11 O'Clock Tick Tock

It shouldn't have even been this close, and yet, here we are.  AP Photo/Tony Ding | Photo Credit: AP

There will be no looped highlight from this one to torment Michigan fans in the future.  There will be vague uneasiness as we remember the sheets of rain, the five turnovers, the picks on three consecutive second-half drives, and mostly just that notion a game that statistically Michigan should have had no business being in, Michigan was still in because it has a nigh-unstoppable defense and a couple of Michigan State errors (a holding penalty that stopped the clock, a wholly unnecessary late hit out of bounds penalty) gave Michigan one last chance to win.  Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit were almost openly rooting for a karmic reversal of 2015's conclusion, a last-second heave by O'Korn from 37 yards out that would add another chaotic chapter to the rivalry.

But it was not to be.  Michigan had no one to blame for their struggles but themselves.  Michigan State came in with a game plan, executed the game plan, and did enough to win.  That is Dantonio's MO when it comes to Michigan and he and his staff should be credited for it.  Michigan came off an open date, and looked like they were going to put things well in hand on the first drive, until it stalled in the red zone and settled for a field goal.  But hey, no problem, there would be plenty more chances.  All Michigan had to do was not turn the ball over...well, not turn the ball over repeatedly...Well, let's just be astonished by the fact that Michigan State only scored 7 points off 5 Michigan turnovers.  Ty Isaac's fumble killed Michigan's momentum and put the Spartans in a mindset that they could win this game, and once in that mode, they never looked back.  Simultaneously, Michigan's offensive line continued to struggle, with O'Korn's escapability being one of the few reasons why Michigan State wasn't racking up a double-digit sack total.  Michigan State then used the defense's willingness to be aggressive against it with a brilliant play call and another ill-timed fumble trying to extend a play and Michigan was down 14-3 going into halftime.

The hope held by Michigan fans, I presume, by and large, was that, like the Purdue game, there would be adjustments at halftime, the defense would clamp down, and Michigan would find a way to get a couple of scores and that would be enough.  Except for the massive squall line bearing down on Ann Arbor, slated to arrive at 10 PM and putting a swirling rainstorm into the Big House.  Though Michigan used the field position game to close the gap to 14-10.  Though the defense was its usual stalwart self, O'Korn's poor decisions (and the inexplicable playcalling in buckets of rain) ended three straight Michigan drives before they could get going.  That was all there was, and Harbaugh drops to 1-4 against MSU/OSU.

The gnawing feeling I cannot escape at the moment is that Harbaugh may be one of the best coaches in the nation, and it still may not be enough.  That the defense may be otherworldly, but the sub-sub-par execution of this current offense will stymie any progress Michigan wishes to make.  That for all of our hopes that things would be better, there's still a lot to fix.  That the single-mindedness of Michigan State towards beating Michigan works well for them and must be met.  Many of us strongly suspected that something like this would happen, and sadly, it happened against Michigan State, the second straight ABC night game where Michigan's offense let the defense down, and no solution seems to be in sight.  There's still time to find a way forward on offense, but that time is running out.  Beyond that, there are no grandiose takeaways from this game, just a sad sensation we've become all too familiar with in the last decade.

Necessary

(Author's note: This is late, in part because The Daily's Alejandro Zúñiga already had used my premise I had devised in my head for what I was going to do with this column and then did an awesome job with it.)



In the end, maybe, some times, you just need to dance it out.  And that's OK.  It's hard to dance with the Devil on your back, but if you can shake him off, you can find yourself in a position to find the joy and the happiness that football should bring, playing for yourself, for your teammates, well, maybe that's all that matters.

This win is one win, as the cliche goes, and it is not going to be a season changer, necessarily.  But it was necessary because it does actually take some things off the table.  To wit:

• A B1G win means that Michigan will not go winless in B1G play.
• A third win means that this season cannot be, from a W-L standpoint, worse than 2008.
• At worst, Michigan can only end the year on a five game losing streak.

Now, you may say that these are at best small victories, cold comfort, but I think they're important.  When you're in a hole, either you keep going deeper, or you start digging out.  I don't know what this game will ultimately mean, Michigan still has a metric ton of problems to sort out among itself.  But it's a start.  In this way, it's necessary, because it moves the conversation for the bye week to "Well, maybe it's not as dark as we thought."  Again, in a season like this, take the victories where they come.

Bullet Points

• I have no training in football coaching, so I probably should not be able to manage the clock better than not one, but two Power Five head coaches.  And yet...
• Could someone please ask Brady what he was thinking about the time out at the end of the first half.  Mostly so I can know what he was thinking.  Because I am stumped.
• We sat next to a father-son pair of Penn State fans who were, as is usual with Penn State fans, model opposing fans.  Cheered on their team, never jerky or belligerent, just wanted their team to do well.  The father did comment that Norfleet has a bit of hot dog in him and that for a football player, he's a pretty good dancer.  This is fair.  But when it's your guy, well,  

  ATOMIC DOG DOT GIF http://t.co/J2M4TTtEja
  — Ace Anbender (@AceAnbender) October 12, 2014

• The night game jerseys were actually fine when you saw them on the field.  It just felt, like so many alternate jerseys, unnecessary.  But, you know, marketing, teenagers like shiny things, I get it.
• It is my understanding from Guest Services that IMG has discontinued magnet schedules for all Michigan sports.  This has me greatly distressed and I must investigate.

In the end, we won.  Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in this Saturday. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.