranks off the field.  Yes, they assessed penalties for some of them, but when the offender can stay out there and keep playing, the consequence loses its effectiveness. 

everyone is terrified of next year on an interior line perspective.
However, we have more than a few guys who can make strides in 350 or so days, especially given how vastly improved our D is with just 8 months of Mattison.

Im callling right now that Ash will suprise people, and I think he might be one of the younger guys they start to phase in here and there in games to spell Martin.

QW and BWC essentially HAVE to pan out. If they arent getting it done on D we should move Q back to OG asap because we are extremely thin there.

Frank Clark at DE/SLB is something I want to see, as well as Beyer in a stand up rush role only on passing downs.

If Pipkins can just be average our D will be fine 

We are going to return everyone except RVB and Martin. 
 

While i think long term Mattison wants a 3-4, we ndont have the guys for it yet.

I can't wait for next year, and I believe that Hoke is mad as heck, and so is Mattison, and there is going to be some serious payback within the rules, and if Gholston tries any of that crap next year, the refs are going to throw him out immediately, and if Dantonio complains, the refs are going to assess 15 yards against the sideline, and next year, Denard is going to be able to take advantage of them, and we're finally going to be ready for their rush, so that they have a ton of offsides penalties, and our defensive line and linebackers are going to knock their freshman quarterback out of the game, and their backup QB, and Hoke is going to wait to see if Dantonio takes it like a man (just like Hoke did last week,) or if Dantonio whines and complains to the media.

A big difference next year should be us having the senior QB on his second year in the system. Going into this game I had a bad feeling. How often does a team with a senior multi-year starter QB lose a rivalry game at home? (I know, Chad Henne, but he was playing with a clipped wing against Ohio that year.)

That's if the coaches get the gameplanning and management issues solved. This game continued a pattern of Michigan being outcoached in rivalry games (State and Ohio) that you can trace back at least to the 06 Ohio showdown. Hell, Tressel ALWAYS had a better game plan, always with new plays and little wrinkles. Now it's been Dantonio et al. getting into the act the last few years.

Take the snap count. As Brian says, that is on the coaches and it is inexcusable. It's easier to take a loss when 18-22-year-old kids make mistakes or are physically outmatched. When there are obvious coaching deficiencies, that's tougher to swallow. Carr was not good at that part of the game. Rodriguez wasn't either. I had high hopes that Hoke, Mattison, and Borges would fix that stuff. First time out they whiffed, but they have Ohio coming up as a chance to right the competence ship. I dream of a rivalry game where our coaches manage a game better, win the chess match and have a whopping RPS advantage.

to Iowa.  ...by at least 30pts.  That is a given.  

A loss at Nebraska and our hopes will live again!!

but I did get a chuckle out of it... now that I've calmed down a bit as well.  MSU has always been, and will always be a dirty program, especially when they play Michigan.  I'm completely surprised they didn't get a single penalty against Wisconsin!  That said, I think they could win the rest of their games... but I don't see them beating Wisconsin again.  I hate to even think that but I know it to be true.  Boo!