MSU @ M, Game Day, In Game, Post Game Discussion

[Tbone]

You don't leave the opposition a hail mary away from winning, you kick the damn ball which the punter should be able to do 99.9% of the time.

ESPN showed the percentage of Michigan winning before the punt. You were awful close, it was 99.8%. That is an unbelievable number, .2 of 1%. If your going to kick it at least set your blocking up correctly. Also the coaches should have stressed to just fall on it if the snap is fumbled.

[UMStan White]

I have seen UM lose games in every imaginable ways. Yesterday topped them all. Harbaugh joins a long list of UM coaches that can't beat State in his first year, but none of those coaches lost it like he did. Hanni is right. Appy State is the highlight of UM and college football failure and this game is just another buttfucked job. It is amazing how many categories UM leads the world of college football with just as many historical failures as achievements. Truthfully who gives a shit how the rest of the year turns out. This loss sends us to a ceiling of playing in the Outback bowl IF and that's a BIG if, we can win out. Even if we beat OSU such a loss still probably puts them into the playoff. Fans who think that "wait till next year" is a mantra don't take into account that we play both State and OSU away. Oh and for what its worth I'm a die hard Cubs fan. (in fact I ran into two Cubs fans at the game who were also State fans and they both agreed they would rather seethe Cubs in the World Series than a State win. Here's hoping they get to see both.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Took some time to grasp what actually happened to help put the loss in perspective. I should point out that I did not read a lick of this thread before I posted and don't plan on it so sorry, if the points I make have already been made.

First, another great tailgate. Thanks Jon for posting the group photo. Unusually quiet post game. No body really wanted to talk about it and nobody did; we watched the late games, everyone cleared out by about 9p with traffic still lined up on Main headed to 23/94. It was the same way on the front end of the game. Traffic was lined up starting at 7:45a!

Attendance over 111k and I believe that figure unlike the Brandon BS. It was loud throughout the entire game. The noise-meter that gets displayed on the score boards topped 100 DB on several occasions on big downs for the D.

I watched the game again on tape this morning just to make sure I hadn't gotten blinded to how the game actually played out due to my intense disappointment over how the game ended. Not much changed. I was just able to pinpoint the several plays that, like most games of this kind, determine the out come.

Without being a homer about getting jobbed by the refs, the embarrassment that is BT officiating continues and seems to get worse every week. It happens in almost every game I see on TV and it's not necessarily Michigan that is victimized either directly or indirectly. I don't get it. There were three major, game affecting calls that right or wrong had an impact on the outcome of the game. I'm going to leave it to those who are supposed to know what the call should be on the issue of the rules being enforced properly or not.

The first two calls, which in my view were both wrong, allowed MSU to hold the ball for 16 plays running over 7 minutes off the clock in the first quarter. Both calls gave MSU first downs, extending drives that looked to be stopped by M's D: 12 men on the field against M gave MSU first down on 3rd and 5 without running a play was the first and the second, possibly the most flagrant bad call, was the defensive holding call on Jabrile Peppers when he was pushed into a receiver. Not only was the play called incorrectly, in my view, if was also enforced improperly. It was 3rd and 18. You do not get an automatic first down on a defensive holding call. It is a 10 yard penalty form the original line of scrimmage.

The last one I'll mention because there were many either wrong calls, no calls or calls that shouldn't have made (the game is over-refereed and unaided entirely by instant replay) that were made during the game. Game deciders? I can't really say that. It was just all around bad officiating (nothing new in the BT) and disruptive on so many levels for both sides.

The last one: the targeting call and Bolden's ejection. I'm sure this has already been hashed over here but that was so stupendously wrong, it bears mentioning again. MSU ultimately scored on this drive aided substantially on it by this call.

I have to give credit to MSU's defense which, I felt, played toughest in the final quarter stopping M and then allowing Cook to make just enough big plays to close the score to 21/23. Chesson missed a big catch on 3rd down that would have extended a drive and might have resulted in a score to put the game out of reach so, there was that. I really don't think it was conservative play calling on Harbaugh's part, the offense just didn't make plays to extend drives. I can't count the number of times I would say OK, now capitalize, meaning, the team scored, now let's nail it down. Never did and credit MSU's D.

Obviously the last play that won it for MSU was totally unexpected. In fact, a ton of MSU fans filed out of the stadium after Cook didn't convert on 4th down. They didn't know what had happened until they got texts from friends and heard the raucous. For me, the bottom line is it ain't over till it's over and punts can go wrong and get blocked. This one did. Game over. That M couldn't t get a first down on drives just prior to that eventful play is probably the root cause of the loss. You have to put the game away and you do it by getting first downs, possessing the ball and scoring points till the clock reads 00:00. Here's one for talent and explosive offenses. M's offense is not explosive and a lot of that is due to mediocre QB and RB play.

