Michigan Gets Screwed, Loses to Northwestern

I don't care who you are, if you watched the Michigan v. Northwestern game on Saturday, you bore witness to maybe the worst officiating calls to affect the outcome of a Michigan game so far this year.

The game was pretty much playing out better than most games have for Michigan this year. The first half was pretty decent. We played within ourselves. Limited turnovers, at least as much as we could on a rain/snow soaked field. The playing conditions were miserable. But we were able to capitalize with a blocked punt by Michael Williams that resulted in a touchdown when the ball was picked up and ran in from the 1 yard line by Ricky Reyes in the second quarter.

But it was the typical 3rd quarter meltdown that put the Wolverines behind. The offense was incapable of moving the football. We started the 2nd half with 3 straight 3-and-outs, and were not able to stop NW as they moved the ball quickly, scoring 2 touchdowns in less than 3 minutes. The second TD was a wide open pass from Bacher to Eric Peterman up the middle for a 53-yard TD that just sucked whatever air was left right out of the stadium.

But the defense stepped up in the 4th quarter. And CB Donovan Warren made one of his best plays at the corner position in the 2 years he's been here. What's unfortunate, is that the refs did not see it that way.

He intercepted Bacher and took off down the sideline. He was untouched all the way to the endzone. But the refs decided to blow the play dead at the 44 yard line, claiming he stepped out. Anyone who saw the replay knew this was a premature whistle. Now, I'll admit he was close, but it was clear his foot never touched the white sideline. ESPN has the perfect angle from the scoreboard cam to show his footing as he took off down the sideline. The ref blew that call. But unfortunately, you can't challenge a ref's whistle. When a play is blown dead, it's over.

The result of the ensuing drive by Michigan was a Threet interception in the endzone that pretty much killed any momentum gained by the Warren interception.

So, as Pam Ward so eloquently pointed out about 3 dozen times on the broadcast on Saturday...Michigan loses it's 8th game of the year, the most losses ever by a Michigan team in one season. Seriously, does anyone suck at commentating more than Pam Ward?

But now, this season comes down to one final game. After the loss to Michigan State, we knew there was only one game left worth playing for. The book has pretty much been written on the 2008 Michigan football team. But the last thing we can do is finish the final chapter with a huge upset win over the Buckeye's in Columbus.

While tOSU is favored to win by 19, it should be noted that a first year Michigan coach has never lost to tOSU. Never. Of course, Rodriguez has had a routine of breaking bad records at Michigan this year.

There are a lot of things to talk about this week. What's up with Sam McGuffie? Who's going to be our starting QB? How will we defend Pryor? These questions, and so much more will be talked about until our faces turn blue this week. Which actually could be a good thing.