Just In Time For The 2007 NBA Playoff Brackets

Hey There Pistons Fans,

Just in time for the '07 NBA playoffs, I thought I'd save this great D-Town blog from a rusty fate in the bottom of some ol' ballers stinky locker.

It's time for the return of you know who.

Game 5 Saturday, May 5th - no time announced yet.

NBA Playoff Brackets, Dates and Times are Available Here: NBA Playoff Brackets

I hate to say it, but Chicago may have found that missing piece they needed to top even the toughest teams in the East.

How on earth did we lose our trusty BMW-Seven Series Ben Wallace.

Tears...

NFL Draft=stacked

Even Matt Millen can't screw up the number 9 pick.

The best projected options for the Lions at this spot include someone in the group:

FS Michael Huff (Tex)
RB LenDale White (USC)
RB DeAngelo Williams (Memphis)
DE Mario Williams (NC St.)

These are all impact, Pro Bowl-caliber players in my estimation.

I'd like to see the Lions get any one of them.

As for the RB's, I think the Lions absolutely need to make establishing a running game their top priority this offseason at all costs. Kevin Jones is hurt too often and Artose Pinner isn't good enough to carry the load full-time.

I just have a feeling about DeAngelo Williams. He's a big-time playmaker and I think the Lions should take him if he's there.

Of course they'd have to talk things over with Jones beforehand to make sure he doesn't get disgruntled.

Offensive line is a bigger need but there's no one worthy of the no.9 pick at that spot.

Huff would be a good pick and help in coverage tremendously as the Lions' corners need some help back there from their safeties.

Mario Williams is a beast and probably the safest pick for the Lions. Their D-line is already solid but Williams is a complete DE who would be great in Rod Marinelli's Cover-2 scheme. The Lions could use someone to get after the passer.

Hopefully in their new aggressive scheme under D-Coordinator Donnie Henderson, however, they'll actually make use of their LB speed and blitz more. So it's not a need but more of a luxury. Still, Williams might be too good to pass up.

I'm not a big fan of Jimmy Williams, the Va. Tech corner. That'd be my worst-case pick.

Back to Back Ranked Victims?

Just like that, Michigan is back among the Big Ten elite.

But now, just like the Sparties of 05, it's time to see if they can actually stay up there for a long period of time.

This is a team that doesn't handle prosperity well at all- neither over the course of the season or the course of a game.

Michigan won fairly comfortably over Wisconsin today but in all truth that game was closer than it should have been.

The Wolverines shot lights out and Wisconsin was cold most of the game, not to mention without 3 of its contributing players who were just ruled ineligible for academic reasons about a week prior to the game.

Michigan got very sloppy with the ball and also seemed to be rushing a lot during the second half. They seem to force tricky passes to the post when there's nothing there and fall in love with the three-ball a little too often.

That out of the way, it's time for Michigan fans to enjoy this for a little while. Only a devastating injury can derail this NCAA train now...

Perhaps the only one that could fall under that category would be one to Daniel Horton, who WILL play in the NBA by the way, most likely as a starter. The only things he needs to work on are shot consistency and decision-making and he's already gotten markedly better in both areas this year.

Lester Abram is Michigan's second-best player but Ron Coleman is a capable fill-in as long as he doesn't try to do too much.

All things considered, I'm just looking forward to hear my team's name called on Selection Sunday for the first time since the legendary Tractor Traylor/Travis Conlan squad of 1998 (ha).

But Michigan must learn to finish better...they are a senior and junior-dominated team. Time to seize it.

Not Again...

It's too bad Michigan forward Lester Abram will either miss or be extremely limited for tomorrow night's clash at Crisler between the Wolves and the Sparties...

I know lots of MSU fans who've been anxious for some better games and wouldn't mind seeing Michigan give them a run for their money...the rivalry's been boring with MSU taking 12 of 13 lately.

As for Michigan basketball fans, life is just tough. The university doesn't support the team very well while pouring damn near trillions into the football program...

It's just sad, not to mention foolish because the University could make some big money off of a strong basketball program. UofM merchandise was the top seller in all the land back in the early to mid-90's, now I'm not sure if anybody really knows Michigan still has a basketball program.

