Michigan coach Sherrone Moore’s No. 18 Wolverines scraped a 24-22 win over the Northwestern Wildcats in Week 12 of college football action after kicker Dominic Zvada converted a 31-yard kick in the dying moments of the game. The win improved the Wolverines to 8-2 for the season and kept their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
The Wolverines’ performance was marred by mistakes, despite outgaining the Wildcats 496 yards to 245 yards, leading to criticism from some fans.
Analyst Blasts Michigan Fans for Unrealistic Expectations
Moore’s team committed five turnovers and missed two field goals, flirting with disaster against Northwestern. During Monday’s segment of the “Joel Klatt Show,” analyst Joel Klatt blasted Michigan fans for having unrealistic expectations about their team, despite the improvements from last year’s team.
“This team is getting a bit of an unfair rap, in particular on offense,” Klatt said. “Relax. Michigan’s offense is vastly better than what they were a year ago. I understand they were bad, but they’re vastly better. They’re averaging over 400 yards of offense. They almost had 500 yards of offense against Northwestern, which is not a bad defense.
“The quarterback is getting better. They’ve got three redshirt freshmen on the offensive line. Relax. The offense is fine. There are some of you as Michigan fans, all you do with this group is view them through the lens of the 22-23 team, you can’t do that. That team had 500 plus on offense and defense.”
The Wolverines under Moore boast the youngest group of starters in the Big Ten (20.54 years), accounting for some of the mistake-riddled performances this season.
Sherrone Moore Addresses Team’s Mistakes
During his postgame news conference, Moore addressed his team’s mistakes, including quarterback Bryce Underwood’s two interceptions and three fumbles, which left the game against the Wildcats, ranked 33rd in PFSN’s CFB Playoff Meter, hanging in the balance until the last minute.
“Yeah, I mean, we got to fix it,” Moore said. “But that’s something that hasn’t been a piece of our game. So we got to just clean it up right now, and that’s decision-making. Continue to do that as we go through practice.
“Giving those hard, hard looks. Doing those things to help our guys make those decisions. Not fumbling the ball on the punt return. So the people who feel the worst about those turnovers are the guys who had them. So we’ll talk to them. We’ll continue to coach it. But again, the win is what we’re really proud about.”
After a road game against the Maryland Terrapins, the Wolverines will have to contend with a game against bitter rivals, the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes, with a place in the College Football Playoff on the line for Moore’s team and a first-round bye on the cards for coach Ryan Day’s team.
