Michigan Monday: Turn Out The Lights...

You can only handle fire with gasoline gloves for so long before you become engulfed in the flames of inevitability.

That was Michigan’s lot after finally succumbing to their smoldering fate in a 27-17 loss on the road to a Washington team that already held losses to Washington State and Rutgers.

The Wolverines came into this game with back-to-back 27-24 wins over USC and Minnesota. The wins certainly didn’t mask the problems. Everybody saw them. They were just kicked down the road until they got to Washington’s driveway.

The Huskies welcomed in a Michigan football team that was purported to have a strong defense and a struggling offense. The latter was confirmed, but Washington decided the former needed some fact checking.

The Huskies got out to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter, at which point Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore made a move at quarterback, benching starter Alex Orji in favor of seventh-year senior Jack Tuttle. The move seemed to work, at least initially. Tuttle led the Wolverines on three-consecutive scoring drives, capturing a 17-14 lead early in the third quarter.

Unfortunately for Michigan, that lead would just as quickly evaporate, revealing the awful residue of reality.

Not only is the offense limited in scheme, scope, and skill, but the defense has enough weaknesses that the strengths can sometimes be avoided. Even worse, by the third and fourth quarters, those strengths have worn down to the point where they can be attacked just like any other part of the defense.

There is no foreseeable fix for the offense, and at some point the defense is going to either get tired of getting tired or they’re going to lose their discipline by trying to do too much. Either way, they need more help than they’re going to get from an offense that never should have been allowed to get to this point in the first place.

Sherrone Moore is the head coach so he gets the blame, but it was Jim Harbaugh that put this quarterback room together and developed it into the situation that you see today.

As it turns out, trying to leave for the NFL for years on end is not the best way to build quarterback depth. Or any other kind of depth for that matter.

Michigan now has seven regular season games remaining. They will probably be favored in just two of them.

Programs are not supposed to fall this quickly following a national title.

But maybe we shouldn’t even consider this a fall. Maybe we should instead consider this Michigan simply returning to its level.

When Michigan Was On Offense

Michigan ran the ball for 174 yards on 37 carries. They were led by Donovan Edwards who went for 95 yards on 14 carries, including a 39-yard touchdown. Kalel Mullings managed just 49 yards on 14 carries with a long rush of seven yards.

Of the Wolverines’ 37 rush attempts, only two went 10 yards or more. For everything that gets said about the quarterback, this running game borders on remarkably average way more than it should. Like the defense, it is being asked to do too much, and against too much, so it’s probably unfair to say it could do more, but somebody’s got to.

I guess this is like yelling at your straight-A kid for getting a B- while not even blinking at your failing kid when you get a call from the school saying he punched a janitor in the kidney.

Alex Orji may have possibly started for the last time at quarterback. He was given three series before being benched, which makes you wonder why he even got the start to begin with. If Jack Tuttle was healthy enough to go, what exactly were they expecting to see from Orji to think he would be able to move the ball in a satisfactory way?

I guess maybe they saw the same thing they did in the spring when they decided they didn’t need a portal quarterback.

(No, there weren’t many options in the spring, but if agents hear that a job is up for grabs, options will start to fall from the sky.)

Tuttle completed 10-of-18 passes for 98 yards with one touchdown, one interception, and one lost fumble. It took Washington’s defense a few series to adjust to a quarterback that could attempt passes, but once they did, this game was over.

After Tuttle led drives of 75, 56, and 75 yards, their final five possessions went 1, 4, 13, 6, and 15 yards, respectively. The Huskies caught on, caught up, and ran by.

Of course, a quarterback also needs receivers to throw the ball to, which has also been a problem for Orji, Tuttle, and Davis Warren this season. The Michigan wideouts were targeted just four times in 25 pass attempts. Tight end Colston Loveland was targeted 12 times. He caught half of those targets for just 33 yards.

The Wolverine passing game is where third downs go to die. Michigan was 4-of-12 on third down conversions in this one. Only one of those conversions came through the air.

Michigan’s wide receivers have a long reception this season of just 31 yards. They have a total of 280 yards receiving this year on 31 catches (9.0 ypc). They have scored two touchdowns. No, Davis Warren and Alex Orji haven’t been able to put the ball where the receivers need it, but where’s the evidence to suggest that they can even get open a meaningful distance from the line of scrimmage?

Starter Semaj Morgan caught one pass for 16 yards on Saturday — and 21 of those yards came after the catch. That’s not a route tree, that’s just passing the buck.

The offensive line also had their ongoing issues. Starting left tackle Myles Hinton was out. Jeff Persi got the start in his place and struggled. Greg Crippen also got the start at center. He has been in a rotation with Dominick Giudice this season, but Giudice was held out as well.

It is way too difficult for Michigan to win games right now. They are struggling with teams that are struggling to win eight games in a season. Which means that the Wolverines are also one of those struggling teams. And right now, eight wins seems pretty damn optimistic.

When Michigan Was On Defense

The Wolverine defense allowed 315 yards passing in this one on 23-of-33 attempts. Passing yards allowed can be a relatively meaningless stat because teams that are behind generally throw the ball a lot. It is interesting to note, however, that all six of Michigan’s opponents this season have thrown for at least 200 yards.

