Everything Sherrone Moore said after Michigan's 27-9 loss to Ohio State

Opening Statement

I’ll start off with this, obviously, very disappointed in the result. Credit to them and how they played and how they executed. We did not to our standard, started off fast, thought we started off with good rhythm offensively.

Defensively held them to a big goal-line stand, held them to field goals, but we didn’t execute in the red zone, which ended up being the story of the game. And then the second half, not being able to get a rhythm offensively, they did a good job, and credit to them, there’s no excuse for it. We gotta be much better, and they outplayed us today, so got a lot to work on.

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On what the difference in the game was

Yeah, they just played better, they executed better. We didn’t play good enough, we didn’t execute enough, and they did when it mattered, and they played a better game.

On his emotions after the game

Yeah, not good, right? I mean, it stings, everybody stings. You sting for the seniors, you sting for the program. When you’re in this 24-7, when you’re in this for 365, this hurts. And you work tirelessly to make this be successful. So not just about me, it’s really about the kids and all the hard work they put in.

So I’ll put it on me, always put stuff on me, and self-reflect, self-look at, and see what we need to fix and see what we need to do. But it’s gotta be better.

On the lack of QB pressures from the defensive line

No, we didn’t get enough rush. There’s things we could have did, and we didn’t do really well enough twist game-wise and things, and they just picked up the pressures, and they did a good job.

On Bryson Kuzdzal and Andrew Marsh supporting the pass game

Yeah, I mean, I think coverage-wise, they did some things to reroute the receivers, and we just didn’t get a rhythm. We didn’t protect well enough. We didn’t get the guys open enough, all those things. But again, it’s a team effort. There’s no blame, there’s no pointing fingers, right? It’s a whole team effort.

We gotta work to get better at all those things for both those guys, for all those players. So again, we’ll continue to go back to what we need to get better at.

On what can be taken away from the loss

I mean, we’ll look at the film and see exactly what it is. But you don’t want this feeling again, so 364 days a year. Working to figure out ways to figure out to win this game, along with all the other games we’re gonna play. But we got another game we gotta play after this. So we gotta regroup and try to get ten wins. That’ll be huge.

That’ll be a huge success for this team, to get ten wins with such a young team. Starting six freshmen, redshirt freshmen, true freshman quarterback, redshirt freshman running back, three redshirt freshmen offensive linemen. So we gotta regroup as a team and make sure we do that.

On whether the plan coming into the game was to be run-heavy

No, I mean, you always want to be balanced. I think just when it starts working, the first part of the game is however many it was, and you lean on that a little bit more, you know? So I don’t think that wasn’t the plan. We wanted to be balanced in what we did. But when you’re successful in the run game like that, that’s what you want to do. So, but again, we didn’t do a good enough job of doing that in the second half.

On whether it became obvious to pass more in the second half

Yeah, when you get down at certain times, you have to do that, right? So that’s just what the game became.

On whether he was surprised OSU was able to control the trenches

Yeah, I thought we would have been better at stopping the run there. And they did late in the game, they did a really good job of leaning on us. We didn’t do a good enough job of stopping the run. So credit to them, again, I’m not gonna take anything away from them and how they played. They played well.

On Bryce Underwood’s first experience with the rivalry and things to take away from it

Yeah, I mean, I just want him to feel the feeling like he feels right now. That’s really the biggest thing. That’ll motivate him enough to be as good as he can be. So the feeling that he has, that stinging feeling he has, as well as all the players and coaches, embrace that feeling that you have of that loss, and it’ll motivate you throughout the year.

On the Jaishawn Barham penalty and the Smith touchdown call

Yeah, I mean, Jaishawn, an official grabbed him, and he reacted. He shouldn’t have reacted, but the official grabbed him with two hands. But that was the penalty there.

But then the Jeremiah Smith fumble or catch, they thought it was a fumble. They said that he had control of it. Didn’t look like he had control of it, but at the end of the day, it’s not my decision on what the official says. So they told me that it was inconclusive, and that he made the catch, and the call was gonna be upheld.

On the impact the Smith touchdown call had on the game

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it’s a good bit, right? A big piece. We start out the game with a pick, throwing at Jeremiah Smith, and we start out the game with a pick. And at that point, I think it’s six to three. And if that’s a touchback, that gives us a little momentum. So it was a big piece, but we gotta do the other things. We gotta do the other things in the other spots to go in.

On whether Jordan Marshall re-aggravated his shoulder injury

Yeah, he re-aggravated, but just got back in there and tried to push a little bit more.

On Marshall leaving the game with an injury disrupted the offensive game plan

Jordan Marshall’s a really good player. And when you have him, it puts a positive impact on your offense. So it was a huge piece for us to have him when he went down, but we had a lot of trust in Kuz like we showed last week.

So the plan doesn’t change. There’s things in pass protections that you might have to do a little bit different because he’s a bigger back, and we gotta continue to evaluate all those things.

On how much the next month is going to be about bowl game preparation and looking toward the future

Yeah, I mean, it’ll be about preparing for the game, just like we did last year. Preparing for the bowl game as much as we can, and getting as good as we can at football. It’s a big-time, whatever it is, it’s a chance to have ten wins, right?

And ten wins in college football is huge. So we’re gonna attack it, whoever we have to play, whatever scene, wherever we go, we’re gonna enjoy it, but we’re gonna attack it, and we’re gonna get better.

On his message to the team after the game

Yeah, I mean, ending the season with nine wins is obviously better than we were last year, but we already know our goals, right, and what we wanna do, and how we wanna approach everything. So nine wins is great, a lot of places, but we wanna be better. But really, to them, it was to stay together, cuz it’s so easy you can get pulled apart.

We’re not gonna point fingers, we’re gonna figure out what we need to fix, what we need to attack, and we’re gonna do it together.