Dropping the Baton

Following up on the post-game thoughts published yesterday, a few more things on this disaster:

– Over before it started. Some of you may have noticed that the new Michigan marching band drum major did a bad, bad thing. After entering the stadium and dipping his hat (or head) on the stadium turf, the drum major marches to the North endzone, tosses the baton up to the goal post and must catch it if Michigan is to win. Needless to say the baton hit the ground. The band did make it into Section 22 to try to fire out the crowd.
– Just opened the Sunday Ann Arbor News. John Heuser graded the team and gave the highest mark (a ‘D’) to Special Teams. I don’t know exactly what he uses to come up with these measures but a team that can’t get 11 men out on the field with any consistency deserves an ‘F’ at best. Throw in two blocked kicks, 2 botched 2 point conversion attempts and a kick-off return team that leaving the bench STARTED TO RUN TO THE WRONG SIDE OF THE FIELD FOR THE LAST KICKOFF with under 30 seconds left and I’d be more comfortable with a ‘G’. Carr got an F as well and deserved it:.

Chad Henne. Terrible game. He started out accurate but started missing as the game progressed. His costly interception in the second half was freshman mistake. That ball should have been thrown away. He had open and even unguarded receivers at times yet committed to his first read almost every time. Funny… a lot of the tailgate talk was how it would be exciting to see Ryan Mallett out there in garbage time. Obviously that didn’t happen but I wondering if he might need to get a few prime time snaps in the coming weeks if Henne doesn’t get it together.

– Mike Hart. Great effort, tried to carry the team on his back but he doesn’t call the plays and he doesn’t lineup on defense. He said he got dinged on the first play and this is why he was left out of the action for a while. The guy is a warrior.
– People criticizing Bill Martin? I’ve actually read some folks last night and today criticizing Bill Martin for scheduling this game! I owe Martin an apology – he scheduled an outstanding opponent.

– Keys. While this doesn’t seem to matter right now, I got a good chuckle out of the graphic on the scoreboard announcing when it was a KEY PLAY.

This of course was right in the face of the grassroots effort to get people to stop the tired practice of shaking keys during the game.

– HBO Filming Before and during the game a crew from HBO was out getting footage for a documentary on the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry and in particular, the fans. Above, here’s part of the crew getting a shot of some youngsters out on the M golf course.