At The Hundredth Meridian

For one brief moment at the start of the second half, there was a glimmer of hope. (Michigan Athletics)

Me debunk an American myth?

And take my life in my hands?

Where the great plains begin

At the hundredth meridian

At the hundredth meridian

Where the great plains begin

--"At the Hundredth Meridian" by The Tragically Hip from their 1992 album Fully Completely

On the surface, there are many reasons to fret about a 24-13 loss to a top-20 team on the road in week two.  Michigan wasn't aggressive enough; Michigan didn't let Bryce Underwood use his athletic gifts to their fullest; Michigan's offensive line is suspect, especially for one on a team whose HC is an OL guy.  There is validity in all of these things.  But it is a matter of degrees, and primarily whether this loss is somehow a referendum on where Michigan is or where Michigan will be.

I told myself that every possible outcome for this game, save Michigan blowing out the Sooners, was in play.  But I do find myself surprised that Michigan won the turnover battle and was kept in the game by a couple of critical Oklahoma miscues, but still never really threatened in this matchup.  A Brett Venables defense looked like that of Venables' past, confusing, confounding, especially with an 18-year-old starting in his first road game.  While there were a few nice moments, like Justice Haynes long TD run to start the second half, it was mostly an exercise in frustration.

If I die of vanity, promise me, promise me

They bury me some place I don't want to be

You'll dig me up and transport me, unceremoniously

Away from the swollen city-breeze, garbage bag trees

Whispers of disease and the acts of enormity

And lower me slowly, sadly, and properly

Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy

My only other takeaway from this game is that John Mateer played the kind of game for a college quarterback that you absolutely love to watch as a neutral and that you loathe deeply when he's playing the team you're rooting for.  To wit, at some point in the second half:

So, end of story, Michigan takes its first loss of the season, comes home to face the Chippewas, and hopes they can get a bunch of starters healthy ahead of the trip to Nebraska.  Will Sherrone take his two weeks of university-imposed exile to examine what needs to be better?  We can only hope.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 24-13 IS a Scorigami (we initially thought that 2011 Iowa was also 24-13, but it turns out that the score had been recorded incorrectly in the database at the Bentley.  We have alerted them.)
  
• 84,107 were in attendance for Michigan's first-ever regular-season game against the Sooners and its first-ever game in the state of Oklahoma.
  
  
• Michigan moves to 0-2-0 all-time against the University of Oklahoma.
  
• Michigan moves to 2-2-0 all-time on September 6 (The other loss was to 2014 Notre Dame on the road that ended the long "no shutouts against" streak.)
  
  
• Michigan improves to 19-16-1 when scoring exactly 13 points (as Hockeybear pointed out, the last time Michigan scored 13 points, we were all ecstatic).
• Michigan moves to 19-19-0 all-time when allowing 24 points to the opposition (including 2023's victory over Ohio State).
• Michigan has lost 10 games all-time by precisely 13 points, the four most recent examples were all to Ohio State, 1970, 2007, 2009, 2017.