That is a lot of wieners. No but really this blog just went over 100,000 page views. I know to the Michigan mother ship Mgoblog this is like a drop in the bucket but for this mom and pop shop this a nice accomplishment. I started this blog just so I could talk about Michigan football year around in live blogs and then it blew into more with the MS Paints. I never claimed to be a great blogger who writes content everyday. The truth is I just can't write a lick. Never have and never will. I rather draw pictures. I rather give someone a short laugh for the day with crappy Michigan stick figures.

I even almost closed shop with the birth of my son. Blogging and kids don't mix. My time at home goes all to him. When I did post 3 times a week it was all from home. Now I have no time at home and the extra time I have at work I can only spend trying to do a MS Paint for the week. Also failed attempts to make the blog bigger and better with recruiting and other things have not gone as well as I hoped. Even with all the bumps in the road Midnight Maize has done well. I have met a lot of great people on the CILs at night. I have a ton of people to thank for helping with the site and to the people who come check out this little blog, even when the posts are only weekly. Also must thank the people who link me. I do well with lists so we will start the thank you list.

Thank you to the ever changing staff
It seems like Midnight Maize gets a new roster every season. Like we drafting writers from the unknown. If anything it keeps it fresh.
Hulk-He really has never done much posting... Not sure if he has ever. He was the first person to show up on the live blog. He is like the first dollar bill that a business earns that they put on the wall. We haven't always seen eye to eye yet he brings good football knowledge from his coaching days. Thanks for showing up and splitting hairs with me.
SCS-Still helping out when he can. A Michigan Student who has a major passion for hockey. Something I would never cover. He also has a knack for starting soccer topics in Live Blogs. He has been a great help to me for a few years and I can say has made this blog better.
Dark Blue-He is the horse of a different color. He has posted lots for this blog and now can be found over at WLA. He brought a lot of off the wall humor to this blog and helped out whenever he could. I will always thank him for the great RCMB envasion from last year.
Seth9-Seth did a lot of conference stuff and off the field stuff for MM. He is a smart writer who brought something outside the box to this blog. Not sure what Seth is up to but he is a student at Michigan and will always be a great MM alum.
CMR-She did one post that I know of and it was a dandy. She may have also helped in the Knights of the Round Tables posts. I haven't seen her much even on Mgoblog these days but she is a great fan who gave us her all in this one post. She always ranked high in my top 15 live bloggers.
Scout Exile and Simply Complex-These two just started helping with MM and have done some great interviews you can find in the menu. I hope these two guys keep posting since they bring a lot of things I can't do to the site.
I really just wanna thank all these people for giving their time to Midnight Maize. They didn't have to. They weren't paid. They just did it for fun and to help me out. Thanks everyone.

Thanks to all the Midnight Maizer(as I call them).
Thanks to all the random people that have stopped in and said hi to me. Thanks to those who stayed up to 3am in the morning complaining about the gap integrity of Rich Rod defenses. Some just off the top of my head... TLP,Yak Attack,JC,Irish,OSD,The Other Brian,Mgo jen,MidMichigan Wolverine, Sec20,CPS and the dudes from the 24/7 board. If I forgot anyone I am sorry. But thanks all.


Thanks to the blogs who think we are worth linking.
Thanks to all the blogs who link Midnight Maize. Lots of them do. Some of my favorites are Touch the Banner / Mvictors  / In rod we trust  / SE Michigan Sports / Mgovideo / prevailandride
And I wanna give a very special thanks to Brian at Mgoblog. The Mother Ship. The Sun in the Michigan blogosphere solar system. With out him linking my paints and posts I don't think anyone would have found this place. He truly does give to us little people of blogging. With out his links I don't get linked on ESPN and on NY magazine for drawing a picture of nacho next to Armando Allen's foot. Thanks Brian.

A few neat Midnight Maize tidbits 
My favorite Paints: Michigan Gods vs Bad Luck / Back to Spartan Stadium / New Michigan Score Board / The Big Nardowski / Michigan Changes Helmets! / Sonic 16 / Michigan Hating God / Tate has fetuatitus(only banned MS Paint on Mgoblog ever) / Caption of the SS Troy / The Game Wars / OSUBusters / Pryors Punch out(linked on ESPN lunch links) / Charlie's Weis Punch Out / I saw Armando's Foot  / Big House 2025
MS Paint count: 50+
Coolest Midnight Maize Moment: Tate Forcier and a few players knowing my paints.
Lowest Midnight Maize Moment: Taking over for Mgoblog when it got a internet STD. I is failed at itzz.
Donations: We had many people donate tickets and shirts for the boys I work with. The last two years we have gone to Michigan football games and basketball games. Thank you to all the people who have donated to the boys I work with.
Live Blogs: 358+
Blog Awards: 0

So thanks to all who have came by this little blog. I hope for 100,000 more. Will happen? Who knows. Every year I say this is it and still find myself coming back for more. As long as I can keep up I will. Thanks for all the support and comments over the last few years. Enjoy the Bye Week and Go Blue.

