Went Right Back to Not Caring About You
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Barron - MGoBlog
The juggernaut that is the Michigan Wolverines....undefeated, undisputed, and despite what happened last year, uninspired for a good portion of Saturday's game against little brother. I guess even in the most competitive of families (like the Harbaugh's) the older brother isn't going to wrestle you on the living room floor if he has to knock you off a set of crutches to do so. So here we are, happy as fans to win and move on in what they consider a rivalry game, but pissed that little brother continues to exist, and disappointed that we didn't literally end their season (well, aside from that quarterback) by pummeling them into a quivering mound of flesh and bones.
The game was over at halftime, as was our motivation to continue to pile on an abomination of a team and their coach that has quickly gone from asset to liability in the absence of Narduzzi - who despite only coaching the defense, was clearly the brains of the operation.
We won. We went to our lockerroom, popped a tic tac, and sexually assaulted the stupid wooden trophy you forced into this contest, and were already thinking about how to make DJ Durkin wish he'd stayed in Ann Arbor before the sun set on the old Soviet-era cement shit pile you call home.
Barron - MGoBlog
It's over for you. Sure, we will continue to provide you relevance once per year through the privalege of getting to play us, and you will do that Sparty thing you do so often...pretending you don't care and talking of basketball season. But you will not be rebuilding from this. Teams that don't have a Big Ten victory entering November this deep into a coaching regime don't turn things around without a coaching change. Shit, even RichRod never lost 6 in a row. But I don't think you have the balls to give that scowling turd-faced loser his walking papers, so it's time for you to settle in to the Ferentz-Zone: Overpaying a dude who had the game pass him by and with no ability to recruit outside of his home state. Erect a satue and settle in Sparty, it's a future of residing at or near the basement for you with an occasional "great year" of 3rd place in the East. You'll always be remembered for winning Big Ten titles during the Big Ten's worst years, and for being on the losing end of the worst playoff defeat in college football history. Enjoy the participation trophy.
Moving on.
Go Blue!
Way Back When-sday Pic of the Week
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November 3, 2001: A hot mess of a crew before Michigan defeats Michigan State in regulation 24-20. More stuff about this day here.
Bring on the Browns
/Back in August, 7-0 and heading to East Lansing was the expectation, and that's where we are. The competition was slightly stiffer than we thought it was going to be though. Well, maybe that's not the way to say it. A better analysis is that the teams we played turned out to be better at playing teams other than Michigan than previously prognosticated. But for those that poopooed the perceived weakness of Michigan's non-conference, everybody we played is over .500, and Colorado is for real and ranked. Our first two Big Ten games included pistol whipping the 2nd best team in the East, and smothering the best team in the West. This was followed by two cupcakes that accounted for a combined 211 total yards and 8 total points over two games.
On Saturday specifically, Michigan had the ball (yes, time of possession is a dumb stat, but...) for 41+ minutes. That's crazy. They had 29 first downs to Illinois's 6. Michigan gave the impression that they were literally f***ing with them. It was like a practice, or a scrimmage to work out some kinks for a more important contest down the road. Let's see if we can perfect our slant timing and then feature De'Veon a bit to give him a chance to up his draft status...go. De'Veon ended up getting outshined by Higdon, who had Fournette-esque YPC, but Wilton made us all perk up a bit. And man, there were some straight money play calls. Open dudes everywhere. Opposing linebackers in full surrender cobra out of confusion.
There's two kinds of undefeated out there folks, the kind that Nebraska has, and the kind that Alabama has. The former features three or four coin flips that all land on heads and keep you undefeated. The latter makes people ask if you can beat the Cleveland Browns.
Michigan is the latter.
And while our first seven dispatched opponents have proven to be better than we thought, our final five foes are not meeting preseason expectations. The impossible juggernaut of three road games against the Big Ten's top three teams has been reduced to one road game against the Big Ten's worst team, one road game against the West's most disappointing team, and one road game against a team that lost to a team that Michigan beat 49-10.
Again, no doubt there are scary moments that will arise on the way to Columbus, but straight fear of losing anything before November 26th is all but gone, and fear of the day itself has waned. I don't know how to express this in a way that isn't super presumtive or jinx-making in nature, so I'm just going to let it lie. But I will tell you to get your ass to one of the two remaining home games. This is not normal. This team is special. We may dream that this will be the norm under horn-rimmed Jim, but there are no guarantees. Could be another 20 years. Could be never.
Enjoying the ride.
Go Blue!
