Joel Klatt: Michigan is not a threat in the Big Ten

After seeing Michigan in-person again, Joel Klatt has taken the maize & blue out of the running in the Big Ten.

Klatt gave that opinion during the latest episode of his show on Monday. He left Ann Arbor this weekend with more thoughts about the Wolverines than he already had. That’s why, for now, they’re not amongst the top teams in their conference after the first month of their season.

“Michigan is just, like – every week I feel like there’s more questions than answers,” said Klatt.

“Michigan is playing with very little margin right now. Because of that, in good conscience? Like, they’re not a threat in the Big Ten,” Klatt stated. “Not to Ohio State, or really even Penn State, or an Oregon team that has shown a really high ceiling when they beat Oregon State. Like, that margin is going to have to change.”

Much of that opinion falls on what’s going on with the Wolverines’ offense. The unit is leaning almost exclusively on the run which, in turn, requires certain circumstances for them to remain on the field. If not, it all comes down on them as they’re not scoring or possessing the ball long enough which, in turn, is hurting their better side of the football on defense.

Klatt broke that down in the context of what he watched love this weekend in their three-point win over the Golden Gophers. Despite being up 21 at halftime, Michigan mustered just two field goals in the second half while their opponent scored 21 in the fourth quarter and was an onside kick and penalty from tying or possibly winning in The Big House.

“I do that game against Minnesota on Saturday, they win it 27-24. Similarly to the ‘Bama–Georgia game, in the first half, it looks like they’re going to run away and hide. Then it becomes painfully obvious to anybody that is a Michigan fan that, if Michigan is outside of their perfect blueprint, they are at risk of being beat,” said Klatt. “Like, Michigan cannot overcome mistakes at all so they have no margin for error – none. That doesn’t mean that they’re not a good team, okay. So, again, let’s go back to what do we know of college football? High highs, low lows. Right now, I think there is a question about how high that Michigan’s high is and the lows are starting to become, like, oof. Like, oof, that fourth quarter was rough against Minnesota. They were very lucky to escape, I thought, on Saturday with a win.”

“If somebody takes (explosive run plays) away from them, how do they march the ball down the field? The answer is is that they can’t. So, you see, like, if the explosions are not there, guess what they can’t do? They can’t create first downs. When they can’t create first downs, what do they do? They expose their defense to more snaps. When they expose their defense to more snaps, what also gets exposed? The lack of depth as compared to last season on their defense,” Klatt continued. “Now, all of a sudden, the defense gets tired, Minnesota starts using tempo, and now they don’t have an answer. That’s why there’s no margin. If they don’t create big runs or create short fields, Michigan is going to get beat. This is a team with no margin for error.”

Michigan is still 4-1 and back in the Top-10 after opening conference play with a pair of wins. With that, though, there remains concern about how they’re playing and how that could affect the results over the next two months of the season, including from Klatt.