Way Back When-sday Pic of the Week
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October 14, 2006: The three amigos discuss the undefeated Wolverines before a sloppy 17-10 victory over the Nittany Lions.
We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Mediocrity
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To say it was an improvement would be an understatement, as all football...everywhere...and at any time past or present is an improvement over what made its way out on to the field the previous two weeks. However, to say it was good would be a gratuitous overstatement.
A couple of team moves seemed to work, as a reshuffled offensive line seemed to be slightly more effective, and Devin Funchess has obviously found a home at the receiver position. Gardner was great at handoffs, and the addition of Funchess allowed his eyes to unlock from the Desmond Howard's legends jersey that he'd been burning a hole in since last November. He also didn't make many good throws. From my vantage point, he was bailed out by Funchess two or three times on balls that could have or should have been picked. There was a lot of Henne-to-Braylon-style (later perfected by Denard) underthrows where our guy came back for the ball quicker than the Gopher D could react to a shitty pass...resulting in long, undeserved (but appreciated!) completions. We couldn't seem to come up with that kill shot, either in the form of a score to put it out of reach, or a sustained drive to run out the clock. Make no mistake, the game was not put away until very late, despite what seemed like 100 chances to do so. Defensively we were just ok, not dominating. Mobile quarterbacks, even when not that mobile, still cause problems here...and I got news for you, they always will. We also seem to be susceptible to long passes, or several consecutive medium range ones. I feel like they come in spurts...like entire drives where someone is wide open on every throw. But in defense of the defense, we seem to make just enough timely stops to stall drives and/or force field goals.
Anyway, it was a decent win against a team that is not good and that was without their coach who IMHO needs to change his career...or at least his role. In getting to East Lansing undefeated news, Penn State just lost to Indiana by 20, so either that's great because they suck or that's bad because they're going to be pissed this weekend. Then Indiana visits (Tailgate Theme Alert: White Trash) and, um, did I mention they just beat Penn State by 20?
Bottom line, this level of play probably gets us by Penn State, Indiana, and maybe Iowa. We need to play better than this to get by MSU, NW, Nebraska, and OSU. Reverting to Akron or UCONN play levels will result in a loss regardless of how hapless the opponent will be.
See y'all in Happy Valley. Go Blue!
A League of Our Own
/There's a funny post available based on this title hiding somewhere in my head. Somehow. Someway. Probably something with a lot of pictures and photoshops of Dave Brandon's head on Garry Marshall's body, and Hoke's on Rosie Odonnell's. It would probably go viral and make me famous on the internets. If only there was something to inspire me. But this team has played so uninspired, so sloppy. So I am uninspired. When the first half came to a close under the lights, so did all semblance of football that is fun to watch. The second half of ND and all 8 quarters to follow have caused sore jaws from teeth grinding, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop, when the talent won't be enough to overcome the multitude of mistakes, when playing down to the level of our competition will backfire. It's going to happen, likely sooner than later.
The saving grace for us is that we play in the minor leagues. If you had the pleasure of watching football over last weekend, you might have seen Iowa and Minnesota battle it out for a bronze pig, or perhaps you caught the primetime matchup between Ohio State and Wisconsin. But if you were smart, you spent your time watching LSU and Georgia. The difference between the SEC and the Big Ten is not small. It's a pretty easy eye test. Sure, on any given Saturday, perhaps the Buckeyes or Badgers or Northwestern Wildcats or perhaps even our lowly Wolverines could muster up enough of something to knock off a team from the SEC. But imagine being a part of a schedule like the one Georgia has had to endure. Imagine spending each week up there in the major leagues. Hell, we are literally looking forward to the Big Ten season, like a MAC team looks forward to getting into their conference action after weathering their away game paydays across America. Speaking of the MAC, I've got Northern Illinois in a lock in the Legends if they let them in.
With each passing year, I seem to know less.
All of that being said, I really need to trust that this staff knows what it is doing, and they can see the same shit we're all complaining about. If I don't trust the staff, then we're going to have to head to that dark place that I can't even fathom going to...I can't do that yet. So...adjustments. So...less turnovers. So....dominate inferior opponents.
Get me to Sparty unscathed, and then take care of the real business. And, as always, GO BLUE.