That's my two cents. I'm moving on. The one thing I feel good about this Sunday is that the program is in good hands. Whatever the rest of the season brings, I'm just going to take in stride. Getting excited about making the play-offs or winning the East was probably overly ambitious given the state of the offense. You have to make first down, move the chains and score points if you want to play with the big boys. I don't think M is there yet.

Worth mentioning, the wheat is beggining to sort itself from the chaff. You can begin to see who the top 5 CFB teams are after a good number of teams looked like they might be that, M included. Not so fast.

[BlueBlazer05]

I was at the game on THAT side of the field. Cursing someone as THAT play unfolded (at who, I wasn't even sure). After THAT, just numbness. I'll probably have more thoughts later.

[Kstat]

Good teams win close games. Great teams avoid them.

When U-M becomes a great team, we won't have to worry about flukes anymore.

[froot loops]

On that Bolden ejection I felt he did get pushed, but like in Hockey when a player is pushed into a goalie and he takes a little extra liberties. It would be borderline, but in my view it isn't targeting.

[paul daugherity]

I am still numb and depressed over this one. I haven't felt like this since the kordell loss. The only way this will diminish is when UM finally beats sparty.

I can't be as pessimistic about the future of the team as Stan or Hannibal. I think Harbaugh had the kids fighting hard. His gameplan was sound - he is hamstrung by his offensive lack of talent. It seems like he is addressing this in recruiting. But I guess we'll see.

And his changes are already noticeable. At the beginning of the season, everyone predicted this would be a blow out loss. Obviously we are 't where we'd like to be. But I disagree with the notion that there has been no improvement and we are doomed to mediocrity from here on out.

It will be telling how the team responds and closes out the season. The after the Colorado loss, that team sleep walked through the rest of the season, dropping 3 more. We will see.

[Mike]

I think there is a very good chance we'll be 9-2 heading into OSU.

[Rocky Bleier]

We played some inexperienced QBs in the previous 3 games. It's obvious, as I said before and got slammed for the effort, that M doesn't have much of an offense and has to manufacture big plays. Still, I was disappointed in the 2nd half play calling. Too cautious. You sit on a lead and suddenly a little-known FB is streaking down the sideline. Play to win the game...

I'm with Jeff. I didn't have high expectations going into the season. I said the offense wouldn't be very good, and I expected maybe an 8-4 record. What I wanted to see was improvement, and there has been a ton. Hoke's teams did not improve and looked terrible. Harbaugh's first team plays together and plays tougher. That the coaching is so much better is self-evident. Stan's right, too. You can't just say wait 'til next year. But Brandon and Hoke are gone, and that alone means it will get better not worse.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think there is a very good chance we'll be 9-2 heading into OSU.

Well, I thought M would whip MSU 31-17 and I wasn't alone. That didn't happen.

I'm not overly enthused regarding the rest of the season due to the obvious limitations in the offense and that's not a dig on Jake or Deveon or the coaches making the game plans and calling the plays.

Ruddock and Smith both play hard, we've seen what the offense can look like but without that capacity to get chunk plays in this offense you let the opponent hang around and you set yourself up for the "shit happens" endings we just all went through.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not selling out on my view that Harbaughffense and everything that entails isn't a viable offense in CFB. In its current form, it just lacks a consistent big play capability.

Back to the point. The record is all dependent on how the players respond to what just happened. I understand that Jim Hackett released a letter this afternoon urging people to not make derisive comments on social media directed at other students and I'm assuming these other students are football players.

Pre-game, I commented that the winner of this game would continue in pursuit of its championship aspirations. Dantonio, in his post game comments, alluded to that is exactly what this win meant to his team. Meanwhile the loser would crawl back into its hole.

That is entirely a possible outcome for this team although that's not the kind of thing I would expect from Harbaugh. But that's Jim. I'm not sure that everyone else on the team is going to react like he will.

[froot loops]

The lack of big play guys really hinders Michigan right now. You'll notice MSU really worried about Peppers when he was on offense, he is scary.

[Rocky Bleier]

Yep. They called two time outs. Anyone else think Harbaugh should have taken some blame for the last play instead of just saying Oneill messed up?

[Kstat]

Yep. They called two time outs. Anyone else think Harbaugh should have taken some blame for the last play instead of just saying Oneill messed up?

No. His punter royally fucked up the most routine play in football. Can't second guess that.

It was more likely that his offense would have turned it over for a TD than his punter.

[Rocky Bleier]

But coaches usually take some blame to take some heat off the player. He could have said he didn't make something clear. You don't just tell the media that the kid screwed up. Hoke lost his team somewhat last year because he always said they didn't execute. They had bad coaching!!!

[Rocky Bleier]

Michigan never had a chance. I guess this explains how everything that could possibly go wrong - or right depending on your perspective - did on the final play. Michigan fans can now stop blaming Blake Oneill.

There isn't a more vocal leader on Michigan State's football team than Shilique Calhoun, and as the 11 members of the punt block unit took the field for the final play Saturday night, he gave them one final message. "I told them 'Just believe,'" the senior defensive end said. "I knew God would have a hand over us, and we were in his favor."