Before this season, some betting site was looking for someone in Michigan media to take/write-up the under on 7.5 wins, and got me to bite. I figured falling short of 4-3 versus @Utah, BYU, MSU, OSU, @PSU, @Maryland and @Minnesota was foreseeable, since bad things do happen, and whatever deity was in charge of whom they happen to was the George Lucas of gods.
The George Lucas God of Football creates an amazing thing that you will buy into, then turns it on you because he misunderstands what made his original, authentic creation so awesome, and he is immune to being told otherwise.
The George Lucas God is gone, his opus now in the hands of one of its earliest and geekiest fans. You know this geek has been quite successful—like he turned Stanford Trek into a good movie, before turning around the Mission Impossible franchise. You know he was left plenty to work with. You see trailers that confirm this could not suck. When do you believe again?
There's just a 2.1% chance my 7-win prediction comes true. There's a much higher chance this one could be as good as 1969's A New Hope. I still can't get myself to believe, but the numbers are there. There's even a scenario where…
No—let's just be happy if there's a cohesive plot and no Jar-Jar crap. But the extended universe could rock.
Etc. EBV tackled one of the Peppers plays, came to the same conclusions I did. Opponent Stock. Inside the Box Score.
[After the JUMP: a thing Rutgers is good at]
THING RUTGERS IS GOOD AT: STATS FROM DOING THE THING THEY DO, KINDA
In addition to the above, alum96 has been doing a By the Numbers on the board, and part of that is a feature of what they're good at/bad at. This time the "Good" box was a bit empty:
Rutgers is a zone+lead blocker run/three-step drop passing team. Running, burning clock, and quick passing keeps completion % and TFL counting stats high and yards per play low. But 12th in defending kickoff returns yo.
PLAY-ACTION ON OBVIOUS PASSING DOWNS?
LJ was wondering why people do this:
The play-action part, not the part where everyone's head explodes and the 100% invested sports announcer invokes the ghost of Fielding Yost. They do that because linebacking is hard and remembering it's 3rd and long and you don't have to step forward is not as powerful as instincts that make a team facing a power offense want to take that step. Also you only have so many plays and some of your pass plays, even if they're with PA, are still useable in situations when you wouldn't run. Also also Michigan had Speight in at that point and there was a reasonable chance we might try to run rather than have the backup throw.
Michigan ran PA on the Carter pass because Bo didn't have any passing plays without PA.
ETC. MGoTailgate happening again. Again I mean to stop by and probably won't since Pioneer is far from where I park, and my cousins and good food are in the warm house next to the driveway where I park. Rutgers photoshopping. Plans unveiled for new Track and Lacrosse fields. Maize Rage shirt this year is the best in years. Pete went to the Minnesota game. A dog in a Harbaugh costume. I said: A DOG! IN A HARBAUGH COSTUME!!!
Your Moment of Zen: