It was a misleading sign, a harbinger that should be ignored.
In the afterglow of Michigan football’s first and only victory, the sequence that opened the Wolverines’ season was brushed aside like an inconvenient truth. At the time, few attached much significance to the five-play disaster that went as follows: A 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, an incomplete pass, a third-down sack , a blocked punt, a short run conceded and finally a 14-yard touchdown pass allowed to a wide-open tight end.
But in retrospect, that series of bad events revealed plenty about a team that has looked dysfunctional at times and is reeling from two consecutive defeats. Blown assignments, penalties, coverage lapses, giveaways and drops have derailed the Wolverines and put them at a disadvantage against their opponents.
After last week’s loss at Indiana, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh acknowledged the Wolverines have struggled to transfer their sound performances in practices to the games.
“That’s what we’re learning how to do as a football team with so many guys on the team,” Harbaugh said. “Continually, all of us, coaches, are trying to speed that up as much as possible and feel like we’re going to get there.”
Harbaugh delivered a similar comment last season following the Wolverines’ second conference game against Rutgers, when Michigan was still smarting from its collapse at Wisconsin — the team that rolls into Ann Arbor on Saturday and is favored to win.
It was bizarre then and even more curious now given that Harbaugh vowed it wouldn’t be like this.
In July, Harbaugh proclaimed “providence will favor the prepared,” signaling that Michigan would be set to go if and when there was a season. Then, in September, when the games were postponed, he marched through the streets of Ann Arbor in protest and declared the Wolverines would be “ready to play as soon as we can possibly play.”
So, why do they still look so discombobulated near the halfway point of this truncated schedule?
It’s a question Harbaugh faces as deficiencies have been exposed on offense, defense and special teams.
According to Pro Football Focus, Michigan receivers and tight ends have been responsible for nine dropped passes — the most in the Big Ten. The Wolverines have also been penalized 85 yards per game — tied for the highest average in the league with winless Illinois. In addition, Michigan is the only team in the conference that has surrendered at least four passes of 40 or more yards. The Wolverines’ 25% field-goal conversion rate is the fourth-worst among all FBS teams that have multiple attempts.
Following Michigan’s shocking defeat to Michigan State in the home opener, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis went on radio and attributed the failures to insufficient preparation — saying it was not “up to par.”
A week later, after a dispiriting loss to Indiana, receiver Giles Jackson said the players’ focus has wavered when the intensity of practices dwindles later in the week. He said their approach to those sessions without full pads is “more laid-back” and wondered aloud if the laissez-faire attitude has carried over to meetings, where he said the teammates in his position group are not taking as many notes as they should.
The attention to detail, he added, is missing.
When the remarks made by Harbaugh, Gattis and Jackson are aggregated, a picture begins to develop of a program that has systemic problems that can’t be fixed overnight.
After all, Harbaugh maintains there is a recurring issue of a disconnect between the team’s heightened level of execution in practice versus its muddled play on Saturdays.
This shouldn’t be the case in the sixth year of his tenure, when Harbaugh already is dealing with roster attrition that has winnowed depth and left the Wolverines with little margin for error.
But right out of the gates, Michigan signaled what was to come this season when it began to crack like the fragile egg it is. The disastrous sequence against Minnesota may not have been viewed as a warning back then. As this season has progressed, however, it revealed these flawed Wolverines were not quite ready for prime time.
Contact Rainer Sabin at . Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Big Ten newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football tried to show us how fragile it is. We overlooked it
