I’ve just finished watching The Game on DVR and it’s amazing how much different it was watching The Game in person and watching it at home. Part two of this review will go into greater detail about the weekend and the surrounding hoopla, but now, here’s my full look-back at The Game itself.
- Prior to kickoff, I spent a lot of time looking for Sam McGuffie. Word was that he had asked for a transfer, so I was shocked to see him in uniform. But his warm-up ritual was quite different than the rest of the team. He kept going to the UM bench, didn’t particpate in a few of the drills, and didn’t look particularly useful. I texted a friend and said that he would not be a part of the main action today (and he wasn’t). I don’t think his lack of play was due to injury….you don’t let injured guys return kicks, which McGuffie did (and got whacked for his effort). Rumor has it this kid lost his will to play, and it showed heavily.
- A mere 5 or 6 minutes into the game, there was a big dust-up on the Michigan sideline. TV cameras caught some of it, but they didn’t focus in on the drag-down fight that happened just behind the coaches. I don’t know who it was, but a player and a coach were literally shoving each other for a few seconds before others broke it up. Between that and the screaming match with Rodriquez, I saw a team that ripped apart at the seams. Expect mass transfers and finger-pointing in the next few months leading through recruiting season.
- After Ohio State’s first TD, the ball kept blowing off the kicking tee, despite a lack of wind in the stadium (5 MPH at worst). ABC’s announcers questioned why it kept falling off, but nobody had the real answer…it wasn’t windy, it’s just that Michigan sucks.
- McGuffie getting sandwiched on that kick return was one of the most brutal hits I’ve seen in The Game since Chris Spielman had 71 tackles and 13 sacks in the 1986 game alone. Late in the 4th quarter of that game, Spielman went into the stands and beat up the QBs family.
- LeBron in Cleats threw a perfect pass to Brian Hartline for our second score. The guy next to me wondered if he was watching a replay of Smith-to-Gonzo. I have to agree. These two could be a very dangerous combo next season.
- On the kickoff return with a 14-0 lead, Ohio State players were imposing their will on blockers. You could literally see the desire leave Wolverine players, getting shoved away from the pile, leaving the field with their heads down.
- Early in the second quarter, Beanie Wells took a hit to his leg on a near-hurdle of a Michigan defender. We’re used to seeing Wells get up slowly, much like Jim Brown used to do, but this time looked scarier. He stood up and waved off Boom Herron, entering the game as a replacement. The crowd went nuts. Wells took the next snap and picked up 6 yards and a first down. It was that exact moment that I knew Wells will not return for his senior season. That play showed me that he knew it was his final game in the Shoe. He wanted it badly and refused to come out.
- Was it just me, or did our defense reduce Michigan to running the same two plays over and over again? Sometimes Sheridan kept the ball, sometimes it went to the RB, but it almost always was the same two plays.
- I really wanted us to go for it on 4th-and-2 from the 35, and I’m glad Tressel tried it…but unfortunately, it gave Michigan something they never saw much of. Decent field position. Brian Robiskie almost pulled it in, despite getting interfered with by Morgan Trent.
- Speaking of Trent, did he only play that one down, because he was invisible all day? Maybe he played, we just couldn’t see him because he’s just too fast for the human eye to see. MGoBlog says he can run the 40 in 2.08 seconds or something like that. Yeah. Right.
- Midway through the second quarter, Michigan finally gets their first 1st-down. When the other team has 14 more points than you have first downs, things ain’t goin’ your way.
- Brandon Minor sprints towards the end zone, and Bob Griese has a hissy fit that the ball was at the 1-yard line when his foot slips out at the 2. It was close, but Griese overplays his hand and kinda over-discusses it. Three plays later, Minor gets hit at the two and goes out of bounds. Watch that play again, when his body goes out of bounds, the ball is in his outside hand, and goes out at the 2. Griese doesn’t complain when they spot it at the 1.
- I was really impressed with the defense all day. Michigan had eight plays in the red zone on the afternoon, and only scored 7 points on a 4th-and-1 squeaker.
- Going into halftime, Brad Nessler actually said the following;
“If you take away Beanie Wells’ TD run and you take away Terrelle Pryor’s TD pass, Ohio State hasn’t done anything.”
You know, Brad, if you take away all the plays Ohio State scored on, then they wouldn’t score. Dammit, Michigan was only 6 plays away from a complete shutout!
- Heading into halftime, Tressel second-guessed himself on the 4th-down call. It wasn’t about execution for this guy, instead it was his own fault. The guy is pure class through-and-through
- During halftime, K.C. Lopata came out to practice FG kicking while the OSU Marching Band was still performing. He set the ball down at the 15, and had to quickly move out of the way while part of the brass section maneuvered into the spot where he wanted to kick from. Immediate jeers poured down on him for his encroachment. He got a kick off shortly after that, and missed it wide left. Fans refused to return the ball, and he was left standing there for a few extra minutes. The rest of halftime became a comedy of Lopata being mocked while missing more than 50% of his kicks, all from short range. He gave up after shanking a 30-yarder and the north stands howled with laughter. I wonder which was worse for Lopata, that severe humiliation during practice, missing a tying kick against Toledo, or being blocked twice against Appalachian State. It doesn’t matter to me, as I’m happy enough to be bringing all three up again.
