Oklahoma should be licking its chops for Michigan after the Wolverines needed a miracle to avoid upset

Brent Venables didn’t exactly sound excited about playing Michigan after what he saw from his Oklahoma Sooners on Friday, but he should be now after what he saw Saturday from the Wolverines. 

The No. 10 Sooners, even if Venables made it clear they were far from flawless, cruised past UTEP 51-0 in their season opener in Norman. Week 1 then didn’t go as easy for Michigan the next day in Ann Arbor, where the No. 16 Wolverines will host OU at 11 a.m. CT Saturday. Michigan embarrassed itself in front of their home fans and needed a gifted miracle to survive an upset in head coach Kyle Whittingham's debut.

“We gotta get ready. We gotta be a hell of a lot better here when we go on the road to Ann Arbor,” Venables told SECN+ during his postgame interview after OU’s blowout. 

It's safe to say about 24 hours later that the Sooners are well-prepared for the should-be 0-1 Wolverines. And if the Sooners need to be "a hell of a lot better," then what increment of improvement does Michigan need?

Michigan eventually outlasted Western Michigan 13-12 to avoid an early catastrophic loss that would have been brutal enough to immediately put the Wolverines’ College Football Playoff hopes in serious danger. A result the other way also would have erased a ranked matchup off the Sooners’ loaded schedule that includes three top-25 opponents within the first five games. However, even with the win, the Wolverines should still drop in next week's rankings and no one will respect them as playoff contenders.

Sooners should still view Wolverines as losers after barely beating Western Michigan

There was even more respect loss because after needing a miracle to barely beat Western Michigan, fans actually stormed the field at The Big House to celebrate. OU vs. Michigan will be labeled a battle of blue bloods, but blue bloods shouldn't rejoice at all after beating an in-state program from the MAC. Imagine if OU fans stormed Owen Field after beating Tulsa (Oklahoma State might soon reach that point, though).

Western Michigan actually celebrated the upset first and notifications of the opposite result had already buzzed phones before a review of a failed Hail Mary attempt ruled that Michigan still had one more second left for another try at the win. Even the NBC broadcast crew after the game disagreed and claimed the contest should have been over with the Broncos pulling off the upset. Instead, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood chucked the ball 47 yards for JJ Buchanan to bring it down in the end zone as time expired (again).

Michigan was on the ropes the entire game and held just a 7-6 lead at halftime, and even that narrow margin was just inches away from being a deficit. Western Michigan linebacker Dillon Moore picked off Underwood and returned it for a pick-6 before it was ruled that he actually stepped out of bounds at Michigan’s 27-yard line. With only nine seconds left before the half, the Broncos just ran one run play, then kicked the field goal. 

Until that final Hail Mary, Michigan had failed to score at all after reaching the end zone on the opening scripted drive. The Wolverines might have a defense worth standing on, but there's a glaring offensive problem. It was reminiscent of the forgettable 2024 OU team that went 6-7 and needed a miracle upset over Alabama just to reach the Armed Forces Bowl. 

The Broncos by no means have a terrible defense, but it’s still nowhere close to the level of unit that Venables has assembled, no matter how concerning OU’s defense looked at times in the opener. Even a disappointing performance from the Sooners’ defense ended with a shutout. 

Michigan was able to put up only 276 total yards against Western Michigan, and 150 of those came from the first and last drives of the game. Supposed star quarterback Underwood completed 54.5% of his passes for 170 yards, 47 of which came from one throw, and turned the ball over twice to help the Broncos get points on the board.

Maybe, the Wolverines fix some of these issues by the time they played OU if they met the second-to-last week of the season instead of second, but there's no way they have things figured out by next week. The Sooners, meanwhile, will likely return two starting offensive linemen and will get their small problems sured up within a week.

Those numbers and just watching Michigan’s inability to move the football should have Venables now salivating for a matchup that had him concerned before seeing what the Wolverines are really made of.

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