The Game (Football)

Not basketball-related, but I assume this is a pretty big deal to most of us. Post your predictions?

Don’t shoot the messenger:

  • Peppers records 1 sack, 1 int, and 1 TD
  • De’Veon Smith runs into way too many human brick walls
  • Evans picks up the slack and has a massive day on the ground. This helps win the game, but deters Najee Harris from flipping to M. However, we pick up Baron Browning instead, and most of us are fine with it.
  • McDoom does a classic McDoom thing (can’t give more info, sorry)
  • Michigan wins in OT, 24-17.
  • Then we lose a close one to Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game.
  • The CFP committee does the right thing for once and puts Michigan in the playoff anyway.
  • Michigan then wins a surprisingly comfortable game against Alabama, perhaps 20-10. Brian at McGoBlog makes a joke about Alabama being no better than Indiana, but when someone assumes he meant it literally, that person gets banned.
  • In the National Championship Game, Michigan is shutout in embarrassing fashion during a third rematch with Wisconsin, something like 22-0. This provokes an entirely legitimate debate about whether the season should be considered a success.
    -Peters starts at least 4 games next year
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17-13 osu. Defense plays well enough to win, but we lose the field position battle and can’t win on the road, in the shoe. Osu holds all game and is only penalized for it 2x.

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We have an Ohio St. alumnus on this board. Let’s hope he is upset after the game!

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Well, looks like I was wrong guys. Sorry.

I blame the reffing. The game was over but for that bad spot.

Our D did many heroic things today but they couldn’t beat the combined forces of OSU, the refs and Wilton.

Wilton and his 3 turnovers were huge. All their offense came from him

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I knew those refs were going to be too cowardly to overturn it. It was a terrible spot in the first place.

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Bad playcalling and reffing. Speight playing hurt in a hostile environment stayed poised and kept battling after mistakes but the playcalling never rose up.

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Harbaugh said it best the refs were too worried about him on the sideline not the game. Where was the hold call on grant perry? That spotting was atrocious

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I’d like those refs to look at the PI on Hill and the no-call on the attempt to Grant Perry and hear their explanation for why they called one and not the other. If anything, it should have been the other way around…

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At the minimum, you want the calls to be consistent.

Plenty of real chances to put that game away. Crucial mistakes and failure to capitalize on opportunities.

Face mask penalty on Cole was just a killer. Brutal.

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Defense gave up 10 points (16 if you want to count missed FG). That’s about as good as you can ask for against an Urban Meyer offense in Columbus.

Speight, three turnovers. All on him. That was the difference in the game. We can complain about BS calls from officials (there were a few that were big), but those turnovers allowed those bad calls to make a difference in the game. If we don’t have a 14 point swing on the pick six and fumble at the goal line, we win the game easily and OSU fans are talking about how they got embarrassed by Harbaugh and Co on their home field.

Just hate losing to the MFers year in and year out. So deflating when I feel like we lost it ourselves. I can handle being outplayed by OSU (like last year and the RR years and some of those Hoke games). But it’s hard to take making critical mistakes on our own.

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I honestly felt like the fault is equally on both Speight’s INT’s and the two big PI calls/no-call.

Both of Speight’s INT’s turned into TD’s. The fumble didn’t really hurt because we stopped OSU right away and then scored a TD after it. It was the two INT’s that killed us.

BUT at the same time, OSU was on their own 21 with 3rd and 7 when they called a controversial PI against Hill to give them the first. Had they not called it, we would have gotten the ball back with just over 4min left and a 3 point game. Instead OSU drive continues and they tie the game on a FG.

The other was the missed PI on Grant Perry. What’s the point in running a play if the officials are going to miss something that obvious? I mean, the OSU defenders was hanging on his back the entire route. That was a critical 3rd and 4 on the 19. Officials call it correctly and we’re inside the 10 with potential for a TD instead of FG.

Two big INT’s but also Two big calls that went OSU’s way. That’s what’s unfortunate to me. No team will play perfect but neither should they have to overcome awful officiating to win a game.

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Speight’s first interception was at least partially due to The RB missing his block. I’m not going to blame the kid though, he shook off every mistake and came back to make plays. The playcalling was atrocious including the use of Peppers. There is no excuse for that after two weeks of uninspiring offense, they brought no new wrinkle.

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The team was this year or gonna take a while. I trust harbaugh but OSU hs the better program currently they lost all those players to the draft and beat a senior experienced team. Next year when they return a lot and we don’t I’m scared. Gonna take some time before mich makes the playoffs. This year was our only hope for a bit

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We outplayed them for 3.5 quarters by a wide wide margin. Self inflicted mistakes cost us the game. Next year, we’ll be in Ann Arbor with another year of experience for Speight. We lose alot on defense, but we also got guys a ton of experience. JT Barrett isn’t going to get any better. Same formula has always been needed to beat him. Stop the run, force downfield throws. Not going to be easy, but I don’t think we should write it off as a probably loss.

Just super frustrating when it seems like OSU has caught all the breaks in this rivalry since the turn of the century (Henson leaving early, Tressel falling into their laps, Meyer falling into their laps, 06 and 16 games being in Columbus, key calls in key moments etc.). Keep waiting for that worm to turn and it hasn’t happened yet.

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Was at the game. I’m still furious the next day. Refs stole that game. Plain and simple.

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Why in Gods name would Belien schedule a game the same day as The Game? It’s like they don’t want fans to show up to the hoops games.

The third down play we bottled up before 4th and 1 was a killer. Losing contain was awful and allowed osu to go for 6 instead of 3.

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