The "Moo U always plays us tough" myth

They have played us some tough games in the past 10 years and obviously killed us in 2014. But the most recent history (last two seasons) shows a valid reason why these games wound up close, and it isn't necessarily that they "played us tough".

People seem to forget that in 2015 we led them 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and 21-6 going into the 4th quarter and held on to win 21-19. Last year we led 23-3 at halftime and won 23-20. We were in very firm control in both of these games.

The issue with these last two games was the incredibly idiotic coaching of Les Miles. He chose to completely take the air out of the ball and play not to lose, leading to multiple 3 and outs and simultaneously giving hope to MSU and ceding the momentum to them in dramatic fashion. Even though we won the games I was livid after each one because we had our foot on their throats each time and instead of crushing them, we let them come right back to life and nearly win the game. It was sickening. But it seems all I read about here is how they "always play us tough".

I think it's safe to say that if we have firm control of the game this Saturday in the 2nd half, we aren't going to start playing not to lose and hand them all the momentum and hope they need to come back.