So it looks like a number of people have written game recaps already (including Brian), so I totally understand if the site has recap exhaustion and you skip this. Hell, I wanted to skip it as well. And what sucks is there isn't some hidden silver lining from this game we're all missing, not was it some ass-kicking that exposed Michigan as a fraud. It was just a football game that Michigan lost because Notre Dame played better.

Worst: Michigan's Maginot Line

I was never much of a history buff growing up; outside of the European History AP class my only exposure to World War II were Wolfenstein and Call of Duty games, which taught me that (a) there were WAY more mutant Nazis than I thought, and (b) you can heal major injuries by eating a plate of chicken and "greens". But one of the historical footnotes that always stuck with me was France's Maginot Line, a heavily fortified line of bunkers and artilery installed by the French after WWI as a means to deter German insurgence into France. The idea behind it was sound; in the event that Germany tried to invade, this line would either turn them away or, at the bare minimum, slow them down sufficiently so that reinforcements could arrive.

But, and there's always a "but" in situations like this, it didn't stretch across the entire eastern territory. There were a number of holes in the line, but the most signifcant was in the Ardennes region, a heavily forrested, mountainous area that the French (rightfully) assumed would be arduous enough geographically as to deter action by an invader or, as with the wall, sufficiently slow them down. It also butted up against Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, and so another assumption was that Germany wouldn't want to violate those borders as well, as that would just escalate tensions and bring even more countries into a battle. And so, you can't blame the French for believing this line would hold up, with some weaknesses at the edges but such a stout interior that it should absolutely be able to hold up against any attack.

And in a way, the Mignot Line did it's job; Germany looked at those fortifications and correctly deduced that a war of attrition as in WWI wasn't a viable option. But they also figured out that they didn't have to; they could go around the Line by going through those three countries I mentioned earlier around the Ardennes area, because they (a) didn't care one bit about violating any sovereign lands, and (b) they knew that for all of France's might, it's neighbors were comparatively quite weak. And so the Germans blitzed through this terrain, basically cutting off the Line from the rest of France and also nearly decimating the British army that was holed up at Dunkirk. If that name sounds familiar, of course, it means you know some man over the age of 50, as apparently all of them saw the titlular movie about that siege and subsequent escape. But I digress.

So if you haven't gotten the theme yet, this game highlighted Michigan's gapping holes along the offensive line, but no moreso than at the tackles. We all knew this was going to be an issue, but I'll admit to drinking the Kool-Aid that Michigan couldn't be much worse than last year's 117th-ranked pass blocking unit because there are only 130-ish D1 football programs and at least some of them play in the Big 10 West. And honestly, they probably aren't terrible; playing a projected top-10 defense on the road at night in your first game of the year is a cricible for any player and will accentuate your issues to the nth degree. Now, before you call me a homer, that doesn't mean I think the offensive tackles will be even below-average this year. They won't; we've seen enough from the current starters to know that ain't no bird rising up from their ashes.

Michigan's interior line was reasonably solid in their execution; Ruiz seemed a bit lost at times getting the snap off quickly and there were your random missed blocks by Onwenu and Bredeson, but all three (to my layman eyes) held up fine against a stout ND defensive front. But on both ends of the line, ND repeatedly compressed the pocket seemingly with minimal effort. Notre Dame's defensive ends are solid, and their LBs are quite athletic and all on NFL radars, so Michigan's tackles looking profoundly unable to slow down the rush without a significant amount of support from TEs, the backs, etc. isn't all that surprising. But what got me was the degree to which they seemed unable to cope. There were multiple times on even 4-man rushes where an end or lineman would brush off a block and run largely unmolested into the backfield. It wasn't that they could only stay in front for a second or two; many times, they simply couldn't even engage the rushers. And that's troubling not because it spells doom against your Wisconsins and various felony-magnet state colleges of the world (because it does), but also because it spells trouble for teams like Northwestern who don't have who dominant front 7s but can get after you with consistent pressure if you struggle to stay in front of them.

And the problem with struggling to get engagement is that it robs you of a common remedy for poor tackle play; a mobile QB. You saw that with Notre Dame; their tackles weren't immensely better than Michigan's, but because they could maintain some level of contact on Gary and Winovich (as well as a handful of jerseys on a lot of plays), they were able to carve out the small pockets for Wimbush to move through that kept drives alive. Wimbush didn't have a great day in the end; though he finished with 229 yards of total offense, 55% completion percentage with a pick and a TD, most of the good stuff happened in the first quarter (6/9 for 114 yards, the TD, and 14 yards on the ground). Michigan made adjustments as the game progressed and Wimbush barely cracked 100 yards of total offense for the final three quarters while ND barely nudged past 160 yards total. But whereas Patterson got sacked 3 times (for 32 yards) and hit another 6 times, Michigan only got Wimbush down twice (for 18 yards) and hit him 3 other times. Plus, Wimbush got a couple of penalties (a facemask and a roughing the passer) that helped keep drives alive. Michigan couldn't find these hidden yards the way ND did, and in a game decided by 7 points and was, honestly, closer than a lot of people are saying, that's the difference between your line being good enough or abandoning ship.

