MSU wins: Let the excuses begin

Submitted by StephenRKass on

Michigan State escapes tonight with a win against Rutgers. The excuses will begin, the statements that "all that matters is whether you win."

Actually, MSU winning is the best possible outcome for Michigan. We will beat them when they are undefeated, and this is more of a "quality" win, not that it matters.

I have analyzed my feelings regarding OSU and MSU.

  • OSU is more important, but I respect them more, and hate them less.
  • MSU doesn't matter as much, but I want to destroy and obliterate them, and dislike them more.

I am so looking forward to next week.

StephenRKass

October 10th, 2015 at 11:34 PM ^

Just saw the score, and rolled my eyes. I hate that you can pretty much count on Rutgers or Indiana (last week vs. OSU) or Maryland or Minnesota or a bunch of other teams to lead you on, but find a way to lose the game.

MSU is lucky they escaped with a win. But as I said above, it actually is better for Michigan that MSU won. It will make the tears of ultimate sadness, the schadenfreude from Sparty, that much sweeter. Actually, I really want Michigan to curbstomp Spartie, to leave no doubt about the reestablishment of the proper order.

justingoblue

October 10th, 2015 at 11:46 PM ^

It makes Saturday bigger, but I don't think it's the better outcome. The Big Ten East standings would look a lot better with Maryland/Rutgers/MSU/OSU sitting at 1-1.

In fact, it's possible that there's an alternate universe where Rutgers doesn't spike the ball on fourth down and a loss in Ann Arbor on Saturday ends Sparty contention for the East, with Michigan then holding a three game lead (in practical terms).

spigmoni

October 11th, 2015 at 12:23 AM ^

Yes this just makes it sweeter now since Michigan State will stay undefeated and hopefully still ranked in the top 5 with college game day coming to Ann Arbor.  It just sets the national spotlight on us sooner with the entire country getting to watch the coverage of our rise under Harbaugh leading up to the smack down I foresee happening.  

StephenRKass

October 10th, 2015 at 11:48 PM ^

I feel bad in a certain way for Rutgers. But not really. They deserve to lose. Spiking the ball on 4th down? I don't get it. Oh well. Some players have brain farts under pressure.

I love that Harbaugh could go vanilla the 2nd half, while Dantonio ended up having to burn a redshirt he would have preferred not to use.

HAIL-YEA

October 11th, 2015 at 1:06 AM ^

I feel terrible for them, they played without a head coach, that fill in coach didnt even seem into the game. They got screwed on a few calls and there was noone to fight with the refs for them, there was no direction from the sideline the whole game. I don't know if that was the difference but I did feel bad for him when he spiked the ball at the end when they put the camera on the fake coach and he was just in a daze.

kawter

October 10th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^

fuck OSU with a paintbrush. As for MSU, it's cute to see them pull off those last min wins. I'm happy for them. Will be a fun game next week as Mike Dantoni will begin walking the allies again instead of the streets




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Willy Wonka

October 10th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^

Don't feed the trolls. It's getting to the point where we should expect to beat MSU. They look extremely vulnerable while we have made strides each week. I have faith in Harbaugh and the staff to have the team ready to win against MSU...Something Hoke never did.

MichiganStudent

October 10th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^

How many injuries did they sustain in that one? Are they expecting more guys to be out against Michigan?

maineandblue

October 10th, 2015 at 11:34 PM ^

I'm not from michigan so that rivalry never affected me as much as it affects in-staters. I certainly dislike them, but I have a lot more hatred for OSU and notre dame. It'll make beating them next week that much sweeter!




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RJWolvie

October 11th, 2015 at 9:11 AM ^

This is true. I actually even used to root for them a bit when not playing UM. But that was easy when they were pathetic & we were clearly superior. When our suckiness started about 7 years ago, coinciding with they're not being shitty, and their godawful fans so shitass about it, I have grown to HATE them much more than OSU or even ND (that's how my hatred ranks)




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mgokev

October 11th, 2015 at 9:26 AM ^

I think all view OSU as the bigger rival but for in-staters, who likely has a ton of friends etc at MSU, makes losing to them insufferable. Losing to OSU would suck, sure, but you didn't have it smeared in your face for the next 12 months from everyone you knew.




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MotownGoBlue

October 10th, 2015 at 11:44 PM ^

The outcome sucked but I just became a huge Norries Wilson fan. His reaction to the spiked ball was great (the only emotion he showed all night). I hope ends up as head coach down the road.

ryebreadboy

October 10th, 2015 at 11:36 PM ^

Our defense should be drooling at the way that offensive line looks. And our offensive line should get enough push for a solid run game. Rutgers was running with ease. Rutgers.

NJWolverine

October 11th, 2015 at 2:27 AM ^

The Rutgers running game is a little different from ours.  They have 3 scat back types, so they rely on angle blocking to try to get them to the edge.  Their RBs also did a nice job hitting the holes (it's just amazing to see how we still struggle in that area with our backs).  I've watched Rutgers all year and they didn't do anything different today than they did all year, so either MSU wasn't prepared because they were looking ahead, or they just couldn't stop it. 

It seems like the MSU defenders were having trouble defending in space, but they're built to stop our power run game.  It's definitely something the coaching staff can exploit with a guy like Drake Johnson (if he's healthy enough) or with Chesson on the end arounds and jet sweeps, but I'm not sure we can simply assume a power run game will work against them.