Michigan staked a claim to being the second-best team in the country with a dominating-even-though-it-doesn't-look-like-it-on-the-scoreboard performance over the Gophers.
The Good:
Henne was on again, and he found a new weapon in Adrian Arrington. He also did a fantastic job of looking off the safety.
Hart let the Gopher fans know how it feels to have someone run for almost 200 on them. Even if 50+ of that was on a garbage time run, he still had a great game.
The line was excellent. Minnesota only came up with 1 sack (and that was for 2 yards) and they opened up some huge holes for the RBs to run through. They set the tone of the game early, where we pounded the ball down their throat before going to the air to finish up the drive.
The defense was against very good. Only a late touchdown followed by a botched onside kick recovery soiled the effort.
Oh, and last but not least:
ZOLTAN! (Kid's got a leg. More than anything though, I just wanted to use this picture)
The Bad:
Brian was right about Morgan Trent. And Charles Stewart is not good.
Kevin Grady still thinks he's Ahman Green.
Rivas...22 yards? Really? He's been pretty darn good this year so far, but he never fails to amaze me with some of the kicks he shanks.
Overall it was a very nice effort though. Michigan was thoroughly in control the entire game, and the only moment in the entire outing where I wasn't sure we'd win was when they recovered the onside kick, because no matter how many times I looked at the scoreboard, I thought we were only up by 10, not 14. I've got a bad cold and was on a lot of medication, okay?
So now, after a year of being paraded around in Minnesota like it was the Stanley Cup, the Little Brown Jug can return to its familiar home: A trunk in the laundry room at Schembechler Hall. Maybe when today's newborns are the Gophers' freshmen, we'll let them see it again. Hopefully by then they will have learned that when you've been owned by a team for the better part of two decades, one win doesn't give you the right to plant a flag.
Unless it's your first road conference win in about 4 years and it's the other school's Homecoming game.
Now it's on to Sparty.
I'm not one of those that believes this will be a remotely close game. I've heard all the talk about how MSU is like a wounded animal, they're circling the wagons around their coach, Drew Stanton was born to beat Michigan, blah blah blah. At some point you have to have the horses to do it, and MSU just doesn't right now. Their OLine is banged up (Not good when you're going against Woodley and Branch). Their QB is banged up (If he plays, I really don't think he finishes the game). Their RB is probably gone for the year. And their secondary still blows (Who is going to cover Manningham, let alone A2 and Breaston).
If they had a healthy Ringer/Stanton, I might be more inclined to be worried, but this game has a similar feel to the 49-3 day. Michigan's too good and MSU is too banged up for this game to be all that close, IMO. If the line was still on the board, and the Republicans weren't bastards, I'd have no problem laying the 16/17 points on this one.
By the way, thanks to all the readers who have kept coming to this site, despite the fact that I hardly ever get around to writing anything. Now that hockey season is coming back, the updates will likely be much more frequent.
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