Michigan Looks Sluggish In Week 1: Michigan vs Fresno State Reaction & Analysis

the Michigan Wolverines wore out the Fresno State Bulldogs winning 30-10 in Michigan's opener in the big house and I say wore down and not escaped because Michigan consistently LED Fresno State and every time Fresno State tried to chip into the lead Michigan responded but that was one of the few good takeaways from Michigan's performance I think Saturday was was a mini culmination or a smaller Snowball Effect of Chiron Moore's mistakes whether that is in evaluating the roster whether that is in the assistant coaches and coordinators that he hired and it could be a little bit of an overreaction but Michigan played its first game it's the first look at the team true look at the team not in practice so there are some takeaways but I do also want to exercise caution as I did with basically the entirety of week one and we'll continue to do so but I want to compare Michigan versus East Carolina last year Michigan's opener in 2023 to Michigan Fresno State this year now I think this year's Fresno State team is clearly going to be better than last year's East Carolina team but you never know and Michigan scored 30 points in both openers and both defenses played exceptionally well so there are some similarities and Michigan's only a year removed from their National Championship team last year so I think it's important to look at both openers Michigan had 402 total yards in last year's opener they only had 269 this year's opener Michigan had 33 minutes and 26 seconds of possession Michigan had 34 minutes from 23 to 24 Michigan had no turnovers in last year's opener they had one turnover in this opener they had 26 first downs last season to 18 first downs this season in the openers Michigan passed for 121 yards and they ran for 148 yards averaging 4.5 yards per pass and 4.4 yards per run in this year's opener in last year's opener Michigan averaged n yards per pass attempt 3.9 yards per run attempt they had 280 passing yards 122 rushing yards I look at Michigan's performance against Fresno State yesterday and I got to be honest in part it's similar to my reaction to Oregon versus Idaho Oregon versus Idaho was very very weird but I still think Oregon is a very good team who had a very off performance I will want to watch some more and digest more of Oregon's film in that game perhaps but it's an FCS opponent and Oregon put up yards and they had impressive moments in that game they just couldn't follow through and with Michigan it was a little different but at the same time similar because Michigan and Oregon are very different styles of play Michigan at times and especially toward the end looked good at run blocking and even pass blocking the offensive line eventually wore Fresno State down and Michigan averaged nearly five yards per carry before the knee down and they did have an impressive touchdown Drive in the fourth quarter but before that their first touchdown basically came off of a short field from a tipped interception they had two long field goals by Dominic Zada who I think along with Will Johnson and kle mullings you can put them up here for players who carried Michigan against a good Fresno State team but not anyone who's close to Texas close to Oregon Ohio State USC I'd say is better than Fresno State so on and there are possibly other opponents who Michigan will face that are better than Fresno State and this was a at 1.6 to10 game in the fourth quarter and there's not a lot that you can take away because Michigan does play Texas in week to and I wonder if they were looking ahead a little bit but let's just go with it in the sense that take Texas out what did you see I saw a team that could not throw a pass to save their life consistently Davis Warren went 15 of 25 for 118 passing yards a touchdown a pick he had a 33 quarterback efficiency rating and averaged 4.5 yards per pass attempt that was easily Michigan's worst game at quarterback since Michigan versus Washington 2021 when they ran for like 300 yards and didn't even pass for a 100 Michigan's worst game at quarterback in several seasons and unlike 2021 2022 and 2023 Michigan does not have a month to fix any potential issues that they have they have this week and that's it and Texas comes to town after pounding Colorado State 52 nothing and looking like one of the more impressive teams in all of college football college football I said in the preseason I thought this would be a week year a down year it looks like that through one week and again I don't want to overreact and I'm going to continue to say that throughout this video and others but it looks like Alabama Georgia maybe Texas Penn State Ohio State and Notre Dame again only based off of week one and everyone else and I don't think that is the makeup of the race because I think there are some teams like Oregon for example who just had really bad week one performances and and maybe that's Michigan too but just going based off of week one one of the best teams in all of college football who put on one of the cleanest performances in week one is coming to your house after in your house in a night game environment you did not play a good game Alex orgy was not on the field that much more than a typical backup quarterback but they only let him throw two times one of the times was a simple checkdown to Donovan Edwards out of the backfield brilliantly called well schemed you can you can see Chiron Moore and Kurt Campbell doing work there and touchdown Michigan uh the other time was a throw where he was several yards short of his receiver now he was throwing off platform and we know that orgy is an inconsistent passer but that looked bad nonetheless he's great at running the football and Michigan won again 30-1 they only outgained Fresno State by what 25 yards they had one less turnover both had 18 first downs Michigan had eight more minutes of possession which is part of the reason why they were able to run the ball effectively and