UW was 2 plays away from possibly winning a national title
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If UW ties the game at 20 at any point prior to the defense being gassed I think it's a coin-flip finish. UW offense needed the confidence that the offense could match scores, but not while being down 2+ scores.
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2 sentences = a novel?
Your gross hatred is pathetic
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A one score deficit in the 4th quarter isn't the same as one of the many take-your-pick true ass kickings of the Playoff era championships and semifinals. TCU, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Oregon, Michigan's first try..
If UW ties it up with their 4+ chances to do so then things get really tight for Michigan. That isn't even dooging. Too bad Penix fucked that game away.
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UW had plenty of opportunities to change the tide of the game vs Michigan … they didn’t do it
It’s also to fair to say UW didn’t bring their A game offensively …
The problem with the Doog logic of IF this or IF that is that it fails to give any credit to the opposition and what they did well
If you really go back and watch that game and/or remember what you saw LIVE and IN PERSON what you realize is that UW needed to play a very high end offensive game against Michigan in much the same way that they needed to do so against Texas.
Was it possible? Clearly UW had that capability
But it’s also asking a lot of a team to double up elite performances in back to back games given the travel, pomp, and circumstances surrounding those games.
It’s ok to be both appreciative of UW’s season while also acknowledging that the more complete team won the final game
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Jesus Christ.
You mean like this kind of LIVE and IN PERSON?
If you're only down by a touchdown in the 4th and get 4 stops in a row (not to mention the ball to start the 2nd half) and have one of if not the best offense in college football, you get to say IF.
Against Texas and Oregon we got up by fucking 10 with just minutes left and properly bled out the game. They don't get to say IF.
Not once have I even disparaged Michigan, beyond that their Puyallup Fair caramel popcorn selling looking motherfucking QB never had to bail them out, and if he would have in a tie game, shit would have gotten real for them.
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IF IF IF
UW had plenty of chances to get the game tied up … they never succeeded in doing so
I recommend going back and reading what Uncle Race said … if him and I are aligned on a viewpoint then that’s saying something
Congrats on being at the game …
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I think it's fair to give Michigan credit while still thinking What If with the Doogs. It was a weird fucking game though and wasn't like the Peach or Rose Bowl against Ohio State which ended up being like a one possession game but UW felt way more outclassed. Even the Fiesta against Penn State. Michigan didn't hit big run plays like that really against ANYONE all year and I mean like Bowling Green and UNLV. It was fucking startling and once guys stopped running in completely wrong directions like they were high school kids Michigan legitimately had like one play, which should have been called back for holding.
Maybe he'll pan out but I wouldn't put McCarthy with a true freshman Hurts, Trace McSorley - maybe with the Ohio State QB who died. He deserves credit for that scramble though to get them out of their own end zone in the third quarter. That could have finally flipped the field for UW.
I'm here because I don't ever get over this shit but at least this isn't like when I first came here and we were bitching about clock management to get a meaningless win over Arizona instead of against Texas to win a Sugar Bowl.
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Thank god you were on the opposite end of the field. I don't think I could take having to listen to their truck stop fans gloat AND your Seattle blowhard ass.
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Michigan can play the IF game too. That’s the problem with that game and why it’s silly to play in the first place.
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I'm generally a believer in that but what are their ifs? Penix doesn't ignore three wide open guys and instead throws it over McMillan's head to a guy covering no one or he ignores Odunze for an easy first and throws some weird jump ball to Tybo that somehow stays in play and gets picked?
I'm not trying to be a doog I really just can't think of another Husky loss and credit to them for playing very well. That's part of it. I mean Uw had a game flipping play called back on a hold, Michigan gets the ball back, has a more clear hold (I'm conceding it's most likely the wefs just didn't have a view on it) and it saves a play which flips the game for them.
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explain please.
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AIDS is back, we’re so back!
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UW lost motherfuckers. 34-13. If UW had won 34-13 and some Michigan asshole was whining about two fucking plays, this place would rightfully provide matches, gasoline and a perfect place to DIAFF.
This place is going soft. Might explain the shitty traffic.
