What They're Saying: Michigan Wolverines Football 44, Michigan State 10
Here's a look around the internet and what the media is saying about the Wolverines' 44-10 rivalry win over Michigan State, head coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback Shea Patterson and much more:
Chris Balas, TheWolverine.com: Notes, Quotes & Observations
Regardless, if it wasn’t clear before where this rivalry was trending, it’s obvious now. That’s three out of four, the one loss a five-turnover game with a backup quarterback in a monsoon, and — barring something unforeseen given the trajectories of the two programs — more on the way.
Dantonio’s gone the last several years seeming to crave Harbaugh’s attention. In yet another case of “be careful what you wish for,” he got it.
“It’s a big game; it’s for the state championship, 112th version,” Harbaugh said. “Now, our team — everybody that’s in the locker room — has the advantage. Fifth-year seniors are 3-2, the seniors are 3-2, the juniors are 2-1, the sophomores are 2-0 and the freshmen are 1-0.
“Big program win. It makes me very happy.”
By the fourth quarter, all the Spartans had left in the tank were cheap shots and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after the whistle, including defensive lineman Jacob Panasiuk hammering Patterson and being ejected for a late hit several seconds after U-M’s quarterback released the ball. It was a throwback to the John L. Smith, Muddy Waters, late George Perles, Bobby Williams eras in which overmatched MSU teams took out their frustrations by getting in their licks when they didn’t matter, when the game was no longer in doubt.
Michigan players, meanwhile, waved their goodbyes and celebrated.
Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports: Wolverines dominate with most points vs. Spartans since 2004
2. Michigan might be the second-best team in the Big Ten: I know Minnesota entered this weekend with a perfect record. I know Penn State beat Michigan earlier this season. I know Wisconsin steamrolled the Wolverines in September. I know, I know, I know, but if the season were to start over right now with the way Michigan is playing, who are you taking against it? The defense has been phenomenal, and the offense has started to click. Hell, Michigan nearly beat Penn State in Beaver Stadium. If not for a dropped touchdown by Ronnie Bell, the Wolverines might win that game in overtime.
The Michigan team we've seen over the last 3.5 games is the team most people expected to see coming into the 2019 season. It's not on the same level as Ohio State, but nobody in the Big Ten is. Few teams in the country are. But right now, this Wolverines squad looks like the second-best team in the conference to me.
Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News: Wolverines back in charge, Dantonio's Spartans back in turmoil
Peoples-Jones’ 18-yarder early in the third quarter was the big one, flipping a relatively tight 17-7 halftime score to 24-7. After he scored, he struck his Paul Bunyan pose, just as he did in the 21-7 victory last year in East Lansing. The big ol’ ugly trophy remains in Ann Arbor, and so does the swagger. As badly as Michigan State beat its rival during an eight-year stretch, winning seven, the Wolverines felt entitled to a payback, and they delivered in full.
Leading 37-10, Harbaugh kept most of his starters in, and Patterson executed a fake run and threw to Johnson, a freshman, for a 39-yard touchdown with 2:33 left. Patterson admitted the play was designed to be a pass — “Yeah, we wanted to go out here and score as many points as we could” — and no apologies were necessary.
You know who, deep down, might have respected that punctuation pile-on? Perhaps Dantonio himself. At the height of Michigan State’s power in 2014, the Spartans punched in a touchdown with 28 seconds left to complete a 35-11 rout of Michigan. The Wolverines had made the mistake of firing a railroad spike into the Spartan Stadium turf before the game, and a half-seething, half-smirking Dantonio afterward declared, “It just felt like we needed to put a stake in them at that point."
That probably explains why the Spartans had little to say in response to this score. They couldn’t gripe about something they’ve done themselves, and Dantonio wasn’t in a combative mood anyhow.
It was a win 10 months in the making, created by the actions of victors and the inertia of the vanquished.
There was Michigan football, zipping from one end of the field to another, displaying speed in space as it never had before.
There was Michigan State football, stuck in neutral, sputtering along and barred from the end zone for the final 46 minutes of a 44-10 loss to its rival.
There was Jim Harbaugh, beaming a smile and telling everyone afterwards he was “happy.”
There was Mark Dantonio, frowning, expressing his disappointment.
On Jan. 10, one coach elected to modernize his offense by hiring an outsider with new ideas. That very same day, the other opted to keep his staff intact, shuffle the roles of his assistants and hope for a revival that would lead to increased productivity.
The 112th edition of the state’s biggest rivalry served as a referendum for both coaches’ decisions.
And Harbaugh came out the winner.
As for bowl games, Michigan still has an outside chance at the Rose Bowl.
They'll need the winner of the Big Ten to make the College Football Playoff, therefore allowing the Rose Bowl to select the second-best Big Ten team. And if two-loss Michigan is up against two-loss Penn State/Ohio State, two-loss Minnesota or two-loss Wisconsin, the Wolverines could make the case to be selected.
To make that case, Michigan would have to win out, including beating Ohio State on Nov. 30 for the first time in the Jim Harbaugh era, but hope either one-loss Penn State, one-loss Ohio State or one-loss Minnesota win the Big Ten championship game convincingly, therefore being picked over other one-loss college football teams by the CFP committee.
If no Big Ten team makes the four-team CFP, the league winner will go to the Rose Bowl, sending Michigan to either the Outback Bowl or Holiday Bowl.
After the 14th-ranked Wolverines pounded in-state rivals Michigan State, 44-10, Metellus thought it was time the Spartans should be heading up the tunnel and back to East Lansing.
“I was telling them to go home, that it’s time for them to leave,” said Metellus, tied for second on the team with six tackles against MSU. “They didn’t deserve to be in our stadium. I was trying to wave them goodbye because some of them wanted to stay on the field, and it was our time to shine. We came out with the ‘W,’ so we was just telling them to go home.”
As Michigan-Michigan State games always are, this one was physical, with extra hitting and extra trash-talking. Michigan was penalized nine times for 91 yards and MSU seven times for 93.
“I feel like we’re way more classier than them,” Metellus said. “They tried to take it to a level that wasn’t playing football. We play football over here. I don’t know what they do over there, but we play football, and it showed today.
“I felt like this defense, we made a statement today. We were playing real physical. It was to the point where we were playing too physical and they tried to do stuff after the play when we weren’t looking and stuff like that. It just showed today we were the better-prepared team and we came out and we wanted to execute more than they did.”
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