Michigan football’s offense was stuck in the mud against Oklahoma, unable to do much of anything all game. There were Sooner defensive players running wild in the backfield while freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood had to quickly get rid of the football in order to avoid the constant pressure. What resulted was a 24-13 score and a 9-for-24 stat line — not good in the Wolverines’ first big test.
On the other side of the field, OU couldn’t get much of a running game going with its tailbacks, but quarterback John Mateer dominated on the ground, managing 74 yards on 19 carries — something many expected to see from Underwood. However, Underwood only had one designed run, and had three carries for -1 yards on the day.
And it doesn’t look like that’s going to change for the talented freshman anytime soon.
On Monday evening, head coach Sherrone Moore appeared on the Inside Michigan Football radio program, and while he did say that eventually Underwood could use his legs more, at this juncture, there’s not a plan for him to test the defense with his running ability.
“Yeah, I think for sure that at some point you’ll do that,” Moore said. “It’s a long year, and you’ve got 12 guaranteed opportunities. So your quarterback, like I always say, if you run him you better have two because they’re going to take a lot of hits. And he’s a big dude, and he wants to do that, but you just got to be very cognizant of how you use him in certain situations.”
It’s a solid notion, to make sure you have a solid backup before you run your quarterback. After all, Moore just lived through a season where Michigan didn’t have a viable quarterback whatsoever, so he doesn’t want to waste what he has in order to accumulate some extra yards. But, at the same time, if you look around both college and the NFL, teams run their quarterbacks without regard to the backup situation, because football players need to make football plays. If Underwood can open up the offense by running 5-7 times a game — much like J.J. McCarthy did in his career — then the Wolverines would be all the better for it. Because at the moment, the offense looks somewhat rudderless — albeit after just one loss.
Moore is right, it is a long season. But with one loss already in the W-L column, the room for error is now marginal. With a tough road game at Nebraska in two weeks, the Wolverines need to do whatever they can to win that game, because the schedule won’t get any easier.
