Michigan Comeback Falls Short in 25-23 Loss to Utah

The first game of the Rich Rodriguez era was a tale of two halves. Michigan apparently forgot how to play football in the first half as Utah just completely dominated them. Had it not been for a couple timely penalties and a turnover, Utah easily could have been up by 3 or more TDs going into halftime. Even so, all you had to do is look at the amount of total yards at the half to see just how one-sided this game was so far. Utah had already racked up 313 yards, and Michigan was just barely above the century mark with 102 yards after two quarters.

In the second half Michigan started to play much better on defense, but the offense was still struggling. Trailing 25-10 in the fourth quarter, the offense did start to wake up and with the help of a blocked punt, a fumble recovery, and the defense’s great play, they scored a pair of TDs to make it a game.

The second fourth quarter touchdown put Michigan within 2 points of tying the game, but unfortunately U-M failed to convert a 2-point conversion. That was the last great chance Michigan had to catch up to Utah as the offense couldn’t even get into field goal range in any of their remaining possessions. Utah’s offense looked terrible in the fourth quarter as well, but they scored enough points before then to leave Ann Arbor with a 25-23 win.

At the start of this game it was actually Utah that had to come back from a deficit. Michigan got the ball first and went three and out after two short passes were completed and another was incomplete on 3rd down. Zoltan Mesko punted the ball away and Utah made its first of many mistakes that would keep Michigan in this game. The punt returner tried to avoid getting tackled and made one move too many. He was hit by Tim North and the ball came loose. Kevin Leach quickly jumped on it, giving Michigan the ball on Utah’s 26-yard line.

Even with the great field position, it took a pass interference penalty to get Michigan into the end zone for the first time this season. On 3rd down Nick Sheridan was picked off as a Ute defender came leaping into the play, but another defender was called for pass interference, giving Michigan 15 yards and an automatic first down.

Two plays later Nick Sheridan faked a handoff to Brandon Minor, rolled out to the right side, and hit Michael Shaw, who then ran into the end zone for a touchdown. Shaw was sort of lined up in the backfield (he was a few yards to the left of the running back’s normal position) and as soon as the ball was snapped he sprinted across the field to get open for the pass. All in all it was a well drawn up play and Michigan executed it perfectly to take a 7-0 lead.

Utah answered Michigan’s touchdown with one of their own very quickly. The Utes had little trouble moving the ball, but were faced with 3rd and 19 thanks to a holding penalty. 19 yards would be nothing for the Utes as Brian Johnson found Jereme Brooks in the middle of the field for the catch. Brooks simply got by Donovan Warren to make the catch and then was able to run all the way down to the Michigan 3-yard line as Stevie Brown was caught out of position. Morgan Trent did manage to catch up to him, but not before Brooks gained 55 yards. Two plays later Corbin Louks came into the game at QB and ran into the end zone for a touchdown. Terrance Taylor blocked the extra point to keep Michigan in the lead by a score of 7-6.

On the proceeding drive Michigan continued to have their struggles on offense, but they were able to get into field goal range thanks to a 23-yard pass from Sheridan to Sam McGuffie. McGuffie caught the short pass off a curl route and then ran down the middle of the field for the solid gain. After that play the drive stalled and K.C. Lopata came out and kicked a career-long 50-yard field goal. Lopata’s kick power has definitely improved since last year, which is a great complement to his already accurate leg.

Once again looking to answer a Michigan score, Utah came back out and again moved the ball well. Michigan’s defense was able to hold Utah to 3rd down more often on this drive, but the Utes still were able to convert most of those 3rd downs. The only one they didn’t convert came when they were 8 yards away from scoring. Brian Johnson was sacked by Tim Jamison on the play before, and then Obi Ezeh tackled him for a loss of 3 yards on 3rd down. Louie Sakoda came in and hit a 28-yard field goal, brining the Utes back within 1. Sakoda started off shaky with the blocked extra point, but he would be money the rest of the game and was a big reason why Utah ended up winning.

