Jan. 1—MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Auld Lang … Sigh.
Jumping the gun on the celebration in Times Square, the Michigan football team dropped an enormous ball of its own Friday night in the Orange Bowl, ringing in the new year with a dud of a 34-11 loss to Georgia.
In a playoff showdown billed as a collision of blue-blood heavyweights, we instead got a tornado against a straw hut.
Yikes.
I would say the Bulldogs were in a different class than Michigan, but that’s not quite right. They were on another planet, bigger, stronger, faster, superior in every sense.
In what felt like Michigan Stadium South — with more than two thirds of the Hard Rock Stadium crowd rocking maize and blue — Georgia spoiled the party from the start.
The Bulldogs found the end zone with little trouble on their first two drives, and they kept coming, one barreling run and deep pass after another, all the while showing Michigan what an elite defense really looks like.
Add in three turnovers, and the Wolverines never had a chance.
Maybe we should have seen it coming.
Georgia has mountains of five-star talent and presented a bad matchup, with Michigan’s strength — its powerhouse run game — playing right into the hands of the Bulldogs’ man-mountain front.
I thought Michigan could overcome all of that, clearly putting a bit (way) too much stock in two games — its beatdown of Ohio State and Georgia’s loss to Alabama in the SEC championship game, the former of which seemed to validate the Wolverines as a legit national contender, the latter of which shattered the Bulldogs’ veneer of invincibility.
But what can I say? Sometimes we overthink things.
And sometimes stories don’t get their fairytale ending.
In reality, the same tough Michigan rushing attack that ran over a suspect Ohio State defense ran into a stone wall against Georgia, and, without a quarterback capable of exposing the Bulldogs’ secondary as Alabama did, the last night of the year was also the longest.
And that was just the start of it.
In every way, Michigan was overmatched, both by Georgia and the moment, with the opening drives by both teams telling the story.
On Georgia’s first series, they sliced through a Wolverines defense that looked scattered and out of sorts, going 80 yards in seven plays to go up 7-0. Michigan, meanwhile, began its first series with a false start and ended it with Cade McNamara missing a wide-open Erick All on 4th-and-4 at the Georgia 41.
Both sequences foreshadowed what was to come.
Georgia had its way with Michigan’s defense, with Stetson Bennett (307 passing yards, three touchdowns) expertly stretching the field, horizontally and deep.
And its own defense was just as dominant. Michigan couldn’t run (27 carries for 88 yards) and couldn’t throw, with McNamara completing 11 of 19 passes for 106 yards and throwing two interceptions before freshman J.J. McCarthy entered in relief (start the 2022 quarterback controversy!).
Georgia more than tripled Michigan up in non-garbage time, outgaining the Wolverines 330-101 in the first half.
“Congratulations to Georgia,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “They played a heck of a game in all phases.”
UM, meanwhile, is left to wonder what might have been.
Or, more accurately, lament what was.
When time yields perspective, Michigan will be able to appreciate all that it achieved in this remarkable season, including, at long last, a victory over Ohio State and a Big Ten championship.
“A great season,” Harbaugh said. “To me, it’s one of the best seasons in Michigan football history. We were trying to make it greater tonight. But it was a great season.”
Still, for the Wolverines, this one will hurt, because they know both that they didn’t put their best cleat forward, and that, even if they had, it wouldn’t have mattered.
The Michigan football team came a long way this season. If it ever wants a real chance to make a great season even greater, Friday night showed how far it still has to go.
First Published January 1, 2022, 12:02am