4B — October 9, 2017
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Defense deserves better

I

t’s no secret at this point.

Michigan’s defense 

is good enough to win a 

championship.

Football, though, is a team 

game — as 
fifth-year 
senior 
linebacker 
Mike 
McCray 
alluded 
to after 
his team’s 
14-10 loss 
to Michi-
gan State.

“(When 

the) offense (is) doing bad, we’re 
doing bad,” he said. “We can’t 
get frustrated with them; they 
can’t get frustrated with us.”

It’s the type of answer you’d 

expect from McCray, the con-
summate teammate who was 
elected captain before the sea-
son.

Deep down, though, you won-

der if there is any frustration 
from him, or from any other 
member of the defense. And if 
there is — that’s easily under-
standable.

In the second half — before 

an eight-play, 26-yard drive that 
took just enough time off the 
clock to make life even more 
difficult for the Wolverines on 
their final drive of the game — 
the Spartans had the ball seven 
times.

The results of those seven 

possessions? Six three-and-outs 
and one four-and-out after they 
elected to go for it on fourth 
down.

It was the definition of abso-

lute dominance from Michigan’s 
defense — the type of outing 
that we’ve become accustomed 
to seeing with Don Brown call-
ing the shots.

And yet that Herculean 

performance wasn’t enough, 
because as absurdly good as 
Michigan’s defense was, the 
offense simply could not exe-
cute.

After the game, McCray said 

that coming out of halftime, 
his unit’s goal was to give the 
offense the ball as many times 
as possible.

Here’s what the Wolverines 

did with those eight posses-
sions: three-and-out, 33-yard 
touchdown drive, interception, 
interception, interception, punt, 
punt and a desperate 43-yard 
drive that ended with the ball 
harmlessly falling to the turf.

It was a sight for sore eyes, 

and it was a sight that will haunt 
Jim Harbaugh and his offensive 
coaching staff for the rest of the 
week, perhaps for the rest of the 
season. This, after all, was an 
easily winnable game — and the 
Wolverines even had the blue-
print for doing so.

Coming out of halftime faced 

with a 14-3 deficit, Michigan 
began a war of field position. 
The defense kept the Spartans 
pinned deep, and when a Jake 
Hartbarger punt was returned 
to the Michigan State 33-yard 
line, the Wolverines pounced.

After yet another three-and-

out forced by the defense, the 
offense looked poised to build 

on its prior success. Michigan 
fed junior running back Karan 
Higdon four consecutive times, 
and he turned those carries into 
23 yards and two first downs.

And then the Wolverines 

tried to pass.

They were called for hold-

ing. They called another pass, 
and O’Korn scrambled for eight 
yards. They called another pass 
— and O’Korn threw it to the 
other team.

“When we got momentum 

going,” Harbaugh said, “we 
turned it over.”

Michigan stuck with the pass 

stubbornly, like a puppy might 
do with an old chewed-out toy. 
It called for passes even amidst 
what O’Korn deemed a “torren-
tial downpour,” which certainly 
didn’t make life any easier for 
him. And it got the same result 
nearly every time — a bad one.

The Wolverines ran 13 pass 

plays in the second half before 
a desperate final drive where 
Michigan State played things 
safe and allowed easy comple-
tions underneath. On those 13 
plays, O’Korn completed four 
passes. He was sacked and 

forced to scramble once each. 
He threw three interceptions.

O’Korn, as good of a team-

mate as any, didn’t give much 
away after the game.

“I wasn’t upset with any of 

the calls at all,” he said. “I was 
just upset with myself.”

But, like with the defense, 

any frustration would’ve been 
understandable. After all, he 
himself commented on the diffi-
culty of throwing in the rain.

There’s merit in debating 

whether the players simply have 
to execute, or whether they 
were put in a position to suc-
ceed Saturday night. There are 
now many more questions than 
answers facing this team after 
such a dispiriting loss. 

And yet, one thing was dev-

astatingly clear: Michigan’s 
defense deserves better.