Now, I'm not one to overreact generally, and considering some of the other games we saw this weekend it's not beyond the pale to say that a night game on the road against a top-10 defense with a new position coach and a couple new starters might not be the truest test of the potential for this offensive line. They could absolutely turn into a competent unit with some tinkering, and not being down 14-0 before they can catch their breath would undoubtedly help in terms of more creative playcalling that doesn't scream "we're throwing the ball" on second down. But I've seen enough football, particularly at Michigan these past 10-odd years, that I'm not holding out hope that it will. At best, they'll likely be below average pass blocking, and the hope is that the ranking is closer to 80 than 120. My one hope is that they hold on for dear life to those redshirts for guys like Mayfield and Hayes. This team is probably 1.5 tackles away from being a real contender nationally, but because of timing, luck, and poor roster management they couldn't get another year year out of Mason Cole or any year out of Grant Newsome. But the only way Michigan can get off this treadmill on the offensive line is to start building back up a stable of competent, prepared players at key spots, and throwing out a couple of undersized, ill-prepared tackles just to lose to OSU by a bit less is bad calculus. Sometimes you will lose the battle but win the war, and Michigan's got some reinforcements on the line; best not to waste them prematurely.

Worst: Michigan's 1st-quarter Defense

Yes, there's a certain amount of "other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?" to it all, but those first two drives both really set the tone for the whole game and also gave people the misconception that Notre Dame was dominant throughout the game. This really was a close game that Michigan let get out of hand early on with those two long drives (helped in no small part by a couple of valid penalties that netted Notre Dame 30 yards), and then Michigan had just a couple of mistakes (Patterson getting sacked out of FG range on that second drive, the missed FG on a bad hold, letting Wimbush get free on that 3rd-and-18 conversion) that let Notre Dame stay ahead. I'm not a big fan of Bud Elliott generally, but he had a good take on how the sequence of plays in this game made its complexion appear quite a bit different than the meat of the matter.

4. Cluster luck. Notre Dame’s drives were all or nothing. Michigan had many wasted yards. Notre Dame put together drives with multiple chunk plays, which ended in scores. Drives of 75, 96, 75, and 41 went for three touchdowns and a field goal. Notre Dame’s non-scoring drives went for -4, 28, 3, 0, 3, 13, and 8. This is mostly sequencing, like clustering hits in a row in baseball. That is not a skill, but it does have a large impact on the outcome. Michigan, on the other hand, had a scoring drive of 80 and 31 yards, but substantial drives of 47, 48, and 52 went without points.

Notre Dame played better than Michigan, but you sort of expect that for the home team in the first game of the year. But Michigan's defense absolutely made adjustments and played significantly better as the game progressed, even with Metellus out for a valid targetting call (though I'd like to add that I remember a Notre Dame player leading with the helmet high on a hit to McKeon that didn't draw the ire of anyone). But that first quarter was a killer, and on the road it's hard to come back from that type of hole against a good team.

And to people who said this game provided a "blueprint" to beating Michigan: no it didn't, or at least not any more than it gave a blueprint of how to beat any good defense. Michigan hasn't met a mobile quarterback they can consistently bottle up as long as I've been alive; my first game as a student at Michigan Stadium was against Notre Dame in 1999, and Jarious Jackson still gives me nightmares. And Wimbush, in particular, is a bear to contain; there's a reason a guy who barely cracked 50% completion for his career is the starting QB at Notre Dame, and it's because he's the size of a linebacker and and as fast a running back. Throw in a couple of nice passes and an answered prayer and that's how you hang 24 on Michigan's defense despite barely cracking 300 yards of total offense. There are good offenses still on the schedule that will give Michigan fits, but this also felt like a bunch of coin-flips that kept going Notre Dame's way, which can happen in a game even when they'll ultimately even out over a season.

