I Hope Sparty Felt Pride

John T. Greilick, Detnews

To quote Mark Dantonio's famous words after he felt disrespected by Mike Hart's "little brother" comment, "the pride comes before the fall".  Well, I hope he felt pride because the Spartan Program has fallen and can't get up.  You can say they have entered the "Life Alert" phase of the Dantonio Era.

Michigan's game on Saturday was a microcosm of the season.  The Wolverines started slow, had sloppy mistakes, got behind, woke up, and dominated the rest of the game.   It's also the reason we do the traditional Sunday Cheers and Jeers.

Cheers

• Shea Patterson had 300+ yards passing and probably his best game as a Wolverine 
• Have a day Ronnie Bell! 
• Game plan gets an A for Don Brown and Josh Gattis 
• I know he might not show up large on the stat sheet but Mike Danna is really playing well
• I thought the Oline was excellent in pass protection
• Hutchinson showed speed and quickness
• Defense held Sparty to 54 yards on the ground 
• After getting behind the entire team played with energy and purpose 
• More throws to Nico please
• Nordin made field goals! 
• DPJ flew into the endzone
• Blocked punt was huge! 

Jeers

• Dropped passes early on 
• Slow start getting behind by 7
• Too many penalities 
• State's TD drive was basically on the back of Michigan penalities 
• DPJ's return was great, fumble not so much 
• Black's flex should have been saved for the sideline
• Didn't love the decision to go for it on 4th down early, punt and make Sparty go 80+ yards.  Michigan was losing the field position battle in the 1st quarter. 

Great rivalry win and its so much fun to win these games when we dislike the MSU coach.   Sparty gets a chance to get back to winning next week against Rutgers.  

Michigan on the other hand, has a difficult task of playing IU when they are playing some of their best football of the year.  The Hoosiers gave Penn State everything they could handle in Happy Valley yesterday and will be looking to upset the Wolverines next weekend in the definition of a trap game. 

The Michigan coaches will have to do some of their best coaching during the week to keep the team focused, as playing IU's offense will be a great test on what they will see from Ohio State in 2 weeks.