This could very well be the longest post in the 16+ months of this blog. I have not been doing any analyzing of previous games because of a lack of time but I am ready to make up for it and I have a couple of tangents to go on too.
Last year I was heavy on statistics. This year there will be more commentary…
Thoughts on the game
There are some good things to take from the game. After sending Laurence Maroney, Greg Eslinger, and Mark Setterstrom to the NFL the running game is still pretty good. Michigan had only given up something like 78 yards in four games. That’s not per game, total. .8 yards per carry give or take a tenth.
Brian Cupito had a decent game throwing the ball, 17-34 for 215 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. I would take that output every week.
The defensive secondary looked a little like swiss cheese against the pass. Part of that was because Michigan was running the ball well so we put the safety up in the box forcing our guys to play man against their receivers.
I would much rather play man defense and get burned than play that soft zone we usually do. What’s the difference if you give a big play or a bunch of small one’s. The result is still a touchdown.
Had we not taken a penalty that brought back a touchdown and had we scored late in the game things could have been pretty crazy at the Metrodome. Not a big stretch of the imagination when you consider the previous three games.
I am not convinced that Michigan is as good as the rankings have us believing. Are they good? Absolutely. Are they great? I don’t think so. The score does not tell the story. The statistics do. Michigan could have scored 40+ points. That is not why I am knocking them.
Let’s face it, this Gopher team is not as good as the previous ones. For me that means Michigan should have kicked our Gopher tail up and down the field more so than they did.
Before every game starts I think we can win it and this was one of those that could have been.
Anyway, I thought Michigan would have done more.
To the woman sitting behind me a few rows
Michigan came to the Dome highly ranked and when you have them on a 3rd down early in the game (or at any point) do not tell someone wearing the same colors as you, “Down in front.”
Are you kidding me? This is a football game. A rivalry game. Well, sort of anyway. Down in front? Get off your butt and cheer with me.
This weekend if I hear it again my response will not be kind.
Students leaving early
I was listening to the Sports Huddle with Sid Hartman and Dave Mona on WCCO this past Sunday morning and quite a few times comments were made about the students leaving during the 4th quarter. Hints were made that they were heading to the bars.
Sorry guys, but you are out of touch. 50,000+ fans and 10,000+ of them are students heading back top campus. That does not include the fans who park near campus too. Any idea how long it takes to get back there by way of bus? Depending on where a student lives and how long the lines are it can be a minimum of 45 minutes and as much as 90.
One more thought. Less than 24% of the students are over the age of 21. I have heard that freshmen and sophomores are 60%+ the number of students in attendance. So no, they were not heading to the bars. A party maybe but most of them were just heading back home.
And why not criticize the “old folks” who left early? I was there until the end and the same percentage of old folks left as did the students.
Am I happy that the fans leave early? No. But even the Twins game yesterday had people leaving at the top of the 9th. That is absurd.
Football Blogosphere
A few weeks ago I ran across some great college football blogs and I thought it would be cool to add links to them here. Michigan has quite a few and I have linked to them below. They give an interesting view on what they think of their own team and of our Gophers.
For the most part things about Minnesota are positive except for their dislike of playing in the Dome. It will not shock you to know I agree with them:
Ronald Bellamy's Underachieving All-Stars
From The Blog That Yost Built:
So now, after a year of being paraded around in Minnesota like it was the Stanley Cup, the Little Brown Jug can return to its familiar home: A trunk in the laundry room at Schembechler Hall. Maybe when today's newborns are the Gophers' freshmen, we'll let them see it again. Hopefully by then they will have learned that when you've been owned by a team for the better part of two decades, one win doesn't give you the right to plant a flag.
Unless it's your first road conference win in about 4 years and it's the other school's Homecoming game.
Hey, I was one of those who had my picture taken with the jug and I appreciate you letting us borrow it for a while.
Speaking of which, we get robbed in the number of days we held on to it. We won it on October 8th, 2005. We lost it on September 30th, 2006. Not exactly a year. 2007 the game is played on October 27th so they have it an extra month. Or it could be years too. I know this is a weak item to bring up but when you see it once every decade and a half every day, week, month counts.
Here’s a pick of the Little Brown Jug (somewhere in there) heading off to Ann Arbor and a very happy Wolverine fan:
Some pictures related to the game is this one from Deke. We had five Michigan Dekes make the drive for the game:
Here are the previously mentioned student sections:
The Twins and White Sox played earlier in the day at the Dome, another reason to bring the Gophers back to campus, so many of the baseball players were in attendance. Torii Hunter and Joe Mauer were shown on the big screen a couple of times.
This is a picture of A.J. Pierzynski shortly after being heckled by fans and him giving some comments back:
I brought my cousin Leah with me to the game. She had taken me to the Vikings and Carolina Panthers game so I thought a payback would be nice. I forgot how loud she can yell. At one point in the game, after having been quite for a little while, the guy in front turned around to see what was wrong.
Leah had the hiccups. Soon after they were cured and she was back at it. Leah and I and Leah with my season ticket friends that sit next to me, Rosemary and David:
No pictures from the game itself as I was too focused on watching it.
Comments