Michigan Football: 4 things on Wolverines bye week to-do list
By Jacob Shames
Hold onto the ball
Yeah, you knew this was coming.
Not only did Michigan lose as many fumbles as it did in all of 2018, it did so in the first half. Quite simply, that can’t happen.
Holding onto the dang football, however, isn’t as simple as clutching it tightly. Only one player can hold the ball at a time, but it’s the job of everyone else on the field to protect that player.
You might point to these as the little things, and it was the little things that nearly did the Wolverines on Saturday.
On Michigan’s first possession, Ryan Hayes stood absently, arms-out, looking more like a turnstile than the Wolverines’ offensive player of the game last week. Arik Smith cruised right past him to knock the ball loose and end a promising drive that had just moved into Black Knight territory.
Near the end of the first quarter, after the Wolverines recovered a fumble of their own deep in Army territory, Christian Turner was way late on a blitz from Shea Patterson’s blindside. The ball popped free again.
A drive later, it became comical when Ben VanSumeren lost the ball after a six-yard carry. Between this and Turner’s whiff, it’s no wonder why Zach Charbonnet barely came off the field Saturday.
According to Jim Harbaugh, Michigan’s pass protection, overall, was good on Saturday. And it will only get better with Jon Runyan Jr. set to return soon.
But all it takes is one lapse in concentration, from anyone on the field, to undo that. The Wolverines had three of them in 20 minutes of football and it nearly cost them a win. If the wire-to-wire focus isn’t properly emphasized over the next two weeks, it eventually will cost them a win.