Alright, the fans (there were two of them so I can use plural here) have asked for it. At least one more week of brilliant analysis for you to ignore.
Well I have two theories… Let’s start out with the depressing one:
The Big Ten is bad at football this year. Two weeks ago it looked like there were 3 near elite teams. Wisconsin looked strong with a win against LSU and close losses to Ohio State and Michigan. Ohio State had a win against (thought to be good) Oklahoma. Michigan beat (thought to be good) Wisconsin and burried everyone else including (still thought to be decent) Colorado. But then… Ohio state loses to bad Penn State and struggles with Northwestern… They’re looking more like a good team that’s played average opponents than a great team with one fluke game… This makes Wisconsin’s close loss less impressive… Plus they struggled with Nebraska this week which I think is probably one of the weakest top 10 teams in recent memory. I mean, yeah you have to rank 7-0 Nebraska at number 8 in the country, but come on, was their schedule really any more difficult than undefeated Western Michigan? (The answer is no, because Oregon sucks) Wisconsin’s other close loss (to Michigan) also looks less impressive… which brings me to Michigan. The offense this week looked excellent. Speight made two bad passes (his typical bad first pass of the game where he overthrew Drake Harris by 5 yards, and the interception in the 3rd that probably prevented a blowout). Other than that the offense really couldn’t be stopped. They didn’t have to punt until the 4th quarter. And yes Michigan only scored 3 points in the second half, but almost every play they ran worked until the before mentioned interception. After that the offense pretty much played “we’re up 3 scores in the fourth, don’t lose the game.” The defense, on the other hand, looked bad. Lots of missed tackles. The previously absent MSU offensive line looked dominant, especially early. MSU opened the game with a 7 minute TD drive because Michigan couldn’t stop the run. (Also, thanks a lot for that because an early 7 minute drive means that for the rest of the game that jackass with the red hat comes out for a commercial break every time there’s a break to move the chains… This game took 18 hours. The defense picked it up after that a bit… They made some key stops especially in the red zone but were by no means lights out. Michigan Slappies were saying that MSU was getting away with egregious holding in the second half. I only saw the game from the stands so can’t comment on that statement. Bad news guys… Alabama is going to destroy whatever poor Big Ten team makes it to the playoffs.
Or…
Maybe there are four very good teams in the Big Ten. Maybe Nebraska plays down to their competition but can hang with the elite teams. Maybe Wisconsin is really really good but lost to 2 elite teams… They did beat LSU who is ranked with 2 losses despite firing their head coach mid year… Maybe Penn State isn’t terrible and OSU just had an off day on the road at night in Happy Valley. And maybe Northwestern is a solid team that just had a rough start (I mean… Western is ranked and undefeated shh… don’t think about Illinois State). Indiana and Maryland are decent teams with the ability to catch good teams off guard (that explains 3 of MSU’s losses)…. Maybe Michigan State held everything back in the first 7 weeks. Maybe they came out with a brand new playbook including blocking schemes and formations for 3 different quarterbacks. (Seriously guys.. I know you hate Michigan but come on… bring out half of the stuff you did Saturday and you probably win most of those last 4 games) Maybe Michigan is elite and is just the first team to face the real MSU. Rutgers and Purdue are still terrible… But maybe there is hope for the Big Ten.
Post note: I’ve heard lots of people (MSU fans at the game, U-M people online etc.) ripping apart Dantonio “giving up” and attempting that field goal. It was 4th and goal from the 15 with 10 min left in the game. Score is 30-10 MI. Now while I probably would go for a touchdown down 20 points in the 4th, I don’t think its the worst call in the world. 4th and 15 is a long way to go for an offense that had already been stuffed repeatedly in the red zone. The field goal should have been a chip shot (there ya go Champion Peters) for Geiger. MSU scored a touchdown on their next possession. Had Geiger made the FG, MSU would only be down 10 points with 7:30 left in the game.
Also the call to go for 2 with 1 second left in the game to… hurt our pride? could literally only hurt MSU… Maybe that’s Dantonio’s vote for Heisman?