really pull away in that fourth quarter is they eventually broke Fresno State both offensively and defensively Fresno State only had nine yards rushing for three sacks you take away the sacks you don't do sack adjustments Fresno State had 19 carries on the ground for 39 yards which is only about 2 yard per carry so Michigan's run defense did very well I think mainly because of my preseason predictions that it's still the best rushing defense in the country the passing offense did have some holes I think mainly due to schematics though from wink marale like bringing that ugly zero Blitz but they also had two interceptions and they had two more that were taken away by penalties that did not involve the defensive backs so the defense looked really good but the offense was extremely meh before we resume this video I want you to like the video subscribe to the channel share this video around to other college football fans who you know will enjoy our content and click that notification Bell so that you can get notified when we release new content here on college football with Sam like the video click the share button the Subscribe button and the notification Bell it helps out the channel a lot and and if you want to do something extra to support the channel as we do independent work here in grade analysis you can donate through a super chat in the comment section or go to my patreon page via the link in the description or the pin comment and sign up as a member to support us there but I appreciate you for getting this far watching the video hope to see you through the rest of the video and also comment your thoughts on this game Down Below on on a on a performance from Michigan that was underwhelming to say the least I had Michigan by context 34 to7 so by scoring margin I did not expect Michigan to come in and just own Fresno State because Fresno State is one of the better group of five teams Michigan is playing Texas the following week texus is a more diverse and balanced team from Michigan in a pre-season point of view like I did have Michigan Power rated and ranked ahead of Texas to begin the year because from a preseason standpoint I genuinely thought they were a better team keyword is thought I don't know anymore I didn't watch Texas's game yesterday but safe to say they performed way better than Michigan did just from what I can see in the Box Score but again I'll have to watch because I want to give the best analysis possible but Texas always had the more diverse roster the more balanced roster the difference is I thought that Michigan's defense and special teams and offensive line would make it such that they could alleviate concerns in the passing game and I actually did think their passing game would be a little bit better than what they showed against Fresno State um but Davis Warren and Alex ory's quarterback battle was something I didn't anticipate and something I didn't exactly anticipate was not just some of Michigan's struggles on the offensive line early Michigan does have some issues to work on there they were rotating a lot of players trying to find who fits best but Fresno State was also a very physical team and they schemed their defense well they stacked the Box the whole time sending six seven or eight guys forward being very conscious about the Run knowing that Michigan was going to want to run the football and I think as the game went on they figured out that Michigan was very limited at quarterback they stonewalled Michigan for three quarters there was a point where Michigan only ran the ball for two yards per carry part of that again was rotations inexperience struggles along the offensive line Donovan Edwards not having a good game and Michigan trying to figure out their running back room and Michigan having their having a quarterback in Davis Warren who is not as mobile as JJ McCarthy and is probably about as mobile as Kade mcnamer is honestly maybe a little more mobile but probably not enough to make a huge difference I mean McCarthy could break off some pretty impressive scrambles I don't think Warren has that capability orgy certainly does but Michigan was figuring themselves out on offense you could clearly see that Michigan only returned coulston Loveland and some experience on the o line and running back is those were the best parts of the offense but receiver and quarterback were rough particularly quarterback Fresno State had the better quarterback yesterday Mikey Keane did rather well 22 of 36 for 235 yards a touch down two picks he was tough throwing those two interceptions that were called back due to penalties and then getting Fresno State down the field and Malik sherad tough Runner had a long run of eight against one of the best defenses in the country and I I thought that Fresno State played a very good game they definitely played this like it was their Super Bowl for sure and good on them they're a team that if if Michigan is a great near elite elite team if they are in that range and Fresno State can play This Way consistently who's to say they can't win the Mountain West I mean Boise State struggled on defense yesterday though Ashton Jey with six rushing touchdowns certainly put on a performance a do Walker award-winning performance I'm curious to see how will do against Oregon next weekend and Fresno State's defense they earned a sack four tackles for loss a pass defended they had 67 total tackles and they didn't break down really until that final drive which resulted in a coulston Loveland 18 yard touchdown pass from Warren and Loveland was breaking tackles all day because that's who he is he's one of the best if not the best tight ends in the country and he had eight recep for 87 yard and a touchdown he was Michigan's best receiving Threat by a mile and I'm just saying Fresno State did Stonewall Michigan For Better or For Worse and good on them for three quarters it was a game really for three and a half quarters again it was 16- 10 16 to 10 in the fourth quarter and the