Donovan Edwards believes not scoring on opening drive against TCU killed Michigan's confidence

Donovan Edwards still can’t help but wonder if Michigan scored on its opening drive against TCU in the College Football Playoff, how different it might’ve been.

In the semifinal matchup, Edwards hit the middle and ran 54 yards on the opening play down to the TCU 21 yard line. Despite having first-and-goal from the nine, Michigan ended up not scoring.

If the Wolverines score there, Edwards believes it could’ve been a different outcome. Not that he has sour grapes, but Edwards revealed the team’s confidence was shaken.

“If I scored that first play … Ronnie (Bell), I need a block man (laughter), yeah, I think like if we scored that first play or at least we got three points … we would have had more confidence,” Edwards said on Bussin’ with the Boys. “… You know, it’s kind of a confidence killer. You come out in the game, we like a 50 yard run, you’re getting nothing out of it. It’s like dog, what are we doing?” 

Michigan lost 51-45 in a shootout after trailing 21-6 at halftime. Edwards finished the game with 23 carries for 119 and no touchdowns. Blake Corum didn’t play due to an injury near the end of the regular season.

However, Edwards credited TCU’s gameplan to box up the run game and force Michigan into bad situations.

“TCU had a really good game plan,” Edwards said. “They ran a 3-3-5, with five DBs. Their main goal is to stop the run … (For us to be successful), we got to be balanced. You know, like we got to have the run game and the pass game going on at the same time. It was either one or the other wasn’t there at points in the game. So that’s what kind of hurt us.”

It looked like Michigan avoided disaster after forcing a quick TCU punt. However, JJ McCarthy threw a pick six and Michigan was down 7-0 and eventually 14-0 in a hurry.

To add insult to injury, trailing 14-3, Michigan got another gut punch to its confidence, as Edwards alluded to. McCarthy found Roman Wilson for what looked like a touchdown, but he was ruled short of the goal line.

Michigan ended up fumbling and did not score.

At one point, Edwards and the offense looked up and it was 34-16 TCU late in the third quarter.

Michigan pulled within 41-38 and then trailed 51-38. After trading punts, McCarthy and Edwards led a drive inside the TCU 10 yard line and Wilson eventually capped it with a touchdown reception.

TCU was forced to punt but Michigan ran four plays in just 20 seconds with a net gain of -1 yards, leading to the end of the game.

Edwards and Corum are back in the backfield, along with McCarthy under center. Michigan is one of the favorites to win it all this year and the Wolverines surely want to erase last year’s semifinal from their memories.