(It's Good) To Be Free

Dono does like running against UW.  (Michigan Athletics)

The little things they make me so happy

All I wanna do is live by the sea

Yeah, little things they make me so happy

But it's good, yes it's good, it's good to be free

 --"(It's Good) To Be Free" by Oasis, first released as a B-Side to "Whatever." 

Yesterday's game was an interesting exercise in paradigms.  When Washington got out to their 14-0 lead as Michigan's defense looked slow, slippy, and confused, and sometimes all three at once, there was a willingness to say, "Yep, this is what we were all expecting."  The offense looked disorganized.  Injuries, including some we did not know about, were piling up.  It looked very much like the Huskies could name their number and send Michigan into the bye week limping.

The Jack Tuttle came in.  The seventh-year quarterback.  The latest in a series of "Well, maybe this could work" options.  Indeed, he couldn't be much worse than we had seen this season at the position."  Early results were promising.  Tuttle hit a couple of little passes, he scrambled for a pair of seven-yard runs on first downs to keep the chains moving and ahead of the sticks, and then Donovan Edwards looked like the Donovan that we've been waiting for all year, a 39 yard TD run, Michigan was back within seven and a game was to be made of it.  Michigan forced a three-and-out before a second promising drive in a row stalled out at the Washington 27, but a Dominic Zvada field goal was true, and it was 14-10.  Washington would bookend the first half with a second missed field goal, and Michigan would get the ball to start the second half.

One of the biggest things I miss from the Harbaugh years is that Michigan was genuinely a second-half team.  Adjustments would be made, the fitness level would show out, and Michigan would look better closing a game out than they did to start.  For the first drive, it looked like a little bit of Michigan of old, a methodical, efficient 75-yard drive that ended with a little Tuttle scramble to find Colston Loveland uncovered alone in the end zone, and Michigan took a three-point lead.  But that was the last real positive moment on offense.  Washington got a long drive to tie it with a field goal, Michigan didn't seem like it had a real plan on offense again, and things looked up when Ernest Hausmann made a spectacular interception in the middle of the field, but the ball went back to Washington five plays later thanks to a Tuttle fumble, which felt like the doom like object everyone watching was waiting for.  Washington scored a TD to take the lead, Tuttle threw a backbreaking interception trying to hit Loveland, Washington got a field goal, and that was the ten-point margin of victory for the favored Huskies, leading to a confusing field storming on the Montlake Cut and a bizarre suggestion by Noah Eagle that the Huskies had "avenged" their National Championship game loss.  Hmmm...Trophy go Brrr..

This will probably sound strange, but I was disappointed by the loss but almost immediately over it.  This Michigan team is so deeply flawed, with various reasons for those flaws that can be explained away, that I just don't feel the angst of years past.  Winning solves a lot of problems, and it also solves a lot of future problems if you let it.  While it is deeply frustrating and endlessly curious that Michigan's defense looks so middling with three NFL talents on it, well, you know, being very late in the hiring process perhaps left Michigan with an imperfect fit in the name of attempted continuity.  There are other areas that further this cause.  

But here's the thing.  I'm not too broken up about it because it doesn't feel like we're wandering in the desert anymore.  Yes, a blue blood should be able to "reload" and stay at the top of the heap, but that isn't how it worked this time.  I'm OK with that.  I'm still going to enjoy this team for what it is; I'll be disappointed when things don't go right, and I'll still cheer loudly when they are successful.  But in the end, it's good to be free.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 17-27 is NOT a Scorigami (3rd time, most recently 11/28/2020, against Penn State, which I mean, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't remember)
• 72,132 were in attendance (or about 700 fewer people than the National Championship Game)
  
  
• Michigan moves to 9-6-0 all-time against the University of Washington.
• Michigan moves to 16-3 all-time on October 28 (losses to MSU in 1935 and Roger Staubach's Navy team in 1963.  The 2019 win over Iowa was the birth of The Spreadsheet.) 
  