Proof of that statement about Sakoda came on the next two Utah drives. After another Michigan three and out, Utah got the ball back and was held to a 43-yard Sakoda field goal. Michigan didn’t go three and out on the following drive, but they were stopped after only a single first down. Just as we saw before, Utah moved the ball before Michigan’s defense held them on 3rd down. Sakoda came back in and easily converted a 41-yard kick, putting Utah on top 15-10.

With just over three minutes remaining in the half, Michigan was hoping to put some points on the board to either decrease the deficit or take the lead. They would have two opportunities to do so, but neither turned out well. Nick Sheridan started off the drive following Sakoda’s third field goal of the game by hitting Greg Mathews for a gain of 35 yards. He would then throw three consecutive incompletions and pooch punted the ball down to the Utah 11-yard line. Michigan sent its offense out there on 4th and long, but it was obvious that Sheridan would be punting as he was lined up in the shotgun farther back than usual.

Michigan’s defense quickly forced a Utah punt, and with 1:34 left there was still time to score before the end of the half. Sadly, that is easier said than done. Sheridan misread the coverage on 3rd and long and rushed a pass that should have never been thrown. The pass wobbled its way into a group of Utah defenders and was easily picked off. In all my years of watching Michigan football it’s hard to remember seeing a worse throw than the one Sheridan made. Not only was it a floater, but there were four Utah players and only one Wolverine in the vicinity of where that pass ended up going.

Although there were only 51 seconds left in the half, Utah only had to go 37 yards. That was more than enough time to get into the end zone, and that’s exactly what happened with 13 seconds left as Johnson found Bradon Godfrey as he was falling into the end zone for a 19-yard TD. That put Utah up 22-10 at the half, and the feeling at that time was that Michigan was lucky to only be down 12. The defense got destroyed and the offense couldn’t move the ball or sustain a drive. Neither of those things are good, but when they happen in the same game it’s a recipe for disaster.

Utah couldn’t get anywhere on their first drive of the second half, but they were presented with an outstanding opportunity to begin their second one. An exchange on a handoff from Sheridan to McGuffie was fumbled when Michigan got the ball back and Utah recovered it. Sheridan tried to take the ball back from McGuffie on a “zone read” play where the QB decides whether or not he will hand the ball off. McGuffie nearly had the ball in full possession, but Sheridan attempted to take it back and the result was a fumble that was recovered at Michigan’s 9-yard line. The expectation at this point was that this game was about to be broken wide open, but Obi Ezeh had other ideas.

Ezeh kept Michigan’s hopes alive as he picked off a pass that was tipped by Stevie Brown at around the 1-yard line. Ezeh returned the ball to Michigan’s 20, which is where Zoltan Mesko would punt the ball away four plays later. Steven Threet came into the game to replace Sheridan, but the offense still couldn’t move the ball. To make matters worse, Mesko had one of the worst punts of his career as it went only 20 yards, giving Utah the ball in Michigan territory.

The defense continued its tremendous second half play and prevented Utah from getting a single first down. Unfortunately, nobody on Michigan was able to prevent Louie Sakoda from easily making a 53-yard field goal that put Utah on top 25-10. It looked like he could have made that kick from 60 yards away, which showed just how great of a kicker he is. That makes what Utah did on their next possession so confusing.

After another three and out, the Utes again took over in Michigan territory. The U-M defense held tough, though, and gave Utah a 4th down at the Michigan 36. That is the same place they were when Sakoda kicked the 53-yarder, but this time they had him punt the ball instead. It went into the end zone for a touchback, which makes that decision look even worse. Sakoda easily made the last kick from that far away, yet Utah had him punt it this time around.

Anyways, Michigan was finally able to get into Utah territory thanks to an awesome catch by Carson Butler on 3rd down. However, just as the drive started to go well, disaster happened when Brandon Minor fumbled the ball and Utah recovered. It initially looked like the ground caused the fumble, but even after a review the officials didn’t see it that way.

After trading possessions as the game headed into the fourth quarter, Michigan changed the entire outlook of this game thanks to a blocked punt. Mark Moundros quickly got to the second line of blockers (it’s the punt formation with three blockers in front of the punter) and put his hand up just as the ball was punted away. The ball didn’t go very far as Moundros got a piece of it. That was a momentum changer for sure as Michigan took over on the Utah 33 and only needed one play to score. Steven Threet hit Junior Hemingway in the end zone on a great pass and catch to cut the lead to 8 points.

