The beat writer for the Detroit News and her weekly call into the Shep, Shave and Shower show on WDFN 1130AM. It’s amazing how much more fun all this is after a game like that. [display_podcast] It’s a looonggg segment, all good, including a few questions from callers.

The start of conference play is behind us and there’s some shuffling in the index. Penn State after its impressive win over Illinois is now nipping at Ohio State’s heels – just a fraction of an index point away. Wisconsin’s loss dropped them but there’s still a lot of confidence in that team, and despite Michigan’s effort it looks like the pollsters a still a tad skeptical (I am). They jumped up in the ranking but a mere 4.5 index points. Northwestern meanwhile has moved into that third tier of teams and heading up. The Spartans? Slowly and steadily creeping up. Great stuff, here’s the latest index: The best part of the Index, comments from those polled: Gilliam, the bitter Badger: I hate football. John Belushi, first SNL skit: “We are all out of Badgers…Let’s boil the Wolverines.” Biggie, the mildly pleased Spartan “Great weekend…..UM turned what could have been a second consecutive ugly loss into a great win (thanks in large part to a very good defense)….they live to play another day. UW now has a must win at home next week vs. Ohio State.” “Terrelle Pryor looked good for OSU. This cat is going to wreak havoc on the Big 10. PSU is the class of the league at this point. Northwestern is 5-0….seems like a bloated record…

Jim Carty with his regular call in to WTKA 1050am, talking about what was going on in online [“lynch mob”] during his MLive blog midway through the game on Saturday: [display_podcast] Elsewhere: * Adam Rittenberg notes that the Toledo kick-off will be at noon. * Speaking of reaction midway through the game, read A-Ritts’ blog post at halftime of the Wisconsin game. Pretty funny. I wonder what was on the other laptops in the press box at Michigan Stadium? A few slices: I just walked by several “Old Blues” in the press box who are saying this is the worst they’ve ever seen Michigan play at the Big House, and it’s the 500th game. Can Michael Phelps start taking snaps for Michigan? And it’s not like the Wolverines are doing anything when they keep the ball. Michigan finished the half with 21 total yards and minus-7 passing yards. Can you say Notre Dame of 2007? Barring a dramatic turnaround after halftime, Michigan will find itself at the bottom of the Big Ten power rankings on Monday. All-American tight end Travis Beckum remains on the sideline, his helmet now no longer on his head. The Badgers don’t need Beckum the way they’re dominating this game. Save him for Ohio State next week. This one looks like it’s over.

Hats off again to the students who pulled this off. And thanks to Andrew C., one of the cat herders who helped get the Block M in the Michigan student section at Michigan stadium on Saturday:

Never seen anything like that before. We’ve seen furious comebacks, plenty of games that have gone down to the wire, and some strange changes of fortune but nothing ever like that game yesterday. It was so ridiculously somber at halftime, people were spewing and texting hate bombs all over the place. Many people left at half, more departed in the third. It was similar to the Oregon game [see Sucks Unlimited] last but I think more desperate. Last season after the Appalachian State game and midway through Oregon, it was a different kind of crappy feeling. You knew Henne, Hart and company could play- we’d seen it for three years! With this team there was no equity in the bank and it was hopeless. Looking over the scores in the Big Ten and playing the remaining schedule game a few folks uttered “2 wins” and that seemed reasonable if not likely. No way Michigan turns it around – it wasn’t really even a consideration. Go home and cut the lawn because there IS NO CURE FOR THIS: First half Michigan “drive” chart vs. Wisconsin 9/27/08 So when the team left the field at the end of the first half the boos rained down from around the stadium. It was loud. While Rodriguez joked about it later, Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema…

Forget about how Michigan team played on in the first 2 1/2 quarters yesterday against Wisconsin, check out a few freaky things that happened before the game even started. Some would say these are good luck*: –Isiah Thomas was on the sidelines. -The military team raising the American flag during the national anthem started the flag up the pole, aborted after about 15 feet, took it down, and raised it back up to the top. -In the pregame band routine, the feather on drum major Cody’s hat fell off on the south side of the field. *In Haiti

How did that turn into this (above)? Much more tomorrow. Was that the greatest game-day experience inside the Big House? Not quite for me, but it’s up there. I’ll talk about that and so much more. I had to get a few photos out from the game: