What a great win last night for this team and for Henne, the kind of gutsy performance that people will remember for years. By coming off the bench twice to save this game and this season, Henne put his footprint on this post-apocolyptic 6 game run right next to that of Hart. And hats off to Manningham and Arrington who played their butts off all day.
Quick takes on this game:
Fumbos in the Booth – Why wasn’t the Arrington catch in the endzone immediately reviewed by the replay officials? Carr had to use a timeout to get them to look at it- what were they doing? Just because it was correctly overturned (eventually) doesn’t excuse those clowns in the booth. That was a huge, huge play and if Carr didn’t step in it looks like it wouldn’t have been overturned.
The Difference – Carr deserves a lot of credit here for how this team played. Other than Ryan Mallett’s miscues and a bad pass from Henne that resulted in a pick, the team played a very error-free game. Their first penalty wasn’t until the fourth quarter and you saw solid play in the kicking game and M didn’t drop many passes. This is a well disciplined team while Illinois could have won this game if not for bad penalties, mistakes and drops. Give Carr a lot of credit for this.
Rose Bowl in sight – By handing Illinois its second conference loss, Ohio State and Michigan now have a huge spread over the rest of conference. The path to the Big Ten championship and the Rose Bowl is now pretty simple. Ohio State won’t likely lose two games before the big game on November 17th, so Michigan needs get through Minnesota next week and win one of either Wisconsin or Michigan State. That’ll leave all the marbles on the line for the big one: A Rose Bowl trip and big ten championship for Michigan, a possible BCS championship but certainly a conference title for the Buckeyes.
4 Comments
Demetrius Dew
“win one of either Wisconsin or Michigan State. That’ll leave all the marbles on the line for the big one: A Rose Bowl trip and big ten championship for Michigan, a possible BCS championship but certainly a conference title for the Buckeyes.”
That scenario is unacceptable for me and should be for all Michigan fans. We need to beat Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan State and The Ohio State. Ultimately winning a bid to the Rose Bowl for a little payback against Urban Myer Weiner and the Florida Gators.
mvictors
DD – While I certaintly want M to run the table, I’m not sure I’d call 1 more loss (other than to Ohio State) unacceptable. Esp. after the start of this season. Of course I’d like to see a 4-0 run happen. As a fan, if this team can get to and win the Rose Bowl I’d be pretty happy.
As for meeting Florida in Pasadena, that’d be a long shot. It’d mean that Oregon/USC made it into the BCS championship and the Gators got an at-large bid to the Granddaddy. A more likely scenario is to meet the Gators in the Capitol One bowl in Orlando, but that’d mean the Victors didn’t get it done per my scenario.
Josh
M, I have to go with DD! Back in the Cooper days we had a tendency to spoil the Buckeyes season, let’s get back to this mindset. We need to start thinking the Buckeyes can be beat! Tressel only has our goat as long as we let him! We can run the table there is no doubt about that!! Wisconsin’s implosion to Penn State and Illini gives us a good chance there. Sparty will be scrappy but I bet we can pull it ou.t All things being equal the Bucknuts don’t get any piece of the Big Ten Title and we get a shot at vindication against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
mvictors
I’m with you Josh. We must beat Ohio State no matter what happens in the next 3 games.