Big Ten officials blow chunks in MSU 52-26 win over Indiana

I don't pretend to understand Big Ten officiating.  OK, so Michigan State blew out Indiana late in its 52-26 victory on Saturday.  But there were several blown calls which defy logic.  You could see Coach D jawing at the officials, trying to figure out what was going through their thick skulls.

Who was the head referee? Todd Geerlings (with white hat). That was a nearly criminal performance by Geerlings and his crew. They sucked.

#1  - At the beginning of the second quarter, two phantom personal foul calls... back to back... against the Spartans.  Whaaaa?  Talk about a quick whistle.  What the hell is going on?

#2 - The unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for excessive celebration after MSU went up 38-24.  Complete BS.

#3 - And, this is the big one.  How MSU did not get the football on the fumble by Indiana receiver in the third quarter? The dude spun around in a tackle, and falling forward clearly fumbled the ball.  The officials called it "lack of forward progress."  That's just bullshit.  It's a bad call.  The problem being, the week before, Michigan was at the 1/2 yard line and it took 11 seconds before the refs even blew the whistle.  It doesn't take 11 seconds to run the ball 1/2 yard up the middle.  That's called "lack of forward progress."  You can't have it both ways, swallow the whistle or blow it - it is a lack of consistency.

The boos were deafening in Spartan Stadium after #3.

Jim Delaney and the Big Ten's Director of Officials, Bill Carollo, need to figure out what is going on. After last week's garbage, it's confirmed this is the worst officiating in Big Ten history.

It's crap.

RELIVE THE GLORY! ES Review of MSU UM from the Peanut Barrel: Michigan State vs Indiana

RELIVE THE GLORY OF THE MICHIGAN WIN!  

#7 Michigan State vs. Indiana

Sagarin Ratings:  MSU #19, Indiana #77

Saturday, October 24, 2015.  3:30 pm ET.

Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI

Weather: 55 degrees, cloudy

Line:  MSU favored by 16

TV:  ABC

Here it is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUdwLm7w8Qc

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Valenti radio & Hill video digging into Michigan. AWESOME

Two things:  1) Mike Valenti and 2) Jemele Hill.  Oh, the joy.  Piling on?  Who cares.

1) You gotta listen to this.  Dear God, the greatest radio broadcast in the history of radio. Mike Valenti of CBS Radio Detroit just lays into the Michigan fan base.  "Burn, baby, burn"... indeed.  "All of this Jesus Harbaugh crap"... "Go blame your messiah." Listen and WEEP IN TEARS OF LAUGHTER AND JOY.   Better yet, watch it here.



2) Jamele Hill's video broadcast on ESPN is also so precious.  Sweet Jesus, the greatest 2 minutes in cinematic history.

THE BALL IS FREE

Sean McDonough, ESPN, cracking his voice:

"Oh!  He has trouble with snap
AND THE BALL IS FREE
It's picked up by Michigan State's Jalen Watts-Jackson
And he scores!
On the last play of the game!
Unbelievable!"

Read this writeup from Grantland. Pure Genius. Greatest writing since Shakespeare.

Greatest ending in the history of sports

Coach Mark Dantonio said it best: "Football is a crazy, crazy game. I can't really explain it."  Dear God, the sheer joy of life and seeing scUM wallow in their misery.   I'm in tears of joy.  All day long.  Read this from Yahoo - Oh My.

We're #4 in the Coaches Poll. 

Yes.  It was a miracle, but Michigan State earned it.  As for the last play, it makes sense: Coach D put all 11 up to try to block the punt. Michigan f*cked it up, and it was a perfect storm.  ES was at the Peanut Barrel and wishes to God he had recorded the experience. Scintillating, pure joy. Wow.

The Big Green pushed Arrogant Arses all around the field all game long.  The ES noted in his preview the Spartan defensive line was the key to the game.  Sho 'nuff - D Line turned out to be key.  The little people only had 230 TOTAL YARDS - 62 on the ground, 168 through the air.  That's nothing.  Nada.

Big Green had two goal line stands, and not blowing the whistle for 11 seconds for lack of forward progress was bullshit.  Absolute terrible officiating.

The targeting penalty on UM's Bolden?  OK, it was a bad call - but it was confirmed in the booth.  The fact he circled the stadium charging up the crowd was uncalled for and should have been an extra 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

The beauty of the game was how WE won. Improbable, live it, love it, and revel in it. It has to hurt, scUM in mourning.  For the AA Nation, this has to feel like getting your balls chopped off.  Welcome to our world - we've been living this for 30 years pre-Dantonio.  The ES LOVES IT.