reason I say because we talk about winners last we saved the best for last on this channel the reason I say that this game was a culmination a mini culmination or a small Snowball Effect of shiron Moore's coaching mistakes is because Michigan looked like a big 10 West team they looked like 2017 Wisconsin or 2021 or 22 or 23 Iowa they looked like a good great big 10 West team they did not look like national champions or a national title caliber team they did not even look relative to the fact that they have to play three teams who are ranked preseason top four and who have some of the highest ceilings in the country a playoff team relative to their schedule and whether it's wink marale sending azero Blitz which I don't even know why you were doing that when you can already get pressure with Josiah Stewart Derek Moore Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham Jon Barham as well whether it's the offense failing to pick up an easy third and short whether it is not getting a quarterback in the transfer portal and shifting all your chips into a quarterback room where the presumed starter only through one career pass attempt uh Jack Tuttle Davis Warren were walk-on caliber and Jaden Davis is a true freshman that that's coaching right there now I think that Michigan did pull away and I thought that there were some highlights in coaching as well after all this team only returns 40% of their production you knew there was going to be a drop off from last year and we saw that and the defense is still Elite it may be the same caliber of defense that Michigan had last year with a little more boom but also a little more bust with the addition of wink marale and the fact that he is going to be sending more blitzes whether you like it or not I wouldn't be shocked if Michigan finished the year defensively with more sacks and maybe the same amount of turnovers forced even though they lost much of their turnover production from last year losing Sor still losing Wallace Chris Jenkins their linebackers but Michigan will probably allow more big plays than they did last year because you send those zero blitzes against Texas unless Texas is running the football whether it's Isaiah Bond whether it's Silas Balden Matthew golden Ryan Wingo jeante cook I don't care you send a zero Blitz against those wide receivers and Quinn ERS and their tight ends well they're they're ripping one to the house and I I don't know exactly how to put it again because it's week one it's like my video yesterday with Miami versus Florida about the only takeaway I had from that game is well Billy Napier probably won't have a job by the end of the year and that Miami has an insanely high ceiling but I don't know if Miami is a top 10 team yet because Florida also looked pretty terrible it's similar here with Michigan Michigan's defense looked awesome the offense cly has questions but do I know that the offense will look bad this bad for the rest of the year I don't don't because Michigan probably did save a fair amount for Texas not saying that their offense is good I it looked way worse than I expected it to and I expected Michigan to hold some things back for Texas the defense lived up to my expectations to Michigan's preseason expectations bringing back the amount of NFL talent that they did but under five yards per pass and five yards per run one of those has to change if Michigan wants to have a chance at beating Oregon beating Ohio State and beating Texas if if you're going to have a very mediocre passing game then you need to have what Michigan did in 2021 or 2022 where your rushing offense is so strong that the Run makes it so that even an average or below average Quarterback can keep a defense honest Davis Warren was incapable of doing that and I think that starting Warren and trying to get him in Rhythm and figuring everything out while that could have been a good thing by the end of the game it was irritating because even though orgy had that one bad pass he did get Michigan a touchdown and when he was on the field the ground game opened up it felt like the offensive line was more confident and the offense overall was more confident it feels similar to Alabama last year when they played South Florida it feels like the team believes in orgy more than Warren in the same way that Alabama believed more in Jaylen milro than they did in Tai Simpson or Tyler Buckner despite the fact that milro at the time was not playing close to the standard that Alabama had they had to adapt for him because he was the best that they had he gave them the best chance to win I feel like that's the case with Michigan here with Alex Alex orgy has far better athleticism he has a stronger arm and Michigan does have some speed at receiver they got some separation last night that Warren just couldn't take advantage of and to be fair orgy didn't either when he had that one chance to get a comeback route and he missed the pass for like four or five or three yards short it was it's just an awful performance on offense from Michigan they looked like Iowa the defense being one of the best in the country particularly at stopping the run will Johnson having that pick six Mari page leading the team in tackles Michigan also earned another interception from Zeke Barry who looks to have a big year at safety and look I just think that Michigan has to be better on offense if they want to have a shot at winning the Big 10 they can maybe with how Oregon and Ohio State looked yesterday still be in the race if their offenses just average and the defenses special teams is awesome that's asking a lot as then Michigan would have to win a lot of close games and the and and the ball would just have to bounce their way several times Michigan same with any team in college football you want to take control you want to take control of your Destiny game control your opponents to death and be the better team not just win based off of a turnover or a ball that bounces the other way you do not want to win like