Michigan’s defense struggled in the first half, but the offense did as well, leading to an insurmountable Oregon lead. Following the game, Sherrone Moore and Davis Warren commented on getting off to better starts offensively:
Michigan’s offense put up 17 points on Saturday against the Oregon Ducks . That number doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary if you’ve followed along with the offensively-challenged Wolverines this year, but the offense has made some meaningful strides, particularly in the passing game, in recent weeks.
Following Jack Tuttle’s start against Illinois — where the Wolverines only managed seven points — Michigan went back to Davis Warren at quarterback. Despite his struggles at the start of the year, he’s now proven to be the best option Michigan has right now.
So if Michigan has made strides in Warren’s second stint under center, why isn’t the team scoring more?
Well, for all the positives we’ve seen from Warren the last two weeks, the offense has taken too long to get going and squandering valuable opportunities early in games.
We saw this happen last week, as Michigan fell behind Michigan State early. It happened once again this week, as Michigan trailed Oregon, 28-10, at halftime. Much of Saturday’s loss had to do with the defense, but Michigan simply can’t afford to start this slow on offense. This is even more glaring when factoring in the defense’s admirable job after halftime, limiting the Ducks to just a field goal until a garbage time drive.
“We gotta flip it around, we can’t start slow,” said head coach Sherrone Moore after the game when asked what the key would be to start faster on offense. “We gotta figure out the best plays that we want to start the game and continue to go from there.”
Moore also noted this issue can’t continue to happen given the caliber of offenses Michigan will face down the stretch. Oregon’s fast start allowed it to get out to a comfortable lead and took the crowd out of the game. Meanwhile, Michigan has a looming matchup with Indiana, which has one of the best offense’s in the Big Ten.
Michigan managed just 34 yards in the first quarter, and its lone first-half touchdown drive was the result of a fumbled Oregon punt return that set the Wolverines up at the Oregon 28 yard line. Michigan didn’t get more than 50 yards on a drive until its sixth possession of the game.
Warren was critical of himself after the game and took some responsibility for the slow start, despite playing well for most of the afternoon.
“It falls on me as a quarterback,” Warren said. “I gotta be better on third downs — we talked about it all week and didn’t take advantage of those opportunities to be better. Definitely something I’ll be looking to work on.”
Warren is right that the offense needs to be better on third down, as the unit went 4-of-12 on third down, compared to Oregon’s mark of 10-of-15. However, it’s noteworthy the offense continues to put itself in disadvantageous situations on third down. Against the Ducks, Michigan repeatedly went backwards on first downs and followed it up with run plays that left Michigan in third-and-long. Warren could be better at completing passes in these situations, but the coaching staff could also put him in better situations to succeed.
The early-down play calling is even more head-scratching when you factor in the improvements we’ve seen from Michigan’s pass catchers in recent weeks. Getting two guys like Colston Loveland and Tyler Morris involved from the jump should be a priority moving forward, especially given the struggles of the run game.
Believe it or not, Michigan’s offense is in a better place than it was just two weeks ago against Illinois. It just needs to step up and play a complete game. That falls on players being able to execute when they’re given opportunities to make plays, but it also falls on Kirk Campbell and the offensive staff to game plan better at the start of games.
Michigan can’t expect to be able to continue flipping the switch in-game, so it needs to do as Moore said and find the optimal plays to start games.