The State Of Our Open Threads: After Ohio State
There will be a longer summary / analysis in the coming weeks, but here is the snapshot after Ohio State and the regular season.
Well, I must say this, first and foremost - I am rather proud of the blog for going relatively quietly yesterday. Indeed, there were only 278 instances of the tracked words / references, which is about a 75% drop in production from the Iowa game. Most notably, we only produced 132 "fucks" compared to the 482 we put out for the Iowa game, a drop of around 72%. Indeed, the only tracked word which even has a positive Z-score was "shit", and that was only 0.09, so we uttered "shit" only slightly more than the season average.
So, the regular season is over, and for all the people who seemed to indicate that they had checked out to some degree, many did not do a stellar job of doing so. Indeed, over the course of twelve games, we gave 2,302 "fucks", so despite the pronouncements of some folks, I often wondered:
In any case, here is the overall summary:
TOTAL | AVERAGE | STD. DEV. | % OF TOTAL | |
"fuck" | 2302 | 191.83 | 166.49 | 47.53% |
"shit" | 583 | 48.58 | 27.74 | 12.04% |
"damn" | 455 | 37.92 | 41.14 | 9.40% |
"fire" | 480 | 40.00 | 49.37 | 9.91% |
"suck" | 522 | 43.50 | 32.61 | 10.78% |
"ass" | 314 | 26.17 | 26.32 | 6.48% |
"put in Morris" | 187 | 15.58 | 16.81 | 3.86% |
So, for the season, the mix became relatively stable about halfway in and has not moved much since Penn State - we clearly prefer "fuck", and in a breakdown later, you see how we prefer it. The overwhelming majority of people prefer "fuck" as an interjection or adjective, though kudos to the few who successfully used it as an adverb - this was rare. I attribute the predictability to blogger development and the need to mix up the "shit" calls in the offseason.
Many people have asked about the specific breakdown of references to firing people. A more detailed summary will appear in a later diary, but the quick highlights - 82% of the "fire" references were directed at Al Borges, with another 9% being directed at Brady Hoke. As a whole, we wanted a lot of things fired, including tablelamps and wheel bearings, but clearly the offense was our focus.
Some highlights from the game-by-game breakdown might be interesting as well, even if the numbers aren't shocking. Far and away, the two most concentrated displays of general vitriol came during Penn State and Iowa - these two along account for about 43% of ALL instances. About 60% of the "fucks" we gave came in three games - Penn State, Northwestern and Iowa. We gave many, but in some rather adverse games, as you might expect, we sort of blew our collect profanity wad.
Here's the game-by-game totals - click on the image to go to the full size chart:
This confirms what you knew - November was a stressful month around here.For a clear dispaly of just how uneventful Ohio State was for purposes of these metrics, here is the normalized chart:
So, again - Penn State was our first delve into rage, with Iowa being the most concentrated display of fan dissatisfaction with overall performance. We can see here that Ohio State bears more resemblence to maybe Notre Dame if any game, and even then the comparison is not exactly a good one. We were...stable.
Actually, our reaction to this loss was relatively contemplative. Here is the Mood Chart:
Ever so slightly, by this measure, we were satisfied to an extent with yesterday's outcome, at least in comparison to other games. We weren't mad, folks. Despite losing, we weren't really all that upset.
December 1st, 2013 at 9:11 AM ^
was my word of choice yesterday ..
December 1st, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^
There were quite a few instances at the game of me grabbing my knees and an "I cant do this"
December 1st, 2013 at 9:24 AM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
Happy the season is finally over
December 1st, 2013 at 10:16 AM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 9:42 AM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 9:58 AM ^
i was mostly annoyed that A) this team didnt play like this all year and B) people might let 4 quarters of Borges gloss over the last 8 weeks.
December 1st, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
Not the right thread - but how do I get to page two of the forum that shows all the threads from before the main page?? If I hit page two or "next" on the screen - it comes up with a half of page of junk. I am looking for some threads from yesterday btw ...
Thanks.
December 1st, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
after you hit the forward arrows ">>" and it comes up with the half page of junk, hit "recent" at the top (takes you back to the 1st page), and then ">>" again and you will get to the true prior page.
December 1st, 2013 at 10:13 AM ^
when the team puts forth maximum effort and plays capable of how we all thought they could games earlier. All that does is justify that fans are mostly correct in their judgment and can tell when the team is not playing up to its ability.
I think most fans on here can accept a loss like yesterday when the team plays the way it did. Fans do not accept shoddy play and not playing up to their ability, which results in maximum cussing.
