Crash Into Me

The Horror

My worst fears came true. We lost to Michigan State. In overtime. By doing what we do best: giving up a lot of points at home to the Spartans. It was the picture of ugliness. Don't get me wrong, the offense played great. For the most part. But the breaks just didn't go our way. There were several bad calls, both by Weis the genius and the officials (a biased big-10 crew), and a couple of critical errors, missed tackles, etc. Let's run through the agony.

First, there was the offensive pass interference call on Maurice Stovall's 45 yard catch in the 2nd quarter. BS. Pushin and shoving goes on EVERY PLAY. It was a crap call, and they tried to "make up" for it later, but didn't succeed. This turned ND momentum around significantly. Shortly after that, we had a third and 10 in Michigan State territory, and they decided to run the ball, despite the passing success. Big mistake, and error on Weis's part. We missed the field goal, MSU got the ball back with plenty of time and scored a TD just before halftime to go in up a touchdown.
Ahhh, the second half. Forget the INT for a TD, that goes along with accidental. The big 'un was the fumble by the freshman fullback on first and goal at the 1. Why not give the ball to Walker there? He can power run as evidenced on a couple tough 3rd and 4th down runs in the game. Plus he's more experienced. Big mistake. Next, we have all of the momentum, are coming back, and we have fourth and 1 at the 20. Again they decide to give it to the fullback, again he's denied. Any one of these plays could have given us the win in regulation, and despite that, we had great field position with over a minute to go! The offense goes into hibernation all of a sudden, and MSU forces overtime. In OT, the officials come up big again for the Spartans, missing an obvious pass interference call in the end zone against Stovall. Ridiculous. They missed call after call. Including two "false-start" calls that were absolutely terrible, albeit not critical to the team. Cut to Zibikowski missing yet another TD-saving tackle (this guy is so overrated, I can't even STAND it), and some punk RB scores almost untouched from 19 yards out winning the game. Another home game against MSU, another loss. It doesn't get much more frustrating that this, especially when their D (who played much better in the 2nd half, although still not terrific) gave them every conceivable opportunity to pull this one out. I even drove the wife away to the mall in the 2nd half with my crazy frustrations. Good thing she saw that AFTER the wedding:)

The good news is the Indianapolis Colts Defense (nice segue, eh?). Man, they are stepping it up. Peyton has his worst game since World War 2, and we still pull it out. These are the games you have to win to get Super Bowls. I am proud of those guys. If the offense can come around, they are the NFL favorites in my book.