Michigan Turns the Ball Over Six Times in 35-17 Loss to Notre Dame

Although Michigan outgained Notre Dame by a rather large margin and controlled the ball for nearly four and a half minutes more than the Fighting Irish, the only stat that really mattered on Saturday afternoon was turnovers. The Wolverines turned the ball over a whopping six times as Nick Sheridan threw a pair of interceptions and four different Wolverines lost a fumble. Michigan actually fumbled the ball seven total times as a team, but was able to recover three of them.

Three of Michigan’s fumbles led to a Notre Dame touchdown, and really that was the reason why the Fighting Irish came out of this game victorious. After quickly going down 21-0 thanks in part to two fumbles, Michigan did make a comeback attempt and looked like they were going to get within 4 points early on in the third quarter. However, another fumble ended an otherwise solid drive. Steven Threet then mishandled a snap and the ball got knocked behind him for a Notre Dame player to pick up and run into the end zone. That cemented the Irish’s 35-17 win and handed Michigan its second loss of the season.

The predicted weather for this game was rain and lots of it. For the first half, though, the rain held off and actually was north of South Bend. Even so, that didn’t prevent Michigan from playing sloppily, especially when it came to holding onto the ball. That was evident on the game’s opening kickoff as Boubacar Cissoko let the ball bounce right off of his chest. He actually took a few seconds to locate the ball after it bounced off of him and only was able to return the kick to the 9-yard line because of the mistake.

Cissoko’s mistake really didn’t hurt Michigan too much as the Wolverines quickly got away from their own end zone. Threet hit Greg Mathews for a 7-yard pass and Sam McGuffie followed the completion up with runs of 5 and 11 yards. The offense was moving the ball and things looked good, but this is when everything fell apart for Michigan. McGuffie lost a couple yards on a run and Michigan was called for an illegal block, backing the ball up 15 yards. Then came the worst mistake of all.

Threet threw a pass out to Brandon Minor and Minor couldn’t make the catch despite having no defenders near him. The pass was actually thrown backwards, so it was considered a lateral and the drop was considered a fumble. A Notre Dame player alertly jumped on the ball to give the Fighting Irish offense amazing starting field position.

Jimmy Clausen came out and started Notre Dame’s first drive of the game on the Michigan 11-yard line. After an incompletion on first down, disaster almost struck for ND when John Thompson knocked the ball loose from Clausen. Clausen was able to recover his own fumble, meaning the Irish avoided their own disaster situation.

The fumble brought up 3rd and 6 and Clausen threw a pass into the end zone. Morgan Trent didn’t have good position on his man and had to interfere with the receiver to keep him from making the catch. The penalty gave ND an automatic first down and the ball on the 2-yard line. Only one play later Robert Hughes ran into the end zone untouched to put the Irish up 7-0.

When Michigan came back out to return Notre Dame’s second kickoff of the game, Michael Shaw made Cissoko’s mistake look like nothing at all. That is because Shaw dropped the kick and hesitated a little bit when he went to recover it. Since the kick was short anyways, a Notre Dame player was able to get down the field to fall on it, giving the Irish offense the ball at Michigan’s 14-yard line. Three plays into the drive Clausen found Duval Kamara on a fade in the back corner of the end zone. Clausen’s pass was perfect and Kamara had little trouble getting behind Trent to make the catch. Only four minutes into the game and Notre Dame already led 14-0.

Michigan returned to the field knowing that something had to happen for them to stay in this game. Sam McGuffie was able to effectively move the ball and Threet had a couple solid passes as well, one of which went to Greg Mathews for a gain of 14. Although the drive was going well, it stalled and Michigan was faced with 4th and 2 at their own 46-yard line. Zoltan Mesko received the snap to punt and ran to left side. Immediately you could tell he was running an option play where he could either run or punt the ball downfield. With little hesitation, Zoltan took off and not only picked up the first down, but broke 2 tackles and gained 13 yards to get the Wolverines into Irish territory.

