There comes a point in many discussions or arguments where the opposing party has said too much. This is where your instinct tells you that something more needs to be said for you take advantage of their overplay, that you need to hightlight their lack of reason, that you must get the last word in order to prove your point. The problem is that the opposing party has already made your point for you, they have talked themselves into circles, they have spent enough time defending the indefensible and attempting to justify the unjust that their position is no longer viable. They simply look foolish. That is Michigan State football right now.
At that point, against your instinct, you say no more. If there is a third party ruling on the argument or the issue, you simply look at them, you lock eyes with them in a moment of mutual disbelief and you wait for the shoe to fall.
In Mark Dantonio's presser on Monday, when referencing the acts of William Gholston, Dantonio said "that is the way the game has always been played by successful teams." That is the statement. That is the overplay. There is not one statement that more aptly defines a program and that programs mentality than that one statement right there. In defending the indefensible, Michgian State football is defining themselves, and it is a definition that is going to stick with them for the foreseeable future.
State has backed themselves into a corner. The answer to the question was easy. The solution to the problem was simple. In the great Sparty tradition, it passed right by their eyes and they failed to see it. Now they have a dumpster fire, and they have the rest of their season to sit in it. They sold out on the Michigan game, they went no holds barred to win it. If our players were guilty of one thing it was not knowing how desperate Michigan State was to win that game, and being caught off guard by the lengths they would go to to win it, because they are going to win very little else, for the remainder of this year and for the foreseeable future.
What makes us so angry is not that State "was who we thought they were," it is that M was still one play away from beating them at their own pitiful game and came up short. It was not a fluke that we were in a position to win that game despite playing a team that disregarded the rules of the game, it is because we are good, we are better than we thought. For the first time in four years, we are about to see Denard angry, Mike Martin angry, Cam and Thomas Gordon angry. I am interested to see how the rest of the Big Ten is going to handle that. If I had a guess it is not very well.
As a blog community, let's let it go. Anything more said about this topic is too much, it does not need to be said. Our case has already been proven. By being Sparty, and staying three steps behind this thing, State has overplayed their hand. They are the new guy at the table going all in on a pair of eights in a lazy bluff. They have turned College Gameday into a two hour documentary about personal fouls and lack of integrity of consequences. They have threatened to "hurt" Russell Wilson. Their coach has called Gholston's acts "how the game has always been played by successful teams." They have an article in the Wallstreet Journal detailing their dirty play. Good luck with the Badgers coach, good luck with any player on your team being able to touch an opposing player after the whistle without getting flagged for the rest of your tenure. Well played, well played indeed.
As for Michigan, rest easy. Michigan is good. Michigan is better than anybody thought they were. They were one play a way from winning on the merits against a team that was willing to go all in at the expenese of their season and their reputation. Michigan is going to win a lot more games this year.
Saturday was Saturday, they are who we thought they were. Game over. Let's move on.
Please, lets do. It is up to the system now.