Wolverine Digest

Stock Up, Stock Down: Michigan Football defeats MSU for 3rd straight year

The Wolverines hold on to the Paul Bunyan trophy for another year!

Matt Lounsberry

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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This year's rendition of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry lacked some of the luster from previous years, but there was no shortage of drama on Saturday night in Ann Arbor.

After getting off to a dreadful start, the Wolverines settled in and made enough plays on both sides of the ball to outlast the Spartans in a 24-17 win for the home team. It was Michigan's third consecutive victory over Michigan State, the longest winning streak the Wolverines have enjoyed in this series since winning six in a row from 2002-07.

Michigan improves to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Big Ten play on the season, dropping MSU to 4-4 and 2-3 in the process. Below, we've listed a handful of positive and negative takeaways from the game in "Stock Up, Stock Down"...

Stock Up

Michigan's ball security, discipline: The Wolverines' biggest enemy this season has been their inability to protect the football, but Michigan finally played a clean game tonight against the Spartans. It was far from pretty for the Wolverines offensively, with tough sledding in the run game and the limitations of the aerial attack ever present. However, Michigan forced a crucial turnover in the closing seconds of the second half when edge rusher Josaiah Stewart strip-sacked MSU's Aidan Chiles. That led to a Wolverines' field goal and the lead despite a porous first 27 minutes for U-M. With that, Michigan won the turnover battle (1-0) and was not penalized once throughout the game. It wasn't a pretty game for the Maize and Blue, but it was by far their cleanest of the season.

Michigan's QB rotation: Listen, there won't be any awards given out to the Wolverines' quarterbacks after today's game, but Davis Warren and Alex Orji did what this coaching staff asked them to do and were mostly effective in that. Michigan's offense was still highly limited, but Warren connected on just enough downfield throws and Orji was a nice change of pace in the run game. Give credit to the coaching staff for that at least. Warren finished the game completing 13-of-19 pass attempts for 123 yards and a touchdown, while Orji added 64 rushing yards on six carries with a score on the ground. Is this level of play from both QBs sustainable down the stretch this season? Who knows, but it was enough to get the job done against MSU.

Colston Loveland: As bad as this Michigan passing attack has been all season, it's hard to imagine how inept it would be without the All-American tight end. Loveland had another monster game in this one, with six receptions for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns. One of the great travesties of this season has been we haven't really gotten to see how good of a year Loveland could be having with more help around him. Despite that, he's been a total stud for the Wolverines anyway.

Donovan Edwards' halfback passes: The stock on these were already sky-high, but Edwards added a fourth completion on his fourth career pass attempt tonight, finding Loveland for a 23-yard touchdown on a fourth-quarter gadget play to extend Michigan's lead to two touchdowns. Edwards, the running back, has thrown for a remarkable 131 passing yards with two passing touchdowns in his Maize and Blue career.

Stock Down

Third down defense and overall tackling: It's been a struggle for Michigan to get off the field on third down all season long, and Saturday night was no different. The Wolverines had Michigan State in third-and-longs seemingly throughout the game, but time and time again gave up chunk plays on those crucial downs and allowed the Spartans to extend drives. Michigan State converted 8-of-15 third downs on the night, including rushing for conversions multiple times on those third-and-longs. To be frank, Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale was severely outcoached by MSU offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren in these situations, and that's been something of a common occurance this season.

To be fair to the defensive coordinator, there were times Martindale had guys in the correct position and they just didn't make the tackle. It's been so rare to see Michigan defenders miss tackles over the previous three seasons, but it's been a chronic problem for this year's Wolverines. That falls on U-M's entire defensive coaching staff.

Michigan's run game: Historically, this rivalry game has been won by the team runs for the most yards, but the Wolverines' bucked that trend tonight. Michigan was outrushed 163-119 for the game, and both running back Kalel Mullings (1.4 yards per carry) and Donovan Edwards (2.7) were held in check by the Spartans. The Wolverines got a nice boost on the ground from quarterback Alex Orji, as mentioned above, but as a team was held to just 3.8 yards per rush attempt tonight. As Michigan's limitations in the pass game have become more and more clear, opposing defenses are keying in on the run and daring the Wolverines to beat them a different way.

Punter Tommy Doman: It's been an up and down couple of years for Doman, but his struggles Saturday night could have cost Michigan the ball game. Not only did the punter mishandle a perfectly-fine snap on the extra point following U-M's first touchdown, Doman also averaged just 36.6 yards per punt on five attempts against Michigan State. In close balls games with both offenses struggling, field position is a huge determining factor. For the most part, the Wolverines won that battle on Saturday night, but that came despite Doman's play. We haven't seen Michigan trot any other punters out there this season, but the shanked punts and mishandled snaps are happening too frequently for Doman to be trusted much longer.

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Matt Lounsberry
MATT LOUNSBERRY

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