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If we were up by just a td and gave Michigan the ball to start the half + 3 other straight possessions because our offense wasn't doing anything, I wouldn't be claiming "34-13" I would simply be claiming "Winners Win". We did very similar shit to almost everyone else we played, where the game were tight in the 4th quarter and we made a play or two to break away at the end.
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It was a one score game in the 4th with UW driving.
Hth
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34-13.
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Seemed more like seven plays away, but okay
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Your opinion of me isn’t based on any kind of reality … says a lot about you
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How in the fuck did WE give up 28 points to Utah in a half btw?
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Halftime of that game + the Apple Cup were my most miserable breaks of the season. Standing in concourse drinking and thinking about Utah or WSU ending our undefeated season. Both those coaching staffs had probably had a bunch of stuff saved for our defense that they hadn't shown all year.
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The team played "off" that day. It felt like almost all of them. Michigan played well.
Michigan played in the Rose Bowl and flew on a chartered 747 back to Detroit the same night. Not some piece of shit 747; a tricked out VIP 747 with 143 business class seats, so large humans can stretch and rest.
We spent the night in New Orleans and flew back on Alaska 737s. I don't know how the team does seating for those things, but there are 12 first class seats and only 1 row is the first row behind first class. We seemed to use 2 planes for travel, so not sure if the team splits in 2 or if the second flight is support staff and others. Those seats are not optimal for large humans to rest and recover.
So now we start 1 day behind Michigan on recovery and walk off the plane "tighter" than Michigan did.
Three days later we flew to Houston, as did Michigan. Houston is about half as far from Detroit as it is from Seattle. Michigan once again flew in the luxury 747. We once again flew in coach on Alaska, luckily avoiding the Max which lost its door plug I think on the same day. We get off more tired and then both teams have to do the media grind since it is the natty, which is VERY different than a typical road game of fly in day before, do your business and fly home.
There are a lot of reasons we lost the football game, but we did not help ourselves by going back to Seattle between games and then cramming our boys into regular coach seats so they could try to win a natty when we started out with a rest disadvantage due to the Sugar Bowl being the second game on New Year's day in an inconvenient time zone.
I've also posted on here in the past about bowl charters for major bowl games which are frequently widebody international planes (777s or A350s with 50+ business class seats on United or Delta), and we roll up to the natty in an Alaska 737 because they sponsor the field.
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Right after the game, I couldn't decide whether to be surprised that UW played so poorly in the natty or not surprised at all. Either way, it was clear that UW shit the bed. It wasn't so much a Michigan win as a, "Hey, the Huskies finally played like shit against a team with an actual pulse, and that doesn't work out as well as miracle-beating ASU."
A doog might look at last season as a coaching staff doing an amazing job with a cast of plucky underdawgs and making it all the way to the natty, falling short to a superior team.
Fuck. That.
There was not an offense in the country with as much top level talent as UW. At the positions that matter in the modern era, it was an embarrassment of riches. Michigan's defense is really good and stocked with late-rounders, but I think the upcoming draft would suggest that UW's offense should have put up points against that group. Not doing so was a preparation and coaching failure, full stop. It wasn't UW's offense facing a superior defense. It was UW's superior offense shitting the bed.
UW was not an underdog this season. Their offense should have led the nation in stats that matter—especially being in the PAC-12. And if you can't build a defense around Trice, Tuli, Mohammed, and Ulofoshio (studs at the most important positions) that's at least top-25, you're fucking up. So where that leaves me is that I credit the staff for adding the missing pieces to the roster and retaining the talent necessary to make this run, but the actual coaching performance wasn't all that. They took a team full of NFL guys, tried their hardest to lose 10 straight games with them, typically got bailed out by NFL first-rounders making NFL first-rounder plays in the clutch, and then shit the bed in the biggest game of the year. A week after Penix was threading the needle from 50 yards at will.
