Eminence Front

A walk-off sack is a pretty neat ending.  (Rachel Leggett)

It's an eminence front

It's an eminence front, it's a put on

It's a put on, it's a put on, it's a put on

Come and join the party, dressed to kill

Won't you come and join the party dressed to kill?

 --"Eminence Front" by the Who, the second single from their 1982 album It's Hard

I want to be clear: I did not expect this.  I allowed myself to hope it was possible; Oklahoma had offensive challenges, Michigan's defense was a net positive against Western Michigan last week, and it's college football in Week 2; nothing is set in stone.  But knowing that, given the nature of last week's finish, the holiday weekend discourse cycle leading to a sense that the college football world wanted nothing more than to see the Sooners turn Michigan into a fine nutritive paste, it seemed like the universe was going to extract its pound of flesh to pay Michigan back, Final Destination style, for surviving last week.

But it's college football, not a karmic ledger.  As much as we might try to ascribe that role to it.

After Oklahoma and Michigan traded punts, Michigan looked to have a three-and-out, only to get dinged with a running-into-the-kicker call, but still got off the field, only to be pinned inside the ten (in what would become a leitmotif for this game).  But then Michigan put together a drive, despite some penalties, that included two huge plays, a 36-yard completion to JJ Buchanan on third and ten (Buchanan set up shop at the sticks and then got some g  at YAC), Michigan kept moving, aided by a OU pass interference penalty, and then sealed by a great 38 yard run by Bryce Underwood for Michigan's first score.  Not the most elegant drive, and certainly similar to one's last week that were cut down in their primes by sloppy penalties (this is still a concern going into next week.  Not the penalties themselves, the kind of penalties Michigan keeps getting called for all seem to be from the lack of detail orientation and discpline.)

It looked, for a moment, like Michigan would hand Oklahoma the ball back and that the Sooners would go down and answer, especially after a John Mateer "pass" attempt was ruled incomplete rather than a fumble (the definition of "his arm is going forward" is still murky, and I think it was just easier to uphold the ruling on the field.)  But the universe decided that Michigan deserved a turnover, which is why Todd Bowles recovered a fumble on the next play and Michigan set up shop  but could not do anything with it (other than recover two of their own fumbles, terrifying in its own way), punting it back to Oklahoma, the ball downed at the one yard line.  The Sooners went three and out and Michigan, hindered by a very ill-timed holding penalty, could only take mild advantage of the field position and put a Trey Butkowski field goal on the board to make it 10-0.  The Sooners did look like they might have something cooking in the two-minute drill, but the Michigan defense stood tall after Oklahoma crossed midfield and the teams went into the locker room with Michigan up 10, a state of affairs that probably surprised almost everyone in the building except possibly the Michigan defense.

An interlude about the Michigan Stadium experience this week.  The LED button lights were gone from the handrails, which felt like an awful lot of work for one week, but nevertheless.  The DJ not only played a Kayne song again but also added "Rock and Roll Part 2" which has pretty much been de factobanned by all sports for decades.  The Google Gemini trivia ad was still terrible, but at least it was coherent this week.  The sound mix is still an absolute mess, but they did actually remember to put up the words for the "sing along" choice winner this week. It's a work in progress, but it's still exceedingly genercizied.

When Oklahoma got the ball back after Michigan's opening three and out and went ninety yards on eight plays, capped by a dreadful coverage bust for the touchdown, you could tell the mood of the stadium was shifting into "Well, it was fun while it lasted" mindsets.  That Michigan's ensuing drive was cut short by a seven-yard sack of Bryce Underwood on third down that looked far more violent and devestating than just a seven yard loss did not help, though another Cam Brown punt downed at the one yard line did raise spirits.  But then Oklahoma got out of the shadow of their own end zone, aided in part by a wholly unnecessary personal foul penalty on Jyaire Hill, and then a great pitch and catch between John Mateer and Rocky Beers, then moved along by another personal foul, though this one far more dubious, a facemask call on Dom Nichols, in part because Mateer's helmet came off in his hands.  If you looked at the replay, Nichols is nowhere near the face mask, Mateer's helmet is on so loosely that it essentially popped off in Nichols' hands as he was attempting to finish a sack attempt.  Alas.  But the defense held the Sooners to a field goal and tied at 10, it felt not like a whole new ballgame, but certainly like the entire direction of the season hung in the balance.

Michigan, unfortunately, was still not having great success on the offensive side of the ball and punted it back to Oklahoma, where many suspected it would lead to the game winning score.  Well, it did, but not the way one would think.  Having been part of the problem before, Jyaire Hill would atone for his football sins with a tremendous pick of John Mateer, returning it 24 yards to the Oklahoma 6 yard line, and setting up a Jordan Marshall touchdown two plays later, Michigan was up 17-10, and had shown some fight finally in the second half. 

With a Michigan Stadium as loud and engaged as I can remember, a tense back and forth ensued where neither side could do what it needed or wanted to do on offense to finish the game on their terms, drives that ended with punts or a turnover on down before culminating in a Nate Marshall walk-off sack and a Michigan victory.   

Before last week's game, I saw the Oklahoma game as the fulcrum of this season.  The challenges of playing defending national champion Indiana, plus road games at Eugene and in Columbus meant that Michigan was going to need to play above what they looked like on paper if they wanted to avoid being a four-loss team in the regular season, which meant beating Oklahoma.  The scoreboard helpfully pointed out that Oklahoma is one of five teams on Michigan's schedule this season that won ten or more games last year (all of the aforementioned, plus Western Michigan), and while that was then, the expectations were much lower after last week where Michigan did not look like they could get out of first gear on offense and spent way too much time on the field on defense as a result.  But college football is not destined or fated.  Oregon and Ohio State both dropped games yesterday while Michigan earned a result few expected from them.  There is a floor to this season, but it's much higher than it felt after last week's game.  The ceiling might still be right where we left it, but for now, the jokes can be made about Michigan being the first team in history to go 2-0 after starting the season 0-1, but Michigan heads into UTEP week with just 30 points on offense and two wins to its name.

Tales from the Spreadsheet

• 17-10 is NOT a Scorigami!  It has happened three previous times: 1964 Michigan State, 1980 Northwestern, and 2006 Penn State.
• Win 1,023
• 111,240 were in attendance for the game (a lot of Sooners in there), the 57th-largest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.
• Michigan moves to 1-2-0 all-time against the University of Oklahoma, having previously lost the 1976 Orange Bowl and last year's meeting in Norman.
• Michigan moves to 3-3-1 all-time on September 12 (Losses to Wisconsin in 1981, Notre Dame in 1987, and Syracuse in 1998; a 1992 tie in South Bend; and the 2009 win over the Irish and 2015 win over Oregon State)
• Michigan moves to 19-17-2 when scoring exactly 17 points (the previous 17-point effort was 2024 Oregon, MOVING ON).
• Michigan moves to 59-10-1 all-time when allowing 10 points to the opposition (This is the first time Michigan has allowed 10 points in a game since...2025 Wisconsin).
• Michigan has won 54 games all-time by precisely 7 points, the most recent example being the 2024 Michigan State game.