Offense
So the offense shit the bed. No really they shit the bed. Instead of playing football Al got all cute. I like to mix in the Devin stuff but not make it our offense. We refused to run any running back. 10 carries for our backs just puts a ton of pressure on Denard. After a while the MSU Defense knew the running back wasn't getting the ball. It kills play action and zone read stuff.

When MSU started blitzing the hell out of us we didn't adjust at all. I swear the team hasn't practiced at all vs blitz packages. The OL,RB,WR and Denard were all clueless. WR and RB were not running hot routes. Denard was not checking anything at the line. I don't think this offense has been blitzed since Denard took over. Teams were to scared it would break Denard open. Now teams will use this to blitz him at will. So he looked pretty lost when MSU brought it. His OL didn't help and neither did anyone else. They will need to practice this all week since teams will bring it now. Al failed to solve the blitzing by throwing in a screen or anything to that nature. Maybe a RB draw if the blitz were coming from the edge. MSU didn't even try to hide  it.

The 4th and 1 play may have been dumbest play call I have seen in a while. Denard up the middle is the simple play to call. It works for a yard. Having him turn his back to a blitz is just dumb. You knew it was coming. Again trying to be cute. Just play football. Make it simple.

Defense
It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. The edge is still a sore spot for this defense. Roh, Ryan were getting smashed on the edge all day. The defense still did a nice job with Cunningham and Cousins. Kept them in check. Martin got loose of course. Floyd was terrible on his one TD as he just lunged for Martin instead of trying to tackle him. Which would have brought on 4th down and maybe a FG attempt. Besides Countess all the DBs struggled. Thank god they were not tested much. T-Wolf needs to just sit out a game and get better. You can't help the team playing in a wheel chair. It wasn't a great outing by the defense but enough for a win. Mattison was the best coach on this day. That isn't saying much.

Dirty Play
Do I like it? No. He should have been tossed. He wasn't so I can get over it. Now call me a bad sport or whatever but there needs to be a little Dog in us.. Don't want a bunch of kitty cats. Do you think Mike Hart, Woodson and Woodley let their QB get cheap shot like that without something coming back on MSU? Now I am not saying hurt anyone but you can't let people just punch your teammates in the face and get away with it. This team is really nice at times. Sometimes too nice. We need a few dogs out there. We are missing that. Call me whatever but as a team we just took it. We looked scared and soft at times.

Toughness
Hoke coaches it. In fact he throws it down our throats. We know its something he preaches 24/7. So why did the team look soft again in a very physical game? People blamed that on Rich. Thought it was what the spread did to this team. I think that was always nonsense. My thoughts? I think the personality of this team from Denard on down is just a bunch of nice dudes. Good guys. Like I said earlier. The 97 and 2006 teams had some dogs in that locker room. We had some mean men who would kill you. Right now I think we lack that. We just do. We got great guys on this team but nice doesn't always when you find yourself is a nasty cock fight. The closest dog we might have is Lewan and that just isn't enough.

During our live blog Yak Attack from SE Michigan Sports was on a role. He helped soften a bad day.

YakAttack:I love how Shred tried to reel it back on topic. That's why I pledge my undying allegiance to this man

YakAttack:  I agree shred. At some point you have to retaliate, or you end up Adebisi's bitch. At least that's what I learned on Oz

YakAttack:  I wanna see Gholston and LaGarrette Blount in the octagon

The Good
-Wide Outs played well when they were given the ball
-Held Cunningham in check
-Mattison made some nice adjustments as the game went on
-ahh the first drive was good?
-Denard jet sweep
-Roundtree catch
-Defense was..aahh ok.

The Bad
-We are terrible on the edge still
-Roh was meh...again
-D-line and O-line getting zero push most the day.
-10 carries for our backs.
-No Shaw?
-Al like Rich has fallen in love with Denard to the point that it hurts the offense.

The Ugly
-Anyone know what a Hot Route is?
-Denard's lack of getting the F out of the pocket when he was blitzed.
-coaching... Al just got to damn cute. Forgot about the backs.
-Going all nuts with the Devin play package.
-Letting MSU punk us during and after play. Need some dogs on this team.
-execution on all fronts sucked.
-4th and 1 play will go down in history.
-All our QBs lock on. Zero Progression.
-Punting on the MSU side of the field.