2008 vs 2009 Big Ten
By this logic, we have to beat Wisconsin:
2008 Illinois L 2009 Illinois L
2008 Purdue L 2009 Purdue L
2008 MSU L 2009 MSU L
2008 PSU L 2009 PSU L
2008 NWestern L 2009 Iowa (NU replacement) L
2008 Minnesota W 2009 Indiana (Minny replacement) W
2008 Wiscy W 2009 Wiscy - has to be a W right?
2008 OSU L 2009 OSU - let's hope the pattern changes.
GO BLUE!
November 7th, 2009 at 9:05 PM ^
We lost to Purdue by 2, who lost by 37 to Wisconsin. Therefore, we should lose to Wisconsin by 39. I don't think we will, but it probably won't be pretty.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:07 PM ^
That was the type of logic that said Texas Tech should have beaten Texas A&M by a 100. TT beat Kansas State by 40. KState beat A&M by 60.
Texas Tech lost to Texas A&M. Not saying we do this, but your logic isn't perfect either..
November 8th, 2009 at 1:09 AM ^
Or That Harbaugh beat OSU. Since stanford beat oregon, and they beat usc which beat osu.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:09 PM ^
To be fair, the scores for all of those games from 2008->2009 are almost universally closer. I think Wiscy is better this year than last, but OSU is worse. 5-7 might be the most likely outcome right now, but so was 7-5 two weeks ago. Crazier things have happened.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:38 PM ^
Where do you guys keep getting this from? They lost to USC by three, and were upset by Purdue. BUT, they've won every other game this year and just thrashed Penn State in Happy Valley.
I mean, I know UM has those gigantic wins over Eastern, Western, and Delaware State to go with that stirring victory over Notre Dame (who just lost to Mavy)...
I forecast their defense having no trouble manhandling UM's offense, and just possibly putting an end to the existence of young Mr Forcier, whom I love dearly.
I have no problem with blind faith and eternal optimism, but really, assessing Ohio State as worse than last year is really fucking stupid--expecially because UM is really not at all much better than they were last year.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:45 PM ^
So UM is no better than last year - they only score about 12 more points a game while giving up about the same number of points compared to last year. And this year, they have been in virtually every game late save for Illinois and PSU, and only in PSU did it really seem they were outclassed.
As for OSU, they might have the same record after 10 games, but they definitely look like a work in progress on offense. The defense is still amazing, but last year's offense could move the ball on almost anyone (save USC), and was dynamic with guys like Wells and the two senior WRs. This year's offense has sputtered at times, and you get a sense that Pryor is still trying to figure out how to play QB. Sure he looked good against PSU in terms of production, but he only had 125 yards passing and 50 rushing. I'm not saying that OSU is some horrible team, but last year's team looked almost unstoppable at times; this year's team has shown some weaknesses.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:39 PM ^
This year's team is better (would be hard not to be), but that really isn't saying much. The defense is still very porous, and the offense has regressed significantly in recent weeks.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:59 PM ^
Not really. The team gave up about 21 points last year, and this year they are scoring about 32. Even throwing out DSU, you still have about a 10 points improvement. The defense is horrible, but the offense is clicking along. The scoring might not show it, but this offense is averaging more than 100 yards more per game than last year's team, with two games to go. The offense sputtered a bit against PSU and Illinois (though again, that game felt a great deal closer than the final score), but overall it has made great strides the past few weeks.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:13 PM ^
so early after this loss. I was at the game and the team played hard, but the same mistakes keep hapening on defense. The same plays that should be routine short gainers, keep turning into 40, 50, 60-yard plays or TDs.
I know the defense is young, inexperienced and less talented than any defense in my 44 years, but you'd thing there would be a learning curve at some point. If there isn't one very soon, there won't be any paractice until April.
This team can't afford that long of a layoff.
Sorry, I'm really frustrated losing to teams that I KNOW we are better than. After going 4-0 and having DSU down the road, a bowl game seemed like a lock, now it's a longshot.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:43 PM ^
So far in our rematches we have made little if any progress:
Our share of scoring has only increased slightly and we still have no wins in rematches so far. PSU and Ill beat us worse this year than last if you can believe it.
| Scoring | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 2009 | |||
| score | share | score | share | |
| MSU | 21-35 | 38% | 20-26 | 43% |
| PSU | 17-46 | 27% | 10-35 | 22% |
| Ill | 20-45 | 31% | 13-38 | 25% |
| Pur | 42-48 | 47% | 36-38 | 49% |
| overall | 100-174 | 36% | 79-137 | 37% |
November 7th, 2009 at 10:01 PM ^
Nice chart.
One minor point, though - the number of blowouts last year far exceed what has happened this year. And even in that Illinois game, it was quite winnable until mid-4th quarter. Last year the team was run off the field after the 1st half in most of its games; this year, they are losing a couple of tough games (save PSU) late in the game. Might be class-half-full logic, but the games are closer than the numbers say.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:06 PM ^
If I remember correctly, we were in the Iliinois game until the 2nd half last year. Same as this year only this year we really let it get away. PSU was same for last year and this year - first half servicable, second half massacre. Purdue was also the same - shootout that ended with them on top. Though last year I think it was more tit for tat than us just giving up a huge lead. The only game where we actually got more competitive this year was MSU.