Defense / ST notes: Michigan defense on its heels (and on the field too much) in loss to Texas

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Texas Longhorns kept the Michigan Wolverines football defense on its feet — instead of on the bench — and its heels. The Wolverines’ offense didn’t do its part, and U-M struggled to get off the field on third down.

That led to Texas running a whopping 45 plays in the first half (compared to Michigan’s 21) and 68 for the game in a 31-12 win at The Big House. Texas nearly doubled up Michigan in time of possession before the half: 19:06 to 10:54.

“Just being on the field … we’re excited to be on that field,” senior EDGE Josaiah Stewart said, noting that lack of energy wasn’t an issue despite the increased amount of plays. “We know that whenever the defense has a chance to make a play and be great, we’re excited for that. No matter what it is, you just keep playing.”

After missing a field goal on a 51-yard drive to open the game, opting to receive the football via winning the coin toss, Texas scored on four-straight drives to build a 24-3 lead at halftime.

Especially when the game was young, the Michigan defense had some success on early downs, with Texas averaging 7.8 yards to go on third down. But over and over again, Longhorn quarterback Quinn Ewers, in his 24th career start, found an open receiver to convert. He finishe d24-of-36 for 246 yards and 3 scores.

On third down, Ewers converted with 3 passes, with Texas adding five pickups on the ground.

“It’s deflating, but you gotta get off the field,” Michigan graduate safety Quinten Johnson said. “And a lot of those big conversions came on check-downs or missed opportunities due to tackling.

“At the end of the day, it all goes back to execution. It’s all things that we ourselves can come in and fix. It’s a great opportunity to move forward to see where we are as a team, who we are as a team.”

Michigan didn’t get home for any sacks on Ewers, but he was hurried 5 times.

“We just have to execute and know that a quarterback like him likes to get the ball out quick and on time,” Stewart said. “Once you disturb that rhythm he has, we’re cooking with gas.”

The Wolverines just didn’t cook nearly enough. Texas amassed 389 total yards — 246 passing and 143 rushing — in a thoroughly dominant performance.

Michigan looking to respond to first loss since 2022

Johnson is in his sixth season at Michigan, so he’s one of very few Wolverines who’ve lost a home game. Michigan had won 23 home games and 28 regular-season contests in a row heading into Saturday.

The Wolverines will work to respond to their first loss overall since Dec. 31, 2022 in the College Football Playoff, too.

“It’s adversity,” Johnson said. “As a man, it’s manhood. How are you going to respond to it? Keep flushing, keep moving. It’s Week 2.

“That’s the great thing about our schedule, the opportunities that come ahead, it’s so early in the schedule that we can fix all the execution problems that we have today. That’s the real reason why we lost is execution. We need to go back and fix that.

Johnson said the mistakes can add up, and they did for Michigan at times. Once the Wolverines cleaned some of them up, and Texas took the foot off the gas a bit, accumulating only 7 points and 110 yards in the second half, the game was too far out of hand.

“They can snowball if you don’t correct it,” Johnson said of the instances of lack of execution. “I think it took too long in the game for us to start to correct some of those issues.”

Miscellaneous Michigan football defense notes

• The 31 points Texas scored are the most allowed by Michigan since a 51-45 loss to TCU in the Dec. 31, 2022 College Football Playoff semifinal.

• Junior kicker Dominic Zvada made a 37-yard field goal at the start of the second quarter and a 52-yarder midway through the third. He’s now 5-for-5 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points through two games this season.

• Zvada is Michigan’s leading scorer on the season with 18 points.

• Michigan allowed 4.5 yards per carry — the most since giving up 4.7 per rush to Penn State Nov. 11, 2023.

• Michigan gave up only 9 rushing yards to Fresno State but 143 to the Longhorns. Since the start of the 2023 season, the Maize and Blue have yielded 140-plus rushing yards only three times, including Saturday. Penn State (164) and Alabama (172) are the other two occurrences.

• Texas’ 246 passing yards edge out the 235 Michigan allowed to Fresno State in the opener. Michigan gave up over 200 passing yards just three times last season — to Maryland (247), Washington (255) and Ohio State (271).

• Texas tight end Gunnar Helm had at least 1 reception on four different Longhorn scoring drives. All told, he racked up 7 catches for a career-high 98 yards and a score.

• Texas’ running backs got involved in the receiving game. Jaydon Blue had 6 grabs for 37 yards and a touchdown, while Quintrevion Wisner notched 2 catches for 19 yards.