Cast No Shadow

On Senior Day, Donovan made his way into the end zone one more time at the Big House (Michigan Athletics)

"Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say

Chained to all the places that he never wished to stay

Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say

As he faced the sun he cast no shadow."

 --"Cast No Shadow" by Oasis, from their 1995 album (What's the Story) Morning Glory

So much of sports fandom comes down to expectations and how reality plays out against that backdrop.  While by no means or shape am I a gambler, I find Vegas lines interesting as a thought exercise by people who want to make money on an outcome think the game will go.  For many years, I did the fun exercise of going through the schedule pre-season and figuring out the record (I stopped doing this after 2007 taught me that nothing makes sense.)  But, freed from expectations because of last year's team, I ended up doing it again this season and landed on 9-3 with losses to Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State.

That version of me did not know how dire things were in the quarterback room.

But expectations, even recalibrated ones, can still haunt us as we watch games.  So when the score was 10-6 with just under two minutes left in the first half, I think the mood in the stadium was dour at best.  Michigan fans had told themselves that the Oregon and Indiana games were a wash, but if Michigan just beat Northwestern, they would be bowl eligible and that would be enough for what otherwise felt like a lost season.  And in that moment, it felt like that was slipping away.

So when Michigan figured out how to put together an 11 play, 65-yard two minute drill, much of which fell under "don't think, just do" and ending with a Colston Loveland TD catch, the mood suddenly shifted back to "OK, it's under control."

I did not expect a 31 point explosion from the offense in the second half (as well as a bonus two points from a "I committed intentional grounding in the end zone and all I got was called for a lousy safety") from this Michigan offense.  Sometimes is was an explosive run by Kalel Mullings as part of his three touchdown day, sometimes it was taking advantage of short fields generated by special teams or a timely pick.  But to the point, Michigan didn't do anything fancy against an admittedly overmatched Northwestern team, but they did execute and it paid off.

We all know what lies ahead in the week to come.  It will not be anything like the last three years but that's OK, that was the expectation from the drop.  And who knows, sports are designed to defy expectations every so often.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 50-6 is a Scorigami!
• 109,830 were in attendance (884,382 for the home season, an average of 110,548, so that should allow Michigan to keep the attendance crown for another year.)
  
  
• Michigan moves to 60-15-2 all-time against Northwestern University.
• Michigan moves to 11-7-0 all-time on November 23 (There's a lot of Ohio State games I there.)
  
  
• Michigan moves to 7-0-0 when scoring exactly 50 points.
• Michigan moves to 84-5-4 all-time when allowing 6 points to the opposition (Michigan once beat Northwestern 74-6, so there's precedent here.)
• Michigan has won 7 games all-time by precisely 44 points, most recently, the 2022 Colorado State game.