In only two plays Michigan went from being out of this game to being only a possession away from a tied score. The crowd was back into it and the defense fed off the noise. That was evident on 3rd and long as Brian Johnson tried to avoid getting sacked again, and in turn had the ball knocked loose by Adam Patterson. Austin Panter was there to make the recovery at the Utah 28.

Michigan wouldn’t score on only one play this time. It was actually a personal foul and a pass interference on Utah that put Michigan right up on the goal line and allowed Sam McGuffie to score from 3 yards out. The crowd went nuts when McGuffie scored the touchdown, but Michigan still needed to convert a 2-point conversion to tie the game. Threet faked a handoff to McGuffie and tried to hit Toney Clemons in the back of the end zone, but the pass was way too high and Clemons couldn’t make the catch. It appeared that McGuffie was wide open on Threet’s left side, but Threet threw a terrible pass to a covered Clemons instead.

Even though it was disappointing that Michigan couldn’t tie things up, there were still over 6 minutes remaining, and with the way the defense had been playing you knew U-M would get another couple opportunities to take the lead. After all, they only needed a field goal.

Following the McGuffie touchdown, the defense did its job and forced a punt after the Utes went three and out yet again. Michigan followed suit, though, and had to punt after not being able to move the chains at all. Thankfully the defense once again did its job and gave Michigan one more chance to get into field goal range. Sadly, nothing changed from the previous drive for Michigan. On 4th down on their own 14, Michigan had to go for it and it was basically assumed that the game was over if they didn’t pick up a 1st down. That assumption would turn out to be correct as Threet again threw the ball too high, this time in the direction of Darryl Stonum. Stonum was open and would have had a first down, but Threet didn’t even come close to hitting the pass.

With the way the timeout situation worked out, Michigan did actually get the ball back with 4 seconds left in the game. No miracle happened, though, as Threet threw a pass to Michael Shaw for a gain of 7 lousy yards. Shaw was hit as soon as he caught the pass and the game was over. Michigan burned a timeout on the 4th down they didn’t convert to talk things over, but it sure would have been nice to have that back. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference, but with 40 or so extra seconds they could have at least had time to get into field goal range or make a last ditch Hail Mary attempt into the end zone. That wasn’t the case, though, and Utah managed to hang on for the 25-23 win.

It was expected that the offense would struggle, but I didn’t think they would struggle as much as they did. On the flip side, the expectation was that the defense would be this team’s strength. They shut Utah down in the second half (only gave up 28 yards), but that wasn’t good enough. In the first half Utah had its way with the Michigan defense and racked up enough points to make the dominating second half not matter (aside from the 1 field goal Utah got).

Looking back on this game I knew that Utah could win, but I guess I just didn’t expect it to turn out the way it did. I figured Michigan’s offense would at least show some life on a consistent basis, but that was not the case at all. Michigan couldn’t figure out how to sustain a drive or move the ball for most of the game, and that ultimately was one of the reasons they lost. The other main one, as I already said, was the defense’s terrible play in the first half, which was another thing nobody expected.

It’s clear that the transition to the spread offense is going to take time. If the defense can be even close to as dominating as they were in the second half then Michigan will be able to win games in spite of their offense. However, the offense has to at least have a couple of drives that go beyond only two or so minutes as the defense can’t be on the field for 35+ minutes every game. To their credit, and Mike Barwis’ credit, the defense didn’t look winded one bit, so their offseason conditioning obviously paid off. Still, they shouldn’t be on the field that long.

Going into the Miami (Ohio) game next week, the offense has to improve. Whether the quarterback is Sheridan or Threet, they have to be able to move the ball effectively. Utah is a much better team than Miami, so hopefully that will help with their improvement. We’ll get a chance to see for ourselves at noon ET on ESPN2.

Let’s just put it this way, 6 wins this season isn’t going to be easy, so games against Miami (Ohio) are must wins. It is expected that there will be losses to teams that are equal to or better than Michigan, but the games where U-M is the favorite have to result in victories, otherwise the bowl streak may be over with if things don’t get better as the season progresses.