Michigan stung by second straight letdown in CFP semifinals

play

Roman Wilson said what most of his teammates were saying in the somber locker room.

The Big Ten championship was won by Michigan for the second year in a row. For the second year in a row, the Michigan football team lost in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Wilson said that the team made too many mistakes and didn't make plays. They're a great team. I still think we're the better team. The film shows how they played in the game. We weren'tsurprised. We didn't finish it.

The junior offensive guard was more succinct.

We did not lock into some small details. We are responsible for hurting ourselves. "We didn't beat ourselves out there."

One by one, Michigan's players assessed their second straightCFP semifinal loss, which saw them fall behind early and try to catch up the rest of the way. The Wolverines were down 41-22 late in the third quarter and 21-3 at the start of the second quarter. They couldn't overcome three first-and-goal situations and a rushing defense that gave up 263 yards on the ground.

"To be the defense we are, giving up 51 points isn't up to our standard," said senior defensive back Mike Sainristil, a member of the Michigan defense that allowed seven plays from scrimmage of 15 yards or longer. The summary of the game is what I believe. We did not play at our best.

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw for 343 yards and two touchdown and kept coming back to win the game. He had two turnovers that were costly, one of which was at the 1-yard line. Wilson caught what Michigan thought was a 51-yard touchdown pass. The play was reviewed and it was determined that his knee was down.

Wilson had five catches for 104 yards.

Michigan has struggled in the playoffs. They have lost six straight bowls. They lost to Georgia in the playoffs.

The players said that this one hurt even worse because of the Michigan's mistakes.

"Maybe when I'm older, I'll appreciate that I won the Big Ten championship for the second year in a row and beat Ohio State for the second year in a row," Mullings said. It feels like there is a lot left on the table.

Mazi Smith, a senior defensive lineman, said that the defense allowed it to become a shootout because they waited too late to start playing "complementary football." The Michigan defense had not given up more than 27 points all season.

I looked up and said, "There's been a lot of kickoffs." Smith made a statement. I thought this might be as many kicks as we had all season. The score doesn't matter at some point. You need to play your heart out.

Smith made it clear that Michigan thought it could push around the Frogs.

Smith said that they play good football. There are big guards. Big tackles have been made by them. They've got a good center and a big back who can run. I'm seeing that they can play. You don't get to the Playoff game by sucking.

They said the loss would push them even harder this summer.

Wilson said they would be back. "This is going to be the new stepping stone for this program, the culture, the new guys and everyone here, just the dedication and the hard work everyone puts in" This could be the new direction we go.

We're supposed to do this in these games.

Big plays were made and mistakes were made by both teams. We had a little less than we needed. The game was decided when they had one more.