Let's hope it's for one game only. Yesterday we wnet back in time to 2004/ To the Willingham era.. Confusion reigned. EVery phase of our game dominated by the opponent. LInes that could not block or tackle. A confused QB. Receivers never open for us.... receivers nver covered for them. A coach with a frightened look in his eye. I never would have thoughjt I'd see that again. That was worse than the Fiesta Bowl of 2005.
Now, now George (patting George on the head). Relax. It's not the end of the world. Close, but not the end. I would disagree on only one point. I did not see fear in CW's eyes. Other than that you are correct, sir. As I said in another topic, at least we find out early and don't live with the illusion that we are something we are not.....yet. I have been very nervous with the hype over the past few months. Something did not seem quite right, but I couldn't put my finger on it because I got caught up in the excitement and optimism. I guess in the back of my mind I wondered how the team who got crunched like we did in the Fiesta Bowl could all of a sudden be a national title contender. Well, I got my answer yesterday. We are not.....yet. I believe that, unlike during the Davie-Willingham era, we will use this experience to build on. We have no choice. It does not get any easier with MSU on the near horizon.
As I said yesterday...it reminds me of Meyer last year vs. Bama except that one was on the road with a hostile crowd (thanks KP) making it worse. Meyer and UF recovered eventually and are still pretty competitive so it is only one game. I still think that defense needs work though so look out for Drew Stanton and Co. this week.
George It reminds me more of last year. For a team to get to its emotional peak 3 weks in a row seems very difficult. No doubt that Michigan was more focused and emotionaly into the game yesterday. It reminded me of the third game last year vs MSU. We've got to spread out the difficult games in our schedule. This is insane.
A lot of games left to play between now and the end of the season. It was a discouraging defeat of course, but I would be surprised if we didn't roll into USC with only this defeat on our record. Defense didn't really give up that many yards, it was the offensive turnovers that turned this game into a rout. It might have been Michigans day even if we didn't turn the ball over, maybe they would have won a close fought 24-21 game or something like that. Michigan isn't as good as they looked and we aren't as bad as we looked. Michigan State looks like they are a good team, Purdue probably is better than last year. Next couple of games will show the way.