We dodged a bullet with our kicking game, special teams.  ES is all over, totally agrees that MSU should have gone for each of the 4th downs, we were 0-for-4 but close on each of them.  Praise God scUM had no long kick returns.  The fact that our backup QB (Tyler O'Connor) had 4 punts that averaged longer than our regular punter, Hartbarger, well... sigh.

Love the reporter from Grand Rapids broadcasting the scUM victory.  LOL.

Here are the stats:

                                     MSU     MICH
FIRST DOWNS...................       20       10
NET YARDS RUSHING.............       58       62
  Average Per Rush............      1.8      1.9
NET YARDS PASSING.............      328      168
  Completions-Attempts-Int....  18-39-0  15-25-0
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........      386      230
  Total offense plays.........       72       58
  Average Gain Per Play.......      5.4      4.0
Penalties: Number-Yards.......     5-44     8-70
Possession Time...............    30:11    29:49
Third-Down Conversions........  3 of 12  4 of 15
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   0 of 4   0 of 1
Sacks By: Number-Yards........     3-10     3-29

Enlightened Spartan Preview: #7 Mich State vs #12 scUMichigan

GO BIG GREEN TD MACHINE!

#7 Michigan State at #12 scUMichigan

Saturday, October 17, 2015. 3:30 pm ET.
Shithole Stadium, Ann Arbor.
Weather: 42 degrees, Cloudy.
Line: scUM favored by 7-1/2
TV: ESPN

5 Lessons from MSU v Rutgers; scUM favored by TD over MSU

The #12 scUM football team is favored by a TD (6-1/2) over the #7 Big Green as we invade the Godforsaken garbage of Ann Arbor this weekend... and ESPN Game Day wants to pile it on to preview this matchup.  It's a 3:30 kick.

Five things we learned about MSU at Rutgers (the ES went to New Jersey for the game):

1.  Injuries continue to mount.  Dear God, the ES has never seen a team with so many injuries - particularly on the offensive line and defensive backfield.  On the OL, seeing Jack Allen getting carted off the field was devastating... as we've seen losses to Jack Conklin, Kodi Keiler, and Josiah Price.  Madre London hurt his ankle and left the game, but MSU burned the redshirt off Delton Williams with a few carries, and LJ Scott (9-42, 4.7 ypc) ran his tail off again behind a banged up line.  We saw Connor Cook get knocked around more than in any game since he's started for MSU... but... 

2.   Cook (23-38 for 357) played well again AFTER his bad interception that he telegraphed to the Rutgers defense late in the first half.  While he never should have thrown it, in typical Cook fashion he came back in the second half, and on the last drive of the game, made some very, very solid throws in tough situations.  Cook's fave target, Aaron Burbridge (9-146), played amazing except for the easy drop as he walked into the end zone early in the game.  The ES hung out with Connor's dad before and after the game and complimented Connor's play for the most part, despite the few brain farts.

3.  Michigan State's secondary is in trouble.  We've lost Copeland and Williamson for the season, and both are certainly not of the caliber of Dennard and Waynes.  So, relying on Colquon and Edmonson at corners is questionable, but the depth is gone.  The ES sez:  if your leading tacklers are DBs, you are in trouble - against Rutgers, Cox and Nicholson led with 8 & 5.  Tisk, tisk.  There is a guy who the ES met with CHock before the season started - Josh Butler - and he was an impressive young man who may now have his redshirt burned because his talent is so highly valued by Coach D and we are banged up.  But, this is a raw place to throw in raw talent... Why????

4.  We need a better DL play, including a more consistent pass rush.   The Spartans aren't pushing enough up front.  Three sacks for 28 yards, and another three QB hurries just aren't enough and not typical of this Spartan Green D.  Malik McDowell is a beast - he ran over the Rutgers C late in the game but RU called time-out right before the play.  Lawrence Thomas had a sack but also is hit or miss throughout the game.  Shalique Calhoun (1/2 sack, 2 QB hurries) played well... but not dominating.  What's going on?  This area is NOT injured and needs to play better, especially this week vs Michigan to give the secondary a chance.

5.  Special teams suck.  This is the worst special teams of the Dantonio era.   At High Points Stadium, the Spartan faithful were concerned of MSU "Geigering It."  Never heard such negative vibes on our special teams.  One FG blocked, the other hit the right upright and Praise God went through for a trey.  These ain't long kicks - 35, 30 yards.   Big Green had a 11-yard shank punt.  Terrible.  Just lack of execution and focus.  We do this, we lose.