  
• Michigan moves to 18-16-2 when scoring exactly 17 points.
• Michigan moves to 6-15 all-time when allowing 27 points to the opposition.
• Michigan has lost 18 games all-time by precisely 10 points, most recently, the aforementioned 2020 Penn State game.

Set Out Running

I mean, 173 yards on 21 carries and three TDs is a pretty great day at the office.
(Kirthmon Dozier-Detroit Free Press)

And if I knew heartbreak was coming

I would've set out running

'Cause I just can't shake this feeling

That I'm nothing in your eyes 

--"Set Out Running", Neko Case, Furnace Room Lullaby (2000) 

I sat there on that bright, crisp day in late November 2010 watching Montee Ball and James White combine for 354 yards rushing and six touchdowns as Bret Bielema decided that he would run the ball down the throat of the Michigan defense until it showed it could stop it.  It could not.  It had no answer, and Michigan lost by 20.  I remember the lament of the Michigan fans that it was so maddening that the Greg Robinson coordinated defense could not do one of the fundamental tasks of defense, but also, with the gallows humor of that era, respecting Bielema's basic decision that "this plan is working, why mess with it?"

Last night, Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum ran for 326 yards, and four touchdowns as Michigan handled its business against Washington before an eager and enthusiastic maize crowd and a national television audience in prime time.    Even taking away Corum's one massive 67 yard TD run, both backs averaged over 5 yards per carry.  I am not an advanced stats expert, but that feels like it's pretty good.

There is a segment of fans who are deeply, garment rendingly concerned that Michigan did not show much of anything in the passing game.  Against what might be the best secondary they face all season.  While trying to figure out the new wide receiver depth chart after losing Ronnie Bell for the season last week.  While averaging 5 yards per carry on the ground.  I can understand the gnashing of teeth that "they won't be able to get away with this in the Big Ten."  OK, maybe?  But also, maybe?  I understand the feelings of hurt and concern that there's been too much in the way of false hope and glimmering early promises that fade as reality sets in as September becomes October.  But, my goodness, this worked.  You're allowed to enjoy this!  There are no fandom bonus points for being worried about things the coaching staff is doing.

But, to stay focused on the positives, a win where both sides of the ball looked good, but with some clear room for improvement in practice, a Michigan Stadium atmosphere where it finally looked like The Big House was a challenging environment to play in for an opposing team, an MMB show that was fascinating to watch, and the rare feeling that while traditional blue bloods around the country lost (Ohio State, USC, Florida State, Tennessee) while Michigan did not.  Michigan may not be where the exceedingly lofty expectations would like us to be, but we're also not as far off the cliff as some other late 90s powers have fallen.  So there's that.

There was one thing during last night's game that made me very happy.  After the Corum touchdown, which seemed to be the football gods rewarding Harbaugh for being willing to go for it with a "fake punt" in Michigan territory, the entire team was feeling it deeply on the Michigan sideline.  There was a level of Dani Rojas-style "football is life!!!" joy being expressed, the jumping, the dancing, the hyping of the crowd.  There have been many grumblings about the team's bad chemistry in the past, and winning does cure a lot of ills, but that moment, among a tapestry of other positive moments last night, felt like a that was enjoying being a football team.  If this football team enjoys football and enjoys their teammates, that's a victory in and of itself.

One set of Huskies in the books, a new one comes to Ann Arbor next week.

Winter's End

If you're a Michigander, you know that winter is miserable. As much as the first snow fall of the season might be entertaining and even maybe a little bit pretty, while snow days may be a nice respite from the daily grind, the reality is that it's cold, dark, wet, and miserable. You stay inside, you may get seasonal affective disorder, and you wait for spring. You may be so desperate for any sign of spring, you seize false hope, only to see the snow return with a vengeance, the darkness fall. No matter what the calendar says, the end of winter is a feeling and you know it when it happens.