The Wolverines arrived as underdogs, but showed they had the talent to beat Wisconsin. At some point, they’ve got to stop beating themselves.
MADISON, Wisc. — If you’re looking for a moment that best describes Michigan’s football program the last two seasons, I’ve got one. Actually, I’ve got two.
Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall Stadium. Second Quarter. The Wolverines had the ball at Wisconsin’s five-yard line. Second down.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Peters took the snap, stepped back and lofted a lovely pass to receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, who caught it near the left edge of the end zone and got pushed in the air before he landed.
His right foot touched down out of bounds. But his left foot, well, replays showed it seemed to graze the end zone grass first. Officials took forever to review the play, then ruled he was out. They got it wrong.
On the next play, Peters scrambled to his left, stretched for the pylon from the 1 and… fumbled. The Badgers recovered.
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There, in those two plays, was the essence of how it’s gone for Jim Harbaugh in the biggest games of the last two seasons: Some tough luck. An inability to find the inches. A self-inflicted mistake. A loss.
Wisconsin is a team the Wolverines could’ve beaten. Maybe should’ve beaten, if you ignore the rankings and the expectations and focus on what unfolded on the field.
Michigan defensive tackle Mo Hurst summed it up:
“I felt like we beat ourselves today,” he said. “The game was kind of in our hands coming out for the second half.”
Listen to those words, and think about how often they could have been said about the games that truly mean something to this program.
Now, before you say you’d penciled this weekend as a loss back in August, or weren’t banking on much as recently as last week, I say: That expectation makes sense. Because Camp Randall is a tough place to win. Because these particular Badgers entered the game undefeated, and ranked in the top 5.
Fine.
And yet?
U-M looked like the more powerful team Saturday. Especially through the first 2 1/2 quarters. Like Hurst said, the Wolverines were pretty much “lights out.”
So, how did it fall apart? After U-M had taken a 10-7 lead, shut down Wisconsin’s running game and held quarterback Alex Hornibrook, to just 40 yards passing in the first half?
“Mental mistakes,” said Hurst.
Well, that and a head injury to Peters.
Again, bad luck and self-inflicted wounds, the wicked double hand.
Peters got knocked out of the game in the third quarter. The Badgers had just regained the lead — 14-10 –—on the strength of two third-down throws from Hornibrook. After Peters was hauled off the field in a motorized cart, the Wolverines appeared deflated.
Who could blame them?
For the first time in a month, the young quarterback was asked to make plays with his arm. And he did, enough to give the Wolverines a lead before he got hurt.
That had been the question — one of them anyway — coming into the game: In his previous starts, he basically served as a ball deliveryman for Karan Higdon; how was he going to handle the challenge when a good defense slowed the Wolverines’ running game?
Just fine, thank you. And until he got laid out, it was easy to imagine a promising trajectory for Peters. To get there now, though, he’ll need help. From an offensive line that has to get better. From receivers that have to catch more 50-50 balls. From a defense that toggles between overwhelming and vulnerable, at least to the big play.
If nothing else, Saturday showed that U-M may have found its quarterback of the future. It also shows that Harbaugh hasn’t quite figured out how to win more of these fourth-quarter matchups.
Yes, the Wolverines are young. Yes, Harbaugh has only had two full recruiting cycles. Yes, his quarterback got hurt. And his back-up got picked off too many times. And his back-up’s back-up — who maybe should’ve been his first choice back in August — got hurt, too.
Then again, Wisconsin is young on offense, too. The Badgers start just two seniors — a fullback and tight end. And, like U-M, they are playing in a system that’s less than three years old, because their coach — Paul Chryst – is also in his third season.
That didn’t have much to do with the Wolverines’ poor punt coverage that gifted Wisconsin an early touchdown. Or the false-start that halted a first-half drive. Or the dropped passes by U-M tight ends in the second half, when John O’Korn was desperately trying to make something happen.
Sure, those mistakes happen. Every Saturday. But the only way to offset them is to keep making plays. Something the Wolverines were doing. Then stopped.
“This one hurts,” said Harbaugh.
And it should. Because U-M has the talent to win games like this.
The biggest question is: When?
