Michigan State 27, Michigan 24 - Nail in the Coffin of M football

[Jeff Buchanan]

Harbaugh's convincing win that his team put together @ Minnesota not only reversed a few bad trends for M but it also injected some enthusiasm for M football - at least for me it did.

Sparty is mess and Mel Tucker is going to be in trouble. That is especially true if his team doesn't show up for the game in Ann Arbor on Saturday and M delivers a beat down. Importantly, what's happened is that M is now hard to scheme for on both sides of the ball. An all-man defense has shown zone and a ball-control, long drive offense has morphed into an explosive, dangerous and efficient offense. It's been made so not so much by big plays coming from Milton but by a diverse, coherent offense near perfectly executed by him and his supporting cast.

M has always had the player talent, the tools and the pedigrees on the coaching staff to be good if not great but, under Harbaugh, these have never been realized in the form of on-field success. M's O was predictable and easy to defend. The defense easy to exploit. One game is not enough to be dispositive on the issue of a correction of the problems Harbaugh is responsible for. So, let's see a couple of games where there's a distinct pattern before we jump back on the Harbaugh band wagon that existed for his first two seasons and one many got off of by his third with the rest following on the 5th.

[Hannibal]

We've favored by 25.5.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Crazy ..... the hype machine has been turned back on.

[lineygoblue]

For this game, I'm back on the Harbaugh train.

Kick Sparty's ass. No mercy.

As long as time is on the clock, Michigan should be trying to score.

I remember not long ago when Jerel Worthy laughed about his attempt to break Denard Robinson's neck was caught on video.

I remember Narduzzi saying "football is 60 minutes of unnecessary roughness" when he was asked about MSU's thuggish style of play.

I remember Dantonio gleefully shouting "Where are the Wolverines?" as he left a mostly empty Michigan Stadium after a win there.

I have no more goodwill toward Sparty. I did at one time, but no more.

78-0 won't be enough. It will be an insult to let them score a single point in our house.

[Mike]

Lay the points.

[Cody_Russell]

M 48
Sparty 20

Sparty will slightly play better because of the week 1 wake up call and this game is a rivalry. 7 turnovers vs Rutgers could be deceiving.
In the end. M wins this comfortably. Not a chance for the upset without Dantonio coaching.

[Hannibal]

Lay the points.

If I weren't a natural pessimist, I'd be tempted to go that route too. MSU has one really great looking freshman RB. Other than that, I can't think of any way that they will burn us on D the way that Minny was able to do. Their offensive line is a series of turnstyles. Rocky Lombardi was functional, but definitely not outstanding, against a Rutgers team that was easily one of the worst teams in the country at defending the pass last year. Their defense probably doesn't match up better against us than Minny's did. We've got no reason to be worried about this one. This is the first MSU game that I haven't been nervous about at all since John L's last season in East Lansing. This is probably their worst team since the '02 Booby Williams disaster and it will probably be their worst team of this decade. We've got a short window for Harbaugh to do to them what he has been doing to Rutgers and Maryland since he showed up.

25 points is somethlng like a 38-13 game where Michigan breaks open a close one in the third quarter. I'd be kind of disappointed if it's that close. I want to see something like a 55-10 game. I don't know if it's reasonable to ask for that, but dammit that's what I want.

[Mike]

I think it's very possible we see a true curb stomping like we want. Michigan's D has pretty well dominated them the last 4 meetings. Here's MSU's points, yards, other pertinent info from those games.

2016: 23 pts, 401 yards, Michigan led 30-10 midway through the 4th quarter. Sparty scored a TD with 1 second remaining. Score not indicative.
2017: 14 pts, 252 yards, Michigan was -5 in turnovers and lost, 0 points allowed in 2nd half.
2018: 7 pts, 94 total yards of offense!, MSU only scored because Michigan fumbled at their own 7 yard line. Sparty ran a trick play WR pass to Lewerke for a TD.
2019: 10 pts, 220 yards, Michigan scored 17 4th quarter points in a 44-10 win - no let up.

So the last 4 years we've given up an average of 13.5 ppg and that's including two garbage time TDs in 2016. The last 3 contests Michigan has allowed 10.3 ppg, and 188.7 ypg. Michigan State has ONE actual TD drive in the last 10 quarters of the series. And that was with better personnel than they will bring to Ann Arbor on Saturday. It's gonna be a loooong day for Sparty and I don't think Jim has any interest in taking his foot off the gas.

[iam416]

It's fun beating the brakes off your rival and not really letting up on the gas. Very good times.

[Hannibal]

Tressel fortunately had mercy on RichRod.

[Cody_Russell]

I think it's very possible we see a true curb stomping like we want. Michigan's D has pretty well dominated them the last 4 meetings. Here's MSU's points, yards, other pertinent info from those games.

2016: 23 pts, 401 yards, Michigan led 30-10 midway through the 4th quarter. Sparty scored a TD with 1 second remaining. Score not indicative.
2017: 14 pts, 252 yards, Michigan was -5 in turnovers and lost, 0 points allowed in 2nd half.
2018: 7 pts, 94 total yards of offense!, MSU only scored because Michigan fumbled at their own 7 yard line. Sparty ran a trick play WR pass to Lewerke for a TD.
2019: 10 pts, 220 yards, Michigan scored 17 4th quarter points in a 44-10 win - no let up.

So the last 4 years we've given up an average of 13.5 ppg and that's including two garbage time TDs in 2016. The last 3 contests Michigan has allowed 10.3 ppg, and 188.7 ypg. Michigan State has ONE actual TD drive in the last 10 quarters of the series. And that was with better personnel than they will bring to Ann Arbor on Saturday. It's gonna be a loooong day for Sparty and I don't think Jim has any interest in taking his foot off the gas.

Harbaugh's two losses to Sparty are on M and LUCK ... nothing Sparty spectacularly did to win the games.

- 2015, M punter botching the football. 999 out of 1000, that doesn't happen. Pure luck for the Spartans to win.
- 2017, M playing John O'Korn due to the Speight injury + Harbaugh not trusting in Peters ... god awful performance in the rain by O'Korn + the M turnovers. In fact, literally if it doesn't rain, M wins that game IMO. The weather decided the outcome of the game.

[lineygoblue]

It's fun beating the brakes off your rival and not really letting up on the gas. Very good times.

So this is the line you'll use when Ryan Day racks up 100 on Michigan as he has threatened to do, right?

Oh well.

This one is different. OSU doesn't have an in-state rival. You guys wouldn't understand. Michigan has to face these pukes every year. They are a bunch of snot-nosed little brats that think they are entitled to win by any means necessary. Including thug football.

They have not earned any respect. They've said in the past they don't want our respect. They shouldn't be shown any respect.

If there's time on the clock, Michigan should be scoring points.

[WingsFan]

Good news Dax Hill could be back vs Sparty (sigh of relief) , Nordin too - though shouldn't need him. I would like to see Michigan drop 60+ and a shutout. Though I keep agreeing with Cody, not a chance Sparty play as bad as last week.

[Mike]

We’ll need both kickers healthy to handle the sheer volume of PATs they’re gonna kick. One of them could blow out a hip or something.

[lineygoblue]

It is good news about Dax and Quinn. Harbaugh also said that he hopes Nick Eubanks will be back this week as well, but he was waiting for an update from the medical staff.

And, so far, no problems with "the big C". I hope that continues.