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Michigan football podcast: Balas and Skene show, post-Oregon

Chris Balasby:Chris Balas11/04/24

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Michigan Wolverines football offensive line coach Grant Newsome previously coached tight ends. (Photo by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Michigan Wolverines football offensive line coach Grant Newsome previously coached tight ends. (Photo by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK)

The Michigan offensive line seemed to improve in pass protection Saturday in a loss to Oregon, but the run game wasn’t up to par for the second consecutive game. The Wolverines allowed far too many negative plays and got behind the sticks, making it tough to move the ball and put points on the board against a very good Ducks defense.

RELATED: Five things we think we learned after a Michigan loss to Oregon

Head coach Sherrone Moore was pleased with his team’s fight in the second half of the 38-17 loss. At the same time, he understands there’s a lot that needs to improve.

“The biggest thing in the run game, there’s not really a set amount of yards. You want to get enough yards to win, regardless of run or pass,” the Michigan coach said immediately after the loss. “Whatever we’ve got to do to win that game, that’s what we want to do. 

“There are a couple things on some run through ‘backers we’ve got to fix up front. Initially I thought we were moving them off the ball really well, but it was really the run through stuff that got us. It’s something we’ve got to fix, but not a magical number of yards we need. We need to have enough yards to score enough points to win.”

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That hasn’t been the case four times this year, and slow starts have been responsible in many of them. It won’t get any easier next week at Indiana, a top 10 team that will enter as a two-touchdown favorite. Michigan is going to have to play much better from the get-go to beat Curt Cignetti’s team.

“We’ve got to flip that around. We can’t start slow, especially against the offense we’re about to play … another high powered offense that scores a lot of points, has got great players,” Moore said. “For us, we’ve got to figure out the best plays we want to start the game and continue to go from there.”

There’s only one goal Saturday and the rest of the way, the Michigan coach added.

“Win. There’s no other factor,” he said. “We want to win, so that’s what we’re going to focus on. How do we win the next game, then win the next one and the next one? That’s all we’re worried about is just getting the ‘W’ for next week.”

Chris Balas and former Michigan offensive lineman Doug Skene break it down in today’s podcast.

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