Georgia continues dominant season, advances to national championship
It was always going to be a tall task for Ohio State to top Georgia in the college football playoff and we were reminded once again just how dominant of a season this has been for the bulldogs.
SportsPulse, USA TODAY
GLENDALE, Ariz. — They gathered in a small circle outside the entrance to the Michigan football locker room.
The Michigan tight ends put their arms together – one final meeting together as a group. And it set up such a wild situation. At that moment, TCU was still on the field in State Farm Stadium, celebrating a stunning 51-45 Fiesta Bowl victory in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
Standing near the Michigan players, you could hear screams and cheers coming from the field – from the celebration – as the Wolverines started hugging each other.
One team was heading to the national championship – TCU will play Georgia on Jan. 9 in Inglewood, California.
The other one done for the season because it made countless mistakes and got outcoached – Jim Harbaugh has lost six straight bowl games. Michigan got outplayed and outmanned – the Wolverines couldn’t run the ball or stop it. And Michigan couldn’t get out of its own way. Or make enough adjustments to make a difference.
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“I thought they played a great game. Very opportunistic team. Very resilient team. Really great team,” Harbaugh said. “One less big play, one more big play by us; one more opportunistic play by us, one less opportunistic play by them, and it would be a different situation.”
He’s not wrong.
Change one play in this game and Michigan could have won.
But that’s also a reflection of how badly Michigan played.
So what went wrong?
TCU looked comfortable at the biggest moments, while Michigan made crucial mistakes.
What’s the root of that?
The Wolverines’ soft nonconference schedule and overall weak Big Ten competition finally caught up with them. They were so dominant, for so long, in so many games, that their only real adversity was playing from behind at home against an average Illinois team after losing Blake Corum. They never learned all the lessons that can be gained from a series of tough wins.
TCU was more battle-tested and played like it. The Horned Frogs opened their Big 12 season by beating four straight ranked opponents, then beat two more in four weeks in November and December. And the Horned Frogs didn’t make mistakes when the pressure mounted.
But this was the first time all season that Michigan had trailed by more than a touchdown.
Michigan never faced real adversity, and the Wolverines never had the chance to grow from those moments.
Michigan’s coaches were never forced to make changes on the fly. What do you do when somebody is ramming the ball down your throat? What changes do you make when you can’t run the ball? Michigan’s coaches never got those answers.
Michigan’s players never had to spend an entire game fighting back from a big deficit.
TCU is not a great team.
But the Horned Frogs played great when they needed to.
Michigan is not a great team, either. And the Wolverines didn’t play great – or even consistently good – when they needed it most.
So we’re just like, ‘We will be back.’
Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy and running back Donovan Edwards walked slowly down the hallway, heading to a press conference.
It’s hard to win when you throw two pick-sixes.
SHAWN WINDSOR:Michigan got beaten where it always matters most: Up front
Or fumble the ball near the goal line.
But it’s downright impossible to win when you can’t run the ball, can’t stop the run and keep shooting yourself in the foot.
“I think sometimes, you know, we lost the edge on a few plays,” Michigan nose tackle Mazi Smith said. “We needed people to come up and stop the bleeding. If you don’t stop the bleeding, you are gonna bleed out. And I don’t think we played complementary football today. But I think we did the best that we could, given the circumstances. I think that my brothers fought very hard and did everything we could.”
The locker room was subdued, but nobody seemed shocked. Not when you spend most of the game just fighting to make it a game.
“We will be back,” Edwards wrote on Twitter, a message that he sent out as the confetti was being cleaned off the field. “We scored 45 points for Meechie,” referring to the former Muskegon High School football star and Michigan superfan Dametrius Walker, who recently died after battling cancer.
In the end, U-M lost a game against a team that made more plays. It was not embarrassing but it was disappointing.
“It sucks that we lost the game,” Edwards said. “Our whole season preparation has been to win a national championship, and this is the second year that we have lost in the 14th game of the season. So we’re just like, ‘We will be back.’ Same thing we said last year.”
But one prevailing thought lingered after this game:
They wasted an amazing opportunity.
Follow Jeff Seidel on Twitter @seideljeff.