how Ohio State beat Michigan in 2016 where you rely on a fourth and one conversion and mistakes from an opposing quarterback to win the game in overtime you want to win like how Ohio State beat Michigan in 2018 or 19 or how Michigan beat Ohio State in 21 22 or 23 where you consistently lead and you just play the better football through all four quarters or for most of the game and I don't know if Michigan's capable of doing that in all 12 or even 11 or 10 of their games I don't know if they're capable of doing that I mean if they beat Texas Oregon or Ohio State based off of what we have seen through one game and again it's one game Michigan will probably win one of those games by playing close by not turning over the football by having a little advantage in time of possession and by using their home field advantage to maybe throw Oregon or Texas's offensive line off and win by by a score and that's if they beat one of those teams and you don't want to rely on that style of play to win the defense and special teams were great the offense as I've already said there's a lot more to be desired of particularly a quarterback and receiver but also I would say Donovan Edwards in the offensive line Edwards averaged less than three yards per carry and Michigan's offensive line mightily struggled in the first half at run blocking finally my most valuable player in this game is cornerback will Johnson he had three total tackles a pass defended an interception and he pick six he did get burned a few times but he made up for that with the pick six and this is Will Johnson I've seen him before it was the same thing with s r still last year you get burned a few times but then you make up for it with the big plays and Mikey kean's a good quarterback and the receiver that they have in Jaylen moss and also M Delena and raen sharp I said in my preview of this game Fresno State does have a good offense and a good defense it's not great it's not near Elite it's it's nowhere near Elite I I don't even think Fresno State's a top 25 team but they may be one of the better teams on Michigan's schedule they're certainly one of the better group of five teams could be the best group of five team we'll have to see and will Johnson overall did have a good game and that pick sealed it for Michigan on a drive where Fresno State was mixing things up and they were in the red zone and will Johnson took a pick 86 yards to the house that's why I have him as the MVP because he had a touchdown and overall he gave Fresno State problems because if he wasn't there at corner and this is another concern for Michigan on defense is secondary depth Michigan does not have the DBS they had last year I mean it would be really nice if Keon Sab could just come back to Michigan and this could actually be the nation's best secondary but they have some depth concerns they have a lot of transfers there that they tried to rotate in against Fresno State you can tell the staff is trying to do everything they can to maximize reps and experience and train these guys before Texas comes to town and they play at noon in six days will Johnson helps minimize the holes that Michigan has right now and perhaps for the rest of the year in the secondary they were targeting him as the game ended but early on and I think this will be the case for most offenses against him for all four quarters they're going to try and Target the other guys and only target will Johnson if they feel like they have to or if they want to throw Michigan's defense off and Fresno State wasn't really able to throw Michigan's defense off all that much so that's why I have will Johnson as the MVP but also I want to give a shout out to Dominic zvada Michigan's kicker they got from Arkansas state three of three on field goals long a 55 12 total points factoring in some extra points that he had three of them look he had he's just so good one of one from 40 and 49 two of two from 50 plus he may be the nation's best kicker Michigan has been privileged year over year over year whether it's Jake Moody James Turner now probably Dominic Zada of having Elite kickers and combined that with good special teams play samage Morgan looked much more mature more disciplined more comfortable as punt returner than he did last year and mullings did a good job kick returning Michigan has great special teams Zada is a huge part of that and I would name him as the MVP because he kept Fresno State significantly behind behind to the point where when they got the touchdown they would have needed another touchdown to take the lead he gave Michigan a cushion when their offense looked horrific and I'm telling you the box score May deceive some of you 30 to1 one of those touchdowns was a pick six another touchdown the first of the game was great field position for Michigan off of a tipped ball and a Zeke Barry interception and of those points were long field goals Michigan only had one full drive that resulted in a touchdown the other 23 points were from well outside the red zone or with the first touchdown of the game Michigan technically had a Red Zone trip but they basically started their Drive close to the Red Zone anyway so for the Wolverines have Donovan Edwards or K mullings or Alex orgy or coulston Loveland or someone really outside of coulston Loveland have a most valuable player type performance Michigan really needs to step up this week because Texas is coming to town and Texas will do damage thank you all so much for watching this video remember to like this video subscribe to the channel click the notification Bell and comment your thoughts down below thank you to patreon members crash 2488 and brass SC Rascal for sponsoring this video and channel as Heisman members it's $25 a month and if you want signed free college football with Sam merchandise delivered to your door sign up as a Heisman member for $6 a month and that will be given to you as a reward thank you to Chris Lane Conor 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