Poop.
I don't have any idea what this post is going to say. I've just spent the last 40 minutes or so wandering aimlessly around my house, zoning out and grumbling incoherantly like some sort of mental patient. This will likely have no real shape, format (or likely coherance). Consider yourself forewarned.
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck.
I think the worst part of this was that I could see it coming from a mile away. Before the season (when PSU was still picked in the middle of the Big Ten pack), I pointed to this game as one of the ones that scared me most of all. Then all day today I found myself thinking "this is setting up so well for OSU!" Wisconsin and Michigan lost, meaning that even if OSU and Michigan both ran the table going into their game, OSU would be guaranteed no worse than a share of the Big Ten title. A crapload of other teams OSU needed to lose also lost (see post below for details). When stuff sets up like that, it often falls apart. I went into the game thinking "it's going to be close, but as long as they don't turn it over and hand PSU points, they should be okay. And they did. Fuck fuck fuck.
How the hell does Penn State's right tackle not get called for holding once all game? He got beat around the corner on virtually every pass play and basically tackled Kudla. Not one fucking call. I don't mean to go all Lloyd Carr on you, but when the officials bring back a 19-yard Troy Smith run on a holding call, it's obvious they know what it looks like. Robinson's big scramble to set up their first score was particularly flagrant.
Troy Smith holds the ball too long. I didn't have a stopwatch, but I would guess that on the majority of his sacks, he was in the pocket for 6-8 seconds. If no one gets open, either tuck and run or throw it away.
I'm starting to wonder if Ted Ginn should really be playing on every down on offense, especially at receiver. He doesn't block downfield particularly well, has not been running good routes a lot of times, and the coaches have not found a great way to get him the ball consistently (outside of the one toss-sweep tonight which went for five yards and then was promptly shelved for the rest of the evening). Frankly, he didn't look particularly explosive on the kick returns, either. His career is following Breaston's track pretty closely.
I should have taken notes during the game, but was too busy trying not to get physically sick. I'm sure there was other stuff. I just can't remember what it was.
2 Comments:
The officiating was pretty bad on both sides of the ball. Missed holding calls, horrible spots, failing to set the ball and start the play clock at the end. My favorite was when Robinson took off up the sideline, stepped out 4 yards shorts of the markers (that was missed) and he damn near ended up with a first down. Watching the side judge running up 3 yards behind the play made me wonder if he was watching the sidelines or checking out Robinson's ass.
This offense is horrible and not creative at all. The Tressel regime in general recruits great defensive players, great skill position players in receivers, but has been mediocre at best recruiting running backs and horrible at recruiting quarterbacks. You can't keep asking your defense to bail you out of every game when your offense is that piss poor. Just once, bring in a quarterback who can throw the ball well and doesn't always look down at his own shirt to determine who is getting the ball in big time situations.
Bleh.
Hey Tom, sorry about Saturday, I know how you feel. I'm a Michigan fan, so I guess I probably have it worse at this moment. If you don't have the time or just don't want to respond I understand. I was just curious about a rivals take on Michigan.
I've gotten kind of sick with listening to all the whining from Michigan fans over the past years whenever something goes wrong. Bad seasons happen, although certain teams that are at higher levels have different types of bad seasons. 3 losses can be considered a bad season, but if that 3rd comes in a bowl game I don't think it looks so bad since 9-2 teams normally play other 9-2 type quality teams. It is obvious right now, that Michigan will be extremely lucky to get out of this season with only 3 losses and this is a bad year. My fellow michigan fans have all wanted Lloyd fired years ago, for various and numerious reasons. Now they feel they have been validated. I personally think its bunk, you can't be awesome every year. You guys had a similar thing happen last year. You were a good football team that took almost the whole year to fully realize that.
As a member of the opposition, do you feel that Michigan is screwed and has serious coaching deficencies or this is just a flash in the pan? I don't want to come off as someone who thinks Lloyd is God or anything. I know he has his mistakes, but I think he also has some qualities that get overlooked. I also think it is hard to do much better. Michigan fans are spoiled. We are always at least pretty good, sometimes very good. But because we never have had a dominate stretch since around the time Columbus came across the atlantic, people take that for granted.
I'm sorry for rambling. I just wanted to know your take on this if you had one. I read your "Michigan Monday" columns and I can get some sense of your feelings, but I don't know how much of that is posturing for the fan base or what you truly feel. Any time you spend on this I thank you for.
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