Iowa won thanks to cheating refs

res_ipsa
Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:32:34 +0000

I’m with rjk on this one. Bad officiating ≠ cheating. If the officials were cheating would they have called that Vincent Smith play a touchdown? Could you imagine if there were no replay officials to overrule that one?

It appears that Michigan is still in trouble if we play against a defense that makes Denard one dimensional. Iowa was able to contain him on the ground and his aerial attack was borderline pathetic.

Even if the Hemmingway pass were ruled a catch - I think it was a catch but it was difficult to tell if he had possession when the ball hit the ground - the conversion attempt likely would have failed since a conversion attempt is no different than 4th and goal from the three and we are not able to convert a touchdown from the three on the two succeeding plays.

I don’t fault Hoke for his play calling. We had 16 seconds and he got four chances out of it. Anything other than a pass to the endzone could have run out the clock. I think on 4th down I would have tried something more like a screen or run pass option or a Denard run.

The next week three weeks will be interesting. We could win all three or lose all three. I suspect we will win one or two. Hopefully tOSU will go down.

The team is definitely making progress especially on defense. When Hokes recruits start taking the field I think the difference will be noticeable. I don’t think Denard will see the promised land but he is an amazing athlete, a team player and a wonderful representative for U-M.