The Blame Game

I was all excited about writing a post in which I would speculate about various events in upcoming football games that would allow people to discount Wisconsin victories. It was inspired, of course, by the one-game suspension of Michigan State defensive end William Gholston, which I fully expected to be brought up in the event of a Badger win as a reason to continue discounting UW’s performance. It was gonna be awesome, with the perfect mix of randomness and topicality, some excuses complicated and lengthy, others a mere sentence or two. Spencer Hall-sian, if I may say so myself.

I was denied that opportunity the same way the Wisconsin Badgers were denied an important, impressive road win in East Lansing, MI, foiled by a 44-yard Hail Mary that bounced off the fingertips of a gravity-bound Jared Abbrederis, the face of a Michigan State receiver, and into the waiting arms of Keith Nichol, he of eleven total receptions entering the game and zero total receptions in the first 59 minutes and 56 seconds of action.

There’s no effective word in the tongues of men to describe the ending of this game other than “stunning”. It was a finish that will be talked about for years, the ludicrous culmination of a game that featured just about every wacky play known to football. The Badgers made so many mistakes, particularly in the 2nd quarter, that it seemed like they would be laughed off the field at times. Yet they clawed their way back to the point where overtime seemed assured barring, you know, a miracle.

When we’re looking back at this game, flailing our arms in the dark looking for somebody to blame, that’s what we need to remember. A miracle occurred. Remember that Wisconsin succeeded in forcing Michigan State into a situation where the only way they could avoid overtime was to go 44 yards in 4 seconds. You know what happens in situations like that? Long passes get broken up, or knees get taken. Teams regroup for overtime. Not this time though. This time, physics and fate and Heaven and Hell conspired to bring triumph to Sparta.

Immediately after the review official stuck his arms into the air, the wolves (badgers?) set in, and they went after the juiciest target on the Wisconsin sideline: Bret Bielema. It’s not the first time Bielema’s been targeted after a loss, particularly one labeled as a “debacle”. The ire was understandable. Michigan State won because they completed a Hail Mary pass on the final play of regulation, a play that might not have happened had Bielema not called those timeouts. For a list of other things that might have rendered the final play of regulation moot had they not occurred, please refer to the opening lines of our recap.

That’s the thing, isn’t it? There were so many other flat-out ridiculous things that occurred in that game, how can you point to a pair of timeouts as anything other than the last mistake? Well, other than a terribly timed jump by Abbrederis. What about Paul Chryst choosing to kick a 2nd-quarter field goal instead of going for the short conversion when the running game had been so effective? What about going play-action in your own endzone? Weren’t those similarly questionable decisions, shielded from criticism only by their separation in the game’s timeline?

The issue I have isn’t so much with blaming Bielema. I agree that the timeouts were questionable, although if the Badger defense gets a stop on the final series, the timeouts are labeled a slick gamble at the very least. What bothers me is this notion that Bielema’s actions put the Spartans in a position that virtually assured them a win. I have to question twitter responses like this:

"would it have happened w/o those timeouts? exactly.if he doesn’t call those time outs does that play happen? no. that is all."

Exactly. That is all. We’ve figured it out, everyone grab your torches and pitchforks. Look, I get it. Those timeouts were questionable, and they happened right before the fateful finale. But proximity doesn’t assure causality or responsibility. I compared such an association, perhaps a bit foolishly, to blaming gun control laws for dooming the human race when aliens invade the Earth. The response?

"actually it’s not like that at all. but ok."

Admittedly, it’s a stretch to compare any part of a football game to an alien invasion, but the principle remains the same. We’re talking about doing something that seems like a good idea at the time without worrying about a nearly inconceivable consequence. After all, I’ve repeatedly used the word “miracle” for a reason. It’s not like shoddy clock management set MSU up for a 26 yard field goal. They still had to complete a 44-yard Hail Mary! You know what the chances of Michigan State winning the game on that play were? Not much. You know how much bigger than zero “not much” is? Not much. But who cares about that? It was “tunnel vision” according to a Sunday morning Wisconsin sports radio show, akin to Ron Roenicke running out Shaun Marcum in Game 6 of the NLCS. Tunnel vision, in that case, meaning discounting a few bad outings versus a season of good ones. It was an act of “pomposity” to have confidence that the defense could, if needed, hold Michigan State to a single Hail Mary attempt and then successfully defend it.

Let’s take a step back and consider not just who we’re blaming, but what we’re blaming him for. Bret Bielema and his team are guilty of making a bunch of stupid mistakes and falling victim to an incredibly fluky string of bad luck. They fell victim to perhaps the best game of Kirk Cousins’ career. You know, they did a whole heck of a lot to win the game too. Montee Ball was a beast. Russell Wilson made up for many of his poor decisions with some great throws and a phenomenal TD run in which he faked out a Spartan defender worse than Mike Shanahan fakes out fantasy owners.

In sports, nothing is absolute. There’s always context to be considered. Bret Bielema made a dumb decision and got burned by a play people joke about, a play that teams attempt only as an absolute last resort. Most of the time it’s a victory just to put an opponent in that position. The Badgers had a 14-0 lead and looked like they were cruising, only to leave town with the season’s first loss. There’s plenty of blame to go around.