Fade Away

It turns out that rain can be very cinematic as well. (Michigan Athletics)

I'll paint you the picture

'Cause I don't think you live 'round here no more

I've never even seen the key to the door

We only get what we will settle for

While we're living

The dreams we have as children fade away

--"Fade Away" by Oasis, first released as a B-Side to "Cigarettes and Alcohol" 

There is a point in a college football season where you can no longer speak lovingly and hopefully about that which needs to be fixed or corrected.  In general, by the end of the traditional non-conference schedule, it's not that you are what your record says, but it's probably not reasonable to think you're going to see leaps and bounds improvement.  You just have to believe that what you have is good enough to win games.

In the first half, Michigan looked like a team that, if it wasn't complete, it was pretty much what you would hope for after last week.  Defense forcing a punt, Michigan goes on a long touchdown drive, mixing in some passing, and get a long Mullings TD run to go up 7-0.  A missed Gopher field goal lead to a trading of punts for a bit before Michigan stripped the ball from Daniel Jackson and recovered the fumble, setting up a short field and a touchdown eerily similar to last week's game winner (same spot in the same end zone, Mullings running behind Bredeson.) Michigan's up 14-0 and things look good from there.  More three and outs lead back to a Minnesota punt, which Michigan blocked (I called this in the stands, given it was 4th and 21 on the Minnesota 31, I thought Michigan might choose to dial up pressure.  I rarely get these things right, so it was nice to have that one!)  Michigan takes advantage of the short field, touchdown Michigan, 21-0.  An arm punt INT for Minnesota down the sideline looked like Michigan might be able to get wrap around scores, but this was, in fact, the last thing that went exactly right for the maize and blue.

I cannot be completely shocked that a Michigan defense struggled with tempo, it's just, Michigan had two sacks of Minnesota on their end of half two minute drill, the second of which looked to push Minnesota out of field goal range, only to see the Gophers complete a 44 yard hail mary to the one yard line and a fire drill field goal to make it 24-3 to head into the half.

So, here's the thing.  I do not like officiating conspiracies or anything, but I do find it interesting that PJ Fleck had an extended conversation with the officials after Orji ran out of bounds right in front of him (which ended up with Minnesota taking a time out very early in the third quarter) and suddenly, the officiating seemed to turn against Michigan.  The illegal hands to the face personal foul on Graham that kept Minnesota's first touchdown drive alive changed the entire complexion of the game.  Minnesota probably has to settle for a field goal there which would have made it 24-6, but instead, touchdown Gophers a few plays later, now it's 24-10.  Then a great punt return sets up a short field for the Gophers and now it's 24-17 and the entire stadium is starting to feel queasy.  Michigan would go on a long field goal drive to try and burn off clock (there were way too many snaps when there were still double digits on the play clock and the baffling decision to throw on third down with 4:38 left, which stopped the clock.)  But a field goal made it a two possession game.  So of course, Michigan's defense allows the Gophers to go down the field in under three minutes to make it 27-24 game.

Was the offsides call on the onside kick correct?  No, but the ball clearly hit a Gopher in the sequence, so maybe wrong process, correct result.  Michigan couldn't quite kneel it out, but once the 40 second play clock started with 39 second left on the clock, a sigh of relief went up, the Jug stays in Ann Arbor until at least the 2026 meeting in Minneapolis, and Michigan goes to 4-1 with a trip to Seattle on the docket.

I have to keep reminding myself that every game is not integrally connected to some larger, pre-written story, it's an independent event in a series of chapters that make up the story.  Wins are better than losses, but it's hard to see the wins keep coming with the things that keep showing up week in and week out. 

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• Win 1,008
• 27-24 is NOT a Scorigami (4th time, most recently 9/21/2024 in last week's game against USC)
• 110,340 were in attendance (the 110th-largest crowd of Michigan Stadium history.)
  
  
• Michigan moves to 78-25-3 all-time against the University of Minnesota.  Michigan retains the Little Brown Jug at least until the next scheduled meeting between the teams, at Minnesota in 2026.
• Michigan moves to 14-1 all-time on September 28 (only loss is the 51-31 loss to Florida State in 1991) 
  
  
• Michigan moves to 46-7 when scoring exactly 27 points.
• Michigan moves to 19-18 all-time when allowing 24 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has won 49 games all-time by precisely 3 points, most recently, well, last week.