Schadenfreude - PSU beats us to four losses
It’s small consolation, but PSU goes to 0-4 on the season with a 30-23 loss to Nebraska. It interesting to note that their SBNation blog, Black Shoes Diary, has not a lot of people calling for Franklin’s head.
Indiana shut out MSU. How in Hell did we manage to lose to Sparty?
November 14th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
Please God let us win tonight.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:25 PM ^
That's like wishing for the Lions to beat the Falcons so Quinntricia gets an extension.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:30 PM ^
If we win tonight it will be like watching my mother-in-law going off a cliff...in my brand new Cadillac.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:09 PM ^
3rd grade, two of the best years of my life!
Shout-out Bob Green
November 14th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
Stubbornness
November 14th, 2020 at 4:22 PM ^
I think even Brady Hoke would have beaten this Michigan State team.
November 14th, 2020 at 5:22 PM ^
Rich rods first year team would have won
November 14th, 2020 at 5:24 PM ^
As sad as that is to say... you may be right.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:32 PM ^
I'm sure Steven Threatt would hold up just fine.
November 14th, 2020 at 4:23 PM ^
Flukey stuff happens in football. Yes, we lost to MSU this year but that doesn't mean we are worse.
Syracuse beat Clemson a few years ago but they still went on to play for the championship - doesn't mean Syracuse was the better team.
November 14th, 2020 at 5:19 PM ^
Jim “Flukey” Harbaugh
i like it! It’s more concise than Jim “he’s better than Brady Hoke and Rich Rodriguez so let’s give him a lifetime contract” Harbaugh
November 14th, 2020 at 5:30 PM ^
Another example: Bo went 6-6 in 1984 (his 16th season), yet his style and methods weren't different from his years before and after then - and he didn't have nearly as many other "circumstances" going on as we do thus year (though there were some then too).
In short, sh*t happens in college football - even to the best.
November 14th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^
I think many people forget that success is often a combination of skill/talent and luck. Sometimes even the best athletes/organizations have a bit of bad luck. Hypothetically, there will be a regression to the mean.
The MSU game sucked. I don't think it's a good barometer for the state of the program. Indiana looks like a solid team.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:07 PM ^
The MSU game sucked. I don't think it's a good barometer for the state of the program.
Why not? Rocky Lombardi this season against teams not coached by Don Brown has thrown 3 TD and 7 INT. Against Michigan, he threw for 323 yards, 3 TD, and 0 INT. Michigan couldn't do anything on offense because Harbaugh kept running up the middle into 9-man boxes instead of going to the sidelines (which worked the handful of times they did plays like that). I think that game is a perfect barometer for the state of the program.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^
How much of that was Don Brown and how much of it was the inexperience in the DB corps?
Both are to blame, but I imagine that if we had more seasoned people there then we would have performed better.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:54 PM ^
Are Brown and Harbaugh not responsible for the players they have?
November 14th, 2020 at 6:17 PM ^
Jesus H, a rivalry game at home is not a good barometer for the state of the program?
Some people will defend Harbaugh no matter what.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:58 PM ^
When your starting QB (Harbaugh) breaks his arm, your season is usually downgraded. As I recall, that team was bitten by the injury bug so yeah, Bo didn't change, he just couldn't play some of his best players.
Not really a good comparison.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:18 PM ^
So, this season when we are missing at least 6 of our best players is not a good comparison?
November 14th, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^
They weren't missing against either MSU or IU.
November 14th, 2020 at 5:33 PM ^
That's fine and all, but how come we never end up on the right side of these fluky games?
November 14th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^
OT in Indiana a few years ago is one example.
We've won a few others closely, but you are correct in that we've had some really sh*t luck the past few years when it comes to "getting the breaks". That happens too... maybe we're due for that to change?
November 14th, 2020 at 6:18 PM ^
You just keep hoping then. People have been saying that on here since 2015.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:16 PM ^
Better than sh*ting on everything and everyone. Besides, many of the seasons the last 5 years had a lot more to them than just "hope".
November 14th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^
Sugar Bowl win over VT was a flukey game. First UTL game against ND was a flukey game.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:02 PM ^
How about Minnesota in 2015 when they couldnt score from the 1? How about Army last year? Multiple times we've gone to OT with Indiana.
November 14th, 2020 at 4:24 PM ^
It kind of reminds me of that exchange in the "Fawlty Towers" episode "The Builders":
Mr. O'Reilly: "Just remember Mr. Fawlty, There is always someone worse off than yourself."
Basil: "Well I'd like to meet him. I could do with a laugh."
November 14th, 2020 at 5:19 PM ^
What a fucking pretentious response.
it’s like when a vegan throws out an unrelated reference to their veganism just to make sure everyone know how enlightened they are.
