After a rather long stretch of somewhat depressed participation, which can be attributed to things like the site format and the widely accepted idea that the open threads for football games are a cesspool of negativity even during comfortable games, we finally managed to generate a performance which rivaled some of the threads of seasons past - very large, very negative, even despairing despite the win in the end. Just like old times indeed. 

On that note, let's start with overall engagement first this time - this thread was 3,065 posts large, a feat we actually haven't managed in a couple seasons now, and all tracked instances came to 1,970 words. This makes for an overall efficiency of 1.56, which is far and away the best of the season and while historically that would correspond to what I call the "frustrating loss" (different than the game we would clearly lose, where some just give up and participation falls off, just like in a blowout win), this time, we won the game. Another item of note in this space - this thread alone accounts for 18.09% of the entire year's volume of open thread posts to date, which is fairly impressive. What does it mean? We were watching, and we were horrified.

The chart: 

As we approach Ohio State, now only days away, we do tend to develop an uneasiness, and it shows here. 

That uneasiness shows in other places too. Let's talk about the Normalized Value graph, which we use to talk about which games really made us fly off the handle, if you will: 

So, the crown for "Most Vexing Game" obviously passes to Illinois now, with Indiana still the second most frustrating one overall, based on measured outcomes. The UConn game is now surely the happiest we've been all season, and likely the happiest we will have been when we are ready to place this one firmly in the book of Michigan football history. 

To be fair, there was quite a bit to be upset about, especially since, as fans, we CAN afford to look ahead, and I suspect many of us were and I suspect that was a factor in our in-thread behavior.

Let's look at fucks given, for starters:

This is not an error - there really were 406 fucks given yesterday, which far and away tops the 251 that we gave for the Indiana game. There were two major contributors to this, and I am sure you would guess what they are - the passing offense being very, well, frightening and Blake's apparent injury, which we now know was not all that bad, but even so, they still held him out in the second half, which I am sure many of us would have done. 

I was a little puzzled as to why the number of shits given was not higher, but still, 143 is a season best, and more reminiscent of performances in past seasons. The next highest total was 122 for the Indiana game. With only OSU left, it is beginning to look as if, and I don't want to presume too much about how we will react next week, that OSU, Illinois and Indiana will be the top three games for fan stress this time around. 

Other questions you might be asking - did we suck? Should we clean house? Well, a fair number of people seemed to think "yes" on both. 

By a few sucks, we thought we sucked the most yesterday - 65 instances, although I am sure the unofficial total would be far higher. The 58 mentions of fire were surprisingly low to me, but again, I am sure unofficially it is higher. Anecdotal evidence confirms it actually, hearing stories from people who watched the game in bars and other locations yesterday. It lends credence to the idea which someone put forth on this blog yesterday that, even at 11-0, you have a contingent of the fanbase that wants heads. I am never sure if those people are sincere in their desire or if it is people despairing in the moment, giving one game unwarranted weight in the grand scheme of an entire season, but in any case, we should all be very pleased that those people are not anywhere near the program. 

Our worries about the defense and offense are on the rise too, as you might have guessed:

A great deal of this talk, of course, particularly on offense, is directed almost exclusively at anything we attempt through the air. Yesterday, both JJ and the wide receivers were under fire in the open thread. As for defense, most of the complaints were about our inability to contain Chase Brown on a few plays and how we were actually up against a team that we couldn't just bully from go. That in particular seemed to jar some people, which I found rather interesting, but as I have said before, I think there is an honest expectation in a select few people that we should just blow the doors off everyone, and they get upset when we come up all too human, if you will. 

We talked a bit about this relationship last week, but we will again zoom in on what we think sucks the most:

It hasn't been beautiful, and indeed, it has been very boring at times, but it has gotten us to 11-0, but the offense is obvious not perfect. Indeed, some think it is, or at least a vital component of it is, well, awful. If you judged the passing offense solely by yesterday, it certainly didn't look good, and yes, you would be right to say that a vertical game really needs to happen, like now. All that said, it will be interesting to see if this flies off the chart next week if things do not go well through the air. 

Let's talk about this one as well:

As we've crept closer to The Game, "Harbaugh" and "offense" have become intertwined as well. The causes for that are a bit more dynamic - there is increasing "buyer's remorse" from some on JJ McCarthy, others want him to finally settle on one OC and sack someone, others are again expressing discontent with Harbaugh whenever we hit a bad patch, however momentary. For the last few weeks, however, the criticism of Harbaugh doing offense the way he does and staffing the decision-making positions as he does clearly has become a source of ...... worry and probably dread. Next week will be telling. 

BEARING ALL THIS IN MIND....

That just leave The Game then. Can Excel contain results from our open thread for The Game? It has in the past. We shall see.