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**THE_WIZARD_** · November 1, 2021, 10:43 AM

Several questionable calls that went in M's favor in Lincoln...yet...crickets...

fuckin' refs

**lineygoblue** · November 1, 2021, 10:46 AM

Originally posted by THE_WIZARD_ View Post

Several questionable calls that went in M's favor in Lincoln...yet...crickets...

fuckin' refs

But you guys deserved it.

And, if anything that loss helps grease the rails for you guys to have a better coach next year. We'll still be stuck with Harbaugh.

**THE_WIZARD_** · November 1, 2021, 10:47 AM

Lol...Trev Alberts ain't firing Frost...they are drinking buds. We are doomed to 4-8 seasons forever. We are the B1G West version of Rutgers.

**froot loops** · November 1, 2021, 10:47 AM

Originally posted by Cody_Russell View Post

McNamara, Anthony, Moody, Ojabo, Hutchinson, and a few others on offense played a great game. Not much else.
...

I like to joke about the typical M vs Florida Gators bowl game, but Florida keeps losing. Seems like M is destined to win 10 games. Slight possibility of 11.
A fun bowl matchup would be vs Notre Dame. Not sure how it can happen... that's what I want.

Yep, if you are looking forward to a Florida/Michigan matchup you would be experiencing Christmas in the Bronx.

**THE_WIZARD_** · November 1, 2021, 10:55 AM

Gotham Bowl?

**THE_WIZARD_** · November 1, 2021, 10:55 AM

What's a "Bowl Game"?

**lineygoblue** · November 1, 2021, 11:11 AM

Originally posted by THE_WIZARD_ View Post

What's a "Bowl Game"?

It used to be a college football game between two good, deserving football teams that were fairly evenly matched up, and played sometime around NYD.

Today, its all controlled by Fox Sports and ESPN/Disney/ABC, and they decide who plays, and where. Fairness in matchups is out the window. And they NEVER put Michigan in a matchup where they have a 50/50 chance of winning.

**THE_WIZARD_** · November 1, 2021, 11:13 AM

Oh. I thought bowl games were no longer played as of 2017.

Nevermind.

**lineygoblue** · November 1, 2021, 11:26 AM

Originally posted by THE_WIZARD_ View Post

Oh. I thought bowl games were no longer played as of 2017.

Nevermind.

It was actually before that, Wiz.

What the 'bowl committee' does now, is they take a team like Michigan, lets say, and they see that they are somewhere around 7-5 or maybe even 8-4, .. then they match them up against a 11-1 SEC team.

After Michigan is smashed by 40 points, the 'analysts' sit around and wonder why Michigan was "beaten so badly", and "why this once-proud program continues to struggle in the post season".

And most of the 'analysts' are OSU and PSU alums.

**Hannibal** · November 1, 2021, 11:29 AM

Brian has a particulary poignant column today. He has been really hit and miss lately but he is on here.