And if Michigan doesn't get it done this year, I doubt they will next year. Daniel Horton is gone as well as Graham Brown, Chris Hunter and maybe Abram. Michigan will have suspect PG and post play as Courtney Sims will need to take a huge step up (ie stop being so incredibly soft in the post) just for Michigan to stay competitive in the Big Ten.

As for tomorrow night, Ronald Coleman is a decent fill-in for Abram but he doesn't do all the little things Lester does like play defense as well, make solid passes, handle the ball etc..

my prediction: MSU 63 Michigan 57

Michigan can D up State fairly well for a while but it will take excellent efforts from Horton and Dion Harris, especially from 3-pt. land, to pull the upset.

Paul Davis might also need to pick up some cheap early fouls for UofM to stand a chance.

I do have a strange feeling that Courtney Sims might step up and play solidly, however.

State of the blog

hey everyone, with school and work i am so so busy. I love this blog, and i thank everyone for sticking with it and reading. Some of you bloggers kept this place affloat when times were rough. I would like to thank Nick for writing some helluva good articles and trying his best. I myself need to apologize for giving up on it at a time and i hope you all will forgive me and look forward. As for the future of this place, its up to you. I want to hear all of your opinions and ideas for this place cause i am lost. I want to hear if you guys want this place to stay or go. Again, thanks for your patience and this place couldnt be here without guys like Mark and leelanau sports guy checking in. Lets get this baby rollin and make 2006 the year of DSS! throw any ideas out there. thanks again

Hooray for Superfluous Graphics and Abnoxious Commentators

Fox gets the BCS next year and some other college football games next year. ABC will keep some of the bigger ones like the Rose Bowl, but it's not enough.

I don't trust Fox to handle college football. They've always been about glitz and glamour over substance with their NFL broadcasts and I expect college football to be no different.

Hopefully, some of the ABC guys will sign with Fox to do the games, because I absolutely abhor Fox's NFL announcing teams.

I mean think about it for a second. NFL announcers on Fox are some of the worst in the business. Joe Buck is as boring and stale as they come. Dick Stockton isn't much more exciting. Marble-mouthed Curt Menafee is the worst of the bunch. And every color analyst is just a lame Madden knock-off.

Say what you want about Brent Musberger, but his voice is excellent and his passion for college football is unquestioned. Keith Jackson may be slipping into Summerall territory, but he's still good overall due to the nostalgia factor.

Brad Nessler is very good, and Mike Tirico and Kirk Herbstreit are excellent together.

I like the whole ABC-ESPN college football partnership they've got going, but now it looks like Greedy Ole' Fox is going to screw it up.

Tell you what Fox- Bring back Beano the Hutt for his weekly segment and we'll call it a deal!

That guy is comedic gold at first sight.

"Blah blah blah Notre Dame blah blah blah Joe Pa blah blah"

*Beano runs out of breath*

"...Back to you, Rece"

College Football Withdrawal

Nothing against the NFL, but I'm really disappointed there won't be college football tomorrow.

It's just not right, dammit.

I love the NFL, but I'm sick of it getting in the way all of the time. Nobody will put any other kind of sporting event on Monday nights when Monday Night Football is on, even though they keep screwing up the matchups and giving us garbage games like Green Bay-Baltimore.

Now this...you just don't mess with January 1st. Or as WDFN's Sean Baligian put it, "Man's Day."

I love college because of the passion and intensity, the NFL just seems stale sometimes to me. Plus there are so many bad teams nowadays and so many bad matchups.

The one game I really looked forward to was San Diego-Indy this year, and yet I wound up getting TENNESSEE/SEATTLE instead.

On January 1st, you can sit there in your groggy post-New Year's haze and switch channels relentlessly, taking in games featuring teams you don't usually get to see. And then you cap it all off with the Grandaddy of 'em all, aka the Rose Bowl, aka the Michigan Loss Bowl, and all of the pagaentry and the beautiful setting and whatnot.

But nooo...we have to wait three more days for it now!!

The common denominator in all of this is $$$...more $$$ from their precious BCS, and more money for the greedy NFL so we can all go out and buy satellite TV's and Sunday Ticket...