“You can’t expect to win,” 

O’Korn said, “when you turn the 
ball over that many times.”

Truer words have never been 

spoken.

Sang can be reached at 

otsang@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @orion_sang.

ORION 
SANG

EMMA RICHTER/Daily

Junior wide receiver Grant Perry was part of a Wolverine offense that let its defense down Saturday night.

FOOTBALL
Offensive line fails ‘M’

Fifth-year senior quarterback 

John O’Korn scrambled from the 
pocket all game long — rolling left, 
rolling right and running up the 
middle. He gained 24 yards on the 
ground.

The problem for the No. 7 

Michigan football team (1-1 Big 
Ten, 4-1 overall) was that O’Korn 
was never supposed to rush.

“None of them were designed 

runs,” O’Korn said of his many 
scrambles. 
“They 
were 
all 

pass plays. Guys weren’t open, 
(Michigan State) had good coverage 
or protection broke down.”

The struggles appeared most on 

the offensive line, where Michigan 
couldn’t contain the Spartans’ 
pressure. The Wolverines lost the 
battle in the trenches, and duly lost 
the game, 14-10.

Midway through the second 

quarter, Michigan State defensive 
end Kenny Willekes burst through 
the offensive line to sack O’Korn. 
Willekes had lined up to the 
left, matching up with redshirt 
sophomore right tackle Nolan 
Ulizio.

Ulizio was beat, and O’Korn was 

taken down.

After Ulizio’s struggles, the 

coaches subbed him out for 
redshirt junior Juwann Bushell-
Beatty. The substitution wasn’t 
part of the original game plan, 
according to coach Jim Harbaugh, 
but the coaches felt that they had to 
make a change.

However, 
nothing 
really 

changed.

O’Korn was sacked again before 

halftime — Michigan State’s third 
sack of the second quarter. By the 
end of the game, the Spartans had 
sacked O’Korn four times for a total 
of 33 yards.

Ulizio and Bushell-Beatty split 

the duties Saturday. Despite plenty 
of options at the position — redshirt 
sophomore Jon Runyan has also 
appeared there — few have seemed 
to work.

“Those two guys — Juwann and 

Nolan — they compete their butts 
off,” said senior left tackle Mason 
Cole. “They’ll continue to do that. 
Our coaches will put the best guys 
out there. Whether it be Nolan 
in the first half or Juwann in the 
second half, it doesn’t matter.

“We trust Nolan out there. We 

trust Juwann out there. Doesn’t 
matter to us.”

But it should matter. The right 

tackle position has been Michigan’s 
weakest link this season. The 
offensive line struggles go from left 
to right.

Cole, a veteran and the offensive 

captain, lines up out left and 
is one of Michigan’s strongest 
players. Next to him at left guard is 
sophomore Ben Bredeson, another 
highly-touted lineman who molded 
well to the college game.

At center is fifth-year senior 

Patrick Kugler, who came off the 
bench in the past few years, and 
finally earned a starting role. To 
the right of Kugler is sophomore 
Michael Onwenu, the Wolverines’ 
best option at right guard.

And then comes right tackle. 

Nobody has proven themselves as 
the worthy starter. Cole and other 
teammates talked about how Ulizio 
and Bushell-Beatty keep competing 
— just as they did through spring 
training and fall camp.

Yet after all this time, neither 

has separated from the pack, and 
it’s showing. O’Korn simply isn’t 
getting much time to pass.

“Protection all this year has 

been a big focus for us,” Cole said.

Cole and O’Korn stood by their 

teammates, but it’s clear that the 
position is contributing to the 
issues of an already dysfunctional 
offense.

The offensive line broke against 

the Spartans, and it is hard to 
foresee an improvement when 
Michigan still has to play Penn 
State, Wisconsin and Ohio State.

“Part of it is on me,” O’Korn 

said. “I’ve got to get us in the right 
protection.”

A small part of it is on O’Korn. A 

bigger part of it is on the offensive 
line.

TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer

Five Things We Learned: Michigan State

Talk about a season killer. 
It’s 
hard 
to 
imagine 
No. 