Worst: Michigan Doesn't Have Meyer Disease

In the land of hot takes, one of the most prevalent is this argument that Michigan doesn't "know" how to win games. Like the argument that Michigan's QBs have apparently forgotten how to throw the ball, it's based 100% on angry feelings and 0% on reality. Beyond the fact that a football team undergoes nearly 100% attrition every 4 years (plus changes in the coaching staff), which should mitigate the chance of a "loser's mentality" to set in, it tends to turn small issues big. Michigan was driving for a potential tying score with a couple minutes left in a game where they were down 14-0 before they even caught their breath. They had a new QB, a bunch of young receivers, and two-ish new starters at tackle get absolutely rag-dolled all day, and yet they were in the game late and, to be honest, were the better team in the second half. They made adjustments and were figuring things out, which you'd rather have them figure out at home against some cupcake, but that wasn't how the schedule shook out. But the allusions to the 2015 season are hard to ignore, with Michigan losing by the same score against a a good team (Utah finished that year 17th nationally, top-30 per S&P+), and breaking in a new QB. That team got better as the year progressed, beating 3 ranked teams (and it would have been 4 without they, you know, thing...), and followed that up with going 3-2 against ranked teams in 2016, which included playing teams that finished 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th in the final BCS poll. Last year was a step back for a number of reasons, but again it was to a cadre of pretty good teams (PSU, Wisconsin, OSU, and MSU all finished with 10+ wins) and often by pretty close games (only PSU would be considered a blowout).

That doesn't mean the playcalling and execution needs to improve; while I think too much was made of Michigan's relatively slow pace on their last couple of drives (again, a true sophomore center and a new QB getting their first game starts together seemed like a recipe for disaster and this slower pace probably helped limit miscues), but at times the offense seemed out of sorts getting anything going forward and the defense allowed Notre Dame to stay on schedule way too much. But you can see the germ of a good team out there Saturday, and I fully expect them to grind down more of the rough edges these next couple of weeks against far more pliable teams.

Fine: Patterson's first game

The grumbly part of the Michigan internet saw Shea Patterson's first game as anything from a major disappointment to a repudiation of Jim Harbaugh as a coach. It wasn't a great debut by any means, but at this point I remain amazed that people still believe the problem is at QB and not with the greater offensive system, in particular pass blocking. Michigan has now played 5 QBs over the past 14 games, and their combined numbers range from pedestrian (55% completion percentage) to bad (6.5 ypa) to ghastly (9 TDs vs. 11 INTs). Now, your opinions on guys like Speight, Patterson, Peters, O'Korn, and McCaffrey may vary, but I don't subscribe to the notion that they all are bad QBs who forgot how to play the position the minute they donned the Maize and Blue or the clock struck January 1st, 2017. Nor does it mean that Jim Harbaugh has suddenly lost the ability to connect with QBs and extract the maximum amount of performance from them. But what you saw with Patterson on Saturday has been a common scene for over a year now; a QB trying to keep plays alive by abandoning ship because the rush got their too quickly, the defense making adjustments while Michigan didn't even call an audible, and a struggle to stay out of 3rd-and-long spots (Michigan's average distance was 6.1 yards to go). In particular, I was reminded that a big reason why Michigan has struggled for some time throwing deep is that guys don't have enough time to get open before the QB is swarmed, and you saw it again in this game where Patterson was almost constantly rolling around, looking for guys deep before having to settle for either something shorter.

And I get that Michigan came into the game with a conservative gameplan; I'm sure they assumed the defense wouldn't give up two scoring drives of 75 and 96 yards to start the game, and so they probably figured that the way this game would hinge on field position and a dearth of turnovers. But when it became clear that Michigan wasn't going to be able to play that style, I was bothered that they didn't make a whole lot of adjustments in the gameplan. To their credit they did start throwing the ball to Grant Perry more, as he was perpetually open and usually did catch the ball when thrown to him (5 catches on 7 targets, 48 yards), but Evans only got two balls all day and they were on Michigan's final scoring drive, with both going for first downs. Gentry never really got going even though he posed matchup problems all day (the refs were bad across the board for both teams in this game, but Gentry definitely felt the brunt of the "grab him as soon as he gets close" style of defensive coverage), and other than a deep ball to Collins it was just a lot of short throws that were the 3rd/4th options on a lot of plays.

Now, Patterson has a history of struggling against elite pass defenses (as do basically all QBs), and his unwillingness to throw the ball away a couple of times cost Michigan field position and/or the chance for points (his 16-yard sack pulled them out of FG position in the first quarter). But he's not Denard or Wimbush and so he's not going to be able to run away from pressure like they can, but he's also a much better passer and one capable of leading a dynamic offense if he can get some damn time. It's imperative on the staff to figure out a way to buy time in the passing game, whether it be by leaving more blockers back, shifting the pocket at the snap (which is harder when neither side of the line is particularly stout), or using a gameplan that highlights short passes and quick routes to keep linebackers in check. But talk of McCaffrey looking better in this game is both (a) wrong, and (b) the same type of revisionist bullshit people pulled with O'Korn, Peters, and Patterson before him. No QB is going to be good when he's picking turf out of his ears, and while I fully expect Patterson to look better in the coming weeks when he gets to feast on mediocre defenses, the problems at QB will continue to rear their ugly head until the blocking and gameplan issues get fixed.