Otherwise, looks like it's Bears-Vikings for me tomorrow...Oh, and the Lions...

Maybe I'll just sleep in extra, extra late...the Steelers are going to utterly eradicate us tomorrow.

Happy New Year, here's to some new assistant coaches at Michigan!

Cheers!

How Lionesque was THAT?

Okay, so we all know the whole Millen thing was a circus. And that's a good thing because the Millen REGIME has been even worse.

But the funniest part of the whole thing?

The Lions just may have cost themselves a shot at the quarterback they needed to sign next year: Unrestricted free agent Jon Kitna.

Do you really think Kitna, an established veteran with just a few more years left in the tank who's probably looking to be on a contending team, would want to come here after bearing witness to THAT atmosphere yesterday??

Sure, the Lions might have a competent, offensive-minded coach in place by next year and some O-line help, but that certainly didn't help the Lions' chances of signing Kitna next season.

They might have to overpay him to get him to come.

Other options? Kurt Warner (ugh), Josh McCown (not good enough), Joey Harrington (probably too risky), Orlovsky (not ready), Garcia (hahaha).

Batch? I don't know, but Kitna was the best option...

It'll be interesting to see if he even considers the Lions now.

How does 79-3 sound?

Okay, so that was a bad loss in Utah.

The technical foul monster got the best of the Stones again. I'm glad we don't have to watch horrible games like that as often as we did last year.

Maybe it would have been best for the Pistons to fall behind early and then make their run at the end instead of vice versa.

Still, why isn't Flip using the bench??

Ben Wallace is tough to pull out of a game, but tonight he simply didn't have it and he got frustrated in a hurry.

Might as well stick Dale Davis in there, he could have at least boxed out Kirilenko and Okur and Jarron Collins.

This happens every year with Ben getting nicked up, and it's Flip's job to tell him when he doesn't have it.

Still, we obviously can't complain with 15-3. It's been a brutal schedule thus far.

Back to the Palace...

Mooch, We Hardly Knew Ye

It's certainly not all his fault. But I'm ecstatic that Mooch is gone.

I don't think I could take another week of his "5 yard pass on third-and-eight" offense.

It wasn't working. This press conference was destined to happen from the get-go. Mooch was never going to lead us to a Super Bowl. His flaws were evident in San Francisco.

That being said, I was mildly happy when we hired him. I thought he would at least lead us to respectability and then be canned when he failed to take us to the next level.

I thought the Jeff Garcia comments were VERY telling on Mooch. He said he liked Mooch as a coach and that he thought he could get the job done here...but at the same time acknowledged he ran a soft camp and that such a camp was a bad thing for rookies (not to mention young players) and may have led to their undisciplined, lazy attitudes.

That's why I think it was a good idea to can Mooch now. We need to crack the whip on these young guys, especially the receivers, and get them to understand what being an NFL player is all about again. No more "freshening up," no more toking up, JUST SUCK IT UP, shut the hell up, stop dancing when you're down double digits, and earn your paycheck for a damn change.

Jauron isn't a disciplinarian exactly but he is a well-respected coach who will command the players' attention and not settle for insubordination.

Matt Millen is still a joke, obviously. He tried to dance around and crack jokes when asked to evaluate his own performance as GM, but the media obviously wasn't buying it.

I also find it funny that Millen has completely contradicted himself and his philosophy these past few years. He's a tough guy linebacker who talked about needing to bring in more "rats," i.e. tough guy, lunchbucket-style players in his mold. And what did he do? He drafted a bunch of fast linebackers that can't tackle or take on blocks reliably like Teddy Lehman, Boss Bailey, and James "Dirty from getting knocked on his ass all game" Davis.

He built around finesse players with a pourous offensive line. And he hired Jauron to coordinate the defense, one of the least aggressive guys around.

Look at the Bears: They might not have as much overall speed and talent as the Lions but they're built the RIGHT WAY, around the running game and in the trenches. And they have a coach who's aggressive on defense and doesn't mess around with the dink-and-dunk crap on offense. He runs the ball and goes for the occasional big play.