December 1st, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
very important each and every week
or lack of in alot of the games this past season
December 1st, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^
How much of that inconsistency is just the hallmark of any young team learning its way after having been pretty much a mediocre non-B1G contending team since 2006? You guys act as if it is all about effort and coaching, yet it is also all about experience and talent. It takes all four elements in unison. The team played well on offense yesterday, but not on defense and remains short of talent and experience in both areas since 2006. Each game this year saw a lot of variability in performance between the offense and defense (Akron on defense giving up big plays deep, MSU on offense not blocking inside, et al). Rebuilding our talent level to challenge for B1G titles is still an ongoing process, and that talent level peaked in 2006 (and that level was not enough to win the B1G or a BCS bowl game) and really has not returned since.
We remain with a long way to go boys!
Go Blue!
December 1st, 2013 at 10:24 AM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
There is that, of course. I will likely include this if I do a basketball verson of this.
Also, I might add "Double Farts!", mainly because Spaulding's background curses in Caddyshack are pretty classic and it is an oft-referenced film around these parts.
December 1st, 2013 at 11:15 AM ^
but I'm pretty sure its "double turds" not "double farts". One of my (admittedly limited repertoire of) talents is being able to quote Caddyshack line for line.
December 1st, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
I went back through the film and listened...it is "double turds". It is the priest that yells "Rat Farts!" when he misses the putt. My still not 100% sober mind combined the lines. Apologies.
December 1st, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
I was going to address this a little differently in the summary, but actually, the average size for home game threads was 1,283 posts and 1,928 for away games. We were much more "curse efficient" and prolific during away games - 70.06% of all swearing was in away threads.
December 1st, 2013 at 10:46 AM ^
That's likely due to our winning percentage differential in home and away games.
December 1st, 2013 at 10:54 AM ^
After it was apparent we were going to make a game of it after that first 99 yd TD drive, I was just happily going along for the ride. Really very few times I wanted to yell since there were almost no Gardner sacks and very few runs into a stacked LOS
December 1st, 2013 at 10:54 AM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
"Fuck" - 699 to go - you're welcome.
December 1st, 2013 at 7:52 PM ^
What the fuck were you thinking?
You're welcome.
December 1st, 2013 at 11:20 AM ^
I tend to swear more after positive plays than anything else, but they are usually in a form that probably doesn't show up in the searches, like "that was effing awesome!"
December 1st, 2013 at 11:29 AM ^
after you hit the forward arrows ">>" and it comes up with the half page of junk, hit "recent" at the top (takes you back to the 1st page), and then ">>" again and you will get to the true prior page. "
Thank you sir!
December 1st, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^
Personally, - I think it'd be great if MgoBlog didn't allow the use of curse words. I have been reading this and had my young son ask about such words. I also think there are more expressive ways to state things than a simple F***.
I may be in the minority, but that is my opinion.
December 1st, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
Ten defeats in the past two seasons and I believe tied for last in the B1G division this year. If we as fans find solace in playing OSU close (which I predicted) but losing, it only confirms what we probably all know; we have come to accept mediocrity for the MIchigan football program.
We are becoming like Indiana fans where the standard is play them close and feel good because it shows improvement.
December 1st, 2013 at 1:22 PM ^
December 2nd, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 1:59 PM ^
We are what our record says we are: we won three games we could have lost; we lost four games we could have won.
With that being said, I strongly disagree with the remainder of the post. Not a single person on this blog is okay with this season. People are simply expressing appreciation that Michigan's student athletes--especially on the offensive side of the ball--played at the level at which they are capable after weeks of relative incompetence. (As the previous poster remarked: "context.") Was that good enough to beat the #3 team? Not yesterday, and much of that has to do with playing a more talented/experienced team. Does losing by one point to the #3 team make you mediocre? No. This team would have finished 10-2, at worst, had they played like that all year. For lots of reasons that have been discussed ad naseum, they didn't, and so we had a disappointing/mediocre season. The question is whether the current players, with the current coaching staff, can play like they did yesterday on a consistent basis going forward. Most believe some change in personnel is required for that to occur. Every team will have off games, but no one thinks it's acceptable for our performance yesterday to be the exception, rather than the rule.
As for the "we're becoming like Indiana fans"... well, that just seems straightforwardly disingenuous.
December 1st, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 8:29 PM ^
December 1st, 2013 at 6:35 PM ^
or just plain stupid.