2001 UM-MSU Observations

Tonight I got home from a really late softball game to find the BTN playing the 2001 Michigan versus Michigan State game.  Against my better judgment, I stayed up to watch it.  Here are some stream of consciousness thoughts from watching the replay of this game:

• Is there something wrong with me if I get animated, angry, and frustrated over a game that happened 9 years ago?  Can you really get pissed at officials for something that happened that long ago? 
• Well, I am.  These officials sucked.  The lack of holding penalties being called on the MSU offensive line was astounding - and I'm not talking about the last play of the game.  On the first drive of the game (a TD set up by a fake punt pass interference call) there were three instances where a Michigan defender had their jersey being pulled in the middle of a play and no calls were made.
• Now I remember how much I hate Charles Rogers.  Granted, much of that stems from his Lions' tenure.  He got two gift PI penalties that set up touchdowns for MSU.  The first was on the fake punt and it didn't surprise me that they called it, but the contact was minimal.  The second was on a great play by Cato June in the endzone where Gary Danielson seemed to think it was obvious but to me it looked like a great play. 
• On that second one Danielson actually said, "This is a college player (June) covering an NFL player (Rogers)".  Little did he know that June would have an infinitely better NFL career than Rogers. 
• The first TD of the game for MSU was a great throw by Smoker and a great catch by Rogers.  On that play Marlin Jackson had perfect coverage - you just couldn't stop the perfect throw and catch.
• Remember when we had kickers we could trust?  Okay, Hayden Epstein had his share of gaffes in his career, but in this game he nailed a record 57-yard FG.
• Believe it or not, I witnessed Todd Howard breaking up two passes in this game.  Since I assumed he was born without hands or fingers this was shocking to me.  There is video evidence of this. 
• Marquis Walker was a total stud of a WR.  I'm still stunned that he never even got a cup of coffee in the NFL.  I know he was slowish, but he had such amazing hands and dominated in this game.  He had over 130 yards in the first half including two touchdowns.  And he was doing it without help - Navarre was still a raw sophomore and the other receivers were Ron Belamy, Calvin Bell and Tyrice Butler. 
• Ironically, the ref instructed the clock operator to give Michigan back 3 seconds at the end of the first half.  That might have been useful after two consecutive 12-yard runs by BJ Askew if Lloyd wouldn't have gone conservative (SHOCK!) and ate up 20 seconds doing nothing before trying two down field passes. 
• The lack of recognizable names on the offensive and defensive lines for Michigan is really shocking. 
• If I have to hear Brent Musberger compare TJ Duckett to Jerome Bettis one more time I will slam my fingers in a car door. Granted, TJ did destroy us in this game.  And Michigan was leading the nation in run defense when this game took place. 
• Navarre really killed us with two horrible interceptions.  In both cases he had all day and just threw directly into coverage.  Navarre turned out to be a solid QB by the end of his career, but he deserved some of the criticism his first couple of years. 
• Despite the lack of big names in the Michigan front seven they got a ton of pressure on the QB (something we'd love to see this year).  They had ten sacks through three quarters! 
• TJ Ducket with 8 minutes to go in the game had over 200 yards rushing and was averaging 8 yards per carry.  But the genius that is Bobby Williams took him out after they got inside the 20 and three straight runs went no where and forced an MSU FG to take a 20-17 lead.  You wonder why that guy didn't last as a head coach.
• Michigan's offense was a disaster in the second half.  Four punts and two interceptions, with only 61 total yards.  The sad thing is that the OL, despite their no-name status, kept Navarre clean all day.  He had tons of time to throw and just struggled in the second half against a depleted MSU secondary.
• I had totally forgot that Jermaine Gonzalez, the back-up QB at the time, caught the go-ahead TD for Michigan on a third and long .  He looked so shocked to have caught the TD that he didn't know what to do when he went to celebrate with his teammates. 
• On the critical 4th and 16 at the end of the game Michigan literally double covered Charles Rogers.  They lined up two corners in front of him like they were covering a punt gunner.....and LeSeuer blew it with the facemask penalty.  Game was over without that stupidity.
• Rogers had a game winning TD catch in his hands on a great throw right after the 4th down play and he just dropped it.  He toasted Marlin Jackson and the safety was late arriving.  He dropped the next pass to him too.  They should have drug tested him at the half I guess.
• How could Michigan get a blatant 12-men on the field penalty with 36 seconds left?  It wasn't even a guy running off the field - they had 12 people lined up to play! 
• Something I also failed to notice was that MSU used its last timeout on the final drive when Smoker was sacked.  But the penalty for 12-men was called on that play, meaning that MSU wouldn't have needed to call time-out.  But they didn't get it back obviously and should have lost the game when the clock ran out.
• Gary Danielson at the last play, "It is nice to have that home clock operator for that last play." 
• I have never seen a worse hold on a play than on the winning play.  Wow......amazing. 

Okay - why did I stay up to watch this again?  I hope we crush Sparty this week.....