BUT WE WIN GAMES.  Of all the injuries, etc, we keep winning.  Look at the third down conversions:  MSU 11 of 17, Rutgers 3 of 12.  It says quite a bit of the resilience and ability to finish.  This ain't the John L Smith era.   Look at some of the key stats below... interesting.  

                                    MSU       RU

FIRST DOWNS...................       22       15
NET YARDS RUSHING.............      132      141
  Rushing Attempts............       38       32
  Average Per Rush............      3.5      4.4
NET YARDS PASSING.............      357      208
  Completions-Attempts-Int....  23-38-1  15-26-0
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........      489      349
  Total offense plays.........       76       58
  Average Gain Per Play.......      6.4      6.0
Penalties: Number-Yards.......      1-5     3-20
Average Yards Per Punt........     24.7     34.4
Third-Down Conversions........ 11 of 17  3 of 12
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 1   2 of 3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........     3-28      1-6

Enlightened Spartan Preview: #4 Spartans at Rutgers

So, the ES had a meeting on the East Coast and decided to also use that time toward a visit to the birthplace of American college football: Rutgers University (1869).

#4 Michigan State at Rutgers
Sagarin Ratings: MSU #34, Rutgers #89

Saturday, October 10, 2015. 8 pm ET.
High Point Stadium, New Brunswick, NJ.
Weather: 50 degrees.
Line: MSU favored by 17
TV: BTN

Predictions:  April, MSU 27-10;  ES, MSU 35-14; Shea, MSU 32-26

MSU -17 fave at Rutgers

Michigan State is favored by 17 at Rutgers. This will be fun! Jeff Sagarin has moved Michigan State down to #34 in the country, while Rutgers is at #89.

Five things we learned from Michigan State vs Purdue

Five things we learned about the Spartans' in its 24-21 yawner over Purdon't:

1.  The Spartans dropped in the polls, to #4, lost all the first place votes... and justifiably so.  This was a team that made mistakes on offense, on defense, on special teams, and poor coaching... against a Purdue team many feel is the worst in the Big Ten.  

2. Michigan State really struggled to complete drives in the second half.  Its possessions included:

7 plays, 14 yards, 4:27, punter drops long snap.

9 plays, 57 yards, 5:02, missed chip shot FG.

8 plays, 65 yards. 4:11, FG.

6 plays, 19 yards, 3:41, punt. 

Not good.  This team needed to finish plays.  Blame the coaches for some of this.  The weather turned NASTY to 40-degrees sleet and coach D started punting from midfield (why?) and setting up field goals on 4th and short.  EVERYONE WHO WAS LEFT in the stadium was yelling NO!!!!!  because we could feel our own soaked shorts freeze.  Just run the ball in bad weather.  The FG miss by Geiger was as much a victim of bad weather than bad kicking.  Punter Jake Hartbarger having the snap sail through his hands was stupid in the sleet and wind. Blown opportunities. 

3.  Andy Provenzano and The Weather Channel were way off their predictions of when the bad weather was to arrive.  The weather gods decided to piss ice on Spartan Stadium 5 hours earlier than Andy and his boys predicted.  It spoiled an OK-weather day for Homecoming.  About the worst weather in the 25 years the ES has spent in Spartan Stadium.  And, yes, the ES left in the middle of the 4th quarter because he was unprepared and soaked to the bone in frozen wetness.  

4.  LJ Scott is the real deal.  If there was a player of the game for MSU, it was LJ Scott at RB.  He amassed 146 yards on 18 carries (8.1 ypc) and had an incredible 30-yd TD run through busted tacks and keeping his balance.  

5.  Injuries continue to mount.  In the sleet and hail, sophomore Dennis Finley at LT broke his leg in two places.  There was certainly concern from us in the stands, we were shivering in the stands but really worried about the dude's injury as he was carted off the field. As stated via msuspartans.com: "MSU made arrangements to shore up its depleted line by moving All-America center Jack Allen to left tackle, switching his younger brother, Brian, from left guard to center and putting red-shirt freshman David Beedle in at left guard. Brandon Clemons and Miguel Machado also filled in."  We need to heal Jack Conklin and Kodi Keiler... BAD.

ES Preview from the Peanut Barrel: Michigan State vs Purdue

#2 Michigan State vs. Purdue

Sagarin Ratings:  MSU #28, Purdue #107

Saturday, October 3, 2015.  12 pm ET.

Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI

Weather: 55 degrees, cloudy, windy

Line:  MSU favored by 22

TV:  ESPN2

Predictions:  April 38-6, ES 31-14