17 Michigan (1-1 Big Ten, 4-1 
overall) competing for the Big 
Ten Championship — or the 
College Football Playoff — after 
No. 21 Michigan State came out 
victorious in the night game this 
weekend.

The 14-10 loss revealed what 

many expected would happen 
at some point in the season: The 
Wolverines’ offensive struggles 
would catch up to them, and 
Michigan would dig itself a hole 
that was too big to crawl out of.

Here are five things we learned 

from the Wolverines’ loss on 
Saturday.

1. Michigan can’t just rely on 

its defense

Once again, Michigan’s defense 

— the top-ranked unit in the 
country in yards allowed per game 
with 213 — shut down its opponent 
in the second half. The Spartans 
didn’t tally a second-half first 
down until their final drive of the 
game.

The Wolverines failed to get a 

sack for the first time this season, 
but tallied three quarterback 
hurries.

Two sophomores, cornerback 

Lavert Hill and safety Josh 
Metellus, 
combined 
for 
four 

pass breakups and played a big 
part in holding Michigan State 
quarterback Brian Lewerke to just 
98 passing yards.

Michigan shut Lewerke down 

after halftime, but there was little 
the defense could do to help when 
the offense turned the ball over 
five times.

2. 
O’Korn’s 
performance 

against Purdue might not be 
representative

Two hundred and seventy 

yards, a touchdown and a 69 
percent completion rate? That’s 
what O’Korn threw for when he 
came off the sideline to replace an 
injured Wilton Speight two weeks 
ago against Purdue.

Expecting him to perform 

that well every weekend, though, 
might not be fair.

While Speight’s efforts were 

criticized left and right in the 

beginning of the season, Michigan 
coach Jim Harbaugh continued to 
back up his decision that Speight 
was the team’s best option at 
quarterback. When Speight went 
down, it was tough to imagine how 
the Wolverines would respond.

Reasonably though, Michigan 

fans were less worried after 
O’Korn lit up the Boilermakers, 
hitting his receivers and tight ends 
the entire afternoon.

But 
against 
the 
Spartans’ 

lockdown coverage, the fifth-year 
senior and transfer from Houston 
couldn’t produce like he had the 
week before.

O’Korn 
completed 
just 
38 

percent of his passes and gave 
up three interceptions. O’Korn’s 
best throw of the game came on 
a 17-yard pass to junior receiver 
Grant Perry, who landed on 
Michigan State’s one-yard line.

3. The offensive line struggles 

are the source of the problem…

Redshirt 
sophomore 
Nolan 

Ulizio got the start at right tackle. 
After he got beat on a second-
quarter 
sack, 
redshirt 
junior 

Juwann Bushell-Beatty replaced 
him, but Bushell-Beatty was not 
any more effective.

The struggles at the position 

gave O’Korn little time to work 
in the pocket, as Michigan State’s 
pressing defense continued to 
break through the offensive line.

O’Korn was sacked four times 

and only passed for 86 yards in the 
second half. If the offensive line 
can’t create gaps or protect the 
quarterback, there isn’t enough 
time for any components of the 
offense to get to work.

4. But the receivers are 

struggling too

On the third-to-last play of the 

game, sophomore receiver Eddie 
McDoom dropped a wide open 
pass 
from 
O’Korn. 
Michigan 

would’ve been at the Spartans’ 
31-yard line with 21 seconds left, 
but McDoom couldn’t reel in the 
catch.

O’Korn connected with four 

receivers in the second half, 
throwing for just 86 yards after 
the break.

Junior Grant Perry has stepped 

up as Michigan’s leading receiver 
since freshman Tarik Black’s 
season was cut short due to a foot 
injury. But other receivers like 
freshman Donovan Peoples-Jones 
and sophomore Kekoa Crawford 

just haven’t made a big impact.

The Wolverines needed big 

plays to swing momentum, but 
they never got any and couldn’t 
overcome their errors.

