Best and worst from Michigan's loss to Oregon
ANN ARBOR — Michigan Wolverines football fell to 5-4 overall (3-3 Big Ten) with a 38-17 loss to Oregon Saturday at The Big House. Here are the best and worst from the game.
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Worst call
In what could’ve been at least a four-point swing, the officials made a massive blunder early in the game. Oregon drove down on its first possession, going 63 yards in 12 plays capped off by a third-down touchdown pass from Dillon Gabriel to wideout Evan Stewart.
Except it wasn’t a touchdown. Since all scoring plays are reviewed, Michigan couldn’t challenge, but the ball came free before the catch was completed. The officials held up play for a few moments but didn’t review it long enough to see what really happened.
In a similar vein, we’ll give ‘worst challenge’ to Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, who wasted a timeout by asking the officials to take another look at a non-catch by junior tight end Colston Loveland along the sideline. There were several replays shown on the video boards in the stadium, displaying the ball coming free before he survived the ground.
Slow start
‘Michigan isn’t a good enough team to _______ and win’ is a sentence we’ve written a lot this season. Fill in the blank with ‘turn the ball over’ or ‘commit costly penalties’ and we could point to some examples throughout the course of the fall. Saturday, it was ‘start slowly.’ And that, too, has been a theme this season.
Michigan went three-and-out on its first two possessions, before a recovered fumble on a punt return gave it new life and the Wolverines cashed in with a touchdown to tie the game. The defense, meanwhile, allowed touchdowns on the first two, and four of the first five, series in the first half.
Michigan went down 28-10, and a comeback would’ve been the second-largest by the Wolverines in the history of The Big House. That’s hard to do against the No. 1 team in the country.
Best team in the country?
Is Oregon the best team in the land? Texas, which also whipped Michigan in Ann Arbor, looked similarly great when we saw them live. Georgia and Ohio State have cases, but each has a loss, and the Buckeyes’ setback was by one point to the Ducks.
It had to be satisfying for head coach Dan Lanning and Co. to roll into Michigan and defeat the defending national champions on the way to what they hope is just as special a season as the Wolverines had last year, going 15-0 and standing atop the college football world.
Oregon is a complete team — offense, defense, special teams. Gabriel is outstanding, so is the offensive line and there are weapons at the skill positions. That offense put up 30 points for the eighth straight game, along with 470 total yards, on Michigan. The defense tackles well and doesn’t miss a lot of assignments.
Spark
Michigan received a boost from an unlikely hero — senior wide receiver Joe Taylor. The walk-on forced a fumble on Michigan’s second punt of the game, and graduate wideout C.J. Charleston recovered it at the Oregon 28-yard line. Michigan scored to tie the game up at 7-7. Frankly, the Maize and Blue wouldn’t have had much life early in the game if it weren’t for Taylor’s big play.
Costly penalty
Oregon’s special teams run some funky formations, but they’re legal. They’re so funky that the Ducks coerced Michigan into an illegal formation — defensively — on a punt, extending what was a field goal-scoring drive.
That, similar to the fake punt conversion Michigan gave up at Illinois two weeks ago, was killer.
Michigan had the momentum, scoring a touchdown sandwiched between forcing back-to-back punts, but sophomore defensive tackle Trey Pierce lined up directly over the long snapper, a penalty that gave Oregon 15 yards and a first down. Michigan’s defense eventually came up with a stop to hold the Ducks to 3, but that made it a 14-point game late in the third quarter.
Michigan has to win on the (very thin) margins against great teams this season, and big mistakes like that are crucial. The Wolverines also had to burn a timeout with only 10 players on the field and had a 12-men-on-the-field penalty on that same possession. Coaching seemed to cost them 3 points.
Rally time
Michigan fought valiantly until the end — effort certainly wasn’t lacking — but came up well short. Despite some of the aforementioned mistakes, Michigan was in the game until midway through the fourth quarter.
The Maize and Blue drove 70 yards in 11 plays, all the way to the Oregon 10-yard line, before turning the ball over on downs. With only one timeout, Michigan had a slim chance to pull off any late-game magic at that point, and the Wolverines couldn’t get a stop on defense after that anyway.
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Worst play call
The fourth-down play call has been heavily scrutinized since sophomore wide receiver Semaj Morgan fired the pass intended for junior quarterback Alex Orji out of bounds.
That’s right: Fourth down, game on the line, gotta have it … and Michigan went with a trick, ‘Philly Special’ style play.
It’s worth noting that the call on every play that doesn’t work out can be questioned. If Oregon didn’t have a defender drop into coverage where Orji was running his route, Michigan may have been able to complete it. The Wolverines’ coaching staff would’ve been praised as geniuses for saving that play for the ‘perfect’ moment. So, take this criticism with a grain of salt.
At the same time, running that on fourth down, in a do-or-die situation, was much too risky, especially when senior quarterback Davis Warren was actually playing quite well.
Michigan’s best passes
Speaking of Warren excelling, Michigan’s quarterback finished 13-of-23 passing for 165 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the two scoring throws were dimes. Warren has a knack for throwing accurate passes on the run — not easy — and showed off that skill on both plays.
The first one to junior wide receiver Tyler Morris came with Warren on the move to his right. There wasn’t much there, but he placed the ball perfectly into a tight window, and Morris made a stellar catch.
The next was housemate to housemate. Warren found senior wide receiver Peyton O’Leary after fading to his left.
Both were on third-and-goal, too. The fact that Warren executed in those pressure situations was even more reason to roll with him at the goal line on the even-more-important drive on which they ran the trick play.
Too much time
Michigan’s end-of-half defense was great against MSU last week, forcing and recovering a fumble, but Oregon drove down extremely quickly late in the second quarter Saturday. The Ducks had 1:47 on the clock after a Wolverine field goal, but they needed only 1:12 to put another seven points on the board. That made it 28-10 at halftime — a huge hole to climb out of.
Worst stats
• Michigan rushed for 105 yards — its second-lowest mark of the season.
• Michigan averaged only 2.9 yards per play on first down, including 1.6 yards per first-down rush. The Wolverines, in turn, averaged 8.2 yards to go on third down and went 4-of-12 on those conversion attempts.
• Oregon averaged 8.5 yards after the catch per reception.
• The Ducks completed 5 passes of 10-plus air yards, including 3 of 20-plus. Michigan being without both starting cornerbacks — junior Will Johnson and sophomore Jyaire Hill — was a tough blow.
• Without its starting cornerbacks, Michigan didn’t sack Gabriel.
• The Ducks had 6 passing plays of 15-plus yards, amassing 188 yards on those throws.
