My son and I went to see the game yesterday. It was generally a great time -- lots of Michigan fans, the north "grass" lot was pretty much a huge Michgan party -- and the game itself was obviously exciting albeit disconcertingly close.

I would be curious, though, if others who went to the game felt the same way as me about the whole experience. Here are a few random thoughts:

1. The whole scene at IU is really campy and dorky. They have a "players walk" from Assembly Hall to the stadium before the game. It was very awkward. The band plays on the steps of Assembly Hall while the cheerleaders dance for a while, then the players march to the field.

2. They call their band the "marching 100." Their PA announcer repeatedly calls them that.

3. They have a cartoon shark that swims on the scoreboard on third downs and it seems they have tried to get a sort of "gator chomp" thing going -- but it's not clear why and not many fans do it. Also, right at the most exciting part of the game, they had a Super Mario bros inspired bike race in the north end zone with two middle aged ladies riding bikes between cones and over a ramp. I have no idea what that was.

4. Their PA announcer is the most egregiously irritating person I have ever heard. Each time they got a first down he shouted "First down HOOOOOSIERS!" The fans all echo him when he says "Hoosiers." When they are on defense he would excitedly say "stand up fans! It's THIRD DOWN!!!"

5. Canadian Cowbell Girl Michigan fan. Has anyone else tailgated near this group? They are apparently from Canada, and one of their group is a girl who appears to be about 20-25 years old. She wears striped maize and blue pants and a maize cape with a blue maple leaf on it. She can hold an insane amount of alcohol. During the game she ran all around the stadium with her cowbell tapping out the bit before everyone says "Go Blue!" I was fascinated, horrified, and inspired by her. Does she go to all the games? It seems she must. I thought she would be passed out in a pool of her own vomit by halftime, but she was going strong the whole game with that cowbell.

6. Indiana fans in general were nice, polite, cheered well etc. The seemed flabbergasted that they were even in the game. They were also very campy and said obvious things all game long like "it looks like we'll probably have to punt here." Or "their receivers run better routes than ours." The guy behind us kept saying that Michigan should "go for two since they're the away team. Isn't that usually how it goes?" At first I hated him, but after a while I felt sorry for him. He wasn't so much a jerk as an ignoramus.

7. That offensive pass interference call near the end of the game was not legit. We got a break on that one.

8. Jordan Howard is for real. They kept running that stretch play and he timed his cuts perfectly. Their interior offensive line must be grossly underrated.

9. Once 98 on their d-line went down with what appeared to be cramping, I knew we would win. He was the man.

10. Not to be master of the obvious here, but our d-line looked tired and flat. There was no pass rush whatsoever. Sudfield had all day to throw.

11. I thought Dymonte was out for the year the way he was laying on the ground after that kickoff. But he was on the field playing at the end during crunch time. Awesome. It was also cool to see they defense high fiving the offense as they came on the field after the d couldn't hold during those last few drives. My sense was that Michigan never felt like they were going to lose.

Overall it was a good experience, but my sense was that they weren't quite sure how to be football fans there. It seemed novel to them and their support for their team was not spontaneous and natural.

I would be curious to hear what other people who went to the game thought.

I also haven't watched it yet on tv. Why were we getting so gashed on those run plays, particularly on their latter few drives?

Final thought: Chesson was in one on one coverage on the outside almost the whole game. That last touchdown pass I thought "finally!" It seemed like they could have exploited that more. Indiana was clearly stacking the line trying to stop the run. I guess that's why Rudock threw for 440 yards.

Go Blue!