BS Liveblog and Purdue Interior Defense Both Weak

Well, for starters, the attempt at using the "Cover it Live" liveblog/chat technology was a rousing success clusterf-ck. Our apologies to anyone who specifically came here to use it and was as frustrated as I was. And kudos to those BS readers who made their way into enemy territory at Maize N Brew, as they were indeed able to get it working and we all enjoyed a decent chat for a while.

As for the game, well, what can you say? This was an absolute must-win for the Wolverines and they played like it. Well, Sims and Harris did, anyway. And I don't fault the Boilermakers too much in this one for a few reasons.

For one thing, Manny Harris caught fire. He was jacking up threes from wherever he felt like it and they were going down with more frequency than an Ann Arbor co-ed (hey-yo!). I knew it was bad when Manny made an awkward-looking turn and shoot move where his legs were sort of splayed out in two different directions and we had a hand in his face and the ball still rattled home for three. Not much you can do when a guy is unconscious like that. Well-done, Manny. I dare say you made up for a) getting booted from the Jan 31 game, and b) whatever it is you did to get your ass benched in the loss to Iowa. I'd say this win over a ranked Boilermaker team more than evens out the loss to that lousy Hawkeye team.

DeShawn Sims was an animal. Seriously, this guy looked unstoppable in the post. He was basically doing whatever he wanted down the stretch. Now, part of this is because Nemmy Calasan had the sniffles and wasn't playing (seriously, let's get this team some Thera-Flu and some Vitamin C) and JJ got into foul trouble early and wasn't out there. I might question Coach Matty a bit, though, because as the game was slipping away and Sims was manhandling KG and others, what harm would there have been putting JJ back in? What was going to happen? If he stemmed the tide, great. If he fouled out, we'd have been no worse off.

Robbie Hummel was the only one hitting. If not for Rob's play early-on and his stout 24 points, this one would have been out of hand fast. Robbie came to play and was looking rather warm in the first half. It's amazing how game-to-game his back issues really are.

Speaking of shooting.... Michigan shot the lights out, pumping it in at 63% from the field. That's very hard to overcome, no matter who you are and how good your defense is. They also went 50% from three-land. Again, how do you stop this? (The Boilermakers, comparatively, shot a respectable 46% from the field but a stinky 28% from three.) Still, Michigan couldn't hit free throws down the stretch and the Boilermakers had a couple of chances to cut the lead to 4 or 5 in the final minute. I know the UM faithful in the livechat were beginning to poop themselves at that point. I will say it's fun following a team that honestly does scare other teams as one of those, "They're not dead until the buzzer sounds" kinds of teams. I think these Boilers are entering that zone of respect.

Both teams "needed" this game but the UM guys needed it a lot more. The Boilers are a tourney lock and simply did not have the desperation, the desire for "revenge," or the home crowd in this one. Michigan's jumping-up-and-down student section of 16 kids really was rocking. I kid, I kid.

Other thoughts...

The Boilers now fall back into a tie with Illinois for second in the conference, two games back of MSU with three to play. Still, if the Boilers win their two home games against OSU and NW and MSU loses one game before we play them, well, hey... stranger things have happened.

The black unis looked awesome, I thought. My dad happens to be visiting me this weekend and so we watched together and I pointed out that I didn't like the necktie-and-collar look and he said he actually thought that was something he liked about the new uni. But hey, my dad's a retired accountant, so collars and ties are the norm.

Chris Kramer looked off to me. That one rush to the hoop and attempted dunk was weird. Yes, he was clearly fouled, but that no-call seemed to throw off his whole night. He wasn't accurate with his passing and he was no where near as effective on D as he usually is. I hope this is an anomaly and not a portent.

Please share your thoughts in the comments....

SPOOKY GOOD!

"There will be tricks and there will be treats..." A priest at Purdue's St. Tom's said during his homily one Sunday just before Halloween about 12 years ago...and he might have been describing this weekend up at my alma mater for all I know. As college girls sauntered about campus dressed like prostitutes, their school's basketball team started the exhibition season by treating a tuner by 32 points...The next day, the football team was in costume as something we haven't seen all season- a surprisingly exciting football team.
First off, the quarterback, number 5...a first-time starter named Siller reminded me of a not-so-poor man's Terrell Pryor. He glided along effortlessly seeming to not try as defenders couldn't get a grasp on the RS Frosh...and his unusual, slight side-arm delivery was better than effective as he completed over 61% of his passes and led an offense that was atrocious, in previous weeks to 48 points. Granted, this Michigan defense was in the cellar of the league in scoring defense and passing defense, but Purdue's offense was averaging just over 10 pts/game coming into Saturday.

Second, Ryan Kerrigan seemed to be dressed as a combination of Anthony Spencer, Rosey Colvin and others. His pursuit was relentless as his efforts will surely earn him a starring role in the nightmares of the hapless and perpetually-confused Threet, UM's quarterback. Unlike some of Purdue's other great DEs, he seems to also be a run-stopper.

