The PFF grades are not kind for Michigan this week

The Michigan Wolverines dropped their first game of the season on Saturday, losing to Texas, 31-12. It was a tough game to watch if you’re a Michigan fan, and the advanced stats from Pro Football Focus (PFF) agree with the eye test.

Let’s get into this week’s player grades and snap counts.

Offense

OL Evan Link – 57 snaps / 27.2 overall player grade

OL Dominick Giudice – 57 / 59.3

OL Myles Hinton – 57 / 55.6

OL Giovanni El-Hadi – 57 / 66.0

OL Josh Priebe – 57 / 65.6

QB Davis Warren – 54 / 76.5

TE Colston Loveland – 44 / 55.7

WR Tyler Morris – 40 / 58.1

WR Kendrick Bell – 39 / 53.1

RB Donovan Edwards – 32 / 71.9

WR Semaj Morgan – 31 / 68.1

WR CJ Charleston – 19 / 62.3

TE Marlin Klein – 17 / 57.8

WR Peyton O’Leary – 15 / 72.9

RB Ben Hall – 14 / 62.8

TE/FB Max Bredeson – 13 / 73.0

RB Kalel Mulings – 13 / 64.5

WR Fred Moore – 7 / 52.3

QB Alex Orji – 3 / 56.6

WR Amorion Walker – 1 / 59.0

Takeaways: After rotating in Greg Crippen with Dominick Giudice last week against Fresno State, Crippen didn’t see the field at all against Texas. It appears that position battle is over, as Giudice played every snap along the offensive line on Saturday.

Additionally, it’s interesting to see Kendrick Bell’s snap counts increase from Week 1 (30) to Week 2 (39). He was a guy that kind of flew under the radar this offseason, with guys like Fred Moore, Amorion Walker and CJ Charleston garnering more attention at the position. The coaching staff seems to trust him the most as the team’s WR3 at this point.

Surprises: It’s a shock that Kalel Mullings and Max Bredeson only got 13 snaps each on Saturday. For a ground and pound team like Michigan is, it’s stunning that these two hardly played at all. But I guess that’s what happens when you give up 24 points in the first half and only put a field goal on the board to counter that. Being down by three touchdowns to start the second half likely had a role with that, but to have two of your better offensive players on the bench more often than not is … not great.

Defense

CB Jyaire Hill – 65 / 57.2

LB Ernest Hausmann – 65 / 43.9

LB Jaishawn Barham – 64 / 43.7

S Makari Paige – 61 / 56.2

DT Kenneth Grant – 60 / 61.7

CB Will Johnson – 58 / 70.3

DT Mason Graham – 58 / 67.9

S Quinten Johnson – 57 / 58.3

CB Zeke Berry – 50 / 63.0

Edge Derrick Moore – 46 / 64.3

Edge Josaiah Stewart – 45 / 75.9

DT Rayshaun Benny – 28 / 74.4

Edge TJ Guy – 26 / 64.6

Edge Cameron Brandt – 25 / 52.3

S Wesley Walker – 21 / 55.8

CB Aamir Hall – 17 / 59.9

LB Jimmy Rolder – 13 / 55.3

DT Trey Pierce – 7 / 60.8

DT Ike Iwunnah – 6 / 82.3

DT Enow Etta – 4 / 62.4

CB Kody Jones – 3 / 60.0

CB Myles Pollard – 2 / 60.0

Takeaways: Kenneth Grant playing 60 snaps and Mason Graham playing 58 snaps could be detrimental for them as the season goes on. They are two of the best defensive tackles in the country, but if you’re playing that many snaps per game, even the best of the best are going to get gassed.

A season ago, Graham played 442 total snaps while Grant played 403 snaps. Through two games, Graham is already up to 104 snaps while Grant is at 101. For them to already be a quarter of the way to what they played all of last year is insane.

Additionally, the linebackers were graded pretty harshly by PFF, with Ernest Hausmann and Jaishawn Barham both grading out below 50. They gave Barham a very good tackling grade of 80.4, but nothing else was graded higher than 52.6. PFF also dinged Hausmann for three missed tackles, and for giving up five catches on five targets in coverage. It was a really rough day for the linebackers.

Surprises: Where in the world was Ja’Den McBurrows? The player to relieve Zeke Berry in the slot was redshirt sophomore Kody Jones, who only had 59 snaps in his entire career until yesterday. Perhaps McBurrows had a last second injury pop up, but that was an interesting thing to see on the player report.