Late update again. FYI I'll always add the new picks to your sheet on Tuesday, even if I don't send out an email, as I did this week. And now the standings:
1st: Madison/Chuck, 30-18 (7-3)
2nd: Mar/Dan, 29-19 (8-2)
3rd: Alexx/Pete, 28-20 (7-3)
4th: Sue/Garry, 27-21 (7-3)
5th: Mitch, 26-22 (5-5)
Wow. You guys are getting good at this. What's the secret? Everyone had at least 7 correct this week except me. Mar/Dan tied the record for most correct with 8. Madison/Chuck have had 7 correct in four straight weeks. I'm as proud of you guys as I am jealous. Is there a word for being both proud and jealous of someone at the same time? Is it even possible for something to simultaneously exist in such different states?
Enter Michigan football. See what I did there?
I was unsure of what direction to write in after watching the Michigan game. Anyone else who watched it probably felt the same way. It feels like we've been here before, or someplace very similar. Michigan once again has one of the best defenses in the country and routinely owns property in the opposition's backfield. And yet, in the first quarter against Notre Dame and Northwestern, our opponent marched down the field with ease. The next three quarters or so in those games our opponents seemed to be playing on a treadmill: it looked like they were running plays but two minutes later they hadn't moved the ball. It was starting to feel like we finally had a quarterback who was not just compotent but a real playmaker. Then, on Saturday, Shea Patterson looked lost for long stretches. It seemed like we did not have the wherewithall to make an offensive play when we needed it, but then Patterson scrambled for third down conversions time and time again. Michigan was down 0-17 against a team that lost to Akron, then completed their largest comeback since 2011.
We all know how frustrating this can be. I think most of us would say Michigan is a good team this year, but we can't help but wonder: are we good enough to beat certain teams? In the games that you don't have highlighted on the schedule, you want to try to extrapolate information that will predict future results. I think this is a characteristic of smart people, but it is possibly indicative of paranoia. I definitely keep my guard up when it comes to Michigan. What else can you do with our recent history? Is Michigan the team that was the best in the country in 1997? Or are we the team that has only beaten Ohio State once since 2003? Should we erase the good for bad or vice versa? It makes me feel paralyzed, unable to wrap my head around a superposition existence.
You can't erase the past. Boy I wish that was the case. I bet we all do. Life would be so much more simple. But you have to take the bad with the good. Absolutes are few and far between. Sometimes you're a bad team and you play good and you win. Sometimes you're a good team and you play bad and you still win. Sometimes you're a good team and you play good and you lose. It may seem counter-productive in a writeup for a prediction contest, but predictions are for the birds. As Don Brown wisely puts it, "I really don't have an answer". There is actually a word for something existing in opposite states: superposition. You've probably all heard of Schrodinger's Cat. Watch this if you haven't. At this moment in time, because we can not view Michigan when they are playing Wisconsin, or Sparty, or Ohio State, the results of those games are simultaneously wins and losses. The only way to find out is to wait and see. It may not have been the answer I wanted, but I think it has comforted me. It takes the pressure off of predictions, off of games I try to wring information out of. I can just sit back and enjoy the experience.
I do know one thing for sure: I've been asking for a Michigan team that can respond to adversity since Week 1. I saw a team do that in Evanston.
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Maybe that was trite, I don't know. It helped me to write it though. Good luck on the picks. Try to remember that there may be multiple universes and in one of those you got all of the picks right. Try to forget that in one of them you got them all wrong and Urban Meyer was elected President of Earth.
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