Perhaps the biggest moment of this game besides any of the turnovers came two plays after Zoltan ran for a first down. Threet threw a picture perfect pass downfield and Mathews made a diving catch in the end zone for what appeared to be a huge touchdown. Unfortunately, the officials didn’t see it that way. The pass was ruled incomplete as the officials said that the ball hit the ground. It was a very close play, but even after an official review the call didn’t change.

Looking at the replay, it looked as though Mathews got his right hand under the ball, meaning it did not bounce off the ground and wasn’t trapped as the announcers originally stated. The ball itself may have touched the ground, but only when Mathews had full possession. However, as stated already, the Big East officials did not see it that way and the outstanding catch was ruled incomplete. Michigan would not move the chains again on this drive as they were unable to convert a 4th and 6, meaning it was Notre Dame ball.

The Fighting Irish wasted no time in going for the jugular after the turnover on downs. On the first play of their third drive of the game, Jimmy Clausen faked a handoff and threw the ball downfield for freshman Michael Floyd. Donovan Warren made a tremendous play on the pass by getting a hand on it to knock it away. However, once again the officials didn’t see it that way. After Floyd got up and started waving his hands for a flag, he got one from an official that wasn’t even the closest ref to the play. Although Warren did make some contact with Floyd, it was nothing that warranted a pass interference call.

On the very next play, Notre Dame did the same thing. Clausen faked a handoff and threw the ball downfield, this time for Golden Tate. Tate ran right by Morgan Trent on the slant and go pattern and Stevie Brown was out of position after buying the fake handoff. That left Tate open behind the coverage, allowing him to make the catch on a perfectly thrown pass, giving Notre Dame a 21-0 lead.

Desperation mode started to set in for the Wolverines as this was quickly becoming a blowout. Not only did they need to score, but the secondary, namely Morgan Trent, had to start playing much better. Taking it one step at a time, the offense did finally find the end zone. After Threet hit Mathews for a gain of 16 on 3rd down, Brandon Minor rattled off 9 yards of his own. Martavious Odom then picked up 14 on a swing pass, putting Michigan in Notre Dame territory. Following a Minor run that lost 4 yards, Sam McGuffie put Michigan back in this game by scoring on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Threet.

McGuffie went in motion before the snap to Threet’s right side and it was obvious that he was waiting for a screen pass. That’s exactly what happened, but what made the play work even better is that Notre Dame blitzed three of their defensive linemen, a linebacker, and a cornerback. That left McGuffie with lots of room to run downfield, and thanks to some great blocks from the right side of the o-line and a couple wide receivers, McGuffie simply had to navigate his way into the end zone. He ran by a few defenders that were out of position and actually bounced off of Perry Dorrestein and nearly ran into Tim McAvoy before getting into the end zone.

Now trailing 21-7, it was time for the defense to do its job. After being burned a few times already in this game, Morgan Trent redeemed himself a bit by making a diving interception. You could tell Notre Dame was specifically throwing at Trent, so it was nice to see him make a play, especially since it gave Michigan the ball back. Michigan immediately was able to move the ball as Sam McGuffie closed out the first quarter with a 27-yard run. An unnecessary roughness penalty on ND would add 15 yards onto the run, quickly putting Michigan at the Irish 29-yard line.

McGuffie canceled out a 9-yard loss on a busted swing pass to Odoms with a gain of 10 of his own. That only made it 3rd and 9, though, and it was actually Steven Threet who ran the ball for a first down and much more to keep the chains moving. Notre Dame blitzed and had another linebacker spying McGuffie, giving Threet a wide open hole to run for a gain of 21 yards. Unfortunately for Michigan, the drive would stall after Threet’s run, but K.C. Lopata connected on a 23-yard field goal to get Michigan within 11.

Notre Dame answered Michigan’s field goal with an eventual 1-yard TD run by Robert Hughes that was set up by a 60-yard pass to Golden Tate. The pass was nothing downfield where someone blew their coverage as it was a simple slant pattern. The problem was a case of poor tackling. Jonas Mouton couldn’t bring Tate down on a diving tackle attempt, and then Stevie Brown got juked and shoved down by Tate. John Thompson did have a chance to bring Tate down, but he wasn’t able to trip him up enough to make the tackle. Thompson did slow Tate down enough to allow Charles Stewart to catch up and make the tackle, but that was after a gain of 60 yards.