Quick Hits:

• I thought the refs were bad, but Michigan did themselves no favor with a number of their bigger penalties. I don't know if Metellus was going for the head on his hit, but that was a defenseless WR and he lowered his shoulder into him. You can't do that. Same with Winovich on his roughing the passer. It's closer because Winovich was curving around a tackle and took 1-ish step after Wimbush got rid of the ball, but you can't let that happen on third down regardless. Hill's pass interference, as Brian noted, was troubling because it was Hill having to bail, but there was a ton of bumping all day, and Notre Dame's receivers are big enough that if you let them hold you at arm's length long enough, they'll get some separation. And yes, Michigan's PI on their late TD drive was also pretty suspect, as both Gentry and Hayes were just smashing into each other. But Notre Dame got 4 first downs by penalties in this game, and giving up that many free downs is going to kill anyone's attempts at winning a game.
• Ambry Thomas should always be returning kicks, and I'm a little down on DPJ doing the same for punts. Peoples-Jones is a great athlete and showed improved route-running in this game, but trying to return the ball from the 2-yard line last in the first half was dangerous (he even took a step back and stutter-stepped, the cardinal sin for returners near their own goallines) and robbed Michigan of a chance to get the ball at the 20 with about 40 seconds to spare. I don't believe for a second that they'd have scored a TD on that shortened drive, but with Nordin you don't have to get that far for it to be in his range, and on Michigan's next offensive play (the start of the second half) they connected on a bomb to Nico Collins. So it was in the playbook, and it clearly could have worked. And it wasn't just in this game; there was a string last year when he struggled to field kicks appropriately. I think he's great and will be an integral point of the offense, but I'd rather they put someone like Oliver Martin or Thomas back there for punts at this point.
• I thought Brad Hawkins was fine filling for Metellus, but all we'll remember is him losing a jump ball to Finke in the endzone. That seems to be an issue for Michigan going on years now; they don't win these 50/50 balls on defense nearly as often as you'd assume given the talent. I'm a believer in the law of averages over a large enough sample, so maybe the next couple of weeks Michigan will pick off McSorley and Lewerke bombs and the world will be right again. But that throw by Wimbush was telegraphed, underthrown, and in any other world should have been knocked down at the very least.
• It will be forgotten soon, but it should be remembered that PSU and MSU barely survived games at home against far worse teams than Notre Dame. MSU struggled to run the ball against last year's 80th-ranked rush defense, and PSU gave up 450 yards in total offense to a talented App St. offense still breaking in a new QB and a couple of transfers. Miami was blown out by an Ed Orgeron team (down 33-3 at one point to LSU), and Washington got demolished on the ground by Auburn (5 sacks, 9 TFLs). Hell, even Ohio State looked a bit suspect defensively, giving up nearly 400 yards (396 to be precise) to an Oregon State team that only cracked 375 yards in total offense 4 times last year. And it wasn't all in junk time; Oregon State scored on drives of 3 plays or less 3 times, all spanning 75+ yards. While I don't think people should read too much into those struggles so early in the year, all those teams showed weaknesses that can be exploited just as readily as any Michigan displayed, and in the case of the Big 10 teams, to inferior teams than the one Michigan faced.
• It's been said already, but Braylon Edwards is an idiot and I'm happy he got suspended for going off on Twitter. I turned on him when he was caught drunk-driving on the Westside Highway while with the Jets (how do you not take a cab/private car in New York F' City when you go out drinking) and proceeded to get into fights with everyone wherever he landed. But because he's slightly unhinged and isn't afraid to call teenagers weak, he gets attention, and he doesn't deserve it. I hope we don't hear from him again.

Next Week

It's Western Michigan. A team that was down 34-7 to Syracuse at halftime, clawed back a bit, but still lost by 13 after giving up 55 points. WMU is a below-.500 team since P.J. Fleck left, has a bad defense, a mediocre offense despite dropping 42 on the 'Cuse, and are going to be getting a Michigan team that is going to be really sick of answering questions for the next week. This should be the game where Higdon and co. grind up WMU up front while Patterson is able to air it out a bit. I'm not predicting an epic blowout, but this is one of those games where you look up and Michigan is always comfortably winning despite your random dropped ball or missed block.