Picture Catch-Up: At Northwestern 2013

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Play Misty For Me

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I spent the better part of Saturday's game mocking what we were watching.  It's not easy to watch this team, or this league...or pretty much anything from the angle I was forced to watch from in Ryan Field.  Even the rain was weak and lazy, dissipating in the whipping Chicago wind.  It was just enough to make you damp, but a mid-November temperature reprieve kept it just shy of miserable.  The football, or lack thereof, was miserable.  For four quarters we saw a multitude of stalled half-drives, a shit-ton of dropped interceptions, and no more than a handful of decent plays from either team.  And off-topic...Northwestern's uniforms were creepy, stupid, and borderline inappropriate.

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The first buzzer-beater snap and field goal I've ever seen and a slightly more entertaining overtime nearly made me forget how inept the two teams were, while the latter inflated the score for history's sake.  No one will remember that we were a bad brunette girl image away from not only losing, but participating in the first Big Ten game without a touchdown for the better part of 10 years.

But none of that happened.  We converted all the improbable 4th downs.  Northwestern dropped all of the interceptions.  Funchess found a way to steal back that fumble.  The field goal team was ready.  Derrick Green and De'Veon Smith ensured you seen the last of Fitz.  

And Michigan won.  Which is something that they have been unable to do 3 out of the last 4 games.

Just like losing makes you feel worse than it should and makes you hate more than you ought to...winning makes mistakes and inadequacies disappear, if only for a few moments.  

Either way, reality checks are in order.  Most of the problems are still there.  

They say now that the goal in the locker room is 10 wins.  And while I find that to be nearly as improbable as getting to 11 wins, I'm hoping to see something more this week that gives me hope for November 30th.  More from Green and Smith.  More confidence from Devin.  A less vanilla game plan.  Pressure on the quarterback.  Maybe then I can start evoking tails of November 22nds throughout history. 

See you in Iowa City.  Go Blue!