I'll be honest, I don't know if I've seen a Purdue linebacker play with the reckless abandon of #42 since Mike Rose nearly crossed the line of insanity back in Tiller's early seasons at Purdue. Heygood ran like the runningback he once was on the well set-up fake punt...and ran around Ross Ade's loam as if his lengthy dreads were ablaze. He, Baker and Magee all seemed to play with the urgency of players that see the end of their collegiate careers just around the corner.

Purdue's special teams came to the contest dressed as the Purdue special teams units of the late 90s...the kickoff coverage, punt coverage and long snapper were all simply lousy for much of the day. It seemed, in the first half, that the classic Joe Tiller loss was at hand- one unit (the offense) had decided to come to play...the other two were simply no-shows...the second half was a much different story. The special teams yielded an important drive-sustaining fake punt near the center of the field (above) and the defense stopped the Wolverines offense twice in the closing minutes...Sadly the officials literally stole one of those stoppers as they closed their eyes and made a pass interference call...The Big Ten officiating crew was in its usual costume...as a herd of blind jackasses.

Kory Sheets came dressed as himself...'cause he's just that bad. I get the idea that Sheets likes himself quite a bit; and he seems to back up his moxy quite well. He ran hard again all afternoon and racked up 118 yards...Clearly, if you watch the tape of the game, you can see tha the has the ability to disappear, because Michigan DBs simply couldn't find him on multiple occasions during the game.

The old man celebrated Halloween dressed as a Cowboy. The two trick plays in in the second half were ballsy...but I have to be honest. Justin Siller's ability to evade the rush kept quite a few drives alive. The fact that this guy wasn't AT LEAST #2 on the depth chart coming into this season really shows how the coaches were coasting coming into this season, in my opinion. Perhaps this performance has awakened Joe...maybe we won't be hearing about fishing during pressers for the remainder of the season. When the guy wants to, he can still coach. Oh yeah...it's also great for his psyche to beat Michigan for a second time in his Big Ten coaching career...even if this team is just a shadow of former UM teams, they still have the wings on the helmets.

This game was important for a lot of reasons. First, it invigorated the fanbase. No one from this site or my family or near me in 119 expected this type of game...It was infuriating at times, but it was jubilant in the end. Michigan is a horrible team...I really do believe that. Rich Rodriguez seems to be in waaaaay over his head. But, Purdue's anemic offense (before this week) didn't stall once in the red zone on six visits to the region. Justin Siller's play was as good as I can remember from a first start by a Freshman in the Tiller era. While Brees started as a Soph, his numbers v. an OK USC team were pretty human, Hance, Orton, Kirsch and Painter weren't great right out of the box. Check out the numbers for yourself:

21/34 266 yds. 3 passing TDs, one rushing TD, 77 yds. rushing

The game was also very important to recruiting, in my opinion. We walked in front of Mollenkopf after the game. It was swarming with potential future Boilers. I think we'll find out in the next few days about a few more commitments...I hope so anyway. To the average 18 year old football fan, Michigan is still Michigan. Watching Purdue beat them, surely couldn't have hurt their perception of the day...and the 55,000 fans, nicely spread out, gave the look of a nearly-full Ross Ade stadium. Plus, these 55,000 were a high-octane bunch as we were loud, especially in the second half. While it wasn't the greatest environment ever, it was pretty damned good for a bunch of people watching to 2-6 teams square off.

While I was frustrated with the two 14-point leads gift-wrapped for the maize and blue, I was heartened by the fight and overall cool of our Boilers. Plus, the weather was stupid-good; it was a fun afternoon.

Other Notes
-Are there any better days than these? Purdue wins, UND loses a game it had no business losing, and IU loses to an OK MAC team without its starting QB. I can breath easy and content this evening.

-The Michigan fans, who I usually like quite a bit, seemed pretty damned annoying and even arrogant today. Every time Purdue fans would do a cheer, they'd replace Purdue with Go Blue...Pretty gay if you ask me...especially for a bunch of people cheering for an underachieving 2-7 team chocked full of blue chip athletes. While there weren't a ton of Michigan fans there, I was un lucky enough to be a section over from many during the game. I gave them about ten "Go Blues" as they exited the stands with their sorry tails between their legs. I hope the drive back North wasn't too painful for them. Sure, some of my frustration aimed at them is just pent-up rage that should be directed at Purdue's coaches...but I'm taking a break from complaining about them for the week.

-I'm not delusional enough to believe Purdue is going to run the table and go to bowl (not that another Motor City visit is anything noteworthy), but I can say, I'm stoked to see Siller's progress for the rest of the season and think he can be an incredible weapon for Hope and his staff in '09.

-Hey Roy Roundtree, I hope you enjoyed today's visit to Ross Ade!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I definitely feel like Bob Uecker at the end of Major League right about now.

Man, does that feel good! I don't think we can give all the credit to Siller, but wasn't it nice to score more than 6 points in a game? Sheets looked ECSTATIC at points, none more so than after his 4th TD of the game.

Fake punt.

Wow.

Hook and freaking ladder.

Double wow.















Maybe the Cowboy Joe revival will last for more than 1 show. Here's hoping...