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| Photo credit: mgoblue.com |
Last weekend's win at Purdue was ugly. I can't come on here and try and sugar-coat it any more than that. 5 turnovers by each team. And for those keeping track at home, that's 10 turnovers in the last two weeks. But like they all say, a win is a win. And in the Big Ten, in week 11, I'll take a win.
Somehow the defense showed up to play in this game. They were helped out a ton by the rain, and the sloppy play that it created. Rain always helps defenses, especially against offenses that aren't that goo to begin with. For all of the times that Purdue dropped easy passes and put the ball on the ground, our defense was in position enough to make them pay for their mistakes.
My hat's off to Greg Robinson and his defense for stepping up in this game. Not many folks out there saw this coming.
What is a little concerning to me is that the rain really impacted our offensive output. I know we're an offense that is predicated by speed and rhythm, but it's a little surprising to me that we can be thrown off our game so easily by bad weather. One of the good reason's the Big Ten is so known for it's big and slow offenses is that cold and rain really doesn't slow down a "3 yards and a cloud of dust" offensive attack.
Spread-option offenses don't seem to function well at all when the rain falls and the mercury drops below 60.
Video!
Of course, WolverineHistorian already has a re-cap of the game:
Meeting expectations?
The win increases our total wins to 7. That magical number that many had thought would be our total win count before the season started. I had us winning 8 in my pre-season prediction (I thought we'd knock off Sparty).
Bowl stock rising
Right now we're projected to get to the Insight Bowl against a Big 12 opponent. For those of you wondering, the Insight Bowl is held in Tempe, AZ at Sun Devil Stadium (where the Fiesta Bowl used to be played). This year's game will be held on December 28th, and will air at 10PM on ESPN. Yes, that's right, 10PM Eastern.
You thought 67 points was a lot?
Also, just incase you were feeling a bit over-confident with two Big Ten wins in a row (a first for Rodriguez), Wisconsin...our next opponent, just put up 83 points on Indiana last week. We'll get back to that later this week, but I thought it should be mentioned.
2010 Seniors
This weekend's game will be the final home game for the year, and the final home game for these seniors: Jonas Mouton, James Rogers, Mark Moundros, Obi Ezeh, Stephen Schilling, John Ferrara, Perry Dorrestein, Martell Webb, Greg Banks, Ronaldo Sagesse, Adam Patterson. CB Troy Woolfolk would be on this list, but his injury sustained in fall camp kept him out of games this year, and he never used a red-shirt prior to this season. So he
Just FYI that the Insight Bowl is still played in Tempe, at ASU's home stadium, but the Fiesta bowl moved to Glendale, home of the Cardinals several years ago when that stadium opened.
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