Wolverine Watch: No Fire In The Rain
There are more ugly adjectives to describe Michigan’s latest football disaster than there were U-M points on the board Saturday night.
Brutal. Impotent. Horrific. Embarrassing. We’re invoking the verbal abuse mercy rule here, but you get the idea.
Wisconsin toyed with the Wolverines in their own stadium, rolling to a 49-11 win. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Joe Milton’s first two throws? Badger interceptions, setting up touchdowns.
Michigan yards in the opening quarter? Put it this way. The tally matched the Wolverines’ win total this year, the latter figure in doubt of changing anytime soon.
Wait a minute. Isn’t Rutgers next, the game you often call a bye week?
That’s right. But the Scarlet Knights own a pulse right now, enough to beat Michigan State this year — like almost everybody else. Rutgers likely figures it’s ready to win the state championship of Michigan this year, and for good reason.
The Wolverines are lost right now.
Against a good team on Saturday night, they didn’t stand a chance. They’re light years from where they figured to be back in August, when Nico Collins led a deep, confident receiving corps, and Ambry Thomas a secondary that had yet to slip into the abyss.
The Badgers dominated a scrambled Michigan offensive line, with two missing starting tackles and almost everyone else in shuffle mode. When the Wolverines needed a single yard to get on the board in the first half, they lined up in the shotgun, hoping Milton could find some opening — any opening.
His chances disappeared like a sand castle versus a tsunami, when the Badgers came crashing through.
Meanwhile, the Badgers’ typically bruising offensive line looked like Goliath against Michigan’s David, with U-M’s starting defensive ends tandem sidelined. Only this time, David didn’t have a smooth stone to his name.
The Wolverines trailed at the half, 28-0, and Michigan radio commentator Dan Dierdorf sounded dumbfounded as to what Jim Harbaugh might say to his team at the break.
Whatever it was, the Wolverines showed a flicker of fire, life and effort when the second half opened. They avoided the shutout, on fifth-year senior kicker Quinn Nordin’s 46-yard field goal. But catching the Badgers would have been like a 20-handicapper catching Tiger Woods in his prime on Sunday at The Masters.
It wasn’t happening.
The question now remains, what IS happening? What’s happening now, or at Rutgers, or in the upcoming WeUsedToBeGood Bowl with Penn State. How about at Ohio State, where head coach Ryan Day reportedly vowed behind closed doors to “hang a hundred” on Harbaugh’s crew this season.
This COVID-cursed, injury-plagued, short-of-the-sticks season could easily tumble into RichRod territory. That’s the last thing Michigan fans ever considered experiencing when Harbaugh rolled into town, fire in his eyes and a Super Bowl appearance on his resume.
Had anyone said back then that, six years in, Harbaugh’s crew would be getting blasted at home by Wisconsin — or anybody else — and giving up 49 points in the process, everyone would have laughed. Nobody’s laughing now, with the exception of Michigan haters coast to coast.
Harbaugh continues putting up a brave face, without any viable options. He certainly feels the deep misery of the season setting in, but remains determined not to take it out on those in his charge.
At the same time, he sounded very different after this game than the two losses that preceded it. He knows things have to change — somehow, some way. If they don’t, the Wolverines could mentally pack it in before Thanksgiving.
“Every part is not close to where it should be — stopping the run, stopping the pass, running the football, the passing game,” he said. “That starts with me, starts with our coaches and every person here.
“Understanding what we’re supposed to do, and going and executing it … there’s nothing, right now, to say an acceptable job is being done right now — players or coaches.”
He didn’t name any players or coaches — except one.
“In all areas, it was underperformed,” Harbaugh said. “Every area — coaching, execution, every man here. Ultimately, that’s my responsibility.”
It’s obviously tough on many who put so much hope in Harbaugh when he arrived back in Ann Arbor to see him searching for the answers to another thumping. They expected the 2016 Harbaugh — the clipboard-throwing fire-baller who couldn’t care less if the Big Ten fined him for ripping officials after the Ohio State game.
In that moment, he and his team embodied the fight that was sure to rage on in the years ahead. Instead, he stood in the rain Saturday night, watching his crew run over, falling to 1-3, and talking about everything that must change.
And it must.
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