If teams really do make their biggest improvements between weeks one and two, as coaches like to say, Michigan is in trouble.
Last week we called a 40-21 win over Middle Tennessee State “sloppy,” with the expectation that it would get better. This week we’ll call Michigan what it is through two games after a 24-21 double-overtime win over Army …
Undisciplined. Not focused enough.
And — fair or not, at this point in the season — vastly overrated.
The mistakes that needed to be cleaned up after week one simply weren’t. Senior quarterback Shea Patterson changed the entire dynamic of the game with another undisciplined play after the defense’s outstanding three-and-out to start the game, the second straight week he lost a fumble on the first drive.
In a game in which ball security mattered even more than usual and turnovers almost counted two because of Army’s deliberate, run-first (second, third and sometimes fourth) style, Patterson committed the unforgivable sin.
He wasn’t alone. Senior left guard Ben Bredeson jumped twice, junior center Cesar Ruiz once, before the snap. On a critical third-and-five play down the stretch, senior linebacker and captain Khaleke Hudson lined up so far offsides some might have thought he was trying to listen in on the call.
“Some good, but not as much as we would have liked,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said when asked how his team responded after insisting they needed to be 'in sprint mode' to clean up last week’s unforced mistakes. “Keep grinding in that department. Just get into more well-oiled.
“[We’re] oscillating.”
