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Michigan

Best and worst from Michigan's loss at Oklahoma

michigan-icon-fullby: The Wolverine Staff09/07/25thewolverineon3
Cole Sullivan
Michigan Wolverines football linebacker Cole Sullivan recovered a fumble against Oklahoma. (Photo by SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

By Clayton Sayfie

NORMAN, Okla. — Michigan Wolverines football suffered its first loss of the season, falling 24-13 to Oklahoma, Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. Here are the best and worst from the game.

Player of the game

Hats off to Oklahoma redshirt junior quarterback John Mateer, who showed out in his first big, primetime game as a Sooner. The Washington State transfer is a fun watch because you’re just not sure where he’s going to go with the ball, how long he’s going to run around and if he’s going to keep it or not.

Mateer connected on 21 of his 34 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown, also tossing 1 interception. But his rushing ability was just as much of a weapon. Mateer carried 19 times for 74 yards, and multiple times he got out of seemingly certain sacks in key spots. Michigan sacked him only twice, failing to get consistent pressure, especially early in the game.

Pass defense concerns

Michigan’s pass defense showed some warts against New Mexico, particularly with junior cornerback Jyaire Hill committing a pass interference penalty in the end zone and allowing a touchdown. There are a number of concerns with the pass defense coming out of this game, too.

First off, Michigan’s pass rush wasn’t effective early in the game, and it had to blitz to generate some later, leaving the back end vulnerable. That was against an Oklahoma offensive line starting two freshmen, a unit that was supposed to be the Sooners’ weakest coming into the year.

The secondary allowed some chunk plays, with Oklahoma hitting on 7 of 15-plus yards, including a trio of 30-plus. Mateer extended plays with his legs and usually found someone down the field if he didn’t run himself.

Michigan’s defensive backfield depth is suspect, especially at cornerback, and senior Zeke Berry went down with a right ankle injury at the 10:34 mark in the third quarter. That thrust a freshman — Texan Jayden Sanders — into the game, which isn’t ideal. Oklahoma threw his way and found some success. The 6-foot-1, 193-pounder struggled to get off blocks.

When in doubt…

On big downs, Oklahoma trusted its quarterback … especially his legs. Mateer had 19 rushes for 74 yards and 2 touchdowns. He picked up a third-and-short and a fourth-and-1 on keepers, plus he was lethal in the low red zone, rushing for 2- and 10-yard scores.

Michigan appeared to have him bottled up on a few occasions, but couldn’t quite bring him down. The Wolverines had defenders playing multiple gaps, but there were times they sat back and allowed Mateer to pick the most ideal lane.

Oklahoma didn’t really have any success running the ball with anyone else. The Sooners had 21 other carries for 64 yards, a 3-yard average.

Longest play

The one thing Michigan did right — surely by design, with some conservative play-calling — was not turn the ball over. The Wolverines were down 14-0 at halftime — a rough first 30 minutes, but not a disaster, certainly not out of the game. One play — 11 seconds — into the third quarter, it was a one-score tilt again, with junior running back Justice Haynes finding a cut-back lane and tons of green grass on his 75-yard touchdown run.

Just(ice) like that, Michigan was down seven and had some mojo.

Killer drive

The Wolverines forced a three-and-out following Haynes’ long run, but the next defensive possession was maddening.

Junior safety Brandyn Hillman got through on a blitz for a look at Mateer but couldn’t wrap him up to bring him down, and the quarterback got loose to find wideout Isaiah Santegna III along the sideline for a 36-yard gain to the U-M 14-yard line. Two plays later, Mateer ran one in from 10 yards out.

That near-sack almost didn’t happen, though. On the play before, Hill dropped an interception that could’ve completely changed the game.

This was a game of ‘almosts’ and not good enough from the Michigan defense. A few plays go the other way, and the Wolverines are in a different position.

Helpless drive

The drive described above was killer, but the 16-play, 78-yard Oklahoma possession that drained 8:27 off the fourth-quarter clock made Michigan fans feel helpless watching their defense fail to get off the field. Michigan had only one timeout left, too, after burning two on the prior offensive possession, adding to the Sooners’ ball control.

Mateer and Co., who started that drive with 10:11 remaining in the game, converted on 3 third downs, all short-yardage situations, including 2 conversions by the dual-threat quarterback. It ended in a 21-yard field goal by Tate Sandell that essentially wrapped up the game. The Wolverines had to drive down, score, get an onside kick and find the end zone again — a tough ask for an offense that was largely unproductive all night.

Michigan’s defense had chances to get off the field, but that was the story of the night. Oklahoma converted on 9 of 17 third-down attempts, and as a result the Sooners had six possessions of 8-plus plays or that ended in a touchdown.

No run game

Michigan’s run game was stymied by a strong Oklahoma defensive front. Outside of Haynes’ run and the 1 sack Underwood took, the Wolverines rushed 30 times for 76 yards, an average of 2.5 yards per carry.

The 2.5 number is not good. The 30 figure means Michigan kept running and running and running — to no avail.

The play-calling was pretty conservative overall. Michigan threw short of the sticks and even handed it off on third downs, attempting to make sure freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood didn’t put the ball in harm’s way.

Michigan ended up converting just 3 of 14 third downs, due in large part to the lack of the run game. The Wolverines averaged a whopping 8.4 yards to go on third down.

Crazy completion percentage stat

Underwood went 9-of-24 passing for 142 yards. The 38-percent completion rate is the lowest by a Michigan team in a game since a 23-9 loss to Nebraska Oct. 27, 2012. In that loss, quarterbacks Denard Robinson (6-of-11) and Russell Bellomy (3-of-16) combined for a 33.3-percent completion rate.

That Nebraska game will forever go down as one of the most frustrating for Michigan fans, since after Robinson went down with injury, the Wolverines didn’t have a capable backup ready. Devin Gardner, remember, was playing wide receiver and didn’t get enough quarterback reps during the week to be ready to get in behind center.

Most surprising miss

For just the second time as a Wolverine, Michigan senior kicker Dominic Zvada missed a field goal, hooking a 32-yarder left in the second quarter. With a make, Michigan would’ve been down only 7-3.

It loomed large the entire game, especially when the Wolverines trailed 21-10 instead of 21-13 in the third quarter, or 24-13 and not 24-16 when they had their final chance on offense.

Special teams boost

Cole Sullivan is a baller. The sophomore linebacker is a standout special teamer, and got to the ball after a booming punt by senior Hudson Hollenbeck, which was muffed by Santegna.

Michigan only cashed in with a field goal, but it was a momentum- and score-shifter.

That was 1 of 2 turnovers Michigan forced, with junior nickel back TJ Metcalf picking off an errant pass from Mateer late in the first quarter.

Contested catch

Michigan finally started throwing down the field as the game went on, and graduate wideout Donaven McCulley made a couple plays. One of the most impressive catches of the game came from McCulley, who pinned the ball against a defender on his 44-yard gain.

Too much pressure

To Underwood’s defense, he was pressured all night, without much time in the pocket or room to make plays. He was pressured on 10 of his 26 dropbacks, according to PFF. There were multiple times when he missed receivers down the field, but there wasn’t an abundance of separation, and there were other instances where the pressure didn’t allow him to see his route-runners.