“It kind of reminds me of the fact that I don’t eat animals...“
November 14th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^
Is it pretentious to reference John Cleese?
Well, I for one, am not pretentious. If we're done here I'll hop in my Tesla X and spend the afternoon helping handicapped children.
November 14th, 2020 at 6:38 PM ^
Was he in Fawlty Towers? Never actually watched it. I only know Cleese from Monty Python, A Fish Called Wanda, and some commercials I don't actually remember but am certain he was in.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:10 PM ^
Huh? This response could be the overreaction of the day, even if we include all of the hot takes we're sure to see on the game thread.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:27 PM ^
It looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Must be game day.
November 14th, 2020 at 4:26 PM ^
Poor preparation, weak gameplan, lack of talent at key positions, inept coaching adjustments, no energy. That’s how we lost to Sparty.
November 14th, 2020 at 4:29 PM ^
+1 for username
November 14th, 2020 at 5:29 PM ^
Poop preparation
November 14th, 2020 at 4:28 PM ^
Losing to Indiana turns out to be less of a surprise than we thought. (Yay my athletic trainer niece.)
But losing to MSU?! Except that game was their Super Bowl. (Even so...)
November 14th, 2020 at 7:01 PM ^
Indiana isn't that good. They're benefiting from a year where 2 of 3 east division powers are (way) down. They'll get buzz sawed by OSU next week.
November 14th, 2020 at 4:28 PM ^
Losing to Indiana turns out to be less of a surprise than we thought. (Yay my athletic trainer niece.)
But losing to MSU?! Except that game was their Super Bowl. (Even so...)
November 14th, 2020 at 4:28 PM ^
I attended the 2014 Penn State @ Indiana football game. Mid-November, both teams were offensively challenged and mediocre that year and day. The weather was gray and chilly too, as it often is in Southern Indiana that time of year. The crowd was sparce, maybe 20K in all of Memorial Stadium.
It wasn't the big game of the day (that was OSU @ MSU ..... the infamous MooN game was the same day too!), and one could easily look back at that day and say: "that PSU @ IU game didn't matter at all."
But what I look back and remember is this: that game did matter for the 3 1/2 hours it was played. It was still college football with the emotion there on both sides.
There were still the players' friends & family there. There were still the most die-hard of the IU and PSU fans who were there and rooting on their team. There were still IU students there making noise and having fun. There was still the IU band playing the fight song and alma mater and the crowd cheered along. There were still young kids and families emjoying playing in that mini-football field Memorial Stadium used to have outside the south end zone. There were still, at the end of the game, players congratulating each other and taking a couple minutes to chat up friends on the other side before going to the locker room.
This year ---- there is NONE of the above.
For better or worse --- Penn State looks like they don't want to be playing football anymore in 2020. It's tough to blame them. It can't possibly be as much fun as it once was, even in those years were there was more defeat than victory.
November 14th, 2020 at 4:38 PM ^
I watched psu defense on the sideline after a key stop! I was actually impressed on how into the game they were especially down by 14! Wishing Michigan had that fire! I think it matters to them!
November 14th, 2020 at 4:31 PM ^
Watching MSU continue to get blown out week after week makes me realize how horrible Harbaugh and Brown are ..
November 14th, 2020 at 4:31 PM ^
Sports are sports. Humans are humans. You win some and you lose some. Such is life. What else can you say?
November 14th, 2020 at 4:53 PM ^
Well, you can get on a message board and create endless posts whining about it. That's the MGoBlog way...
November 14th, 2020 at 4:31 PM ^
And you barely hear about them being o-4 even thou they were ranked higher than us to start the season!
November 14th, 2020 at 6:08 PM ^
At the very best that makes UM a pig with lipstick.
November 14th, 2020 at 7:20 PM ^
What if you were trapped on a desert island with this lipstick wearing pig? Would you think about it?
November 14th, 2020 at 4:34 PM ^
Win or lose I have a new AC/DC album!
November 14th, 2020 at 4:35 PM ^
It. Doesn’t. Matter. This. Year.
November 14th, 2020 at 5:22 PM ^
Winning. The. Big. Ten. Never. Matters. In. Any. Year.
we could paint this on the practice field!
November 14th, 2020 at 5:27 PM ^
You know I keep hearing this and it’s a losers mentality. If Michigan would have kept rolling after the Minnesota game nobody would be saying the season didn’t matter. We would all be hearing about how Michigan took the next step. However since that didn’t happen and it’s painfully obvious that Harbaugh and staff don’t game plan worth a shit and can’t/won’t make in-game adjustments we keep hearing how the season doesn’t really matter.