We overcame a lot of mistakes last week. I honestly don't know how you turn the ball over 5 times and force only 1 turnover, yet manage to put up 45 points in regulation against what was the 15th ranked total defense in the country. We single handedly dropped Illinois from 15th to 43rd in that category in a single week. Add in the special teams, which had the Illini starting drives north of the 40 yard line more times than I care to remember, and never had a Michigan returner move it past the 25 until a trick play was called, and it is nothing short of amazing that we stayed in that game long enough to win it. Must have been destiny. Hemmingway's tip-drill catch certainly made it seem that way. Every team needs a little luck, and that tip was the first gift from the football gods that we've been on the positive side of all year...maybe in three years.
Three games remain, and I'm exhausted with the "how many wins will it take?" talk. I'd like to just concentrate on this next game, not for Coach, but for us...for Michigan...for me.
I'm the one who is going to sit in those wooden high school bleachers, on the end of the "stadium" with the crappy food and the port-o-johns. I wonder if this will be the year that I'm actually allowed in to Ross-Ade stadium. I doubt it. I'm sure that we-the-visitors are still fenced-in down in our own little endzone. Assholes.
While I'm certain that this weekend's trip to West Lafayette is yet another must win for Coach, I'm more concerned with falling to Purdue for the third consecutive season. You see, Purdue is like Northwestern in the pecking order of the Big Ten, only they think that Drew Brees makes them relevant. That's right, they went to a BCS bowl 10 years ago. It's their only one. They didn't do anything of note for 40 years before that, and they've done nothing since. But somehow they swear that because Drew Brees saved New Orleans they're not on par with Indiana...and yet that is their chief Big Ten rival. Ahhhhh, but Purdue is a basketball school.
A basketball school without a single Final Four appearance.
Whew. Feels good to talk a little shit. This is what winning does for you...it makes you a cocky bastard even though the game you won was an atrocity in the eyes of football purists. By the way, without getting into too deep of a discussion on the relative evils of shootout victories vs. defensive struggle based victories, I would like to just say that winning against Illinois 67-65 is a hell of a lot less embarrassing than our 10-7 victory over Utah in 2002. It's also less embarrassing than every loss ever. So f*ck the critics. We're moving on.
Of note:
Denard. He needs 145 yards to break the NCAA record for rushing by a quarterback.
Toussaint is probable to play.
Steve Fisher is still alive and has the Aztecs in the Top 25 for the first time.
Best youtube compilation video ever...every Michigan trick play in the last 34 years.
Flashback photo album of the week: Our trip to West Lafayette in 2004...
