Michigan Football: Wolverines left a lot on the field in 2019

Despite high expectations, Michigan football limped to a 9-4 finish and missed some big opportunities in 2019.

Let’s take a trip back to the middle of August, a few weeks before the 2019 Michigan football season was set to begin. The fans of the maize and blue were ripe with enthusiasm and hope for their team.

Jim Harbaugh is set to begin his fifth year as head coach of Michigan football and expectations are very high. The Wolverines are the favorite to win the Big Ten. They return Shea Patterson at QB with weapons all around him and a new OC, Josh Gattis.

The submarine is about to emerge from the depths of fall camp and Michigan is prepping for their first game against Middle Tennessee State University. The Michigan Wolverines are favorites to win the Big Ten and get to Indy for the first time.

Fast forward 4.5 months and the Wolverines have just finished their season against the Alabama Crimson Tide. If you told fans that at the beginning of the year, they would have thought the Wolverines were playing for the National Championship. Unfortunately, the two teams matched up in the Citrus Bowl with little at stake.

Did the Wolverines underachieve?

The Wolverines finished their 2019 season with a 9-4 record. They lost the last two games of the year for the fourth straight season. The season can be defined by the highs and the lows.

Michigan started the season 2-0 with wins against MTSU and Army. The next game saw them travel to Wisconsin and get walloped by Jonathan Taylor and company. The loss to Wisconsin was a sign of things to come.

Shea Patterson and Michigan football rebounded from the loss to Wisconsin by rattling off three straight wins. The offense seemed to find a rhythm playing against the likes of Rutgers, Illinois, and Iowa, giving U-M momentum heading into its matchup with Penn State.

Michigan Wolverines Football

The Nittany Lions welcomed the Wolverines to Happy Valley for their annual whiteout game and the result was similar to the Wisconsin game. Let the home team race out to an early lead, and play catch up the rest of the game. The Wolverines gave it their best effort but lost the game 28-21.

If you are sensing a theme, you are correct. Harbaugh and the Wolverines played well against the lesser competition in the Big Ten and couldn’t get the big road win against a quality opponent.

After the Penn State game, the Wolverines played their best football of the season. Much of that had to do with the great quarterback play that they got from Patterson. He showed that when he was on, he could carry the team to great heights.

Michigan beat Notre Dame, Maryland, Michigan State, and Indiana by a combined score of 166-45. The Wolverines were imposing their will on opponents and proving the naysayers wrong. Patterson threw for over 300 yards twice.

The team was firing on all cylinders and ready to take on the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes with the role of spoiler in mind. That was not the case on November 30th. The Buckeyes came into the Big House and put up 56 points for a second consecutive season.

Michigan wrapped up the regular season with a 9-3 record and a meeting with Alabama on New Year’s Day.

Alabama was a big test for Wolverines, a measuring stick like Ohio State. How they performed against the elite teams would say a lot about the team and its direction moving into 2020.

The Wolverines held Alabama in check for 30 minutes, leading at the half, but allowed too many quick scores to keep up in the second half. The season ended with a 35-16 loss. Another incomplete effort.

There were plenty of highlights for the Wolverines this season. The wins against Notre Dame and MSU stand out. Those were complete efforts from start to finish. The low lights were far to many in 2019. Michigan failed to play complete games against Penn State, Wisconsin, OSU, and Alabama and that doomed them.

It begs the question, did Michigan football underachieve in 2019? I’ll let you be the judge.