thoughts on michgan, osu, and lil bro games today
I was in attendance for the game today. It was quite exciting, a little close for indiana, but i think they're on their way to being halfway decent. Whoever the backup center was, i hope he works on snapping at the right time. And i hope all the starters that are hurt on the o line get healthy soon, because Tate had basically no protection all day. Boubacar was getting beat a lot and it's quite clear that the defense needs the most work before Lil Brother. Piped in music was fun today, and even the older people around me sang along with that one song which i can't remember, someone remind me what it was that went to the game.
Ohio State didn't have to put much effort in today, but they didn't look all that great. Same old TP throwing right into coverage. Illinois looked absolutely terrible. Who thinks Ron Zook will get fired after this year? And what a bunch of d bags for going for it on 4th and goal when it was 23-0. Real classy.
Lil Sister, typical. 1-3. we'll officially know who is the dominant program in the state after this week. can't wait
thoughts?
September 26th, 2009 at 7:44 PM ^
I don't think MSU is a bad team. I think that they are an average team playing badly. We should be on our toes.
I think that Illinois is in much worse shape than MSU (even taking into account the records), and that it didn't show us much about tOSU.
TP sucks as a passer. They had 0 yards passing at halftime. The annoucer called one of his passes in the 2nd half "being rusty." I had to keep from yelling at the TV. He wasn't rusty. He just isn't a good thrower.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:19 PM ^
but losing within one score to both ND & Wiscy on the road doesn't mean they're awful. After all, Sparty was a 3 point dog today and lost by 8. Mich was a 20 point favorite and won by 3.
Every game is going to be an adventure for the 2009 Wolverines. I'm just relieved that we didn't see the 2009 version of the Toledo game unfold before our eyes today.
I'm much more interested in beating Lil' Brother next week and being 5-0 than in watching Sparty compile losses against other competition. I'll join in the schadenfraude sideshow fun after we beat them and are done with them.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:13 PM ^
Sparty might be a little better than its record indicates, but that "one-score" defeat today was misleading. They threw a 90-yard TD with 15 seconds to go to make the final score look respectable.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:46 PM ^
... Sparty's record is 1-3. Not a high bar.
September 26th, 2009 at 7:57 PM ^
I watched some of that OSU game and got so frustrated at how bad Illinois looks. Williams makes some incomprehensibly bad decisions and that team just isn't physically up to snuff to hang with OSU. I didn't get to watch much of the Sparty game because I was too busy freaking out about Indiana.
Mainly, I was just upset because the Illini cost us a chance at our second Rivalpocalypse* of the season. Dicks.
Yeah, I'm going with Rivalpocalypse until someone tells me differently.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:07 PM ^
Even worse is that Juice will pull it all together in time for the Michigan game. That, or our D will just make it look that way.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:01 PM ^
Listening to Dantonios post game radio show, sparty radio guy said, so what do you have to do with your team for next week? Danny said I've got to get my guys and give them a big hug.
THAT'S NICE I FEEL ALL WARM AND CUDDLY AND GOSH DARN I HOPE SPARTY FEELS BETTER ABOUT BEING, WELL 1 & 3. I cant wait till tOSU hires him as their next head football coach. If M was 1 & 3 I don't think RR would be able to form words.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:22 PM ^
Well, there is historical precedent to find out what RR's reaction would be. Here's a clue. Multiply that record by 3.
hooray rhyming.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:17 PM ^
Was the song "Sweet Caroline"?
September 26th, 2009 at 8:27 PM ^
no. plus they didn't play that today.
September 26th, 2009 at 11:06 PM ^
They did play the song, it was the winning song from the text voting in the 3rd quarter.