Millen said he thought the Lions had the talent to get the job done. We'll see...I still don't think they're a 4-7-caliber team, especially in this division. I think the switches, especially Greg Olsen to Offensive Coordinator, will benefit them in the short term.

But they still have to play Pittsburgh and the Bengals, so don't worry about our draft position slipping too much.

Fight on, blind Lions. You'll find that zebra carcass someday...

Tommy A's bunch beats Butler

I dont know...Michigan and 2-2 (now 2-3) Butler were tied 70-70 late in the game before the Wolverines pulled it out.

Dion Harris has plantar fasciatis a la Rasheed a couple of years ago, that could be a tough injury.

I'm not too crazy about Tommy Ball, especially on the offensive side of things. There still doesn't seem to be much flow or much of a philosophy besides passing the ball in circles and launching.

I just hope we sneak into the tourney this year, I've been longing to see Michigan in the tourney since Tractor and company busted into it back in 1998 and choked against UCLA...

Michigan will need to rack up at least 9-10 NC wins because their early Big Ten schedule is tough.

That is all....too bad Notre Dame held on against Stanford...

I think Oregon and OSU and even Auburn definitely deserve to be in over the Irish, whose best three wins are BYU, Navy, and oh yeah, Michigan...sigh.

But they'll be in. They get special treatment. Not that Michigan hasn't in the past but it's still not right.

The BCS Really Works!!

Or at least that's what they say after Texas gets done thrashing the rest of the Little 12 and USC falls behind UCLA before putting up 70 on them in the second half.

I fail to see how "the system works" simply because it is smart enough to pick two undefeated major conference teams when they're the only two left standing.

As for Michigan, this whole thing doesn't really apply to them and won't as long as Lloyd Carr is here, or at least fires his underacheiving assistants.

Prevent defense prevents you from winning. Period. You'd think Jim Hermann would have realized this after losing two games and nearly blowing three others with the exact same strategy.

Can someone please tell me why Michigan only brings out its blitz packages approximately one or two games PER SEASON?

Has Hermann noticed that EVERY SINGLE TIME he does it, it WORKS and WORKS WELL???

Look at the Michigan plays defense and compare it to SEC teams like LSU and Auburn or Ohio State.

The biggest problem isn't lack of speed, it's a complete and utter lack of BALLS by the defensive coaches. Almost every stop Michigan gets is the result of the other team NOT EXECUTING it's own offense.

And the tackling? Ohio State wraps up, Michigan doesn't. Story of the game and the rivalry these past few years.

End of discussion....but then again, that's all been said countless times before. Only LLoyd can do something about it.

But, as yes-man Jimmy Brandstatter said on M Replay, we had a "great season." Yep, terrific. Michigan has become Ohio State AND Notre Dame's (personal property)

Hail to the Victors indeed.

The Anti-Raptors!

That's right, your Detroit Pistons are now 7-0 after a come from behind win against the Boston Celtics, who I still hate by the way (just for the record).

I told my friend in class as we watched the Pistons go down at halftime just before we left to go home that we would rally and win it in the second half.

The Pistons flat sleepwalked right through the first half. How else do you explain Boston shooting 66%?

Strictly effort.

The Pistons may not go to work every night like they used to, at least not for the whole game. But against most teams, they won't have to.

The John L. Smith "WHERE'S YOUR COACH!!!?" Award of the...Night, I guess, goes to Doc Rivers (or should I just call him Dopey?).

The Celtics' resident mastermind put DAN DICKAU of all people on Chauncey Billups in the second half. Not surprisingly, Chauncey abused him and ended up with 24 and 10 assists. I know the Celtics don't have many options at the point, but putting Dan Dickau on Billups is pure idiocy.

Of course, it's Danny Ainge's fault for signing the likes of Dickau and Brian Scalabrine in the offseason for no apparent reason. But the Rivers-Ainge combo is right up there with the all-time worsts, such as....

hmm..

oh yeah, Millen and Mariucci. Should I go on and list more? Nah, I think you get the point loud and clear.

Back to the reason why I hate the Celtics. Ricky "Just rolled out of bed, smoked two blunts and now I'm gonna shoot at my own basket to get a triple-double" Davis is one of them, but Paul Pierce is the primary one.