With the benefit of hindsight, UW's roster was built to beat Michigan, very few players played up to their talent level in the game (Penix most notably), and that should surprise exactly nobody after watching it happen over and over and over again all season long. Which, to me, is a coaching issue. This team blasted MSU, played six great quarters against Oregon, three great quarters against Texas, and every other minute made my eyes bleed. With how shitty CFB was last year, not winning it all with that group (particularly with such a beatable opponent standing in the way at the end) was a failure.
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Damn, I think this pretty well says it to me.
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UW had the ability to beat Michigan … in my mind if they play that game 10 times UW probably wins it somewhere between 3 and 5 times
The travel schedule was hot garbage … I had heard about it prior to the team leaving to NOLA and it's not what I would have done but also obviously not my call
But if we're really being honest, it really highlights how you view the UW program right now
If you're in the camp of saying that UW was in the title game, had plenty of opportunities to beat Michigan, and it took a crap game by UW to not win … then you probably think everything is generically fine moving forward
If you're in the camp of thinking that UW could have pulled out the title but there's still work to be done to build the program … then you're going to highlight the key advantages that Michigan had in the game, that they didn't have to go outside of their comfort zone, that UW needed better depth in key spots (notably at RB, DL, and LB), that our travel decisions were questionable for whatever reason, etc.
When you compare where UW is as a program compared to the top programs in the Big10 and the SEC, there is still a lot of room for growth and improvement
Regardless of what your final takeaway from 2023 is, it really shouldn't be debatable that there's a long way to go to be on par with the elite programs. UW being a big fish in a relatively shallow Pac12 waters is going to have some interesting times ahead as it directly (vs indirectly) competes with bigger programs.
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The gayme is different now, the doog take is we hired a bunch of Mercs, bumfuck cornfield sleazy car dealership bags< Seattle market bags =
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If you're in the camp of saying that UW was in the title game, had
plenty of opportunities to beat Michigan, and it took a crap game by UW
to not win … then you probably think everything is generically fine
moving forwardUh… no.
Did you miss the part where the entire coaching staff, AD, and every player on the team left shortly after the game? Or the part where two-thirds of the impact players that made the run possible weren't recruited by DeBoer and the only ones that were came via the portal? Even had DeBoer stayed, what was left in the cupboards would have been scary this year.
It didn't take a crap game by UW to lose to Michigan because the program is elite and everything is fine moving foward, it took a crap game by UW to lose to Michigan because—via a lot of luck and circumstance—UW randomly found itself with the better team. Of course there were holes on the roster, but not every position is created equal, and UW was a MILLION times better at the two most important in modern football. Ask any NFL coach if they'd rather have 22 solid guys or John Elway and Randy Moss, and they're going to tell you the latter. Nobody expected Penix to be as good as he was, and what a lucky break that DeBoer just happened to be his OC at Indiana. Nobody expected Penix, Odunze, McMillan, and both tackles to stay, but holy shit they did! It was a perfect storm.
My win prediction prior to the season (I think 7 or 8) was a hedge that Penix would probably break in half within five games. If he didn't, I assumed they would go in dry against the PAC-12, as it's been decades since UW fielded that much top-level talent. It was always temporary, though, not UW suddenly becoming Bama.
Besides, college football itself is broken, so I stopped giving a shit anyway if UW is "generally fine moving forward."
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Jim Harbaugh had one foot out the door at UM for years and everyone knows it. This thread is king doog bullshit.
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Harbaugh wasn't negotiating with the Chargers in the days leading up to the natty
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Knowing the you're leaving long-term and having a final hurrah game is much different than a under the radar operation like DeBoer had going on. If anything the war against Harbaugh all season seemed to rally that team. Also, fuck Ohio State for not being able to successfully get Michigan suspended during the season. You guys are really cool.
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the arguing in this thread is chinteresting …
There is at least some truth in each perspective, especially Stalin’s. I stood the entire game annoying several ‘blues’ believing that we were going to go off at any moment .. until the interception.
Michigan was longer, more composed, played more physically, got all the breaks on calls and we brought our ‘C’ game.
Also, and maybe most importantly, we were underprepared because our coach was more interested in his next job.
Now we suffer for at least one season but maybe as many as three …
it is so bittersweet and confusing …
