In sports, every great team has one thing in common — they all have a hallmark. Something they can hang their hat on and say, “This is our identity.”
In the first-ever regular season meeting between Texas and Michigan, the defending national champion Wolverines discovered that they desperately need to rediscover theirs.
Entering the game as roughly a touchdown underdog against the Longhorns, the question hanging over the head of the program was a simple one: have they found their rightful leading man at quarterback, and can this offense produce at a level that allows them to keep pace with one of the best units in the country?
Well, we got our answer. They haven’t — and, at present, it most certainly cannot. Texas beat the Wolverines, 31-12.
Michigan running back Donovan Edwards (7) makes his way past Texas defenders. (Tony Patroske/The Pit Media)
Blessing in disguise?
In a way, you could say that hosting the likes of Texas this early in the season was a blessing in disguise.
It’s hard to deny your shortcomings when someone walks into your house and shows you all the qualities that you’re struggling to produce. And yes, that might be a minor exaggeration, but this isn’t: Texas dictated how this game would be played from the opening snap. The foundation for doing such came from the fact that, despite having an elite front four and premier talent in the secondary, Michigan could do very little to pressure Quinn Ewers all afternoon.
His ability to manipulate the pocket resulted in the Longhorns going 8-10 on 3rd down in the first half, despite the average yardage to go coming in at over 8 yards on the ‘need to have it’ down.
To make matters worse, Texas was eating in the rushing attack. The Longhorns ran the ball 19 times in the opening half and averaged four yards a carry. But if you take Ewers three attempts out of the equation, that number reaches just shy of 4.5 YPC — and all four runners corked off an attempt that went for at least 7 yards.
Glimpses of what could be
But again, all of this could have felt much more manageable if the Wolverines came out looking like a group that knew who they were on offense. And, believe it or not, there were glimpses.
On their second possession of the game, Warren looked as in command of the offense as he has all season. The drive featured the return of an Ann Arbor favorite — the flea flicker, which went for 22 yards on a pass to CJ Charleston, and just a few plays later, Donovan Edwards was denied a look at the open field for a sure thing touchdown via a crucial tackle by Texas DB Michael Taaffe.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Warren was pulled on 3rd-and-3 just inside the red zone to give Alex Orji his first action of the game. Michigan called up a designed QB run, which went for no gain and led to a field goal. Those would be their only points of the first half.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian walks the sideline in Ann Arbor. (Tony Patroske/The Pit Media)
Woes upon woes
With less than 7 minutes remaining in the second quarter and trailing 14-3, Warren looked to connect with Tyler Morris on 3rd-and-2, but he delivered the ball high and slightly behind his man, which caused Morris to pop it up for the taking — and safety Andrew Mukuba took advantage, giving the Texas defense their first turnover of the day in Wolverine territory.
After converting the advantageous field position into another 3 points, Texas got yet another break. On a 3rd-and-long with less than two minutes left until halftime, Warren found Colston Loveland on an out route with ample running room downfield, but the usually reliable tight end — and Michigan’s best target in the passing game by a mile — lost his handle on the ball as he started running up field.
And just like that, Michigan went into the locker room down, 24-3, after the defense conceded its third touchdown of the day on a five-yard pass by Ewers to Matthew Golden near the front pylon.
Second half ugliness
Things didn’t get any prettier in the second half.
Entering the fourth quarter, Michigan had 73 yards of passing offense. Warren, trailing by 25 points at home in his second career start, threw his second interception of the day. And you have to ask yourself, from a pure mechanics and preparation outlook — if he won the starting role over Orji and Tuttle, how far off were those guys in training camp? What do they look like in practice? And when does the program start looking at Jayden Denagle as an option if things don’t improve?
Despite winning it all last season and being regarded as a Top 10 program heading into 2024, most analysts and pundits didn’t expect the Wolverines to win this game after their underwhelming performance against Fresno State in the opener. But losing in a competitive faceoff where you’ve accounted well for your strengths and given your opponent something to grapple with would be one thing — and this wasn’t that.
The Michigan offense didn’t produce a touchdown until there were less than two minutes left in the game, and only had one play in the red zone all afternoon. And the defense didn’t fair much better — being held without a turnover or sack.
Moving on
One thing you can’t take away from Warren is his determination. Even when the game was far beyond reach, the fourth-year senior continued to do what he could in hopes of giving his side of the ball some juice. But this loss wasn’t just on Davis’ shoulders – there simply weren’t many bright spots to be found anywhere you looked in this passing attack.
“I didn’t do enough. I shot myself – shot us in the foot too many times.” Warren said at the postgame presser. “We knew it was going to be a tight game and we let them off the hook. So it’s a really crappy feeling, because we knew that — I know this room, this offense, this team has what it takes to win that football game, and we didn’t do it. So there’s a lot of reflection, a lot of things we need to work on.”
There’s no dancing around it. When you’re coming off a championship season and hope to be accounted for in the newly expanded 12-team playoff, days like this simply aren’t gonna cut it.
After the game, head coach Sherrone Moore spoke about the outlook going forward after losing a game that ended a program-leading win streak for Michigan.
“It’s going to take resolve. You know, we haven’t lost in a while. You don’t like losing — we don’t lose. We didn’t lose all last year, and only twice the year before that. I just think about how they feel and what we’re gonna do to get better. That’s all we’re worried about right now. We’re going to take everything we can in all three phases to get better.”