5. Not-so-bold Prediction: 

The Minnesota game probably 
won’t be at night

The Nov. 4 game between 

Michigan 
and 
Minnesota 
is 

the only home game left on the 
Wolverines’ schedule that does not 
yet have an announced time for 
kick off.

The game against Michigan 

State was held at night due to the 
national attention it would receive. 
It had all the dimensions to be an 
instant classic: the in-state rivalry, 
a highly-ranked team and the first 
time the Spartans came to Ann 
Arbor since the botched punt.

A game against Minnesota 

won’t have any of those factors. 

And after this first loss, it’s 

tough to imagine the Wolverines 
beating No. 3 Penn State on the 
road in two weeks. If Michigan 
is 6-2 going into a matchup with 
the irrelevant Golden Gophers, a 
national television network will 
have no desire to air that game on 
primetime.

TED JANES

Daily Sports Writer

VOLLEYBALL
Wolverines plagued 
by inability to finish

With 
the 
Michigan 

volleyball 
team 
(2-4 
Big 

Ten, 
12-6 
overall) 
facing 

match point against No. 6 
Minnesota, 
senior 
outside 

hitter Adeja Lambert tracked 
the ball, soaring into the air 
and connecting her hand to 
the ball with sheer force. 

Her spike flew straight into 

the net.

She looked down at the 

floor in disappointment as 
the Golden Gophers’ cheers 
washed over the otherwise 
quiet 
Cliff 

Keen Arena.

Suddenly, 

Michigan had 
lost its third 
set — and the 
match.

Saturday 

afternoon, the 
Wolverines 
were 
swept 

by 
No. 
6 

Minnesota 
(4-2, 14-2), losing 25-21, 25-21, 
25-20. It was their first home 
loss of the season.

Despite 
the 
sweep, 

Michigan appeared to have 
victory in its clutches in all 
three sets. It held several 
large leads, including a 17-12 
advantage in the first set and 
a seemingly insurmountable 
16-8 
lead 
in 
the 
second 

set. 
For 
large 
stretches, 

the 
Wolverines 
looked 

tremendous, dominating one 
of the best teams in the nation.

But the Wolverines never 

capitalized on those leads.

“We have to get better,” said 

coach Mark Rosen. “We don’t 
have to get monumentally 
better, but we’ve got to get 
better. Especially when it 
really matters — in the crunch 
points, at key times.”

Toward the ends of sets, 

Michigan 
wilted 
while 

Minnesota flourished.

In the first set, Minnesota 

won six of the last seven 
points.

In the third set, the Golden 

Gophers scored the last five 
points.

These 
two 
massive 

runs were both fueled by 
a 
combination 
of 
stifling 

defense from Minnesota, who 
stuffed the Wolverines with 
14 blocks, and what Rosen 
called 
a 
one-dimensional 

Michigan attack.

“We’ve got to have more 

options and use more options,” 
Rosen said. “I thought we 
did that early on in sets but 

I think when it 
got late, we got 
a 
little 
more 

predictable.”

There 
were 

moments, 
though, 
when 

the Wolverines 
did utilize their 
role 
players 

well, 
such 
as 

senior opposite 
hitter Katherine 

Mahlke.

Mahlke’s 
left-handed 

strikes added a much-needed 
variety 
to 
the 
Michigan 

attack, temporarily confusing 
the 
Minnesota 
blockers. 

Midway through the second 
set, she pounded a kill down 
the middle of the court to 
halt a seven-point run for the 
Gophers. Mahlke had three 
kills on just four attempts, 
leading the Wolverines with 
an excellent attack percentage 
of 0.750.

However, her performance 

was indicative of her entire 
team’s performance — good, 
but not good enough.

Going 
forward, 
Rosen 

believes he can solve his 
team’s late-game issues.

“Balance is gonna be really 

important 
for 
us 
moving 

forward,” he said. “That’s 
what’s gonna help us close 
games out.”

DYLAN CHUNG

For the Daily

I think when 
it got late, we 

got a little more 

predictable.

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Sophomore wide receiver Eddie McDoom struggled to bring in a crucial pass on Michigan’s final drive of the game.

