Written by Matt Zemek at Bloguin
It is unavoidable.
It is a law of nature.
It is a reality as old as time.
Whenever an all-time blunder with game- and season-changing significance occurs in a major sport, you can count on human beings to criticize the coach or (in a solo-athlete sport) the thought process of the athlete. Naturally, football is a team sport, so the focus here belongs on Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
Did Harbaugh make the wrong decision at the end of Saturday’s game against Michigan State?
Some people thought — and still think — that throwing a Hail Mary pass to the opposite end zone is what the Wolverines should have done. The idea is equivalent to a basketball player, with four or five seconds left, throwing the ball high in the air to the other end of the court, especially if no player on the opposing team is particularly close to the baseline near his own basket. That’s a way to drain time without giving the opponent a realistic chance of scoring.
Was this the path Harbaugh should have taken?
In a slightly different circumstance, yes… but we didn’t have a slightly different circumstance on Saturday evening in Ann Arbor, which is precisely the point.
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