Michigan Football: Why it’s not as bad as you think

This is more common than you think

The game against Army was hard to watch. So was the Army game against Oklahoma last year; similarly settled in extra minutes. Let’s take a dive into that game and compare it to Saturday.

“Yes, the Sooner defense struggled mightily against Army’s triple-option, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense on Saturday and showed some defensive leakage in a 10-point win over a mediocre Iowa State team the week before,” Chip Rouse from Stormin’ the Norman wrote following the Oklahoma-Army game.

Sound familiar? Two poor performances by a team that ended the season 12-2 with its quarterback honored as the Heisman winner.

It was terrible back-to-back games for Michigan too, and before you @ me on Twitter to call me names, take a look at these stats.

2018 Kyler Murray

11/15, 165 yards, three touchdowns, one interception

2019 Shea Patterson

19/29, 207 yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions

2018 Trey Sermon

18 rushes for 119 yards, zero touchdowns

2019 Zach Charbonnet

33 rushes for 100 yards, three touchdowns

The players above had similar performances against Army in what was a low scoring affair both times. The difference between the games is Army executed nearly perfectly in Soonerland and survived against Michigan in Ann Arbor. If not for UM shooting itself in the foot time and time again, the Wolverines could have pulled away.

In Norman, the Black Knights possessed the ball for 45 minutes to Oklahoma’s 15, and in Ann Arbor, it was almost even (Army 32, Mich 28).

Also, in Norman, Army had six penalties to Oklahoma’s four. In Ann Arbor, Army had eight penalties to Michigan’s nine. Also, in the first half, the foot shooting was on full display with three turnovers to Army’s one.

Both teams coughed up 21 points, and both teams escaped with wins (Oklahoma 28-12, Michigan 24-21).

In case you forgot, Oklahoma completed the season with a loss in the College Football Playoff. I’d consider that a success.