Michigan football: 5 things that went wrong against Wisconsin
By Jacob Shames
Lack of offensive ideas
For a brief second, it looked like the Wolverines might have unlocked the key to Speed in Space. On their first play of the game, Shea Patterson turned a busted play into a 68-yard catch-and-run to Ronnie Bell.
One play later, Patterson handed off to Ben Mason, who promptly committed Michigan’s ninth fumble of the season. Wisconsin recovered inside the 10-yard line.
Mason’s presence reeked of desperation and a lack of ideas. He’d put on around 30 pounds and exclusively worked at defensive tackle since August. With star freshman Zach Charbonnet in the backfield, the only justification for Mason’s presence in the game was to catch the Badgers off-guard. It failed miserably.
Speaking of Charbonnet, after receiving 33 carries against Army, most of them predictable and unproductive zone-read takes, he didn’t touch the ball until midway through the second quarter.
Furthermore, the three NFL-caliber receivers supposed to be the foundation of Speed and Space — Nico Collins, Tarik Black and Donovan Peoples-Jones (who is still working back into form from an injury, to be fair) were mostly nowhere to be seen. Which leads into the next thing that went wrong…