Last November, in his interim head coaching debut against Penn State, Sherrone Moore came out of the locker room after halftime having made a conscientious decision. With Michigan’s offensive line overwhelmed by Chop Robinson and the Wolverines’ pass game flailing, Moore decided that he was done with forcing things.
He wasn’t going to try to resuscitate the passing game and take a risk in the process, he wasn’t going to risk getting quarterback J.J. McCarthy hurt — he was going to pull the plug. And he didn’t look back. In that contest, Moore opted to run the ball again and again and again. Thirty-two times in a row to be exact, and it worked.
Saturday against Southern California, Moore made the exact same choice: He pulled the plug on the passing game, and it led to a victory. After three weeks of an ineffective, turnover-ridden passing offense, he came to the conclusion that Michigan couldn’t afford to continue forcing it. So against the Trojans, and possibly for the whole season, he decided that Michigan will have to live and die by its run game. It’s a risky choice, and it’s a choice that sets a very obvious ceiling, but for the Wolverines, this is the only identity that fits.
“I love it,” Moore said of the Wolverines’ rushing emphasis. “That’s my dream to see it. And yeah I want to throw the ball, but when you can run the ball effectively, it breaks (them) down a little bit.”
To a certain extent, Michigan has always been run oriented, and it has never pretended to be a lightning quick offense. But on Saturday, Moore showed that he’s taking that identity to another level. Not because he’d like to, not because it’s perfect, but because he has to.
He tried to avoid this approach when he chose senior quarterback Davis Warren to start the season. But through three games, it was apparent that that wasn’t going to be enough. So as he trotted junior quarterback Alex Orji out to direct the offense Saturday, it was clear that Moore’s decision had been made. If they can’t pass they’ll run, again and again and again.
Against the Trojans, the Wolverines went all in, running the ball 46 times for 290 yards and three touchdowns. From start to finish, Michigan ran.
In the first half it resulted in riotous success with 53-yard and 41-yard touchdowns from graduate and senior running backs Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards, respectively. But in the third quarter, Michigan’s offense came to a standstill, gaining six yards total.
And still, Moore didn’t deviate.
With four minutes to go and the Wolverines down by four, on their own 11 and needing a touchdown, any other coach and any other team would have thrown the ball. It’s common sense. You need big yardage and you need the clock to move slowly, so you throw. But Moore wasn’t going to change the identity he had chosen.
So they ran, and they risked the clock running out on the contest, partly because they don’t have the weapons to make a quick passing offense work, and partly because this is their only identity that works.
And when all hope seemed lost, that identity came through. Mullings darted for 63 yards. Then he ran up the middle six more times before finding the end zone. He clinched a statement victory for Michigan despite it amassing just 32 passing yards — its lowest game total in at least three decades.
The identity the Wolverines resorted to was tough enough and hard nosed enough to win them a stunning comeback victory. But it’s also an identity with a ceiling, and Saturday showed that.
In the third quarter when Michigan couldn’t move the ball, in the fact that only one of the Wolverines’ second half drives was accompanied by a first down, and especially in the fact that they could only run the ball in third and longs and dire situations like clock-oriented drives — Michigan plainly showed its ceiling.
It won’t ever be able to move the ball quickly, and sometimes it might have to settle for repeated three-and-outs and depending on its defense for enough points to win a game, either through scoring off of turnovers or limiting opponents’ offensive success. But that’s better than the alternative.
The Wolverines frankly don’t have the pieces necessary to pass. And so like he did at halftime against Penn State almost a year ago, Moore made a simple calculation Saturday. He could try to resuscitate the passing game, or he could pull the plug.
He pulled the plug, and it kept Michigan alive.
The post Charlie Pappalardo: Sherrone Moore chose an identity with a ceiling; it’s for the best appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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