Pick your metaphor

Oh yeah, I suppose I should address our game this weekend.

Sigh.

It wasn't good. The offense played hot potato with the football. The special teams were sub-par. There were many poor or questionable coaching decisions. And the defense couldn't catch a cold.

After each of our previous losses this season, I've tried to look at the big picture. Although we still have a chance to make a bowl game and show improvement this season, the overall numbers are not good, and it does seem like they will improve anytime soon. O fer October in two years. 3-10 in Big Ten play. Out gained by every BCS opponent this year.

So where do we go from here? This loss has definitely brought out the pitchforks in some places and there are plenty of people who want to jettison Rich Rod now. But if you listen to comments made by school president Mary Sue Coleman, that's not going to happen this or next year. He's here through 2011, unless he chooses to leave, which is also unlikely given that he'd owe us a big buyout if he quit.

Personally, I'm glad the people in power have some patience. As frustrating as the last two years have been, firing RR now would put the program back and would potentially extend our walk in the wilderness. While I still support the coach, I have a hard time arguing now with those who say he's a bad fit here or will never be successful here.

Other thoughts:
-It's amazing to watch all the SEC slappies in the media get all over Iowa for trailing Indiana after three quarters, or for getting some questionable calls in the game. Didn't Alabama need a last second blocked field goal to beat a mediocre Tennessee team (hello, we lost at home to UCLA), and didn't Florida get some referee gifts to beat Arkansas? Now, I'm not saying that Iowa should be ranked ahead of those teams, it's just that the vitriol pointing there way seems out of place.
-Wow, Oregon. Chip Kelly's gonna get some coach of the year consideration, which is amazing since after week one, it looked like he was in over his head. Now that's what the spread option offense is supposed to look like.
-MSU's loss at Minnesota was almost as bad as Michigan's at Illinois. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it still puts them in a bad position. They now need to beat either Penn State at home or Purdue on the road to go bowling (assuming they beat WMU). I don't understand why Keith Nichol is still getting any playing time. I also don't see how you give up 42 points to a team that has 17 penalties for over 150 yards. Dantonio's lucky that Michigan has been so bad the last two years. Otherwise the main local story this year would be about the "Same Old Spartans".
-The Pizza Pizza bowl must be licking their chops. With both Michigan and MSU looking like they won't get above six wins, if they make it that far, there's a non-zero chance that they could get one of the two local teams. With CMU still in the running for the MAC title, they have a good chance to sell out Ford Field. Anyone interested in watching CMU carve up Michigan's secondary? How about MSU-CMU II?

Missed Opportunities

I must admit that when it happened, I was livid. How could you not put the golden child, Tate Forcier, back in the game? After all, hadn't he already led three fourth quarter drives to win or tie games this year? We only had 1:40 on the clock, no timeouts, and we had to go about 60 yards to get into reasonable field goal range. Surely this was the perfect setup for more heroics.
But no, Denard Robinson came back out on the field. Maybe Tate was injured, we had seen him shaking his hand like he had hit it on something earlier in the quarter. But we saw him start to run on the field, as if to say, "I'm ready to go" only to be told to sit down by Rich Rod. This was clearly a decision by Rich Rod to go with Robinson.

After the game, I stewed for a while, thinking about the missed opportunity to steal a game on the road against a top ten team when you commit five turnovers. As disappointed as I was that the game slipped away, I began to mellow a bit, thinking about how good the team had played in certain segments, and realizing that we were a nine point dog in this game and nearly won it.

As I poked around on various message boards, and saw discussions of the game, and of Rich Rod's decision to bench Forcier, I came across a comparison that seem particularly apt to me.
Late in the Big Ten basketball season, with the Michigan hoops fighting for their first NCAA bid in ten years, Michigan was playing on the road against a poor Iowa team. With tough games still to play against Purdue and Minnesota, most people felt this was a must win for our tournament chances. After blowing a large lead late, John Beilein benched his best player, Manny Harris for the overtime period, and we ended up loosing. At the time, many people were upset that the loss had cost us our chance at an NCAA bid. But Manny came out fired up a few days later and we beat Purdue, and then beat Minnesota, and he was the best player on the court in our big dance win against Clemson. In the end, Beilein's decision to bench Manny against Iowa probably cost us that game, but might have been the move that saved our season. We can only hope that Rich Rod's bizarre decision to bench Forcier will have the same consequences.