Fast forward a few plays and Notre Dame had moved the ball down to the 1-yard line and had 2nd and goal. Clausen again faked a handoff, but Michigan didn’t buy it this time. Tim Jamison was able to get right in Clausen’s face and the pressure forced a bad throw that Donovan Warren actually caught barely out of bounds. However, as usual, there was a flag and Warren was again called for pass interference. He did push off this time, so the flag was warranted for a change. Anyways, on the very next play Hughes powered his way into the endzone for a touchdown.

Michigan started the proceeding drive with great field position as the kickoff went out of bounds. They quickly went from their own 40 to ND’s 40 as Threet hit Darryl Stonum on a diving catch for a gain of 20. After a pass to Odoms went for 8 yards, McGuffie moved the chains with a gain of 5. Kevin Grady came into the game and was only able to run for 1 yard, but Threet found Stonum for another leaping catch that went for 10. A Notre Dame facemask penalty put Michigan at the Notre Dame 8-yard line and two plays later Grady took the handoff, was hit at the 5, and carried a defender into the end zone for a touchdown, putting Michigan behind only 28-17.

Both teams got the ball back two more times in the first half, but neither was able to do much of anything. The final possession for Michigan was only a kneel-down to end the half, but something worth noting did happen after ND’s second to last possession. The Irish punted the ball away and a Michigan player shoved a Notre Dame player off the field and into the sidelines. Charlie Weis had his back turned to that part of the field (he was looking toward where the ball landed) and the Notre Dame player fell right into him. It was a really nasty fall as Weis’ knee got bent in an ugly way, and it turned out he tore his ACL and MCL. He got a brace put on his leg and toughed it out by using crutches to move around the rest of the game, which I do give him credit for as the hit didn’t looked pretty bad.

As the second half opened the weather had changed quite a bit. The skies went from being just cloudy to being dark and rainy. The rain had an immediate effect on the game and prevented both offenses from having a whole lot of success in the second half. That was evident early on when Notre Dame opened the half by going three and out, and then the weather’s presence was felt even more on the ensuing punt. Donovan Warren couldn’t catch the punt, and had it not been for Troy Woolfolk, who recovered the fumble, this could have been a repeat of how the game started.

After the two teams traded punts, Michigan put together its best drive of the second half. The drive was promising at one time because on 3rd and 2, Steven Threet found Martavious Odoms downfield for a gain of 33 yards. It was another perfect pass by Threet and Odoms did a nice job of making the catch. Odoms actually kept the drive alive a few plays later when he drew a pass interference penalty on another 3rd down. The penalty gave Michigan 1st and goal on the 6-yard line and put them in position to score a touchdown that would really make this a game.

Sadly, that touchdown would never happen as two plays after the penalty Kevin Grady was stripped of the ball and Michigan’s hopes of winning went out the window. Grady got the handoff and was hit at about the 4-yard line. Just as we saw on his TD run earlier in the game, Grady fought for extra yardage, but with the rain coming down and a swarm of defenders on him, that proved to be a mistake this time. As Grady was fighting for extra yardage the ball came loose and rolled around. Mathews nearly was able to fall on it, but it got knocked near the sidelines and a Notre Dame player fell on it. Not only did the turnover hurt mentally, but it kept Michigan from getting within a single possession.

The Michigan defense held tough after the turnover and forced a punt, but it would be yet another fumble that truly did in Michigan’s chances of winning. The ball slipped out of Threet’s hands on a snap (out of the shotgun) and got kicked backwards by an offensive lineman. That allowed Notre Dame’s Brian Smith to pick the ball up and run 35 yards for a touchdown. This play was a direct result of the rainy weather as Threet simply dropped the ball. The unfortunate bounce the ball took after the fumble was just one of the many breaks that went in Notre Dame’s favor during this game, and it put the Fighting Irish on top 35-17.

