The Monday Read: It’s a jarring visual, but Michigan has proven to be a shell of its former self

Newsflash: Michigan’s not as good as they were last year. That’s certainly not a hot take, but there’s a difference in getting beat and getting beaten up like the Wolverines did in the 31-12 loss to Texas. It showed what happens when a team like Michigan, which operates without much margin for error, gets a shot of error straight to the face for 60 minutes. It’s been over a year since the Wolverines lost at all, and you really have to go back to the College Football Playoff semifinal loss against Georgia in 2022 to see them get big boy’d like they did on Saturday. 

The Monday Read was particularly stunned at how Texas handled the money downs versus Michigan’s approach. Texas converted seven of their first eight third downs including conversions of seven, 10 and 13 yards to gain. Quinn Ewers made plays, whether it was a perfect hole shot to Isaiah Bond, or an uncanny scramble with all hell breaking loose, or a beautiful throw with excellent pocket navigation to Matthew Golden. Each were backbreaking to a Michigan defense accustomed to getting off the field when necessary. Opponents were 10-110 on third-and-7+ last season against the Wolverines. 

Michigan’s offense went 3-12 on third, and had two fourth-down conversions in garbage time down 31-6. It only converted one third down in the first half at all. They should have had a second, but tight end Colston Loveland inexplicably dropped a completion trying to tuck it in and Texas recovered before using the short field to put the game out of reach by the intermission at 24-3. That’s a big deficit, but it feels like an extremely wide chasm when you consider how haphazardly Michigan’s offense operates when it gets a negative game script.

The most jarring failures on the ground came when quarterback…

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Author : Richard Johnson

Publish date : 2024-09-09 16:55:10

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