This one had bad vibes written all over it.
First, the Yellow Lot was totally inaccessible. I spoke with two groups of UMass season ticket holders who gave up and parked on a lawn somewhere and hiked in. One person who did make it in said " I went to the Orange Bowl with 70,000 people attending with less hassle than this!". Large numbers of UMass police helpfully stood around watching the traffic jam. Even Mrs. Blog, who usually chides me when I go into a rant, said "The traffic control here really stinks."
Then somebody could not find the "Off" switch for the speakers and they blared all through the UMass team's taking the field, stepping all over the UMass band's "Fight UMass".
We also had a new stadium announcer who had definitely quirky game call: "UMass recovers a Richmond fumble for a first down!"
Kyle Havens, who dissected the Michigan secondary a couple of weeks ago, could not have hit the ocean from a rowboat in the first half.
As I prophesied, Matty Vautour's article seriously jinxed our kicking game. Caleb Violette had a punt go through his hands for two (eventually deciding) points. He also missed (an admittedly tough) field goal.
Brandon Levengood shanked a kickoff with two minutes remaining to give the anemic Spiders offense great field position.
The UMass offense got stuffed three straight times on a first-and-goal.
Our defense gave up three straight first downs and a wide open TD reception to close a dismal day.
Hard running UMass TB John Griffin looked like the only person who should be on a playoff team.
Keep it civil in the comments. We're still all Minutemen fans---even though the blog is going to need a couple shots of brandy to get to sleep.