Position by position report card from Michigan's loss to Ohio State

Michigan lost to the Buckeyes at home in this game 27 to 9. Ohio State outclassed Michigan in almost every way in this game, and it did not end up being a close game despite how the first half played out. Michigan has a lot that it needs to figure out between now and when they play them again next year. Let's dive into which position groups played well against the Buckeyes and which ones didn't, below.

Quarterback: D

Bryce Underwood was not good in this game, there's really no way around saying that. He was off pretty much the whole game outside of a couple individual plays. He was not throwing it to open receivers when he had chances, he missed a couple passes with just poor throws. He would go on to finish completing 8/18 passes for for 63 passing yards with 0 TD's and 1 INT. On the ground, he was only able to muster 1 yard on 5 carries. Ohio State did a great job on defense to keep Bryce Underwood from feeling comfortable and he never really got it going in this one.

This off-season, Michigan really needs Bryce Underwood to take a step forward because he was highly rated as a recruit but through his first season in Ann Arbor, he still has a lot of maturing and growing up to do on the football field.

Running backs: B-

The running backs played about as well as could be expected considering how this game played out. Jordan Marshall had it going early but left for a majority of the first half after re-injuring his shoulder. He would go on to finish with 71 total yards on 8 touches and he played well despite what the box score might say. It was a big blow for Michigan to be without him for most of the first half and Bryson Kuzdzal came in behind him but he is just clearly a step below Jordan Marshall in terms of performance. Kuzdzal finished with 11 carries for 38 yards, as well as catching 2 passes for 5 yards as he was largely bottled up by the Ohio State defense. The running game never really got it going in the second half but they were also down multiple possessions for most of the second half, so they just didn't have a lot of chances to contribute once the game got out of hand.

Wide receivers and tight ends: C-

None of Michigan's wide receivers or tight ends were really able to do anything against this good Ohio State secondary. Donaven McCulley was the most successful, catching 3 passes for 46 yards and also drawing a pass interference penalty. Andrew Marsh was surprisingly held to 0 catches, but he did draw a pass interference call in the first half as well. No other wide receivers did anything of note and this group really needs to get better ahead of the 2026 season for the Wolverines. You just can't afford to have a total of 46 receiving yards from their wide receivers in a game of this magnitude.

At tight end, Marlin Klein had 1 catch for 0 yards. Deakon Tonielli had 1 catch for 2 yards, and nobody else caught a pass. This group was flat out non-existent for Michigan's offense, as Ohio State's defense was able to essentially erase this position group from the field in this game. Not a good performance from this group and it was really a disappointing position group all year outside of a couple games here and there.

Offensive line: B

This position group is probably going to draw more criticism for their performance in this game than they deserve in my opinion. They weren't great, I'm not saying that, but they also were far from the reason Michigan lost this game. They ran the ball semi-effectively against one of the best defenses in the country to a tune of 100 yards for 4.3 yards per carry.

Michigan didn't have much of a passing game at all but it wasn't because the offensive line wasn't giving Bryce Underwood time to throw. Ohio State only sacked Michigan once in the passing game and there were several other plays where Bryce Underwood felt the pressure early on in the play but a lot of the lack of passing game success was on Bryce Underwood and the wide receivers and tight ends just failing to make plays.

Overall, Michigan's offense was bad, but I don't think much of it was at the fault of the offensive line's performance against a really good Ohio State defense and that's why they earned the B grade from me in this game.

Defensive line: D

The defensive line was just nowhere to be found in this game unfortunately. Ohio State was able to run it for 186 yards on 4 yards per carry. They also failed to get any pressure on Julian Sayin on what was just a horrible performance from this position group. They just got flat out beat all game long in the trenches on defense and it made it an almost impossible task to keep the Ohio State offense in check with such a poor performance from this position group.

Linebackers: C+

Michigan's linebackers were without their team Captain Ernest Hausmann for this game and while they didn't play horrible in my opinion, they were also essentially a non-factor for the defense. They didn't get much help from the defensive line, as I just covered in the paragraph above, but Ohio State ran it on them way too efficiently in the second half for them to escape any of the blame here on defense.

Jimmy Rolder played well against the run for the most part, as he finished with 10 total tackles with 2 tackles for loss but he also got picked on in the passing game multiple times by the Ohio state tight ends. Cole Sullivan only contributed 3 tackles and 1 tackle for loss in what was not a good performance from him either.

None of the other linebackers played enough to get a real true grade from me as Michigan was in the nickel package almost the whole game. They just needed this group to play better against the pass in this game and they didn't get enough production against the running game of Ohio State either to warrant a higher grade for this performance.

Secondary: C

Outside of Jyaire Hill, this position group got picked on plenty in this game. Hill had the early interception and he was hardly targeted, as Ohio State made it a clear point to go to the other side of the field through the air. Zeke Berry had an inconsistent game, as he had a couple nice plays and tackles but also got beat badly on a double move by Jeremiah Smith for Ohio State's first TD of the game. Not a great performance from the Michigan cornerback room but they also had their work cut out for them against this great wide receiver core for the Buckeyes.

The safeties were just flat out bad in this game. They were way too loose in their coverage and had a bad blown coverage in the second half on Carnell Tate's 50-yard TD catch. Ohio State had a lot of success through the air targeting the middle of the field and also going deep which is all the safety room's responsibilities typically. The secondary was just not good enough today and that was very clear all day long.

Special teams: C

Hudson Hollenbeck had another woeful performance in this game, as he had a punt that wasn't blocked go for just 11 yards. He had a terrible year and I honestly have no idea how you justify his performance this year for Michigan. A school like Michigan should always have a better player than this as their starting punter and it was a clear weakness for the team all year.

On the bright side, Dominic Zvada did go 3/3 on field goals and none of them were particularly easy either. He appears to have figured it out despite struggling for most of the year on field goals.

The other positive thing I can say about the special teams is that they didn't have any kicks blocked or anything and din't give up any big returns either. Andrew Marsh did a nice job catching punts and kickoffs as he appeared to make the right decisions almost every time back there as a returner which is hard to do as a true Freshman. Outside of Hollenbeck, the special teams was fairly good today but Hollenbeck was so bad that it brings the whole grade down quite a bit.

Coaching: C-

Sherrone Moore had another weird end of half situation with his timeouts but it was kind of a 50/50 call on when to use his timeouts at the end of the first half. He didn't totally screw it up but he also didn't give his offense hardly any time to try and score before the end of the half either. The team looked sharp early when they were riding the momentum wave but once things flipped, Michigan appeared to be very flat the rest of the game. That's not all on Sherrone Moore but the team also laid a goose egg in the second half of their most important game of the season so I really can't be too positive on him as a head coach either.

Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey was quite bad in this game in my opinion. He had no coherent plan for passing the football in what was a very strangely called football game. They had success running the ball early but were never able to get much from the passing game which ultimately falls on Chip Lindsey to be able to do. It's such a stark contrast from what Ohio State was able to do on offense where the had open wide receivers all over the field and Michigan has just struggled to do that in any game this year with Chip Lindsey calling the plays.

Wink Martindale did about as well as could be expected on defense in this game in my opinion. His defensive line laid an egg and he made a clear effort to give his secondary help on the deep pass plays throughout the game which was the correct decision. I just don't think the defensive players executed nearly well enough to keep the team in this game and they were also clearly tired in the second half when Ohio State started to have success on the ground. A lot of that was on the offense for not sustaining drives, and I don't blame Wink for how things transpired in the second half of this game because I just didn't think he made many clear mistakes calling plays or in the setup up the defensive game plan for this game.

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