Bullets:
-Big picture, I'm very pleased with where we are. A year after finishing 3-9 (and being somewhat lucky to get one of those wins), we are 4-2 with two narrow losses, and most of our remaining tough games at home. 8-4 is a real possibility now, and that would be a huge one year improvement
-Boy did our line play look great. I think we beat Iowa on both sides of the ball, and they were supposed to have the best D-line in the league outside of Columbus.
-I love seeing Brandon Minor run downhill. We really need to get him more carries against the big boys. I would love to see him repeat the success he had in the first half against PSU last year against the Knitknees this year.
-I was very impressed with Denard Robinson in the next to the last drive. Everyone in the stadium knew he was going to run the ball, and they still couldn't stop him. I wish he had come in the game earlier. I hope he gets significant snaps in the scrimmage against Delaware State.
-Jordan Kovacs has turned into a serviceable safety. Now if we could only bring Mike Williams along, we might be ok (meaning average) in the secondary.
-Woolfolk also look good. I would guess he's our starting CB the rest of the year, regardless of what happens with Cissoko's suspension.
-Other than Zoltan, our special teams were quite poor. Why can't we find a decent punt returner. Isn't that something that slot ninjas are supposed to be good at?
-If I were the Illinois AD, I'd start raising money for Ron Zook's buyout and would get Brian Kelly on speed dial. The Illini look like they've quit on Zook.
-The Big Ten looks like OSU's to lose. Iowa is good, but not good enough to win in Columbus. While the Buckeyes might trip up once, I don't see them losing twice, and no one else in the league is good enough to run the table. I would put Iowa, PSU, and Wisconsin in the group behind OSU, with Michigan, MSU, and maybe Minnesota a step lower than them.
-Has anybody else in the country played as many exciting games as Washington? (Perhaps us)
-The post game interview with Bobby Bowden was painful to watch. They asked him what went wrong with the game, why they lost, and he couldn't offer much more than cliches. It's pretty clear that he doesn't have the slightest clue what's going on out there. I don't envy the FSU fans or decision makers. It's pretty hard to deal with the fact that the person that basically created your program is now like an anchor around its ankle.

Out of Town Scoreboard

Some thoughts on other games over the weekend:

-Why on earth would Ohio State schedule Navy the week before USC, without a tune-up game in between? Perhaps it will work to their benefit this week, but my guess it will just beat them up for the big game this week. I wouldn't be surprised to see a repeat of last years USC domination.
-Ron Zook seems to have returned Illinois to the level they were at before he got there: wildly inconsistent and terribly disappointing on a regular basis. Missouri was supposed to be rebuilding this year, with only four starters back on defense, and a new skill position players on offense. The Illini made them look like national championship contenders.
-Maybe Dan Hawkins should consider coaching the intramural team.
-I wonder if Keith Nichol is kicking himself now. With Bradford's injury, he could be starting for a top five team now, instead of being a backup on a mid-level Big Ten team.
-Georgia's loss and LSU struggle against a team that was 0-12 last year illustrates why I've always felt the SEC "dominance" is overrated. Accumulated miles have a huge effect on college teams, and SEC teams rarely travel outside of their conference footprint.
-FBS teams went 34-3 against FCS teams this weekend. 2 of the 3 losses came from ACC teams. Duke lost to Richmond, the defending FCS national champion, and Virginia lost to William & mary, who was 7-4 last year. If Al Groh's job wasn't in danger before, it probably is now. With the Miami / FSU game to come tomorrow, the ACC is 4-6 on the opening weekend. Looks like another year of somewhat mediocre football from the nation's best basketball league.
-Watching the Tulsa / Tulane game Friday night (yes, I'm an addict), it occurred to me that a 2 for 1 scheduling deal with Tulane wouldn't be the worst thing for Michigan's future schedules. Tulane would be a step up from FCS teams, they only draw a few thousand fans to their home games in the Superdome, and Michigan fans might be able to fill many of those empty seats. Besides, I know someone who could get me tickets to that game ;-)

Conference Season Starts

With about five or six minutes left in today's game at Crisler, this promising basketball season looked to be reaching a crisis point. After getting demolished on New Year's eve in game against Wisconsin that wasn't as close as the final 13 point margin might suggest, Beilein's boys were seven points down to Illinois. They were losing for the same reasons they lost to Wisconsin -- defense. Illinois, while not a huge team, was using a size advantage created by our lineup, essentially four guards and DeShawn Sims, to get easy shots down low or kick outs for wide open jumpers, created by help defense in the post.
I started to wonder whether this team would be able to survive in the Big Ten with its dearth of quality post defense. if we had to rely on outscoring teams in half court games, it would be a long conference season, and our hopes of finally playing meaningful games in March might be dashed.
But then something happened. They started fighting through screens on the baseline. They started getting their hands up and moving quicker in the 1-3-1. In the second half, every defensive possession, you could see the rest of the team on the bench waving their hands, exhorting the team on. And they got some balanced scoring, five players in double figures, and one more at 9 points.
Perhaps the most significant contribution in the game came from Zach Gibson, who was 4-5 for ten points, including two dunks and a three. He also had a good block and couple of assists. We are a different team when he plays like he does today. He helps our post defense tremendously, and makes us a more complete lineup.

New basketball rankings are posted. Big changes in the top ten with the start of conference play. Pittsburgh jumps up to #1 with the big win against Georgetown. MSU jumps up on the strength of two road wins at Minnesota and Northwestern. Gonzaga continues their free fall with a loss to Utah. Top overall riser was Drexel, up 93 spots with two road wins over Hofstra and St. Joseph's. Biggest loser was George Washington, on a four game losing streak, including losing three at the Rainbow classic.