What Happened?: Three Reasons USC Dominated Michigan

Written by Carter Ball

All eyes were on the Coliseum on Saturday when Michigan came to town for a battle between one-loss conference foes against USC. Sherrone Moore trolled the USC crowd in the week leading up to the game, and was met by a 31-13 whooping in what turned out to be an ugly game. In this article, we recap what happened in this game to allow the Trojans to get revenge on the Wolverines following the group’s road loss in Ann Arbor just a season ago.

3. No Justice, No Peace

Michigan’s undisputed RB1, Justice Haynes, came down with a shoulder injury in the second quarter of the game and did not return against the Trojans. Michigan was forced to make sophomore RB Jordan Marshall the team’s lead back for the remainder of the game, but despite Marshall running well, the Wolverines gave Marshall’s touches to third-stringer Bryson Kuzdzal, who struggled mightily and forced the group into becoming slightly too pass-heavy in the second half. I would have loved to see true freshman RB Jasper Parker as the next man up following Marshall instead of Kuzdzal, who is a redshirt junior with minimal upside. This game was a missed opportunity for the Wolverines to give more experience to the group’s young core following the injury to Justice Haynes. Haynes is not expected to be sidelined for long.

2. Tackling

The Trojans’ opening drive ended with Jyaire Hill, Michigan’s CB1, getting absolutely burned for a touchdown. The next drive, however, Hill forced a massive fumble on a textbook hit stick. The rest of the game, for some reason, the entire Michigan defense tried to replicate Hill’s hit stick and refused to simply wrap up and make the easy tackles when they were there. The Trojans’ ball carriers were simply bouncing off of Michigan’s defenders in a truly embarrassing defensive performance. The inability of Michigan’s defense to simply tackle is something that should worry Michigan fans everywhere and is arguably the #1 reason the team lost this game.

1. Wide Receiver Depth

Before Saturday’s game, when I predicted Michigan true freshman WR Andrew Marsh to break out following the departure of Fred Moore and the group’s bye week, if you were to tell me that Marsh would put up 8 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown against USC, I would immediately assume the Wolverines won. However, Marsh was the only Michigan WR in the game with more than three catches, and despite cementing himself as a future WR1 in Ann Arbor, the rest of the group’s lack of production is worrisome. Semaj Morgan and Marlin Klein combined for just two catches for 12 yards. Morgan and Klein are going to need to pick it up soon if this Michigan team wants to have any Big Ten success; if they can’t, expect a repeat of last season’s mid-year Michigan meltdown.

For more articles and analysis like this, subscribe to our website and tune into CFB Weekly on all platforms.