What Sherrone Moore said in press conference after the Ohio State loss

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The four-game winning streak in The Game has come to a close, as Ohio State dominated Michigan football, 27-9. The Wolverines scored field goals on their first two drives, and one more, but ultimately failed to convert into touchdowns.

The second half had nothing going right, as the 100-plus rushing yards started going backward, as Ohio State held the Wolverines to negative eight yards. Thus, the Buckeyes won the rushing battle, keeping that streak going back to 2000 alive.

After the game, Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore was visibly upset and emotional. But he addressed the loss to the Buckeyes for about eight minutes. Here is everything he had to say.

Opening statement

Obviously very disappointed in the result. Credit to them and how they played and how they executed. We did not to our standard.Started off fast, started off with good rhythm offensively. Defensively held in a big goal line stand, held in a field goal, but we didn't execute in the red zone, which ended up being the story of the game. And in the second half, not being able to get a rhythm offensively, they did a good job and credit to them.There's no excuse for it. We gotta be much better and they outplayed us today. So, yeah, we got a lot to work on.

What was the difference in this game?

Yeah, they just played better, they executed better. We didn't play good enough, we didn't execute enough. They did what mattered, and they played a better game.

Clearly some emotion behind this one for you. How are you feeling, what are you feeling right now?

Yeah, not good, right? I mean, it stings, everybody stings. You sting for the seniors, you sting for the program. When you're in this 24-7, when you're in this for 365, this hurts, you know? And you work tirelessly to make this be successful. So it's not just about me, it's really about the kids and all the hard work. And so I'll put it on me. I always put stuff on me and self-reflect, self-look at, see what we need to fix, and see what we need to do. But it's got to be better.

Not a lot of quarterback pressures, did they do something schematically?

No, we didn't get enough rush. There's things we could have did, and we didn't do really well enough, twist game-wise and things, and they just picked up the pressure.

Bryson and Andrew Marsh have been big lately, but not this game. Why was that?

Yeah, I mean, I think coverage-wise, they did some things to reroute the receivers. We just didn't get a rhythm, right? We didn't protect well enough. We didn't get the guys open enough, all those things. But again, it's a team effort. There's no blame. There's no pointing fingers, right? It's a whole team effort. We gotta work to get better at all those things for both those guys, for all those players. So again, we'll continue to go back to what we need to get better at.

What can you take away from this type of loss?

I mean, we'll look at the film and see exactly what it is. But you know you don't want this feeling again. So 364 days a year, working to figure out ways to figure out to win this game. Along with all the other games we're gonna play, but we've got another game we gotta play after this. So we gotta regroup and try to get 10 wins. That'll be huge. That'll be a huge success for this team to get ten wins with such a young team. Starting six freshmen, redshirt freshmen, true freshman quarterback, redshirt freshman running back, three redshirt freshmen offensive lineman. So we have to regroup as a team and make sure we do that.

You were leaning on them a bit in the rush in the first half, but was the plan coming in to be that run heavy?

No, I mean, you always want to be balanced. I think just when it starts working, the first part of the game is, however many it was, and you lean on that a little bit more. So I think that wasn't the plan. We wanted to be balanced in what we did. But when you're successful in the run game like that, that's what you want to do. So, but again, we didn't do a good enough job of doing that in the second half.

When you started to pass a little more, did it feel like it was kind of more obvious passing the situation?

Yeah, when you get down at certain times, you have to do that, right? So that's just what it became, the game became.

I know you said you were disappointed, but were you surprised at the way they were able to control the trenches?

Yeah, I thought we would have been better at stopping the run there. And they did late in the game, they did a really good job of leaning on us. We didn't do a good enough job of stopping the run. So credit to them, again, I'm not gonna take anything away from them and how they played. They played well.

Bryce's first experience in this rivalry, just tell us how he played and what you wanted to take away from this.

Yeah, I mean, I just want him to feel a feeling like he feels right now. That's really the biggest thing. That'll motivate him enough to be as good as he can be. So the feeling that he has, that stinging feeling he has, as well as all the players and coaches. Embrace that feeling that you have of that loss. And it'll motivate you throughout the year.

On the Jaishawn Barham unsportsmanlike conduct and the Jeremiah Smith bobble on the goal line

Yeah, I mean, the Jaishawn, an official grabbed him, and he reacted. He shouldn't have reacted, but the official grabbed him with two hands. But that was a penalty there.

But then the Jeremiah Smith fumble or catch, they thought it wasn't a fumble. They said that he had control of it. Didn't look like he had control of it. But at the end of the day, it's not my decision on what the official says. So they told me that it was inconclusive and that he made the catch, and the call was going to be upheld.

How big of an impact do you think that had on the game, obviously, a touchback compared to the touchdowns?

I mean, yeah, it's a good bit, a big piece. We start out the game with a pick. Going forward and throwing at Jeremiah Smith, then we start out the game with a pick. And at that point, I think it's 6-3. And if that's a touchback, that gives us a little momentum. So it was a big piece, but we got to do the other things. We got to do the other things in the other spots to go in.

And did Jordan Marshall re-aggravate his shoulder injury and what allowed him to come back in the game later in the third quarter?

Yeah, he re-aggravated, but just got back in there and tried to push a little bit more.

When it comes to Jordan missing time, how much did that mess with your plan?

Obviously, you have to hold up, the depth steps up. But when you're holding, he's about to come in.

How does that affect you in the game?

I mean, just Jordan Marshall's a really good player. And when you have him, it puts a positive impact on your offense. So it was a huge piece for us to have him when he went down. But we had a lot of trusting Kuz like we showed last week. So the plan doesn't change. There's things in pass protections that you might have to do a little bit different cuz he's a bigger back. And we gotta continue to evaluate all those things.

How much of the next month is gonna be about preparing for a bowl game and how much about the future, given that you guys won't be in a playoff?

Yeah, I mean, it'll be about preparing for the game, just like we did last year. Preparing for the bowl game as much as we can and getting as good as we can at football. It's a big time, whatever it is, it's a chance to have 10 wins, right?And 10 wins in college football is huge. So we're gonna attack it. Whoever we have to play, whatever scene, wherever we go, we're gonna enjoy it. We're gonna enjoy it, but we're gonna attack it, and we're gonna get better.

What was your message to the team after the game and I guess moving forward, speaking on the bowl game potential?

Yeah, I mean, ending the season with nine wins is obviously better than we were last year, but we already know our goals, right? What we wanna do and how we wanna approach everything. So nine wins is great in a lot of places, but we wanna be better. But really, to them, it was to stay together cuz it's so easy you can get pulled apart. We're not gonna point fingers, we're gonna figure out what we need to fix, what we need to attack, and we're gonna do it together.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Everything Sherrone Moore said after Michigan loss to Ohio State