Could Have, But Did Not | mgoblog

https://www.mgoblog.com/content/could-have-did-not#read-more

10/30/21 – Michigan 33, Michigan State 37 – 7-1, 4-1 Big Ten Any close game is going to have its share of coulda-shoulda-woulda moments. There's always missed free throws or shots that hit the post, etc. Saturday's game will stand out in my memory for sheer quantity in this department. It felt like every third play was a Fateful Moment, from Andrel Anthony ripping through the MSU secondary for 93 yards to Blake Corum dropping a swing pass with almost nothing but grass in front of him to David Ojabo's sack-strip touchdown to having that taken off the board by the replay official. The previous sentence didn't get out of the first half. Also it could have included several other items. You see what I mean. This game was jam-packed with stuff. Bombs! Exciting runs! Special teams disasters! Aztecs invading Europe! Four straight field goals from the same guy at the same spot on the field! Boggling attempts to substitute while the other team was going up-tempo! Unfortunately for Michigan, the most fateful thing was the backup quarterback coming in and having a mutual misunderstanding with Corum about who was supposed to have the ball. Michigan was up three and at their 45 with seven minutes left. They had almost 500 yards of offense at that point. JJ McCarthy had already fumbled, and so there is nonstop rabbling in the Michigan fanbase this day. Ah well. -------------------------------------------------- Here, as always, the particular Michigan mania sets in to ruin everything. This is a team with a more-or-less first year starting quarterback that could bring back literally everyone on the roster except for Andrew Vastardis and Brad Hawkins. Even when you account for likely NFL departures like Aidan Hutchinson and Dax Hill, this team looks more like a team building towards a peak roster year than something for the here and now. Anthony is breaking out on offense; Ojabo is breaking out on defense. To many programs that would feel pretty good. There are scattered outposts of Michigan fandom attempting this zen even now. To me it's difficult to get there because this is year seven of Jim Harbaugh and it seems like the error rate is baked in at this point. Michigan took three illegal substitution penalties and failed to get lined up on several other plays because of basic college crappe like "sometimes we use tempo." When Michigan tried it themselves they ended up asking AJ Henning to block a linebacker. Then they false-started on a fourth and one attempt and the punter did not get a punt off. You could ascribe some of that to a near-complete staff reboot. I'm not particularly inclined since this is a program that has made shooting itself in the foot in miserable fashion a trademark. Sometimes they're pretty talented and it doesn't matter until they get to the games where the opposition is capable of matching them. When they are, though, it's always Michigan turning around to hand the ball off and failing to, you know, do that. This does not have to be fate. LSU just won a national championship with a coach they'd fire less than two years later because he is excessively horny. Whatever Ed Orgeron's assets are, they do not include "is organized" or "suitable for indoor use." But man am I inclined to jump off the moving car that is football season as soon as this stuff rears its head again. It doesn't feel like Michigan is building to anything except another Michigan Football Season where they win enough games to make you think they're going to win the important ones and then don't. So when McCarthy's in the game because Cade McNamara is briefly in the injury tent it doesn't feel like a weird one-off that you can shrug about and leave in the past. It feels like something that's going to happen against Penn State, and Ohio State, and so forth and so on. Maybe that's irrational. At this point, expecting Michigan to do something other than one-up themselves in late game failures seems more irrational to me. AWARDS Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week [Fuller] you're the man now, dog #1 Cade McNamara. My pregame take was that I thought Michigan would probably win if they got equal QB play but I was very nervous about that. McNamara blew expectations out of the water with a 383 yard, 8.7 YPA day where he was lasering in pinpoint passes while under some duress. #2 Andrel Anthony. Hello Mr. Anthony. Randy Sklar lands the second-best Hot Take of all time by predicting Anthony would break out as Michigan's #1 receiver by next year; that took about a game to seem true. Anthony outran the entire secondary on his 93-yarder, had a Braylon/Terrell leaping TD later, had the wherewithal to get out of bounds on a late first half catch, and nearly made another spectacular leaping grab late on. It's not just the catches, it's the way he made them. Looks like a future star. Maybe a current one. #3 Aidan Hutchinson/David Ojabo. Three sacks and one erroneously deleted touchdown between them. Generally unblockable. Three points each. Honorable mention: Erick All had ten(!) catches, building on last week, and looks like he's emerging into the kind of dual-threat weapon Michigan fans had envisioned from him for years. Dax Hill forced an INT with a PBU, had another one, and tracked down a would-be TD, for all the good that did. Jake Moody was 7/7 on field goals, four of which counted. KFaTAotW Standings. (points: #1: 8, #2: 5, #3: 3, HMs one each. Ties result in somewhat arbitrary assignments.) 31: Aidan Hutchinson (HM WMU, #2 Wash, #1 Rutgers, #1 Wisc, HM Neb, #2 NW, T3 MSU) 18: The OL (#1 Wash, #1 NIU, HM Neb, HM NW) 17: Hassan Haskins (HM WMU, T3 Wash, T2 NIU, #2 Neb, T1 NW), Blake Corum (#2 WMU, T3 Wash, T2 NIU, HM Neb, T1 NW) 8: Ronnie Bell (#1 WMU), Brad Hawkins (#1 Neb), Cade McNamara (#1 MSU), Dax Hill (#3 WMU, HM NIU, HM Rutgers, HM Wisc, HM Neb, HM MSU) 6: Nikhai Hill-Green(HM NIU, #2 Rutgers), Jake Moody (HM Wash, HM Wisc, #3 Neb, HM MSU) 5: David Ojabo (#2 Wisc), Brad Robbins (HM Wash, #3 Rutgers, HM Wisc), Josh Ross (HM Wash, HM NIU, HM Rutgers, HM Neb, HM NW), Andrel Anthony (#2 MSU) 4: AJ Henning (HM WMU, #3 NIU) 3: Donovan Edwards(T2 NIU), Roman Wilson (#3 Wisc), DJ Turner (#3 NW) 2: Cornelius Johnson(HM NIU, HM Wisc), Erick All (HM NW, HM MSU) 1: Andrew Vastardis (HM WMU),Mike Sainristil (HM WMU), Mazi Smith (HM Wash), Gemon Green(HM NIU), Chris Hinton (HM Rutgers) Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week Anthony takes a crossing route 93 yards to paydirt. Honorable mention: Sack-strip by Ojabo; the other sack-strip by Ojabo; McNamara threads a needle to convert on a crossing route to All. MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK. The fateful fumble. Honorable mention: Corum drops that swing pass; various tempo follies; TD taken off the board wrongly by replay official; Johnson drops a back shoulder bomb; no PI on fourth down; more tempo follies; false start on fourth and one; subsequent punt dorf; I could keep going but will not. [After THE JUMP: ack]