- After just four plays in the third quarter, Bob Griese announced that “Rich Rodriquez did a goob job at halftime of firing these guys up for the second half.” I’ll let you ponder the wisdom of that remark, as you have already seen what happened for the rest of the game.
- Chimdi Chekwa made an outstanding tackle at the 38-yard-line on a second-and-8 play. Griese proclaimed that Chekwa “saved a 40-yard run” with the tackle, because he just knew that Michigan would have taken it down the field without it. No mention of how the Michigan receiver would have gone for 40 yards from only 38 yards out, but Griese never lets logic get in the way of some Wolverine lovin’.
- To start the third quarter, Rodriquez called 5 straight rushing plays that gained 37 yards. Seeing the success of the running game, he decided to change it. Then he had Nick Sheridan throw it twice in a row for 1 total yard. From my vantage point, Rich Rod is the most underpaid coach ever. Give him a raise an a contract extension NOW!
- Two plays, 91 yards, and neither ball carrier got touched by a single Michigan defender (Beanie ran out of bounds, Boom ran into the end zone). Tell me again who had a better halftime adjustment?
- After each point scored, proud members of the United States military has a tradition of doing pushups near the north end zone, one for each point. For the whole day, our soldiers each did 147 pushups. Somewhere in an Army recruiting station, a kid is hoping to be stationed in Ann Arbor so he doesn’t have to work so hard on Saturdays.
- We didn’t notice it at the stadium, but it is now interesting to see how Sheridan literally crawled to the sideline after getting smacked once again. And here I was thinking that Mike Barwis made these guys the strongest team in the history of the planet. Sheridan CRAWLED off the field. Yeah, that’s gonna be on his highlight reel for The Rivalry.
- Was that Ray Small on the punt return, or did Ted Ginn Jr return from Miami for the day? Damn, that was impressive. After years of seeing Troy Smith do it, why does Michigan still think our ball carrier will run out of bounds and wind up making a feeble attempt to stop a juke move back to the inside?
- First play on the ensuing drive, I LOVED watching Tressel send in a pass play. He was going for the jugular, and he got it. That play sealed the win with 4 minutes to play in the third quarter.
- That catch was vintage Robiskie. The DB was pulling on his uniform on the way down, and Robo went and got a reception that nobody else could have grabbed.
- I know that Steven Threet didn’t make the trip and Sheridan needed a wheelbarrow to get off the field, but I was shocked to see Justin Feagin on the field. Somebody help me with this one, but did he just blow his chance at calling this a redshirt year by taking snaps in a game that was already won? Feagin’s another 3-and-out victim and looked just as lost as the rest of the backfield for Michigan this day.
- Holy crap, did Tressel just call a deep pass play with a 21-point lead? Robo was one-half step away from hauling in another bomb.
- Pryor dodges three tacklers (well, two tacklers, but one of them missed twice), runs right, then left, and lofts a pass to a wide-open Dane Sanzenbacher, and all Griese says about it is “he threw a duck”. Unbelieveable.
- 1st and goal from the 2, Pryor throws to the inside of Rory Nicol instead of the outside. It nearly gets picked off on a bounce, and Jake Ballard also has a shot at grabbing the deflection. Speaking of that play, when was the last time we had two tight ends in the same area on the same pass play….and the pass got THROWN that way?
- Ohio State scores to go up 34-7 with the extra point coming, and Brad Nessler says Ohio State is “starting to pull away”. Starting?
- Bravo to Todd Boeckman. That was a storybook ending to a kid’s career at Ohio State. he handled it all with dignity and grace that is rarely seen in sports these days. He deserved that final TD pass, and I hope he got the game ball for his effort.
- Unfortunately, Griese couldn’t handle Boeckman’s benching with the same dignity and grace. Griese spent the better part of 20 minutes bitching about how TB got benched in favor of Pryor. At one point, he complained about Boeckman getting pulled for having “one bad game against USC”, but then went on to say that we would have beaten PSU if Boeckman was the QB. Never mind that Pryor threw for 225 yards that day…that one fumble was clearly the deciding point. If Boeckman got the shaft for “one bad game”, then why does Pryor deserve to get benched for one bad play in Bobo’s brain?
- If you have the game on tape, watch it again at 8:42 of the 4th quarter….did Griese just groan and say “ohhhhh Jesus” under his breath after Saine got tackled?
- I don’t think I’ll ever be convinced otherwise…that was a safety in the south end zone with 7 minutes left. he got stopped before he crossed the plane. Oh, well. I’ll take the 35-point win.
- For the record, yes we were screaming for Ohio State to go for two points on the conversion following Boeckman’s TD.
One final thought on The Game, Version 2008…..look back to where these two teams were two years ago. #1 vs. #2. The most epic battle in the history of The Game, won by Ohio State. The final score that day?
Ohio State 42
Michigan 39
The final score this year?
Ohio State 42
Michigan 7
We’re just as good as we were then. Michigan is 32 points worse than they were.
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