There was still an entire quarter left for Michigan to make a comeback, but with the weather being as bad as it was, that wasn’t about to happen. Michigan nearly didn’t even go on offense at all after the ND touchdown as Boubacar Cissoko had the ball knocked out of his hands on the proceeding kickoff. A Notre Dame player got his helmet on the ball and jarred it loose, but Grady fell on it to keep the ball with Michigan.

Fumble or not, Michigan still went three and out and had to punt the ball away. The defense did come up with another stop, and Nick Sheridan entered the game at quarterback when the Wolverines took over. I already didn’t think Michigan could pull off a comeback, but when Sheridan came in I really didn’t have a good feeling about the rest of this game. Initially that feeling was wrong as Sheridan completed a perfectly thrown pass to Zion Babb. Babb made a great catch over a Notre Dame defender and ran down the field for a gain of 45 yards. Now having some confidence in Sheridan, I was quickly set up for disappointment. Only three plays later Sheridan threw a pass that was just barely too high for Carson Butler and it was picked off.

The defense, just as they did the entire second half, held Notre Dame and forced them to punt, meaning the interception didn’t lead to any Irish points. However, Sheridan would give ND the ball right back on the very first play of Michigan’s next drive by throwing a terrible pass. He lofted it down the field and a Notre Dame cornerback stood there and waited for it like he was returning a punt. The interception gave Notre Dame a chance to add to their lead, but Morgan Trent made his second interception of the game in the end zone. Trent was actually on the ground and the ball bounced off of a couple players and ended up in his hands.

Michigan would go three and out following the interception, giving Notre Dame the ability to take a knee and end the game. The Wolverines lost by a score of 35-17 and really did outplay Notre Dame in many aspects of this game, especially in the second half. However, as I stated at the very beginning of this post, the only stat that really mattered in the end was turnovers. Michigan had six of them and all but one came at the worst possible time or place on the field. Had it not been for even two of the fumbles Michigan very well may have won this game, but talk of “what if” means nothing as the Wolverines are now 1-2.

Despite how badly this game turned out, I am encouraged by how the offense played at times. Aside from the fumble, Steven Threet did a nice job of running the offense and making plays. He was able to run the ball once for a big gain and his passes were accurate for a change. And then Sam McGuffie had a huge game. He rushed for 138 yards and had a 40-yard touchdown reception that kept Michigan alive when they were down 21-0. I also liked the way Kevin Grady ran on his one touchdown, although that fight for every yard style caused a fumble when Michigan was inside the Notre Dame 5-yard line.

Defensively, we once again saw the secondary struggle a lot. You can’t really say anything about the first two possessions of the game as the offense and special teams gave ND such a short field, but I just really don’t understand what has happened to the secondary. Trent did have two interceptions, but he made just as many mistakes that gave Notre Dame points. At the same time, I don’t even know where to begin with Stevie Brown. I’ll concede that any safety could be fooled by a play-action, but that juke by Golden Tate where Brown missed the tackle was just another of the many mistakes he’s made this season.

Michigan is off next Saturday and will resume play on September 27 at home against Wisconsin. As we head into the bye week I am hopeful that the offense will continue to improve. They really did look much better against Notre Dame, and if they can stop turning the ball over then Michigan will have a chance against Wisconsin if — and that’s a big if — the defense can contain P.J. Hill. The defensive line didn’t look impressive at all against ND as Robert Hughes rushed for 2 touchdowns and 81 yards, so hopefully they will be able to at least contain Hill.

Thankfully Michigan can’t lose next Saturday since they have a bye, but the outlook for the rest of the season really will depend on what they do against Wisconsin two weeks from yesterday. A surprising victory could mean they are on the path to get 6 wins, but a loss could mean they are on their way to having one of the worst seasons in a very, very long time. I hope it’s the former, but we’ll just have to wait and see. Until then, I’m just glad we have one Saturday to sit back and relax before Big Ten play gets started.