Okay. What happened to U of M in the Rose Bowl? This was not the same team we saw for a majority of the college football season. What happened to consistency? There is a pattern of consistency that I have seen in 2006.
1st: The Detroit Tigers have a stellar year in professional baseball. They make it to the playoffs, and annihilate the New York Yankees. The get into the World Series for the first time in an age. During the series, however, there was very distinct choking sound coming from the Tiger dugout. They couldn’t get it done.
2nd: The Detroit Lions give us no promise as far as beginning well, but in every single game they have played, they have clearly had the talent and opportunity to win. No one dominated them. The proof I would offer to contend that the Lions have a great team and the skills to be great is the recent “W” they earned (finally) against the Dallas Cowboys. The highly touted Cowboy quarterback, ‘Romo,’ was run-over by the motor city monsters. Yet, in every other game, they just couldn’t get the job done.
3rd: Michigan comes back from a poor performance in 2005 and a loss in that Bowl game, and this year climb up from a 14th ranking into #2 in the country. They roll over every opponent with apparent ease, with only Ohio State standing in the way of a Big 10 Championship and a National Championship bid. In the season closer with the #1 Ohio State Buckeyes, UM played very well, despite trailing toward the end. The clock was about run out when the Wolverines failed to recover the all-important ‘on-sides-kick.’ Ultimately, Michigan lost by 3 points against the very best in the country, but we (the fans) could accept that, because someone has to come up short at the end, and Michigan did as well as we might ask. Then, Michigan is passed over for a second shot at the National game because the Florida Gators played one more game in their schedule (don’t say “the toughness of their schedule” because the Bowl games have established that the conferences are fairly equal). We can except that, since there isn’t much we could do about it, and we were glad to continue the debate by playing the other disappointed contender, the USC Trojans (they missed out by actually losing a game; there should have been no complaints from them). So, we all expected a clash of two really good teams. Even the announcers favored Michigan based on this passed year’s performance. What we saw, however, was the 2005 team being dominated by an extremely fast USC defense. The Michigan Wolverines tried to fight their way out of a deficit, but in the end, they just could not get the job done.
What shall I conclude from this? I think there is only one conclusion left. Ann Arbor is too close to Detroit, and whatever causes the professional teams to choke under the pressure is affecting the Maze & Blue. I say we move the location of the University to West Michigan.
-Robetron
Posted by sklaft 