Actually, he said they prepare for it "365 days a year."

We're ready to start doing the same.

In terms of player motivation, sure.  But there's evidence Dantonio prepares the hell out of the Michigan game, even at the cost of losing some games.  There's only spotty evidence that OSU is as obsessed, at least the coaches.  Meyer has damn near dorfed some Michigan games if not for Michigan dorfing them even harder.  No, I think all the circumstantial evidence we saw that he was losing control of his program was real, except the naivete on our part was that would be a factor at all in the Michigan game.  This is the game they'd give their all for even if the players happen to hate Meyer to his core (we don't know that's the case, but my point is it wouldn't matter anyway).

The flip side of it is something of a hot take, which is that -- with a few obvious exceptions -- I don't think Michigan is nearly as talented as their statistics indicate.  This is NOT to say those statistics lie -- they were in fact the #1 defense.  If anything that's proof of our excellent coaching staff, and the effort of the players.  They play at an elite level by getting the absolute most of their ability, by practicing hard with great coaching.  But the sad reality is that when you face a bunch of genetic lottery winners who fart around for half a season until they decide to give it all at once, you're always going to be a heart-breaking step slow or a foot-pound short of making those plays you made all season.  Folks keep saying Michigan doesn't take OSU seriously enough but that take lacks perspective -- our guys give their all almost every game.  How much more effort do they have to give for The Game?

Make no mistake, Don Brown is more than acquainted with despair-inducing talent gaps and he has a thousand answers for them.  But he's never seen vastly superior talent converge against him the way OSU does against Michigan; BC has never been under that sort of pressure.  I honestly don't know if there's any answer for it at all, except maybe generational talent like Charles Woodson or Mo Hurst.

I'm not so sure about that.  When asked about the practices the week before this game Patterson said they were "nothing special".  OSU on the other hand DOES devote a section of each practice from the first day of spring ball to the Friday before the game to us.  It is their entire universe and they treat it as such.  

I know he get really, really hammered here for saying it but maybe Sir Charles was right.  Maybe we dont take this game serious enough or at least not serious enough to win when faced with a very talented opponent who plays like the lives of their family members depended on victory.

Edit: Upon re-reading your post I see where you're actually making the same point I made.  Sorry i missed it the first time.

Their version of an A-game is studying Michigan obsessively, finding every weakness, and preparing a gameplan full of surprises and never-before-seen plays that exploits those weaknesses to maximum effect. 

My immediate thought, and 48 hours later still my take, is that this game was on the coaches. The players played very hard for the first three quarters. I didn't see huge mental mistakes or lack of effort. OSU had a great game plan to start and Michigan did not. Once things got going, OSU had great adjustments and Michigan did not. That is all on the coaches and I think it absolutely sucks for the players. 

Harbaugh said they have to take responsibility for it during the post game press conference. I really hope a reporter follows up on that today and asks Harbaugh what that looks like. I also hope they ask him what it is going to take for him to lead a team to victory against OSU. 

OSU didn't break out anything new or surprising for this game. They just finally played up to the capability of their talent level. Their offense has been killer all year, but prone to bogging down from poor execution. Their defense has tons of talent but was undisciplined.

I think it's a mistake to see a team playing way better against their rivals as a good thing. That's a mark of crappy discipline, a team that doesn't put in effort week in and week out. MSU doesn't play "up" for Michigan - they play down to the rest of their competition. Which is why they tend to fall apart if they lose to Michigan.

OSU didn't play "up" to Michigan. They sleep-walked through their season and took a crappy loss, then finally played the way they should have played all year because their coach can't motivate them anymore, only The Game can.

Hell, look at the old Hoke teams that always seemed to play out of their minds against OSU. Was it a good thing that his teams played better against OSU than they did against Akron? Of course not. Teams that play close to their potential don't "get up" for rivalry games because they are "up" every week.

Unfortunately the reality is that Michigan's A game is not at the level of OSU's A game. That would have been obvious if we'd seen OSU's A game all year. To the extent that this wasn't Michigan's A game, it seemed more like it was nerves from the pressure and hostile environment - TOO MUCH amped up, if anything. Treating a game as special can get in your head in a bad way too.

I don't think their game plan was surprising or unique by any means. They ran the same plays I've seen from them in other games I watched this year. I, as a fan, fully expected tons of crossing routes and short quick passes. It's a core concept of their offense. So there is no way our coaches were caught off guard by their play calling. I believe we just over estimated some of our players abilities. I think Brown was 100% confident in Watson being able to hang with their speedsters in man to man. Our LBs on RBs in coverage is just a weakness by design in Brown's defense. People here use to always complain about McCray on RBs too. It's just a natural mismatch.

I am surprised Jim thought the same offense that we had all year was going to be enough this game. We tweaked minor things for this game but had absolutely nothing hidden up our sleeve. We have no creativity on our offensive staff. Last year we abused the osu D with counters and misdirection. Where the hell was that this year? 

Why wasn't Watson and Gil pulled for Ambry and Ross while at the same time Tru is taking carries away from Higdon and McCurry is taking targets away from DPJ, Collins, or Black? These substitutions and lack there of literally helped osu, not us. Is our staff over thinking things or what?

I had that same feeling, that they were pretty nervous. Usually Karan and Shea look pretty amped and ready to roll from the start but I didn't see any of that.

If that's the second tier, then we are definitely third tier. 

I was just about ready to agree with this take, and it's been my opinion ever since the punt block TD on Saturday. But I keep watching this take include the idea of Clemson as an elite program, and that's ultimately what's changed my perspective. Clemson *is* an elite program this year and we aren't. For Swinney's first few years there, though, they were synonymous with blowing the big game, not getting over the hump. Those days are over now.

When Harbaugh got here he talked about building a callus. I figured that just meant building physical toughness over the course of a season and finishing games strong. Nope. I never before believed the stuff about mental toughness, honestly, and that was naive. Harbaugh is in a multi-year process of getting the players in this program, this program's culture, into a championship mentality. We thought they were there, and they probably thought they were there. Then, suddenly, we emphatically discovered they weren't.

It'll be harder for us than for Clemson because we have OSU in our division. It might not happen at all, and we might have a program ceiling of 9-win averages with a win over OSU once every 4-5 years. But getting to that point is still on the table.

Michigan played average, or slightly above.

 I thought Michigan played below their season average, especially on defense. I had to check numbers to see who was in there. Michigan's defense for most of the season  (except for Notre Dame) was flying around, confident. Saturday they often looked lethargic and unsure. I realize the speed of the opponent had something to do with that, but I honestly worried that the whole team had come down with the flu.

I don't think we got their best game the past two years. This year - it's like Urban spent his four weeks off seething at Michigan and then dedicated and entire second coaching staff to scouting and developing a game plan for this game.