National semifinal vs Bama

[Sbee]

I though McDowell was chasing Coker down more than anybody last night but he was able to roll out and make the throws with the pressure. He's a better QB than a lot of people were/are saying.

He is but he also made throws that he usually doesn't make. They had receivers open against Florida and auburn and missed badly, he was dialed in last night. We pressured him but had to blitz a lot to do it and that left parts of the the field open. Not many teams have a dl that can get that much pressure w 4 guys and leave 7 back to cover 3 or 4 receivers.

 

[Spartanmack]

We've had depth at the Oline for a couple years now. I'm not too worried about them. Wide recievers will be a huge question mark. Sad to see Burbridge go but damnit Kings had some timely drops his senior year. I don't trust Shelton as the number 1 option. Maybe Corley or one of the freshmen can step up big time! I'd like to see LJ Scott get the bulk of the carries, I'm not a big fan of the switching backs every series. Terry and O'Conner scare me a bit, they look average.

I don't know why people keep saying this. This was easily our best O-Line under Dantonio and they got DESTROYED last night. Allen and Conklin are very good but the rest are decent D1 lineman at best and it was made clear when they couldn't block 4 guys all night. I know they are 4 great players but if our O-Line is as good as everyone seems to think, they should have been able to play 5-on-4 better than they did last night. People seem to lay a lot of the blame on the TBs but that's horse shit. We may not have a LeVeon Bell back there but they're not the reason we couldn't run last night.

If Conklin comes back they should be good enough to win a lot of battles up front in the B1G but hopefully they don't have to face a defense like that again.

 

[Spartanmack]

Its also a nice consolation to pick up and make a run in another sport, sometheing 95% of schools cant do. jealous trolls also cant stand that fact. Lots of things wrong with this game and you touched on several of them. They put a ton of pressure on cook, more than ive seen anyone do in years. Coker had some pressure on him but also escaped by a few inches every time. I feel we started to wave the white flag after 17-0. If you cant protect the pass youre going to struggle. Our backfield is atrocious and has been a chink in the armor all year. guys were routinely 10 yards open and they were catching the ball (not dropping like us)

We couldnt run due to alabamas D. We couldnt catch a break when we needed one. They played their game and after 5-6 years we finally just shit our pants. I think Michigan beats Florida today but Florida hung with them and they arent even that good. I watched Florida play a few times and they are really mediocore. It kind of reminds me of playing North Carolina in 2009, everything going their way and nothing going our way.We just had a really bad game and statistically thats bound to happen. We get to hang another Big 10 banner but it wasnt the one we ultimately wanted.

The other thing that killed us is their inability to fight off of blocks. How many screens did Bama run for 8 to 12 yards in the first half?

 

[Spartanmack]

I think ND should be quite strong next year. I don't know how many starters they return, but they had a fair amount of injuries this year, but didn't see much dropoff even as they piled up. I think it has allowed a lot of young guys to get playing time for them.

It definitely took its toll - they looked like absolute dog shit at times particularly in the Temple, Pitt, Wake, BC string of games. They got their act together a bit for the finale at Stanford but I think injuries affected them quite a bit.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

Watching Ohio State it's clear that they're the best team in the big ten this year. We got lucky with the weather.

 

[Sbee]

I don't know why people keep saying this. This was easily our best O-Line under Dantonio and they got DESTROYED last night. Allen and Conklin are very good but the rest are decent D1 lineman at best and it was made clear when they couldn't block 4 guys all night. I know they are 4 great players but if our O-Line is as good as everyone seems to think, they should have been able to play 5-on-4 better than they did last night. People seem to lay a lot of the blame on the TBs but that's horse shit. We may not have a LeVeon Bell back there but they're not the reason we couldn't run last night.

If Conklin comes back they should be good enough to win a lot of battles up front in the B1G but hopefully they don't have to face a defense like that again.

I agree , when healthy our OL was great, they had at least 3 nfl players on that line. There were a few weaknesses, keiler is good enough on a big ten championship team but not a national championship. He got worked all night by #56 who was their 3rd down edge rusher. They lost that matchup all night long.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

The other thing that killed us is their inability to fight off of blocks. How many screens did Bama run for 8 to 12 yards in the first half?

Yes they were going left to right and getting 12 yards every play. That play is tough to stop

 

[Sbee]

Watching Ohio State it's clear that they're the best team in the big ten this year. We got lucky with the weather.

come on, they're good but they're winning the line of scrimmage, did we get lucky in the trenches?

I don't think that the rain was more of an advantage than they had facing TOC and Terry instead of Cook.

 

[Sbee]

it sucks that we lost in the way we did but this is an easy one to get over. they were the better team, they did get a few breaks for the score to end up the way it did but they would have won regardless. the Uconn BB loss in 2014 was tougher to get over because i think we were the better team, we simply weren't good enough, easier pill to swallow.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

it sucks that we lost in the way we did but this is an easy one to get over. they were the better team, they did get a few breaks for the score to end up the way it did but they would have won regardless. the Uconn BB loss in 2014 was tougher to get over because i think we were the better team, we simply weren't good enough, easier pill to swallow.

Good analogy, I feel the same way. Having the most talented team in the country and never getting into sync from Injuries is a lot tougher to swallow than this one. That game/season still annoys me. Its one that really got away.

 

[johnny2x2x]

That was a beat down, but I'm already over it. Incredible season!

Already looking towards next season. I think we have a top 10 defense on paper next season. Good to see Felton Davis get some reps as we will need him to be a key weapon. O line should be solid, RBs are good, TEs are very good. QB is the question mark, I think it will be average there. We get OSU, UM, and Wisky at home. 10-2 or 9-3 in a rebuilding year.

 

[Spartanmack]

Yes they were going left to right and getting 12 yards every play. That play is tough to stop

didn't seem that hard to stop when John L Smith ran it...

 

[Spartan23MSU]

didn't seem that hard to stop when John L Smith ran it...

2/3 today (the way things look) Michigan -4 OSU -6 NW +9.5

Im done for awhile. Thansk for nothing NW. I thought it looked great, uhhhh no.....

 

[Spartanmack]

2/3 today (the way things look) Michigan -4 OSU -6 NW +9.5

Im done for awhile. Thansk for nothing NW. I thought it looked great, uhhhh no.....

i took NW ml to kill my 3 teamer.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

i took NW ml to kill my 3 teamer.

I thought about the ML but figured id "play it safe". I can tell from the first 5 minutes 90% of the time whether im going to cover a game or not.:argh:

 

[MSUMatt28]

2/3 today (the way things look) Michigan -4 OSU -6 NW +9.5

Im done for awhile. Thansk for nothing NW. I thought it looked great, uhhhh no.....

I thought there was good chance NW might lose handily in that one (though I wouldn't have predicted 45-6). Tennessee might be the second best team in the SEC. They managed to blow 3 games that they seemed to have control of in the 4th quarter and took Bama to the wire.