The Loss To Michigan State Is Unacceptable; Here's Why

Michigan and Jim Harbaugh should never have lost to that Michigan State team, but they did.

27-24.

That's the score that Michigan State fans will always remember when they think back to the start of Mel Tucker's tenure. After a horrible loss at the hands of Rutgers, Tucker and his Spartans rolled into Ann Arbor and left with Paul Bunyan.

The Wolverines were favored by at least three touchdowns. The maize and blue have more talent at pretty much every position. Harbaugh is in year six while Tucker is behind the eight ball in year one. The game was in Ann Arbor. Michigan had everything to play for after an impressive road win against Minnesota, while an 0-1 MSU squad, with a loss to Rutgers, was just hoping to salvage something to build on in 2020.

None of that mattered. Tucker and the Spartans handed Jim Harbaugh his worse loss as Michigan's leader and may have sent the enigmatic head coach packing. Harbaugh was visibly defeated after the game and rightfully so. He failed his team. He failed the loyal Michigan fanbase. He failed himself.

Harbaugh still has another year left on his contract but he feels like a dead man walking. He's letting his coordinators do a poor job and he's still trying to find an identity in year six. 

Is this a passing team? Well, when a quarterback throws the ball 51 times it seems like it, but no touchdowns? In 2020? Football is about big plays and quick scores. Michigan's longest play — 26 yards. 

Is it a running team? Josh Gattis seemed bound and determined to make us think so by running inside zone after inside zone to the tune of 4.5 yards per carry and a total of just 152 yards.

Then it's a defensive team. After all, Don Brown is the defensive coordinator. Michigan's defense made quarterback Rocky Lombardi and freshman wide receiver Ricky White look like All-Americans. Lombardi finished with 323 yards passing and three touchdowns with a couple 50-yard plays, while White damn near set a Spartan record against Michigan with eight grabs for 196 yards and a touchdown.

What is this team? Who can they beat? What are they good at? I sure as hell don't know, and the bigger problem is, neither does Jim Harbaugh.