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Ok, Mike Hart gets injured for two quarters, two blocked field goals, two failed two-point converstions, etc., etc. I'm not saying Michigan kills them over and over and over again but do you really think Appy State wins anywhere close to the majority of the time? Come on, it took the game of their lives plus a ridiculous number of blunders by Michigan and the game was won by 2. It was such a pathetic showing precisely because the difference in the teams is so great.
Here's the thing: I'm not saying App. State wins that game a majority of the time. But despite the fact Michigan had a bunch of blunders, so did App State.
Let's not forget that App State turned the ball over more than Michigan; let's not forget that App State's coach COMPLETELY mismanaged the clock at the end of the game (30 seconds left, Appalachian State has the ball on the 5 yard line, and it's first down. Michigan understandably calls timeout, and instead of doing the obvious thing -- taking a knee in the middle of the field, spiking the ball with less than 10 seconds left, THEN attemping the FG -- App. State's coach decides to give us another chance to win by kicking the FG with 30 seconds left). Let's not forget that a wide open App St WR, Brian Quick, dropped a perfectly thrown ball that hit him in the hands in stride in the end-zone that would have put App St. up 35-20 late in the 3rd quarter. Let's not forget Michigan had almost 250 rushing yards. Let's not forget that penalties were nearly indistinguishable (App St. 7 penalties for 45 yards, UM 7 penalties for 56 yards). Let's not forget that the referees, after review, overturned a VERY questionable Johnny Sears fumble call which both commentators working the game (Brennaman and Charles Davis) speculated the refs might have actually gotten wrong, even after the review.
The "Michigan made a bunch of terrible blunders, and App State played perfect" is an appealing narrative, but completely contradicted by the fact that Applachian State made almost as many, if not more, mistakes as we did, and really didn't have any bounces go their way. In fact, if anything, Michigan had a bunch of lucky breaks (refs overturning questionable call, almost benefited from App State awful clock management).
I'm not saying App State wins this game a majority of the time or close to it, but let's not pretend Michigan was the victim of awful variance, or App State played flawlessly. There weren't any tipped ball INTs, it wasn't a soaked field that slowed everyone down and caused Michigan to fumble away 3 snaps, the refs didn't make 15 terrible calls, and frankly, App State probably made 5 or 10 very avoidable mistakes.
Michigan did its Michigan thing: they ran their 3 offensive plays, never figured out how to cover more than 3 WRs at a time, and more or less ignored preparing themselves on special teams. And App State exploited us by doing obvious things like spreading 5 wide, double covering the TE on transparent bootlegs, and trying to block FGs.
It didn't require any special act of God, nor some divinely inspired play on behalf of our opponents. Pretty much App State's coach had access to a TV, a VHS player, and tapes of last year's games against Ohio St and USC. That's about all anyone needs to beat us. That's about all anyone's ever needed to beat us. We're just fortunate the rest of the Big Ten is as stubborn and backwards as we are, or else we'd surely have experienced many more games like last Saturday.