Yeah, Indiana pushed them to three OTs. Indiana also pushed the Bucks to a fourth-quarter-hold-your-breath finish and their offense shredded the Buck's D.
Yeah, they lost to MSU on a play that exceeds Doug Flutie or Holy Buckeye for "miracle" status.
Oh and that same Sparty team beat the Bucks in Columbus.
Hairball had his hat handed to him in AA by the Bucks, but that was an angry OSU team and an angry coaching staff. A combination of a team that had not played up to their skill level most of the season and a staff that had not solved problems that were evident from game one. They paid a huge price for that the previous week.
If the bowl games proved anything it was that Sparty and Iowa were no better than second or third best in the Big Ten and that there is a huge talent gap between #1 and the rest of the conference.
I don't see Michigan losing more than one game until they come to Columbus because Colorado and the rest of the Big Ten are not that good. A team with a good defense and a QB who doesn't throw interceptions or put the ball on the ground - like say, Shoelaces and Tom Harmon's ghost - can go through that schedule with 10 wins - it's when they reach Columbus that the gap will become apparent.
What about Minny snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
They played 3 good teams last year (top 25ish from FO rankings) and lost to all 3. The best win, by those rankings, was BYU (top 40ish)...at home..at noon/9 am for BYU body clocks. That was all with exceptional play from the QB position.
The OL is still the same, the RB's are the same and the newest QB (whoever it is) does not even have the track record Ruddock had going into last year. If the starter is Speight, his track record to date has been flatly abysmal.
Maybe a game manager QB can get through that schedule with 10 wins, maybe it can't but what if they get TO prone QB play? What if they get something much less than Ruddocks high 60's completion % and 3,000 yards when teams stack the box? The OOC part of their schedule is laughably weak but they won't be able to just line up and manball Wisky to death no matter how weak Wisky's QB may be himself. Penn State could be a sleeper with a new OC and the QB we saw in the Bowl game last year.
Depending on the quality of the QB play you could make the same argument of being able to win every game with having a chance to lose (almost) every game.
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