Michigan Football: 5 things we learned from loss to Michigan State
Michigan football suffered another brutal loss on Saturday as the Wolverines had a 16-point lead and couldn’t hold it against Michigan State.
Saturday’s letdown in East Lansing was all too familiar for Michigan football fans. The Wolverines should have won the game but inexplicably, came up short.
Other than consistently winning about 9-10 games, outside of the 2020 season which was cut short due to COVID-19, this is what the Jim Harbaugh era is best known for — the near misses.
And this one is right near the top.
The Ohio State game in 2016 is there too. So is “Trouble with the snap” and the one characteristic they all share is Michigan held two-score leads in all three games and couldn’t seal the deal.
Yes, officiating played a huge part in that. Michigan football should have still won the game and didn’t. No doubt about it.
But the call that took Aidan Hutchinson’s touchdown off the board was atrocious — so were the missed holding calls on A.J. Henning (Michigan’s last field goal) and the final fourth down play, where Cornelius Johnson was grabbed by two defenders, yet no flag flew.
It was par for the course for the Big Ten, which took a win away from Michigan when JT Barrett was given a first down after clearly being short.
But the Wolverines should have found a way to win that day in Columbus, and the same is true for Saturday in East Lansing. At any rate, here’s what we learned.
Cade was good but not good enough
I actually predicted that Jake Moody would boot four field goals on Friday, I just grossly overestimated Michigan’s defense.
I thought Michigan would score 26 points and win the game, so the fact that the Wolverines scored 33 points in regulation and lost, just floors me.
The offense totaled 552 yards but managed just 33 points because, in six trips to the red zone, the Wolverines scored just two touchdowns — one of which was thrown by J.J. McCarthy.
Cade McNamara can be outstanding at times and he played his finest game as a Wolverine yesterday, even with the interception. But it also showed his limitations and they have been apparent all year.
Whether it’s play-calling or the lack of a dynamic quarterback, Michigan football is awful in the red zone and it will cost U-M again.
And as good as Cade played, as much as I love his toughness and leadership, what I took away from Saturday is that Michigan football is still a special QB away from being really good.
Because for everything that happened, if Michigan executes just a little better in the red zone, it wins the game going away.
The bottom line is that Michigan was on the Michigan State side of the field three times in the fourth quarter and got three points. That’s just not good enough.
Cade should keep starting but the idea that McCarthy shouldn’t keep playing is ludicrous. He needs more reps so next year, he will be ready to be the starting quarterback.