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Cursed (2005)
IMDB rating: 4.70
Plot: Ellie has been taking care of her younger brother Jimmy since their parents death. One night after picking him up from a party they are involved in a car accident on Mullholland Drive. While trying to rescue a woman from the other car a creature attacks and kills her, also injuring both Ellie and Jimmy. After some research Jimmy realizes the creature could only have been a werewolf.
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Directors: Craven Wes
Actors: Solar,Mora Daniel Edward,Eisenberg Jesse,Ventimiglia Milo,Acker Jonny,Ladin Eric,Jackson Joshua,Mears Derek,Offerman Nick,Rosenbaum Michael,Fantasy,Horror,Thriller,
MSU cursed by high hopes
15.10.09
MSU cursed by high hopes Lynn Henning / The Detroit News
East Lansing — That was some how-do-you-do from Mark Dantonio’s team as Michigan State got on with the business of becoming a college football monster.
Central Michigan: Oops. A big day from Chippewas maestro Dan LeFevour, a botched onside kick, and suddenly the Spartans were dealing with a 29-27 welt that instantly left them in the same category as a banged-up football player: day-to-day.
Notre Dame: Yikes. An easy pass interception that went through cornerback Chris L. Rucker’s paws as if the ball were coated in Pennzoil, followed by Spartans quarterback Kirk Cousins’ throw that overshot Larry Caper, all before another Cousins pass was on target to a Notre Dame defender, and the up-and-coming Spartans were suddenly down-and-going, 33-30.
Wisconsin: Ooomph. The big, bad Badgers, who seem to chainsaw their players from forests and haul them to Madison, laid another lump on the Spartans, 38-30, to leave Michigan State’s once-mighty team — and aspirations — in a smoldering, dispirited heap.
Well, not exactly.
Not so fast
The Spartans have revived to win two consecutive Big Ten games. They are 3-3 overall, 2-1 in the conference, and favorites to make it 3-1 in the Big Ten if they can contain Northwestern Saturday at Spartan Stadium.
If that scenario isn’t tempting enough to reinvigorate MSU’s fans, a victory Saturday would set the table for a potentially ground-pounding contest Oct. 24 at Spartan Stadium when Iowa arrives for a 7:05 p.m. game, which could be far more compelling theater than anything that has ever been staged at the nearby Wharton Center.
Dantonio appeared to be of the same mind Tuesday as he took a mini-break at Spartan Stadium, moments before heading off to the Skandalaris Football Center and to his weekly Big Ten satellite media conference.
“I feel good,” Dantonio said. “I’m not disappointed.
“I feel like we’ve come to play. We’ve been in every game. And we’ve had opportunities to win every game. We’re hanging in there. If we were 6-0, I wouldn’t feel any different with Northwestern coming in than I do now: We need to win Saturday.”
Dantonio’s inherent problem is that he and Michigan State had a bit of success during his first two seasons in East Lansing. Winning seven and nine games, respectively, simply accelerated ideas within MSU’s galaxy that 2009 would be a step up from MSU’s 2007-08 ascent.
But college football these days tends to be a more democratic game, with scads of teams capable of winning. And the Spartans, while deeper and more talented than they have been in years, are still a tad shy in defensive game-changers, particularly in the secondary, where they have more bodies than demolition experts.
And yet the Spartans are still in decent shape to have a plus season and earn a bowl-game ticket. They could yet contend for a Big Ten championship, which isn’t necessarily a stretch, given that Ohio State isn’t on the schedule and Iowa and Penn State must play in East Lansing.
Factor in a single statistic and the situation becomes clearer, both in terms of what Dantonio has done since arriving before the 2007 season, and for what MSU yet can achieve this autumn: The Spartans are 10-3 in their last 13 conference games. It’s the best such mark since the 1989-90 seasons when MSU came within a whisker of playing in a couple of Rose bowls.
Dantonio’s team has gotten the benefit of a recruiting surge since he arrived in December 2006. The Spartans are solid at the line of scrimmage and brandish nifty skill players. They have two impressive redshirt-sophomore quarterbacks in Cousins and Keith Nichol, who have been taking turns starting, either because of their complementary skills or because of injury.
And they have more in the warehouse: Andrew Maxwell, a freshman and franchise talent from Midland who could see his freshman redshirt vanish Saturday because of injuries to Cousins and Nichol; as well as Joe Boisture, a four-star recruit from Saline High and a verbal commitment for 2010.
Deep but troubled
Part of MSU’s revival under Dantonio is purely the product of depth. Too many years of thin rosters ravaged by academic casualties, bad recruiting, or recruiting numbers thinned by old probation sentences, have given way to full 85-man divisions laced with higher-grade talent.
The Spartans last week lost their top running back: powerful sophomore Glenn Winston, who tore up his knee on the artificial turf at Memorial Stadium, where MSU conked Illinois, 24-14. Winston’s exit, while somber, simply forced the Spartans to turn their superb freshman, Caper, into Dantonio’s new workhorse.
Why, though, did the team stumble in such ugly fashion after winning its season opener against Montana State? Why the capitulation to CMU’s LeFevour, who torched the Spartans secondary as if it were the Chippewas’ scout squad? Why the falloff at Notre Dame after MSU had come back to take a pair of leads against a beatable Irish squad?
How, also, could MSU have nearly invited a fan riot at Spartan Stadium when it allowed Michigan two touchdowns in the final five minutes of regulation before pulling out an overtime victory? The blown lead sent even lifelong Spartans fans heading for the exits before overtime, so sure were they that this finish would be a cruel re-run of previous horror shows.
“Realistically, I thought this team was looking at seven, maybe eight, victories this season,” said Mark Moyer, a Birmingham media sales representative, and MSU season-ticket holder since 1980. “I never bought the idea that so many of the fans had that they were winning nine games or more.
“I figured their defense would be the foundation while the new quarterbacks and the offense were learning to play. But then the defense really wasn’t ready, and that wasn’t a surprise. They were still breaking in a relatively young team. I’d say the last couple of weeks have been more of an indication of where they’re headed.”
The Spartans are still hunting for those bloodthirsty defensive shutdown artists, the kind they featured during their mid-’60s heyday in Bubba Smith and George Webster, the brand of shredders BCS-caliber teams invariably showcase.
“You’re always looking for defensive playmakers,” Dantonio said. “And a lot of times you have ‘em, but they don’t have the knowledge or experience yet against different teams and sets. Adjusting slows them down.
“We’ve got one of those players now in Chris Norman (freshman linebacker from Detroit Renaissance). But when you see a different offense every week, and the rapid changes in pass coverage, he becomes a player who hasn’t quite arrived.
“It’s simple but complex,” Dantonio said. “This week we’ll see another team (Northwestern) with a spread offense. But even the spread-offense teams are all different.”
So, too, are the challenges for a head football coach at a major university, trying to achieve what every team and fan base craves: not mere victories but championships. In the American society’s realm of workplaces and directives, there are easier assignments, for sure.
lynn.henning@detnews.com
Nathan Gomez