10 seconds to go, leading Michigan State 23-21, they set up to punt on 4th down on their 40. The Michigan punter bobbles the snap. Then tries to kick it pitching the ball to Michigan State who runs for a touchdown. Game over!
and the fix is in… more money for the big 10 if ohio state and michigan state can stay unbeaten.
No coach as smart as Harbaugh supposedly is would have run a play like that to end the game… way too risky.
You see what happens when the love of money takes over men’s souls?
Oh please! Nonsense! Harbaugh called the right play. Punt.
yeah okay… and MSU had nobody back to return the punt and the blocking scheme for UM was “let em through”. Even if he had caught the snap, which wasn’t part of the plan, they would have blocked it easily. There was nobody for UM back there and the MSU guy ran into the end zone easily. Harbaugh ran the clock down to 10 seconds before the punt, They were at midfield and the qb could have easily taken a snap and run around back there for at least 5 seconds before going down. That leaves MSU with a hail mary as their only hope.
Game was rigged…
My big question is:
Why didn’t Michigan take the knee and run out the clock for the remaining 10 seconds and win the game.
Why did Michigan kick and lose the game that they were wining with only 10 seconds left on the clock to win the game, ?
grasshopper,
please explain to me why it was the right call for Harbaugh to call with only 10 seconds left on the clock and Michigan winning the game.
Why was calling for the punt better than taking the knee and running out the clock for those 10 seconds and winning the game?
Magnum at Nebraska. Need I say anymore?
Actually, a better option would be to have run a 4th down and let the QB run around and then throw it to the endzone. The thing is, if he kicks it to the endzone, then the ball comes out to the 20. He should have called time out after MSU lined up 11 to make sure there was no pressure on the punter. And remind him to fall on the ground if muffed.
You are not a football coach and both of your ideas are way better than what Michigan actually did.
I just don’t think Harbaugh is that dumb and that is why the whole situation looked really suspicious.
The play was wrong, the execution was wrong and it all happened at the worst possible time of the game. It just seemed to be so staged… to the point that it was unbelievable.
It happens. Bobbled snap. Punter lucky to have picked it up. No way to stage that. Nothing fixed. No money to be gained.
I agree, it is suspicious. Don’t know whether fixed or not but suspicious. Is Harbaugh that dumb? Really? Anyone who has played even sandlot ball, much less, HS, college and the pros knows that a punt is risky business.
That would be impossible to say that play was a fix. The kicker started the drop of the ball for the kick and then batted the ball. No way to have set it up that way. You would have to keep many people quiet about it for the rest of their lives. And again, show why it was more important for MSU to win? You don’t bring it down to a play like that.
I agree the play was fishy. Also, Harbaugh’s completely emotion-less reaction on the sideline after the touchdown was odd.
I didn’t see the game (was at my son’s 7th grade youth football game), but I think the best play there was for Mich QB to take a shotgun snap and run at an angle slightly backwards to his right toward the sideline. Then after a few seconds, throw the ball high and out of bounds. If 10 seconds don’t elapse, Sparty has the ball on their own 47 with 1-3 seconds left. Hail Mary which is about a 2% rate of success.
Doing what Mich did gave Sparty about a 7% success rate via either blocking the punt or returning the punt to the “House.”
These statistics are all made up completely made up in my head.
I don’t think his reaction was wrong. He was stunned and in shock. I suppose you think Pres. Bush’s stunned look when told about the WTC on 9/11/2001 was a showing of a conspiracy?
To me, he had the look of perplexed and numb. I personally thought when MSU lined up with 11 and no one deep he should be calling time out and make sure everyone is being blocked. Forget about running down the field. Even if he had caught the ball I doubt he would have gotten the kick away.
Enough of these Jim Hawks conspiracy theories.
One other factor is the betting line. It was Mich (-7.5). So whether Michigan won by 2 pts or lost by 4 pts, Sparty was going to cover the spread before the last snap and everybody (who cared) would have known that. But the betting line doesn’t address Hawks’ main point about the fix being in so that Sparty and tOSU could stay unbeaten.
Sorry but no conspiracy so MSU can stay undefeated. What if the punter or someone near the ball kicked it. Then the punter would not have been able to bat the ball and have it intercepted. Also, this would mean that the punter was in on it. Just too many variables that could go wrong to believe the punt was a set up.
What are you talking about? Punter batting the ball and have it intercepted? That didn’t happen. The ball literally bounced off his hands. He didn’t even bobble it. It looked as if he batted it toward the MSU players and then his “effort” to pick it up and kick it was an absolute joke. He had no chance at that. Everyone knows he should have fallen on the ball… because the second he made that weak attempt at kicking it, the play was all MSU and they easily ran it into the endzone. The other thing was that MSU had nobody back to return the punt, so what was the point of kicking it? and why weren’t there more Michigan players getting after the loose ball? They pretty much stood around and watched MSU run it into the end zone.
The whole thing reeked of fix…
And the reason it happened is so both MSU and Ohio State could stay undefeated.
Just so you know that I know what I am talking about, watch how the Utes get favored calls over the next several weeks. The Pac 12 will do everything they can without being obvious to keep the Utes in the unbeaten ranks and top 4… so they can get to that national championship tournament and make the league lots of money. It will take a small miracle and great game by an opponent for the Utes to lose.
Once again, you don’t know what you are talking about. The entire team on both sides would have to know it was fixed. And, that would be impossible to keep quiet in this day and age.
Makes sense to punt if no one is back. Kick the ball and time will have a better chance of running out. If MU decided to run a play to run time out, MSU would have changed their defense ya think!
The play went like this:
- Ball snapped
- Punter bobbles snap and drops it
- punter retrieves the ball and turns to his right in order to do a soccer style kick
- As he brings ball up it slips out of his hands about 3 inches
- Punter reaches for the ball and bats it about 5 yards into a MSU defender’s hands.
There was no time for the MU players to see what was happening and jump on the ball. The MSU players also did not jump on the ball. No one just standing around like you would want to back up your ridiculous conspiracy theory.
If you are correct where are your faces, emails, tapped phone calls, tweets and texts to back you up? No way to keep this silent.
Are you going to be home for the powerful Wagner game?
Once again you propose that something must be taken to the extreme in order to prove its’ veracity. Your qualifications for what must happen in order for an incident like this to take place and have it be planned or fixed is over the top. It can happen with far fewer qualifications… in fact it does more frequently than you know.
And what makes you think things like this are never kept silent? Are you not aware of the world we live in? For every Benghazi incident out there, there are many more that take place that we never hear about. There is so much secretive, deceitful stuff going on… we only hear about a small fraction of it.
I will be around for the Wagner jv game… but in and out as my youngest has some water polo tournament games (only a 5 minute drive away) Saturday.
Conspiracy theories by their nature are extreme. And this one too the farest extreme. If there was a fix, then it would have been easier just letting MSU get close enough for a field goal. There was no fix. Not even close.
I’m not getting into the fix thing, but it was imo absolutely the wrong call with ten seconds left. Run the ball and if they have any time left at all let it be a +60 yard field goal. The punter is on an island by himself and if it’s blocked there isn’t anyone left to save the game. I really don’t understand why there was three unblocked defensive players coming from the right end. Incredibly mind boggling!