NORMAN, Okla. — When Saturday’s matchup between the No. 15 Michigan football team and No. 18 Oklahoma entered halftime, the score seemed to indicate the Sooners had played a near-perfect game thus far. Up 14-0 against the Wolverines, Oklahoma jubilantly jogged into its locker room with a relatively comfortable lead while Michigan appeared deflated, dragging its feet.
While the lack of Wolverines points on the scoreboard was certainly a factor in their dejected demeanor, the more likely reason for it was that the Sooners had actually played far from a perfect game — Michigan simply couldn’t capitalize on their miscues.
From the start of the game, Oklahoma’s offense had its foot on the gas. On the first drive of the contest, the Sooners ran it into the endzone for a touchdown, seizing the lead just five minutes in. The Wolverines’ offense, on the other hand, barely sputtered to life, barely making it to Oklahoma’s 47-yard line before punting it away.
However, on the Sooners’ last drive of the quarter, Michigan had an opportunity to even the score.
With just 30 seconds left, Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer slung the ball deep into the middle of the field, intending to connect with tight end Will Huggins. Instead, the ball sailed over Huggins’ fingertips and right into the waiting hands of Wolverines junior defensive back TJ Metcalf — interception.
Now sitting at the Sooners’ 38-yard line, Michigan was prepared to notch a touchdown of its own. But it never came. What followed were two failed rushes up the middle, an incomplete pass and, finally, the punt away. Such was the pattern that followed the Wolverines throughout the contest.
“There’s the stuff that we gotta do right,” graduate tight end Max Bredeson said. “A lot of it’s just about the how, not always about the what. … We just gotta execute our plays better.”
Regardless of “what” the approach was or “how” they executed their plays, Michigan had chances — Oklahoma made mistakes — but the Wolverines were unable to seize the moment.
In Michigan’s second drive of the second quarter, opportunity once again came knocking, this time in the form of penalties. The start of the Wolverines’ drive looked eerily familiar: three failed attempts to reach a first down followed by the punt away. On this particular punt, though, things were different.
A roughing the kicker penalty issued to the Sooners gave Michigan an automatic first down and a renewed chance to catalyze its offense and make a touchdown. Despite the opportunity, what followed looked the same as before: an incomplete pass accompanied by a bleak 1-yard rush up the middle. Interestingly enough, the Wolverines got lucky again. A holding penalty gave Michigan yet another first down, advancing it to its 41-yard line.
It still wasn’t enough.
While the Wolverines managed to obtain a first down and get senior kicker Dominic Zvada within range, Zvada missed the 32-yard attempt, and Michigan’s offense retreated to the sideline without putting up a single point.
“There’s always plays you can go back on, thinking about (how) you’re close there, but at the end, almost don’t count in this league,” senior linebacker Ernest Hausmann said. “It’s point-blank. You can almost be there, but (it) doesn’t matter. You don’t get the job done. We did not get the job done.”
In the first half of the game, Oklahoma had four penalties for a combined 43 yards while the Wolverines had one for 15 yards. While Michigan’s offense wasn’t firing anywhere close to the rate at which the Sooners were, the Wolverines still had ample opportunities to balance things out — they just couldn’t convert.
Michigan’s final chance to turn things around came in the third quarter. Oklahoma notched another touchdown, but junior running back Justice Haynes also ran it home for the Wolverines’ first and only touchdown of the evening. The game seemed to be back within reach, especially after the Sooners fumbled a punt return, giving Michigan the ball at its own 31-yard line and the chance to put it within one score.
Alas, like all the times before, the Wolverines failed to seize the opportunity. With limited rushing yards and a slew of incomplete passes, Michigan’s offense ran dry, and with it went the Wolverines’ hopes of a win.
Oklahoma made mistakes, but Michigan made nothing of them. And because of it, the Wolverines left the stadium the same way they went into halftime: deflated and dragging their feet.
The post Michigan pays the price for squandered opportunities against Oklahoma appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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