Well, I honestly had no idea what to expect going into this game. The game could have turned on so many points. If Mattison gets the blitz home, if Denard can Denard us, if Cousins shows up as 18 of 22 for 240 and 2 TD's or if Cousins shows up as 11 of 29 for a TD and 3 picks, if our O-Line is crap, if they can't stop the run. Nothing about either team seemed definite enough to base a real solid prediction, but, we tried anyway, because that's what you do when you have a football blog.
The Good
- Our defense is outstanding. They have made sixteen sacks in the first two games of the Big Ten season. MSU still has to face a real solid passing quarterback yet, but this defense has IT. Whatever the hell IT is.
- No sacks surrendered by our Offensive Line. This seems like it's one part adjusting the playbook for quick passes, one part that our Offensive Line is improving. The Offensive Line deserves a shout-out for this. Yes, they need work, but jeez they've stepped up to the challenge so far.
- Sadler may not have the booming leg or the Hagerup coffin corner thing down, but damn if he isn't efficient and he is already playing heady football. The Craig Jarrett Supertoe will come.
- Edwin Baker was found in East Lansing today. Apparently, he had been suiting up for MSU all along? His rushing total of 167 was more than his last four games put together. He did a great job busting the outside runs.
- Keshawn Martin got 3 catches for 31 yards and had some killer blocks in this game. I don't remember him ever being a run blocker of any import, but apparently, he can get the job done when it's time.
- Congrats to Keshawn Martin and Trenton Robinson. These two players will never know the sting of a loss to Michigan. Congrats to the rest of the redshirt senior class.
- I thought that Brady Hoke and his players comments were classy. In a game where we had a lot of thug-ish type penalties, Hoke and his players were complimentary of MSU, each other and gracious in defeat.
The Bad
- Seriously, WTF with the penalties? I understand they're might be a tiny element of intimidation with all of the roughness and I want to see big hits too, but if we were playing a team that was successful in captalizing on those sorts of errors, we'd have lost big. We're VERY lucky those penalties didn't come back to haunt us.
- It was very windy today, so obviously that's the reason we had two open-field fumbles and no interceptions. Baker had one and I think Martin had the other, I had a bad line of sight on that one. To assume Martin had an end around though is generally considered acceptable practice. I have no idea what that was about though.
The Ugly
- Kirk Cousins, 13/24 for 120 and 2 TDs with no picks. That's ugly.
The Takeaway
Our defense is talented, young and kind of stupid. I really hope we can hang onto Narduzzi after this year although, I'm mildly skeptical at this point. This defense is stupid good and Duzzer is gonna get some phone calls. Young and talented will help us vs. Wisky. Stupid will kill us. As obvious as the sun will come up tomorrow something has to be done about those penalties.
Michigan's defense was improved and will continue to improve. I think they will be a bit in flux for the next couple of seasons their D will continue to improve, their O will probably tail off a bit and then build back up. The D will improve because they will continue to get better players each year in the positions. The O will struggle as they make the transition from spread and shred over to MANBALL. I think in 2-4 years they'll be consistently back to playing pro-style offense and power defense.
While I'm enjoying this run of victory and will certainly have these words thrown back in my face the first time we lose, I look forward to making sure Hoke has his pieces in place and that we have ours. When our rivalry game can be about who played the best game and not who limited mistakes most effectively, those should be games that will fuel the rivalry for years to come.
Finally, HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AN AWESOME WIN!
I don't think its fair to point to Cousin's stat line and say that he had an ugly game. There were a number of dropped balls, including a 30+ yard TD dropped by Keshawn. Cousins hung in the pocket in the face of pressure quite a few times and delivered perfect strikes. I actually thought that this was one of the best performances he's had all year.
ReplyDeleteUgly might not have been the best categorization of it, but I was kind of rolling with the "good, bad, ugly" thing. I really meant it more as weird. Those stats have in them 2 TDs and no picks, which is great! Then there's also, 13 of 24 for 120 yards which as you pointed out was influenced by gale force winds and 2 Keshawn drops and a very uncharacteristic BJ drop.
ReplyDeleteSo you're analysis of Cousins game as 'ugly' wasn't a sarcastic comment? I think he played great and we got all we needed from him. He didn't have any bad decisions resulting in turnovers. To echo Evan, there were a few drops and if he goes 16/24 with an extra probably 60 yards (long pass that Martin dropped), I think that stat line is great! I also think this was Cousins best performance of the year. With the run game working as it was, we got exactly what we needed from Cousins.
ReplyDeleteI posted a reply to this yesterday, but apparently it didn't take. That's ok, this reduced version will probably be better anyway. I plan to rewatch the game tonight, the general consensus seems to agree more with both of your takes. Thanks for calling me out on this.
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