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Texas 31, Michigan 12
Michigan opens at +5. Sounds about right. The Wolverines struggled to beat what proved to be a good Fresno State team on both sides of the ball. In that win, M showed some troubling weaknesses mostly on offense.
Getting the defense's issues out of the way, too many Cover-0 schemes when Keene was dealing strikes that exposed the back end, IMO. Ewers is going to take advantage of that if WInk thinks he can do that v. the Longhorns.
On offense, wow! A lot to unpack here. I thought the biggest issue on offense was OL play with the tag team rotation at C involving Giudice and Griffin. That Moore seems to be continuing the run-centric offense of team 143, requires solid C play. Texas is going to exploit that weakness with the goal of shutting down the inside run game and forcing Warren to make solid reads, get the play calls right and connect with his receivers. Second to that issue was the failure of all of M's receivers, save Loveland, to get much separation. Lastly, it appeared to me that Warren checked down too often but that might be mitigated by M's receivers not getting open or aggravated by Fresno State's pass D that confused Warren ???? Hard to say at this point. Oh, and note to Sherrone, when the score is 22 - 10, you go for 2.
The Longhorns mauled CSU running 74 plays and racking up over 500y of total offense with 350 of that passing. Ewers threw 3 TD passes. M's defense should be stouter than that and reduce the Texas offense's efficiency. If Wink can get pressure on Ewers rushing 4, Ewer's gaudy stats v. CSU won't be repeated. If he can't and has to get 5 or more involved in the rush, that's going to be a problem.
M looks to be the kind of team that wants to strangle an opponent's offense and get a win by scoring in the low 20s. I'll be shocked if this team can do that versus Texas.
Early score prediction, UT 32, M 24 ...... I reserve the right to change that.
Getting the defense's issues out of the way, too many Cover-0 schemes when Keene was dealing strikes that exposed the back end, IMO. Ewers is going to take advantage of that if WInk thinks he can do that v. the Longhorns.
On offense, wow! A lot to unpack here. I thought the biggest issue on offense was OL play with the tag team rotation at C involving Giudice and Griffin. That Moore seems to be continuing the run-centric offense of team 143, requires solid C play. Texas is going to exploit that weakness with the goal of shutting down the inside run game and forcing Warren to make solid reads, get the play calls right and connect with his receivers. Second to that issue was the failure of all of M's receivers, save Loveland, to get much separation. Lastly, it appeared to me that Warren checked down too often but that might be mitigated by M's receivers not getting open or aggravated by Fresno State's pass D that confused Warren ???? Hard to say at this point. Oh, and note to Sherrone, when the score is 22 - 10, you go for 2.
The Longhorns mauled CSU running 74 plays and racking up over 500y of total offense with 350 of that passing. Ewers threw 3 TD passes. M's defense should be stouter than that and reduce the Texas offense's efficiency. If Wink can get pressure on Ewers rushing 4, Ewer's gaudy stats v. CSU won't be repeated. If he can't and has to get 5 or more involved in the rush, that's going to be a problem.
M looks to be the kind of team that wants to strangle an opponent's offense and get a win by scoring in the low 20s. I'll be shocked if this team can do that versus Texas.
Early score prediction, UT 32, M 24 ...... I reserve the right to change that.
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