It’s only up from here for Michigan Football

Why the future is still bright and other thoughts from Michigan football’s loss to Georgia in the 2021 Orange Bowl. 

Now that myself and countless other Michigan football fans have had 24 hours to digest the Orange Bowl loss, I have a few takeaways that I want to discuss.

We always have to remember that this was Michigan’s first playoff experience against a near-impenetrable defense that statistically had been the best in the country all season, and as we all saw in the game, it showed why. Now, for my takeaways.

Michigan football wasn’t quite ready for Georgia 

It was very obvious from the first possession (even on defense) when Georgia was driving down the field that it was going to be a battle of the trenches. Whichever team won the line of scrimmage more in the game would control the game and cruise.

Unfortunately, Michigan was on the receiving end of getting absolutely dominated at the line of scrimmage and it really showed throughout the course of the game. I could see Georgia’s offensive line dominating Michigan’s defensive tackles, Mazi Smith and Chris Hinton.

This allowed Georgia to get some nice chunk yardage running plays from the get-go and it opened up the passing game for Georgia, with Bowers breaking free for some wide-open catches, including the touchdown on the first drive of the game.

If Michigan couldn’t stop or at least slow Georgia’s run game, then it was going to be a long game. Georgia loves to pass too, but they rely on their running game heavily first, just like Michigan did.

There were other times in the game where Georgia’s running backs were getting open free down the field (James Cook had that long catch) and on swing passes, the blocking was good, but the running backs were just too fast for Michigan’s linebackers to stay in front of and a two-to-three yard swing pass turned into a 15+ yard catch and run.

Also, Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo were unable to get home (a lot of holding on Aidan that was uncalled) and that was a major reason why Stetson Bennett had so much time in the pocket to just pick Michigan apart.