Last year, only three opponents managed to throw for 200 yards on the Wolverine defense — and none hit 300 yards like Washington did on Saturday.

Michigan did manage to sack Washington quarterbacks Will Rogers and Demond Williams four times, but they needed about six more if they were truly going to stop the Huskies through the air.

Washington successfully attacked cornerback Jyaire Hill repeatedly. This was also a big step back for nickel back Zeke Berry, who missed tackles and was also lax in coverage. And as I’ve continued to say, safety Makari Paige does not have the range needed to play deep safety.

The Huskies learned from Texas that they didn’t need to throw at cornerback Will Johnson in order to throw on the Wolverines. And yet, even by the end, they were attacking Johnson as well. He was flagged for a costly pass interference penalty and was also beaten on a slant-and-go that would have been a touchdown if it wasn’t overthrown.

Johnson is trying to make plays right now because he knows if he doesn’t, this team is probably going to lose.

Linebacker Ernest Hausmann had a productive day with 12 tackles and an interception that could have saved the game. Instead it just prolonged the false hope.

Defensive end Josiah Stewart was back after missing last week. He posted a sack and two tackles for loss. He has the potential to cause a turnover on any pass play and always bears watching. But like the rest of this defense, he can wear down.

The Wolverines were without Derrick Moore, who is Michigan’s other starting defensive end.

This defense is not deep enough to be missing key players. Extended drives and tempo have been effective. The longer a game gets, the easier it gets for the opposing offense.

Michigan has allowed 152 yards rushing (1.9 ypc) in the first half of games this year. In the second half, they have given up 306 yards (3.9 ypc). That’s still a pretty good yard-per-carry average, but the second-half adjustments by the offenses and perhaps lack of the same from defensive coordinator Wink Martindale seem to be factoring into their second-half difficulties this season.

Also, all three of the 30+ yard rushes they’ve allowed this season have taken place in the second halves of games.

The Michigan Special Teams

Michigan’s field goal defense held Washington to .500 on field goal attempts, so that’s something. They did block one at the end of the half. Wolverine kicker Dominic Zvada is continuing his stellar season, but there’s nothing else to write home about with the Michigan special teams. The punting is average. The return game is non-existent.

This Michigan team needs to gain some advantages from the special teams, and to this point they are not.

What Does It All Mean?

It means that no matter how much we talk about the Michigan quarterback situation, we’re still not talking about it enough.

The Wolverines will likely start Jack Tuttle the next time they play, which will be in two weeks when they travel to Illinois. It will be the first time Michigan has started three quarterbacks in a season since the 2017 debacle that featured Wilton Speight, John O’Korn, and Brandon Peters.

I can find reasons why they weren’t able to land a quarterback in the offseason. When you are one of the last two teams playing, there is not much of a market remaining. However, Washington was one of those last two teams playing as well, and they’re starting a portal quarterback that Michigan would love to have right now.

The bigger question is what the hell made them think that this was a feasible plan of attack? They’ve seen every practice snap of all of their quarterbacks. When did they ever see something they thought would be good enough with which to win? This was not a coaching staff that was operating with the kind of panic that we saw from Ohio State last year when they brought in right tackle Victor Cutler from Louisiana Freaking Monroe because they were desperate for a center.

There has been no desperation, only resignation. No effort, only disappointment.

There was a point in the game when the television camera showed offensive coordinator/QB coach Kirk Campbell, and he had a look on his face like “WTF am I supposed to do with this?”

The answer is to never let it get this bad. When you are one snap away from starting a former walk-on or a future H-back, you should stop collecting a check and start collecting your belongings.

It also means that when people say Jim Harbaugh left Sherrone Moore holding the bag, they ignore the fact that Harbaugh also took the bag and didn’t actually leave Michigan with anything.

There are a lot of people to blame for the situation right now, and one of them is currently the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Even with the transfer portal, there doesn’t appear to be a quick fix here. The cloud from the impending NCAA infractions will likely see to that, as well as Moore’s lack of head coaching success to this point.

There’s a lot to negatively recruit against right now and very little proof of concept of Michigan’s plan for the future.

All of their eggs were put in last year’s basket.

Which explains why they are now a shell of their former selves.

The Road To The Game

Aug. 31 – Michigan 30 – Fresno State 10 (1-0)
Sept. 7 – Texas 31 – Michigan 12 (1-1)
Sept. 14 – Michigan 28 – Arkansas State 18 (2-1)
Sept. 21 – Michigan 27 – USC 24 (3-1, 1-0)
Sept. 28 – Michigan 27 – Minnesota 24 (4-1, 2-0)
Oct. 5 – Washington 27 – Michigan 17 (4-2, 2-1)
Oct. 12 – OPEN
Oct. 19 – at Illinois
Oct. 26 – Michigan State
Nov. 2 – Oregon
Nov. 9 – at Indiana
Nov. 16 – OPEN
Nov. 23 – Northwestern
Nov. 30 – at Ohio State