I also think that it was "Shout" at least that's what everyone in the section I was sitting at seemed to get into the most.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:44 PM ^
since i doubt they were singing along with eminem, im hedging my bets on the song being "Shout" by the Temptations.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:25 PM ^
A win against State will pave the way to Michigan's next bowl game and potentially keep State at home for the holidays. Hope the team plays their best game of the season - on both sides of the ball. They will need to because the Spartans will absolutely being fighting for their lives. They have the talent to win but a big first half by Michigan should take away their will to win. Please crush Sparty so we can watch Dantonio turn into John L Smith in the press conference.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:23 PM ^
Total douchenozzle move by O$U to go for it up 23, a minute to go, fourth and goal. Shades of 1968. No fear, though, I hate Hayes more than Tressell.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:28 PM ^
The UW-MSU game wasn't as close as the score suggests. I know, because I was there. With like 4 minutes to go, the score was 38-17. Basically, Sparty threw in Keith Nichol and the Badgers let up on the throttle and they made the last 4 minutes annoying. Annoying as in, taking timeouts and continuing to throw the ball downfield. I guess they wanted to get Nichol some reps in game situations, or something, but the game was pretty much decided once Tolzien started off the 4th quarter with 2 TD passes.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:10 PM ^
We won, but there are few positives (JT = depth, Moosman got experience at center and we were appropriately grounded/focused for our first away game.)
No playing time for Campbell?? Molk is a huge loss - we are a different team without him. LBs lead in tackles but the DL stepped up IMO, I'll wait for other opinion. Donovan Barwis'd (his words) an INT. We need more of that against MSU and Iowa.
Hopefully Molk will have a speedy recovery.
Need to play team ball. What I see so far is great schemes, coaching and conditioning. Best players are playing. We are getting alot out of a little here.
Go Blue!
September 26th, 2009 at 9:34 PM ^
"Boubacar was getting beat a lot "
I don't think he played the second half at all. I don't think he even played the 2nd Quarter, I'm sure others have noticed this. Floyd (I think) was playing in his place.
O-line - Moosman was playing center, was a starter at guard earlier this year. They've gotta straighten out the snapping issues or we aren't going to win next week. DRob was bitching at Moosman after one of the bad snaps.
MSU - given how bad our defense has been playing, I think it's going to be a shootout. Sparty isn't playing well but I don't see them rolling over and playing dead for us. Dantonio can silence all critics with a win.
Also I'm watching the PSU-Iowa game and Iowa looks very good. That's going to be a tough one.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:01 PM ^
Indiana did not stop us we stopped ourselves but that is what happens with Freshman QB's sometimes. Even with horrific snaps, silly penalties and bad QB mistakes we still found time to score 36 points. This is an explosive offense to say the least.
All things considered I thought the D was OK. The Offense put the D in some bad situations. Indiana scored 1 TD in the 2nd half on a 85 yard run other than that the D was fairly good after half time
Great and gutty performance by Tate down the stretch, I am not as "unconcerned" as RR, Two weeks in a row he has left the game shook up and this time it seems more serious. We are going to need 2 QB's for the physical Big Ten schedule unfolding.
Denard looked much better running the O today. The fumble and snap snafus were bad but progress was definite. We are going to need Denard at QB let's hope he continues to improve.
I would be extremely pleased with one win in the 2 game road trip coming up against MSU and Iowa.
This season we may be something like the NW team that beat M 55-53 or whatever the score was. We very well could lose a game while scoring around 50.
September 26th, 2009 at 11:10 PM ^
How about that pass to TE (koger/webb?) I think today Denard looked more comfortable. Game seemed to slow down a bit for him. Need more confident passes from him and I think we are going to get it.
Btw: penn state looks defeated. Clark's body language says it all.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:49 PM ^
Shocked that OSU shut out the Illini. They have all the tools for a good offense and I can't believe OSU's defense is that good.
September 26th, 2009 at 11:29 PM ^
OSU's D line is outstanding. They played a great game today and they played great against USC. A big reason for how bad the Illini looked was b/c OSU's D line dominated them. Iowa's D-line also looks very good.
Every game for us this year is going to be an adventure. MSU will be no different. They will come out fighting for their season, considering their record.