Trying To Make Sense Of The Wolverines Stunning Loss

Breaking down what went wrong in Michigan's 27-24 loss to the Spartans.

After the Wolverines got a win on the road against a top 25 team for the second time since 2006, while the Spartans lost to a team who hadn’t won a Big Ten game since 2017, Michigan was expected to dominate Michigan State, coming into the contest as a 21.5 point favorite. However, the Spartans came to play and the Wolverines didn’t on both sides of the ball, leading to Mel Tucker’s first victory as the head coach of the Spartans and the “fire Jim Harbaugh” Wolverine fans to come back to life.

Offensively

Michigan’s offense was dreadful. Despite throwing the ball 52 times, the Wolverines only had one pass play over 20 yards in the game, as they rarely took any deep shots.

Maybe the lack of deep passes attempted is due to the fact that the Wolverines don’t believe they have a wide receiver, who can go up and catch jump balls in coverage. However, with all the speed on the outside and a quarterback who has the arm talent, Joe Milton does, attempting only a couple of deep shots in a game, which he threw over 50 times is unacceptable.

Since Harbaugh arrived his clock management has been putrid, and Saturday was no different. Down by 10 points with just over five minutes left in the game, one would think Michigan’s offense would have a sense of urgency. However, that was not the case, as Joe Milton never took a shot down the field and instead just kept checking it down. The touchdown drive took 18 plays and four minutes and 34 seconds off the clock, as the Wolverines had nine plays on the drive, not including incompletions, which resulted in less than 10 yards and failed to stop the clock by getting out of bounds. Since the touchdown drive took so long, Michigan was forced to try an onside kick and never ended up getting the ball back with a chance to tie the game.

There were a few bright spots for Michigan’s offense. True freshman running back Blake Corum looks poised to be a star for the Wolverines in the future. Corum had two rushing touchdowns, and the speed he showed to get on the outside on his first touchdown run was extremely impressive. Hassan Haskins also ran hard for the Wolverines, as he broke a few tackles rushing for 56 yards and a touchdown while averaging seven yards per carry.

Overall, though Milton looked shaky, as he was lucky not to have a couple of interceptions in the contest. The Wolverines offensive line got abused by the Spartans defensive line on too many run plays, as Michigan had 15 rushes for less than three yards not including touchdown runs. The wide receivers couldn’t create much separation for Milton down the field, and the play-calling was dreadful, as they attempted two straight wildcat plays in the red-zone, despite having a 6-5 243 pound quarterback who can run and throw.

Defensively

The Wolverines' defensive backs were dreadful against the Spartans. Michigan State had five pass plays for at least 30 yards, nine pass plays for at least 15 yards, and forced four penalties on Michigan’s defensive backs. The Wolverines are inexperienced in the secondary, and Don Brown refused to adjust, as he kept allowing his corners Vincent Gray and Gemon Green to get burned in man to man coverage. In particular, the Michigan defensive backs had no answers for Spartans wide receiver Ricky White, who had eight catches for 196 yards (24.5 yards per reception) and a touchdown.

The Spartan quarterback Rocky Lombardi threw for more yards and touchdown passes than Joe Milton, despite throwing the ball 19 fewer times.

Michigan’s secondary didn’t get much help from the pass rush either, as the Wolverines rarely got pressure on the Spartans quarterback, who was sacked zero times. Michigan’s run defense wasn’t great once again either, as the Spartans rushed for over 125 yards and could not give the Wolverines offense one last chance, letting the Spartans quarterback sneak on a 4th and 2 to close out the game.

Other than Daxton Hill, who was flying all over the field, Michigan’s defense was poor against a team who had turned the ball over seven times the week before and Don Brown once again refused to adjust when his defense was getting beat in man-to-man coverage.