Michigan Football: Grading the offensive disaster against Alabama

Defense

Say what you want, these men performed.

Defensive line

Grade: C

Missing the game-changing upperclassman Carlo Kemp and Michael Dwumfour, Don Brown had some remarkably important decisions to make. Aidan Hutchinson, Chris Hinton, Mike Danna, Josh Uche, and a few others did what they could against a top-notch ‘Bama offense. Overall, it was admirable without several pieces.

Linebackers

Grade: B

Alabama’s Najee Harris finished with 136 yards and two touchdowns, but that’s not the full story. His second TD occurred with 26 seconds left, and his first-half numbers were laughable. At the end of the day, it appeared both the linemen and linebackers couldn’t keep up with the pace of play and eventually surrendered to the much larger Crimson Tide. Still, the LB’s get a B for effort in what was a closer loss than what the score displays.

Defensive backs/safeties

Grade: C+

When you give up an 85-yard touchdown pass for the opponent’s very first offensive drive on the very first offensive play, you’re not going to receive an outstanding grade. But when you hold a team like Alabama to 21 points over three quarters, you must be doing something right.

Even when you allow 35 total points to Alabama, the match should remain a winnable one. Only one other team for the 2019 season held the Tide to that total that’s including pre-and-post Tua. Outside of Jerry Jeudy‘s 85-yard bomb, the first half was successful for this group, and again, it came down to the time of possession in the second half. The offense couldn’t stay on the field, and eventually, something had to break.