The guy is the embodient of everything wrong with the NBA. Talks a bunch of noise, this time about Tayshaun Prince of all people, goes out and eventually helps his team to a nice lead, acts like the game's over, and then proceeds to end up losing and completely changes his attitude to one of quiet resignation by the end

He shows up for about half of the Celtics' 82 games, the other half of the time he spends jacking up shots and honing his anti-ref glare.

How about the play in the fourth with the game still in the balance, where Pierce slashed in and got swatted by Ben Wallace? The insant Ben's paw hit ball, he was glaring at the refs.

The Pistons broke out and got a dunk before he could even stop his bitching.

Priceless. It's a great time to be a Pistons fan.

Perhaps if Detroit can put together a 60-win regular season and keep this winning streak going for a little while, they will finally get the respect they deserve as a special team by the media.

Come to think of it, one of the reasons they've never been perceived as such is because the most wins they've had in the Joe D era is 54.

They could win 60, the question is, do they want to? They might have to with Indy breathing down their neck.

Or not, considering the way they turn it up in the playoffs.

Flipping the switch

I'm really liking what I'm seeing from the new-look Pistons.

If anything, they're certainly a lot more fun to watch.
The fast break just might revolutionize the way this team plays offense.
They're built for speed. Even the big guys can run, in most cases far faster than the other team's bigs.

And Rasheed is the best outlet passer in the game. He joked that he'd like to QB the Lions and at this point, he might actually be better than One Joseph Heisman, who knows.

I'd really like to see Flip implement the bench more like he said he would, however. So far it's been mostly Mo Evans, Dyess, and Arroyo.

I'd like to see Delfino and The Dark One get in some more soon.

I think we'll see them more as the season progresses and the starters get tired, but right now they're rolling so well that it doesn't make sense to break a good thing up.

The regular season is paramount this year. Indy is a terrific regular season team, and if they beat out Detroit, they get a top seed and we get the fourth.

It's a tough tightrope for Flip to walk, but we should start to see the bench more.

I'm just hoping Delfino and Darko don't go into pout mode like they have in the past. We'll find out a lot about them this year whether they play a lot or not.

Tonight, the Pistons will pay back the Suns for last year's fluke win.
Without Amare up front, they will be no match for the Wallaces.

101-90 Pistons.

Now what??

Where do the Lions go from here?

Would it be better to sneak in the backdoor of the playoffs or to just tank it and go for the draft pick?

This year's draft is stacked. Reggie Bush sure would look a lot better than Shawnny Bryson on those three-yard passes, wouldn't he?

D'Brickashaw Ferguson could be the franchise left tackle the Lions have lacked for so long.

Vince Young could be...just about anything EXCEPT left tackle and be damn good at it.

The bottom line is this: Steve Mariucci ain't going to lead the Lions to a Super Bowl.
Best case scenario is he'll lead them right back where they were before Millen took over, which is exactly what Millen swore he would avoid back then.

The only option is to either cut him off and put in whatever coach on the staff is most aggressive (or one of their wives perhaps, judging by the ways these guys call games) to start putting in a real offense that suits these players.

It would also have to be the guy who is the biggest disciplinarian, someone who can get the "Three Divas" going and not accept their laziness.

Dick Jauron doesn't fit either option well, but is does better than Mooch.

Otherwise, the best option, yet again, is to tank the season.

We just might be right back where we started.

Millen said after the game that the mess was his fault and Mooch wasn't to blame...yeah right.

This is almost all on Mooch, with an assist from the Lions' old nemesis, the injury bug.

The Bears should finish about 8-8 with their easy schedule. The Lions won't finish better, and they don't have the tiebreaker.

Enjoy the rest of the season, folks.

Garcia guides Lions to victory

October 23,2005 was the day the Lions moved on. After 4 years of patiently waiting for Harrington, the 3rd pick in the 2001 draft to pan out, the Lions finally said "what are we doing, this guy sucks." Well, thats not exactly what Mooch said, but I am pretty sure thats what he was thinking. I find it funny that the Lions drafted a reciever three years in a row thinking the reason Harrington sucks is because the recievers suck, boy were they wrong. Yesterday, Jeff Garcia had a great game when his recievers were Scotty Vines, Mike Williams, Kevin Johnson until he got injured, and Pollard. Imagine what can happen when all the "big 3" are healthy. No excuses now, Joey.

