The best team UM played this NC season?

Submitted by greymarch on January 9th, 2024 at 12:30 PM

Now that the season is over, which team was the best team UM played this NC season?

 

Sure, you might immediately jump to Alabama, since Bama took Michigan to over-time.  However UM played their worst special teams of the season and JJ had a mediocre game vs Bama.

 

Ohio Soft University?  It was a close game in Ann Arbor.  Michigan played better vs OSU than Michigan played vs Bama. 

 

Certainly wasnt Washington.  When a team can hang 300+ yards of rushing on your team, you dont have a good team.  Washington was doomed.

 

I guess I would slightly lean towards Bama.  It's close though.  A fully-loaded Ohio State team with McCord vs Bama on a neutral field would have been a close game.

 

#GoBlue

 

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The Homie J

January 9th, 2024 at 12:46 PM ^

Same.  Ohio State was the only team where I'm not confident we'd win a rematch, or at least if we played 10 times, we'd probably split the series 5-5.  Washington is just too mismatched in the trenches, Alabama can't pass protect and Milroe is not experienced enough to withstand that much pressure, Penn State has no offense and no one else really comes close.  Ohio State, to their credit, played us to the end on our own turf and didn't get routed in the trenches unlike almost everyone else.

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J. Redux

January 9th, 2024 at 1:13 PM ^

Applause.  Glorious. :)

Incidentally -- and despite what I saw in the box score -- a muff is not a turnover.  On the Morgan punt last week, Michigan never had possession, so they cannot turn the ball over to the opponent.  That means that Michigan just won the national championship with a 3-0 turnover margin in the playoff.

After some of the horrible turnover luck we've seen in the past, how good does that feel? :)

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Hensons Mobile…

January 9th, 2024 at 12:34 PM ^

Best defense, I guess Penn State. Maybe Bama.

Best offense, it's Washington. Yeah, we handled them. Offense that was toughest on us, I guess OSU?

Best overall, Ohio State. That game was very high-level.

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We'll be Champions

January 9th, 2024 at 12:36 PM ^

Ohio St easily. Two of the best three teams this year were not in the playoff, but we beat one of them in the regular season so who cares (also I'm sure this actually happens fairly often if you look back at the history of the playoff)

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bronxblue

January 9th, 2024 at 12:40 PM ^

A fully healthy UW is probably the most dangerous because of Penix but OSU is the best.  They'd beat that Alabama team and they're a top-3 team talent wise.

But honestly, the toughest team UM faced all year was itself.  A really good offense and an elite defense every day in practice.

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Dunder

January 9th, 2024 at 12:44 PM ^

Ohio State deserved to be in the "one loss" but ahead of FSU conversation, after all, they had the best loss of any of them - you know, on the road by one score to...the National Champions!

 

They, of course, doinked that (and the ball didn't go through anyway) by running off their quarterback and having no offense versus Missouri. 

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Vasav

January 9th, 2024 at 12:45 PM ^

I do think it's Ohio State - their passing game gave us the most trouble, they had the best defense we faced with an offense that could threaten us. But I want to shout out Alabama - yes there were obviously the ST blunders which cost us about 11 points directly (altho the Bama O made 7 of those count).  But even without our blunders, the Bama ST did just outperform us - two long FGs, and they manufacture about 20 yards in FP on a punt exchange that led to their other TD. ST is a phase of the game - we were better on plays from scrimmage, we had some serious gaffes, but they also scored 13 on us just by out-playing our special teams units. If we kick an XP or FG it's not going to OT, and it's hard to predict what happens if Semaj doesn't drop that first punt. But even outside of that, their ST kept them in the game without our mistakes.

Also, my hottest take is that Kyle McCord is an incredibly underrated QB, since we just did THAT to Milroe and Penix and they fared much worse.

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The Homie J

January 9th, 2024 at 12:52 PM ^

I agree, Ohio State and Washington were clearly the best offenses, but Washington had zero balance with no running game whatsoever.  Ohio State has one, even if they kept abandoning it because Ryan Day is a terrible play caller.  We beat Penn State, Washington, and Alabama on the road or a neutral while playing sloppy or one dimensional.  Only Ohio State had to compete on our turf and they nearly went blow for blow with us despite us playing nearly perfect.  I made fun of McCord all year but I was actually really impressed with his poise and accuracy given the pressure he was under.  And Marvin Harrison Jr. is the best player we defended, although Odunze is close.  

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Teddy Bonkers

January 9th, 2024 at 12:46 PM ^

I'll go with OSU, my recollection of that game is Michigan played near perfect in all three phases. Alabama obviously played us closer, but I think Michigan had a slopper game. 

I think Washington, OSU and Alabama are all pretty close. I think Michigan got in Washington heads and we were bad match up for them. Seems like Alabama and OSU are probably the two best we played, but I think Washington would have a decent shot at beating either one of them.

PSU a distant 4th, and they were lucky to be in Happy Valley and have Harbaugh suspended so close to kickoff. Maryland not fair behind PSU. 

 

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FrankMurphy

January 9th, 2024 at 1:00 PM ^

We were a terrible matchup for Washington. We had the tools to neutralize their offensive strengths (i.e., their passing game), but they didn't have the tools to neutralize ours (i.e., our running game). And that's exactly why the game went the way it did last night.

Our pass rush and our secondary flustered Penix and forced him to hurry his reads and spend most of the game outside his comfort zone.

Their run defense actually punched above its weight for long stretches of the game, but at the end of the day, it was a liability on an already mediocre defense. They couldn't sustain it for long enough to keep us from rolling up 300+ rushing yards on them.

In hindsight, last night's result was entirely predictable given the two teams' stat sheets. I'm surprised so many pundits picked Washington.

Texas probably would have played us closer even though Washington was better than Texas.

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Blake Forum

January 9th, 2024 at 12:48 PM ^

Ohio State played us the best of anyone, I'd say. They didn't benefit from a near-total special teams collapse like Bama did, or our offense wobbling and beating itself for two quarters like Washington did. We played very nearly our best game against Ohio State, with no major mistakes. And they still had the ball at the end with a good chance to win

I won't profess any respect for their whiny fans or their soft and conniving coaches, but credit to their players where it's due

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Perkis-Size Me

January 9th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^

Alabama taking us to overtime had far less to do with what Alabama did than it did with Michigan putting itself in that position. 

Sadly, I agree with who you responded to. Michigan played nearly as clean of a game against OSU as it could have. At home, very few mistakes, no turnovers, and OSU was still in plus territory with a less than a minute to go with a chance to win.

If Rod Moore isn't in the position he's in, we could be talking about OSU as being a national title winner this year, and Michigan's potential best season and best team ever going down in flames in the Sign-Gate controversy that no one in the MSM would ever let Michigan forget about. 

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