So when McCarthy's in the game because Cade McNamara is briefly in the injury tent it doesn't feel like a weird one-off that you can shrug about and leave in the past. It feels like something that's going to happen against Penn State, and Ohio State, and so forth and so on. Maybe that's irrational. At this point, expecting Michigan to do something other than one-up themselves in late game failures seems more irrational to me.

**Jeff Buchanan** · November 1, 2021, 11:53 AM

....... and here's another one Brian at mgo nails (for Talent and Wiz):

Gone. The goal of replay is to correct obviously wrong calls on the field. It is not to see that a ball is definitely moving (edit: the is a still of the ball clearly out of Thorne's grasp) as soon as Ojabo hits the QB and to go over it frame by frame until you can convince yourself that there is a whisper of control while a shin may or may not be on the ground. The overturned fumble was the very definition of a situation where you shrug and say "call stands."

But also. Many, many complaints about every video review in this game going MSU's way, but other than the above and maybe the Reed catch he may or may not have taken off the turf I don't think there was much to complain about there.

**WM Wolverine** · November 1, 2021, 11:56 AM

I wrote both reversed calls up to the refs usual, very bad policy of giving the team that's behind the call in the 'gray' area which allowed Sparty even to have the chance to come back in the game.

**Mike** · November 1, 2021, 12:42 PM

Originally posted by lineygoblue View Post

It was actually before that, Wiz.

What the 'bowl committee' does now, is they take a team like Michigan, lets say, and they see that they are somewhere around 7-5 or maybe even 8-4, .. then they match them up against a 11-1 SEC team.

After Michigan is smashed by 40 points, the 'analysts' sit around and wonder why Michigan was "beaten so badly", and "why this once-proud program continues to struggle in the post season".

And most of the 'analysts' are OSU and PSU alums.

I can't think of a single time this has happened. We were touchdown favorites against both Florida State in the Orange Bowl and Florida in the Sugar Bowl three years ago. The Citrus Bowl two years ago matched up 10-2 Alabama (#13) and 9-3 Michigan (#14). Michigan might just want to start winning some of these games. They're either wildly overrated at the end of every regular season or they are lack the proper preparation and motivation. Either way, it has nothing to do with bowl committees trying to screw Michigan. They are quite capable of screwing themselves... as we just witnessed Saturday.

Hell, we've lost bowls to South Carolina TWICE in the last eight years! Was Will Muschamp's 8-4 juggernaut of 2017 just too much to expect Michigan go have a 50-50 shot at victory? That team didn't even have an OC. They had a grad assistant calling plays!

**lineygoblue** · November 1, 2021, 03:12 PM

I'll agree that Michigan/Harbaugh excels at beating itself. I stand by my comments regarding how Michigan is matched up in post season games. It will happen again this year.

IIRC, both Florida and Alabama had just played in the SEC championship game, and lost. That made them the #2 team in their conference. In neither case was it #2 Big Ten vs #2 SEC.

Neither loss to S. Carolina was justifyable. Clowney still sends his thanks to Michigan every time he signs another multi-million dollar deal.

IIRC, FSU was #2 ACC. If I'm wrong, I don't care. I'm still pissed about Saturday's loss and I'm going to be that way for a while. I'm too old to change my ways now.

**AlabamAlum** · November 1, 2021, 03:15 PM

Alabama did not make the SECCG in 2019.

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