Going further into yesterday's game, I was pleased with the defense. Boss Bailey really impressed me, but the defensive player of the game should be Dick Jauron. Jauron consistently made the right change/adjustment to shut down the Cleveland Browns pass game while containing the run. Everything he did made sense, unlike some past lion coardinaters. I'm happy to see Cory Schlesinger back in the game. Garcia found him numerous times with the checkdown and Cory gained positive yardage, hes always hard to bring down. A big upgrade over Paul Smith. Maybe the Lions offense didnt finish there chances efficiently, but they scored just enough to grab this game. Player of the game goes to Jeff Garcia: Maybe the Lions offense didnt finish there chances efficiently, but they scored just enough to grab this game. I dont know if 4 years watching Harrington miss an open reciever in the corner of the end zone has warped my perception on what a good game is, but I know Garcia played well.

Next week the Bears come into D-town to decide who is number one in the NFC north. Quite a feat to accomplish.

GO LIONS!!!!

Inactivity

Hey readers, all of us here at DSS are really very sorry for not posting and just plain not being active. Its been a busy couple weeks for us, ever since school started things have gotten out of control. I just wanted to tell you that we will be making a full recovery, dont give up on us. Expect frequent postings from now on out. Again, sorry for the lack of posting, we ask you to forgive us. Thanks for sticking with us.

It's a shame somebody had to lose....

But that somebody, as it often has been, was Michigan State.

You have to wonder what John L. Smith was thinking with that hook-and-ladder play at the end of the game when all MSU needed was another 15-20 yard pass to set up for a field goal. Sometimes he's a bit too wacky for his own good.

I also wonder why he didn't give Stanton more chances to run.

As for my Wolverines, I guess Mike Hart does mean a lot to this team, doesn't he?

Kevin Grady and Max Martin will both be good running backs, but at this point they are severely lacking in the vision and ballhandling departments which are critical with Michigan's banged-up O-line.

Hart's performance was legendary. He fired up the team both on the field and on the sidelines and his tenacity was contagious.

That's eight out of ten for Michigan in the series.

The Big Ten race is wide open. Let's hope MSU can take out the Buckeyes in two weeks.

Panic in A-Squared

I just saw the matchup on the TV screen at halftime of the Tennessee-LSU game:

Michigan vs. 11 Michigan State.

Such a strange sight seeing Michigan unranked, and, quite frankly, infuriating.

Maybe Michigan fans were a bit spoiled after all, taking for granted that Michigan would automatically get 9 or 10 wins every season.

Everybody's been chiming in lately with their theories as to why Michigan has slipped so far this season: the mailman, the old lady who knits during the games in the wine and cheese section, that guy at the office who watches about 10 minutes of football a week.

Since almost everything's been said, I'll offer one of my theories in regards to their offensive problems.

Hint: It's not lack of speed. It's not lack of passion or leadership.

The biggest reason why Michigan's offense sputters so often at the most important times is because of space; or rather lack thereof.

Watch Michigan closely and you will see the fundamental difference between them and most other offenses: almost everything they do occurs in a tightly congested area.

There is little attempt to spread the field, little attempt to clear out space other than the old fashioned way of moving people off the ball with the offensive line or with the play-action pass.

This is not to say the pro-style offense with a fullback and a tight end and two wide receivers is past its prime. If it can work in the pros with all of their speed and advanced schemes, it certainly can work in college football.

Teams around the country are experimenting with spread offenses and option, yet the best offense in the country at USC still runs the good old pro-style offense.

What does USC do that Michigan doesn't (excluding the fact that they obviously have better players, although the difference isn't as far as it looks)?

They move the pocket. They vary the types of passes and passing plays (lobs, short timing routes, slants, different-step drops). They do things to space the field. It's not so much the fact that USC throws more deep passes than Michigan that makes them so great, it's how they use the threat of the deep pass to open up the field.

