Offense Notes: Critical mistakes doom road win efforts amid QB change

SEATTLE – The Michigan Wolverines may have found their starting quarterback in graduate Jack Tuttle.

Unfortunately, it came in a loss where Michigan held the lead heading into the fourth quarter, and it came from the quarterback being unable to protect the football.

He finished the day 10-for-18 for 98 yards with one touchdown, an interception and a fumble lost. The two turnovers came in the fourth quarter and derailed what at once looked like a potential comeback win.

Alex Orji started for Michigan but went 3-for-7 for 15 yards and was yanked in the first half. after the Wolverines fell into an early 14-0 hole. That gave way to Tuttle, who reports said was given more of a workload this week in practice.

“I thought he came out and gave us a spark early,” Moore said after the 27-17 loss in Seattle. “Obviously, three straight drives we had a touchdown, field goal, touchdown, so the players fed off of that. He practiced well all week and got back healthy — great for us, and we’ll see. But positive, positive. I think he gave us a spark, so we’ll see if he gets to be the starter. It looks like he gives us the best chance. So we got to clean up the turnover at the end, but he definitely had an exciting start to the game.

Michigan scored 17-straight points to turn the tide from what looked like a potential blowout on Lake Washington. Tuttle thinks it showed what this offense can be, but took the blame for the mistakes late.

“I think the first three drives are really who we are. That’s us,” Tuttle said. “I think in the back half we just missed some opportunities.

“Me personally, I gotta be better at protecting the ball. Can’t fumble — can’t do that. That’s completely on me. I can’t put the team, the defense in that situation. And then the end, the last drive, I can’t put the ball in danger, obviously, right? That’s it.”

Upper body injuries kept Tuttle out of the running for Michigan’s starting gig in spring and fall camp, and he would not divulge what the severity was. But he did not use it as an excuse, either.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna get too much into my health,” he said. “This is about the game, this is about the team — not my health and what happened. Obviously, I wasn’t full health back then, and it took a couple months [to get healthy]. But we’re gonna clean up and be better here in these next couple weeks.

Colston Loveland was on the receiving end of the touchdown from Tuttle and was encouraged by what he saw from the 7th-year signal-caller.

“Big shout out. Got his name called at the last minute, went out there and executed,” Loveland said. “Obviously got a lot of stuff to clean up between both sides of the ball. But yeah, super proud of what he did. He just didn’t flinch at all, took the challenge and … whatever happened, happened, but just gotta be better.”

Captain says team will stick together

Team captain and senior running back has sought to be a vocal and uplifting leader for the Wolverines, and the message stays the same coming off the loss.

He’ll continue to be positive, but will be blunt about what must change in the building.

“It’s a collective thing,” Edwards said after the game. “Coach meets with us every Monday, wants to get back to the drawing board come Monday. But ultimately it’s the captain’s job to keep this team morale. I’m going to continue to uplift everybody the best I can. At the same time, being a captain, I have to point out the bad things too. There are a couple of things we have to clean up. 

“But ultimately it’s us. Collective offensive, defense, and special teams. And we’re Michigan football. Just me being on the offensive side of the ball, I’ve got to continue to morale the guys, continue to keep guys confidence up. Just keep doing what we’re doing.”

Miscellaneous Michigan offense notes

• Junior TE Colston Loveland scored the 8th touchdown of his career, and second this season, in the loss. It was his first since the season-opening win against Fresno State.
• Junior WR Amorion Walker recorded his first catch of the season for a career-long 22 yards.
• Senior center Greg Crippen made the first start of his career. He is the 13th player this year to earn that designation.
• Senior RB Donovan Edwards’ 39-yard touchdown was his second touchdown run of at least that amount of yards this season (41 yards vs. USC).
• Michigan was without 40% of its starting offensive line in this game. Myles Hinton and Dom Giudice were replaced by Jeff Persi and Greg Crippen at left tackle and center, respectively.