Sherrone Moore diagnoses Michigan's pass game woes against Michigan State: 'We just kept chewing that clock'

It was a tale of two games for Michigan’s passing attack when looking at the output against Washington versus the one it had against Michigan State.

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Two weeks ago, quarterback Bryce Underwood put up 230 yards and 2 touchdowns while completing 77% of his passes to make it appear that the Wolverines were a program that was looking at the passing game woes as a thing of the past.

On Saturday, facing off against Michigan State, it was the exact opposite.

Underwood’s output took a big step back, only completing 8 passes for 86 yards and the worst completion percentage of the year, finishing the game at 47%.

U-M’s offense made it clear that it wanted to come firing on all cylinders by attempting to gouge the Spartans’ defense by both the run and the pass, passing at a much higher clip during the first drive, especially when the Wolverines got into the endzone.

It didn’t work out as the Spartans’ defense made Underwood look uncomfortable, and things never really improved from there.

“I think you’re going with the inclination of what you think you’re gonna be successful with,” Moore said on Inside Michigan Football on Monday. “That always changes as you go throughout the game, and we wanted to stay balanced. You had the two runs, and you thought that you can get open in the passing game and do some things and allow us to be creative down there, which I thought the play calls were great and aggressive.

“We had two alignment things that, if you have the alignments right, you’re probably gonna score the touchdowns, but those didn’t happen. You came away with three, but the next time we get down there, we went and scored. So it was huge to recover from those things.”

Even with the Wolverines not being able to be effective in the pass game, the program continues to find ways to win regardless of how the game presents itself.

While U-M could’ve easily continued to try and force the pass, the effective run game of Underwood, Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall, who all had explosive runs in the game, forced the plans to make a quick pivot to rely on old faithful.

The run-first, wear you down mindset.

“I think what really happened is, as you get in the game and you see what type of game it is, the defense is playing the way they’re playing, you’re trying to melt that clock,” Moore said. “We kind of leaned on the run game. The beautiful thing about it is, our kids, our quarterback, our receivers, our tight ends, just say, okay, we got to do what we got to do to win. And at that point, we leaned on that, and it became a strength.

“We just kept chewing that clock and really did a good job of that. I think when you come out in the second half, your plan is to (be balanced). But when you have a 20-yard run and then another 20-yard run, it’s like, you’re pretty insane to stop doing it. And then you go down the field and you go score. So I think our coaches, overall, staff did a really good job of adjusting when they needed to.”