Michigan Football: It was 2017 all over again in Notre Dame loss

Yes, the 2018 season has started for Michigan football, however, in an embarrassing loss at Notre Dame, it looked an awful lot like 2017.

There were a lot of reasons to be excited about the Michigan football team heading into the 2018 season. The Wolverines had a new quarterback, a strong defense again, a new offensive line coach and a new hope.

Yet, in an ugly 24-17 loss to Notre Dame, in South Bend Saturday night, Michigan football looked a lot like it did in 2017. And even though UM lost by seven, it should have been by more.

Once again, the team fell flat on its face in a big game. Notre Dame, on a mixture of penalties and big plays, went ahead 14-0 in the blink of an eye. Michigan, on the other hand, bumbled its way through an ugly first half and found itself down 21-3 at one point.

The worst moments came when quarterback Shea Patterson was sacked and pushed out of field goal range, taking three points off the board; what was even worse, was the Chase Winovich roughing the passer on third down, which gave Notre Dame new life on a crucial drive that ended with a touchdown instead of a field goal.

The defense was better in the second half, actually getting an interception by Brandon Watson and sacks from Devin Bush Jr., Winovich and others. Unfortunately, the offense, which got a deep completion to Nico Collins early in the third quarter, couldn’t take advantage.

That drive ended in a botched field-goal attempt. Then after the Watson interception, UM turned it over on downs near midfield. Patterson also threw a costly interception, giving Michigan five drives that advanced into Irish territory but resulted in zero points. Michigan football also had three drives inside the Notre Dame 30 that resulted in just three points.

When you are playing the No. 12 team in the nation, that’s’ just not good enough. The quarterback wasn’t good enough; the running game wasn’t good enough; the coaching wasn’t good enough and surprisingly, neither was the defense.

Even special teams struggled. Outside of the 98-yard kickoff return touchdown by Ambry Thomas, the kicking game was an edge for the Irish too. And what makes this loss the most painful, is that many of the issues were the same ones that limited the team in 2017.

The running game was an abysmal failure. Karan Higdon had moments and a touchdown run, but 58 yards on 33 carries will not get it done against a ranked team on the road. Michigan was also 6-of-17 on third and fourth downs and got just one TD on four trips inside the 30.

Patterson did look good at times and certainly better than John O’Korn or Brandon Peters. He completed 22-of-30 passes for 227 yards but most of it was late.  His first start at Michigan also had one interception, a bad fumble late that sealed the loss and zero touchdowns.

Patterson offered promising moments, such as his late touchdown drive in the fourth quarter but if he had been better, Michigan football could have won this game. The same would have been true if the defense decided to show up sometime in the first half.

Thankfully, it was just one game and it wasn’t against a Big Ten team. Michigan has all of its goals in front of still but until the offense gets more productive, this team will continue to underachieve.