Michigan Monday up at The Ozone
Michigan Monday is up at the Ozone (edit: first two words of this post is the link.) Great read, fascinating take, you should go there. In short, I can tell you that they really diss MSU. Michigan, not so much.
Gerdeman goes on and on and on extensively about the cheap shots and bad officiating in the game. A few money quotes:
Michigan State committed over a half dozen personal fouls, though only four were actually called. They beat Michigan up on Saturday and the Wolverines took their beating politely and respectfully, never once raising a hand in defense, or calling out for help.
Yes, the Wolverines got legitimately beaten up against Michigan State, but they deserved a better showing than what they got from some terrible Big Ten officials in this game.
He also questions Borges' play-calling, in light of the wind and Denard's (lack of) accuracy:
The wind was a factor all over the midwest this past weekend, and some teams chose to take note of that fact (Ohio State threw four passes) and some teams chose not to (Michigan threw 31 passes).
I'm not saying throwing 31 passes in 24 mph winds is dumb, but there are certain types of passes that you do and do not throw in windy conditions.
Denard Robinson threw 24 passes, and a full one-third of them (that's eight for any Spartans reading this) were thrown at least 15 yards downfield. Not surprisingly, Robinson only completed one of these eight throws, and that was for the bare minimum of 15 yards.
Even so, Gerdeman is still solidly in the pro-Denard camp:
I'm still not sure what Devin Gardner's role is on this team. I do know that every time he takes a snap and Denard Robinson doesn't, the defense is winning. Even when Robinson is being contained, he's still a threat at any moment to score a touchdown.
Read the article. Great analysis, one of the best pieces I've seen. He does predict, given our performance in this game, that Michigan goes .500 in the last four games, ending with a 9 - 3 record. I personally wouldn't mind that, as long as we actually win against Ohio.
October 18th, 2011 at 1:30 AM ^
But according to Sparty our failure to lash out in kind makes us wusses! And since Hoke et al didn't complain about anything that means nothing went down! And class and decorum are secondary to winning! And no one in the country cares how you win as long as you win! And MSU wants to be Saban (probs).
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<br>I am proud of our players and coaches for their class and grace following that performance by MSU. They can say we're overreacting and that football is a violent game and make excuses all they want, but they showed themselves to be a dirty team on Saturday. Hoke may be above bitching about it, but I'm not.
October 18th, 2011 at 9:40 AM ^
I'm ok with it to a certain degree. At somepoint you HAVE to defend not only your teammates but yourself. It would have been great to see a minor amount of retaliation on some of those cheap shots....like they do in Hockey.
Fuck around with our star player(s) too much and you get yours.....sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.
October 18th, 2011 at 4:05 PM ^
Ohios D scares the shit out of me. Their D is young but is starting to gel. They did fall apart against Nebraska in the last quarter, but other than that have been solid. Their D line will be on par, if not better than States. Jonathan Hankins and John Simon have been Unblockable. Their young DBs are playing well, their safties hit like linebackers...
October 18th, 2011 at 1:32 AM ^
9-3 with a win over OSU = most successful season since....2003? 2000? That would be awesome. 2006 was great, but the loss to OSU and in the Rose Bowl left a horrendous taste in my mouth.
October 18th, 2011 at 1:36 AM ^
What's your take on JH & Schwartz?
October 18th, 2011 at 2:13 AM ^
This is the best piece I've read on the team right now. It's not like there's a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth, but throughout it genuinely implores our program to get it together. The emphasis on the talent level affirms the aggressive recruiting of defensive players by Hoke and Mattison this year.
It also underscores just how bad the past three years have been for our defense. It's a little upsetting to think that the entire defense is not really short on raw talent, so much as they have simply not been developed well, that in fact they have been underdeveloped - that we're looking at a lot of guys who could perform a lot better if their development as players had not been stifled by the previous indifference to defense coupled with impotent coaching.
Yet our D is noticeably better than it was last year - that's attributable in great part to the new coaching regime, and some really gutsy players (Martin, Kovacs, Floyd, Countess, others) who want to win enough to keep us in games, at times almost singlehandedly. I'm happy so long as they keep improving.
I'd like to think that our offense is just a bit better, perhaps, than what this guy concludes. But he raises all the big questions. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks.
This article also makes me realize that I respect the Buckeyes - in spite of their fuckedup-ness of late and a lot of their fanbase - in a way I'll never be able to respect MSU.
October 18th, 2011 at 2:20 AM ^
ohio's D is looking very good. Yet, I still don't know if the win against Illinois was because of the Zook being Zook or because Ohio State was actually good on offense. I mean they completed ONE pass! I need a few more games to actually see what they can do, but this past weekend really made THE GAME this year seem much more close.
October 18th, 2011 at 3:52 AM ^
There is not one non-MSU fan who watched that whole game who didn't walk away feeling the cheap shots were a huge story.
This is a great piece to send along to any Spartan friend you may have who thinks it's just us.
October 18th, 2011 at 9:05 AM ^
that guy is a great writer.
October 18th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^
I always like to read that guy's stuff, because he knows football and pays close attention yet isn't an M fan. I agreed with almost everything he wrote but I think it's premature to say that we've abandoned the read option. It's still our bread and butter play.
October 18th, 2011 at 12:00 PM ^
Actually we abandoned it last year when it was clear that Denard struggled with when to keep it and our RB were decidedly average. I think Meyer had a great point in that defending Denard running Power O isn't all that much different than defending an I-formation team. What makes the Spread and shred dangerous is forcing the defense to pick its poision. I still think that the mere threat of Denard could help our RB if we gave them more carries(and I think the fact that they have something like 5.5 YPC this year bares that out)
October 18th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^
I don't recall giving up watching.
This loss sucks on so many levels...and we have a whole bye week to regurgitate it, woot...
October 18th, 2011 at 12:23 PM ^
Wow, I thought he would trash us more. He was almost sympathetic.
I've read Michigan Mondays for years. On the whole, he does a good job of telling it like it is. He will usually throw in a few Buckeye homer jabs, but his heart does not seem to really be in it. He's just playing to his audience when he does those.
Michigan Mondays is actually a pretty good place to go to get a unique perspective on how the team is doing. It is more impartial than what you will find at Michigan sources, it is not just trolling like you will find from other rival sources, and it is much more in-depth that what you will find from the "objective" national media.
October 18th, 2011 at 4:09 PM ^
Also, man we messed on Jon Hankins. Hes easily one of the top 5 DTs in the b10. ahh richrod....