A deep pass doesn't have to be 40-50 yards, just a large chunk of yardage that has the potential to get behind the defense and go for a big play.

Teams are so worried about being beaten deep that they will leave the center of the field open. USC knows it and sends backs and tight ends out into this space and can pick up easy yards, including yards after the catch.

When was the last time Michigan got good yards after the catch off of a short pass? They don't do it very often, because they don't send enough people deep to clear out space. Instead, they prefer to send their wideouts on short hitch passes, which can be easy to complete but:

A) Don't allow for yards after the catch excepting a great individual play

and

B) Don't scare the opposing secondaries because they know that the majority of the time, those receivers will not be going deep.

So what if they get beat once. What are the odds that it will happen again? Certainly not nearly the same as if they were facing USC or California or Miami.

Look at Notre Dame against Michigan State. They threw deep ball after deep ball, eventually opening up the field for the underneath pass to chew up huge yards when they needed it.

How many times has Michigan gone into a game against a mediocre secondary and been projected to torch that secondary, only to have their passing game contained?

A deep ball or route that doesn't work is not a wasted play, it adds to the threat and puts the defensive backs on their heels. It shakes their confidence, which is the key to playing DB well.

Granted, Michigan needs to complete more deep passes to get people to respect that threat first.

But they had the ultimate deep pass catcher last year in Braylon Edwards and still were shut down in key situations, because of the way Michigan used him.

They sent him on far too many five-yard hitch routes, which is a waste of his talent and diminishes his threat. Those routes are freely available and gain more yards after you establish the deep threat.

Throw in the fact that Michigan rarely moves the pocket with Chad Henne (which they vowed to do now that he knows the playbook), rarely runs more than one type of screen play (the sideline one), and rarely runs outside, and you've got a team that is very easy to defend because almost all of the action is in the center of the field, and there is very little attempt to create space for its playmakers.

And when defenders don't have to honor the deep pass, they're closer to the line, hurting the run game.

It's one thing to get the ball to your playmakers as Terry Malone has often said he wanted to do, but it's another to actually get it to them with the space to do something with it.

When is the last time Steve Breaston got the ball in space? Every time he gets the ball on a short pass, he is immediately tackled. The one time I can remember him getting the ball in space against Oregon, he shook the defender and ran in untouched.

It's not that Michigan's basic schemes don't work, but they can be shut down for long stretches because of a lack of creativity and diversity.

As great as Michigan looked against Texas in the Rose Bowl, that doesn't excuse the Michigan State game last year, when just about everything they tried was stuffed by a mediocre defense.

Or the Minnesota game two years ago, when Michigan was completely shut down through three quarters by another mediocre defense.

Or against Purdue last year, when Michigan couldn't do much against a young, vulnerable, and overrated Boilermaker defense.

College football is a game of mismatches. There are average, flawed players hidden amongst the great ones.

All over the field, there are opportunities to exploit. But you can't exploit them unless you give players the space to do it in.

The Michigan coaches like to use this quote from Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Law of the Wolves" for motivation:

The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.

They know that football, both offensive and defensive, is all about numbers. The most important thing defensive principle is to swarm to the ball.

So why do they insist on running and throwing short passes into a pack of wolves every game, when they could spread them out, keep them on their heels, and attack them one by one?

Why do they make it easy for opposing defenses to gang up on them?

Victory for MSU

The Spartans will not be the normal Spartans after a big win.......This time they will win another game after a beating then 10th ranked Notre Dame last weekend. The spread is 10.5 and if you are a betting man.......never bet for or against MSU. I do think they will win by 20 points today. I am upset because I have to work all day today starting at 1pm. Same goes for next week. Yeah I am a little upset, but what can you do. Stanton will destroy a weak Fighting Illini team today. Look for him to pass for over 300 yards. Look for a balanced running attact from all three Rbs. State will win and will go into the big game 4-0. I am hoping for a UofScum win as well...at least this week I am. Game day might come back to East Lansing if both teams win. Could be exciting.

Stanton 19-28 319 yards 3 td and 1 Int
Teague 77 yars on 14 carries 2 Td

MSU 45 Illinios 24