Vaccination Scar

Getting to hear master bluesmen practicing their craft. (Michigan Athletics)

I'll tell you if I'm able

That is, I'll tell you like it is

It went down like a bad card table

Like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Swimming on a bit

Stop and treading water as the sun assimilated the words

For lighthouse fire

Burning down to embers' end

The mystery met

The sky just-reddened, heading home under dusk

Is life just forgetting

Another word for frivolous

--"Vaccination Scar" by the Tragically Hip from their 2004 album In Between Evolution 

One of the beauties of the songs of the Tragically Hip is that sometimes, they're just really deep, meandering thought exercises that also just sound good with the music behind them.  But you shouldn't necessarily worry if you cannot figure out why you like it; you just do.

Which brings us to today's game.  Other than one masterful play-calling drive from Chip, the first half was best described as a pair of teams waiting for the other one to screw up.  And screw up they did, but only annoyingly, never critically.

We had plays that needed reviews that didn't get them, including two critical spots on a 4th and 1 and a 3rd down that set up what was sad to be a 4th and 1.  But in the end, it didn't matter.  Michigan got a pair of picks, one from Cole Sullivan, one from Jimmy Rolder, and cashed in both to take a 7-7 game stuck in the mire to a 21-7 game, then got Washington off the field with a fourth down sack that might have been a fumble but it's moot, leading to a field goal, and that is all there was.  This was a middling game for a very long time until it wasn't.  That's OK. Sometimes football is like that, and coming away from a game like that with a win is about the best you can hope for.  The injuries piled up, for sure, hopefully nothing too serious beyond a likely season-ender for Link, and definitely some things to clean up, but this felt a lot better than last week, which, admittedly, did not take much.  But still.

Hey, Michigan State in East Lansing next week.  Nothing ever goes sideways with that.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 24-7 IS NOT a Scorigami!  (Five previous occurrences, most recently 1995 Memphis.)
  
• 110,710 were in attendance for the game.
• Win 1,017, which ties the closest we have been to getting a win number that matched the date of the win. (Win 912 was on 9/13).
  
  
• Michigan moves to 10-6-0 all-time against the University of Washington, including 3-1 in the last five years, which just seems weird that it's been that many, and yet!
  
• Michigan moves to 14-5-0 all-time on October 18 (It is Michigan's first win on this date since 2003 and Michigan's first game on this date since 2008!)
  
  
• Michigan improves to 40-8-0 when scoring exactly 24 points.
• Michigan moves to 112-13-4 all-time when allowing 7 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has won 30 games all-time by precisely 17 points, the most recent example being a 34-17 victory over New Mexico in Ann Arbor in 2025.