As I sat at home on Saturday and watched the Michigan/Michigan State game, I felt like I had seen this play out before. In the two previous B1G losses to be exact. MSU has now lost 3 conference games by a total of 6 points and all of them have the same story lines: missed field goal, dropped long balls, big drive stopped with having to settle for a field goal, and inability by the defense to get a key stop late in the game.

Let me get a few things off my chest right off the bat. First, I was not a fan of the helmets and thought they looked like Christmas ornaments. I know Nike likes to do this alternate crap, but let’s worry about winning before adding to the circus. It was an amazing fact that no one on the MSU team had lost to UM and vice versa – you just don’t see stats like that. 1802 days was fun for Spartan Nation, but all of us knew deep down that the streak was bound to end at some point. I’m pretty sure none of us thought it would be in a 12-10 game though. If you would have told me that Michigan would win the game without scoring a touchdown, I would have thought you were crazy. Maybe I am after watching this MSU team each week!

Nonetheless, I watched the game closely, taking notes for my blog – and also my new method of anger management…if I write down my rage, I tend to yell at the tv less 🙂 And lets all be honest, this was not a pretty game to watch. As my best friend (an UM alum) said after: no gloating on her part and this game was pretty much a microcosm of Big Ten football as a whole. Sad but true.

Mark Dantonio loves this matchup and getting the guys fired up for UM. I thought the Spartans would come out ready for this one since rivalry games are a breed of their own and you never know what will happen. Although I’ve been pretty disgusted with the team, I tried to find some optimism on Saturday morning – and then the game started. Now, I won’t go on to bore you with my quarter by quarter game analysis (although my notes are quite detailed for it), but rather some overall thoughts and stats from the game in addition to the key story lines I already mentioned…

• Dan Conroy: the unsolved puzzle. Another missed FG that loomed large. The part that makes no sense is that he’s perfect from 50+ yards but is 3 for 6 from 30-39 yards. That’s a major problem – but so is an inability to get TD’s and settle for his kicking.
• Momentum: Whenever MSU got it, they killed it with either a penalty, 3 and out, or a turnover. The D had some great stops, but the offense barely gave them time to breathe before sending them back onto the field. There were also multiple occasions when the defense couldn’t get off the field on 3rd and long and UM was able to capitalize on it.
• It was clear that the only way MSU would win was if they scored on defense or special teams. We were in it til the end but couldn’t stop the big plays.
• Perhaps the highlight of the game: MSU’s fake punt that a friend of mine dubbed “The Hamburglar.” Brass balls by Coach D and a big play there.
• The Michigan defense stifled our rushing attack and forced us to throw. It’s proven to work against MSU this season and they did just enough in this game to get the W. Their punter also has a killer leg!
• Overall, MSU again did a nice job containing Denard Robinson. He’s a great athlete and I hear he’s a good guy too. I have a lot of respect for Hoke as a coach and I’m honestly scared of how good UM could be once D-Rob graduates and they get someone in at QB who can throw the ball too.
• Congrats to UM on the win, I hope we’re ready to take the bragging rights back next season!

I’ll make my complaining about Dan Roushar short and sweet this time since I’ve went into detail about him in previous posts. We had 1 good series out of the half, which many speculate was actually called by Dantonio. Too many 3 and outs. But the play call that has become Roushar’s signature move just infuriates me: Need 10 yards on 3rd down and pass for 6 or 7. You can’t count on the young receivers to break tackles and need better play calling in those situations!

I was frustrated as I watched the game and felt like MSU was playing not to lose instead of playing to win. I never like seeing that! For the past couple seasons, it seemed like MSU was on the winning end of any close game they were in. The 2012 campaign has turned out to be the opposite where they can’t find a way to win the close games since week 1.

Is it too soon to start thinking about 2013? I said it before, and I hope this team still gets to a bowl game, partially so they can have the extra practice. However, that could be a tall request at this point. The Big Ten is down this year and MSU is at a current low with a tough road ahead. Win or lose, I’m still proud to be a Spartan – some days are just easier than others…