College Football

For Michael Penix Jr. and Washington, everything was clicking until painful Michigan matchup

Updated Jan. 9, 2024 11:59 a.m. ET

HOUSTON — Michael Penix Jr. limped off the field with a towel covering his face. He purposely slipped it just under his facemask to hold the cover in place. That way, he could hide his pain.

Of all the nights, this one wasn't his. After a dazzling performance in the Sugar Bowl a week ago, Penix made too many mistakes, was out of sync with his playmakers and the most physical defense he faced all year got to him.

Michigan toppled Washington, 34-13, in Monday's national championship game. When asked how he was feeling in the aftermath, Penix uttered, "Hurt."

"We came here, we wanted to win," Penix continued. "That's been our goal since Day 1. I said this since Day 1. But man, it sucks. We played a good team. They did some good things.

"On the offensive side of the ball, we just missed a lot of opportunities, opportunities where we needed to execute the most to help our team, put our team in a better position to come out with this win."

One of the popular storylines entering this matchup was how, one week after disrupting Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, Michigan's defense would pressure the guy who's led the country in passing yards per game the last two years in a row.

Well, the Wolverines handled Penix just fine. They took away his deep shots, made him uncomfortable in the pocket and had time to defend. Penix completed just 27 of 51 passes for 255 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked once and intercepted twice. His longest pass was a 44-yarder to Rome Odunze, but that wasn't until the fourth quarter. While it wasn't too late just yet, Penix followed that ball up with a near pick-six that Michigan's best defender Mike Sainristil intercepted and ran back 81 yards on fourth down. The Wolverines scored a few plays later.

"They were giving us some pressure and some different looks that were creating chaos and confusion for him back there," Odunze said. "But all of us were unable to execute our jobs properly, which makes it difficult for him when we're not on our P's and Q's and exactly where we need to be exactly when we need to be there."

The struggles started early. With Michigan leading 7-0 after the opening drive, Penix responded by confidently leading his offense down the field. Facing third-and-8 from the Michigan 8-yard line, Penix uncharacteristically overthrew Odunze in the end zone, forcing Washington to settle for a field goal. This is exactly what Michigan wanted to do — the more it could affect Penix and prevent him from scoring touchdowns, the better.

A little while later, trailing 17-3 and facing fourth-and-7, Penix misfired on another target to Odunze. This time, the receiver – who is projected to be a top-10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft — was wide open and would have scored an easy touchdown to get the Huskies right back in the game.

Odunze blamed himself.

"That was my fault, that was my fault," he said. "I should have broke out on that play. Selfishly, I had so much open space that I kind of had a mental lapse and ran straight up the field because I saw so much open space there. But the route design should have had me breaking out on that particular play so that was my fault. I should have been right where he put it."

But if you ask Penix about it, he'll tell you, "It's on me." That's just how this tight-knit Washington team is. They all want to take responsibility.

Running back Dillon Johnson, who was playing through left knee and right foot injuries before suffering a high left ankle sprain on the first play of the game, also wanted in on the blame.

"We just weren't clicking," Johnson said. "We just weren't on the same page on some things. But a lot of it had to do with me not being able to get those hard yards and putting us in long situations. I wasn't really able to move and it kind of hurt us. So, yeah."

Johnson's health was a concern before kickoff. He left the field on a golf cart after aggravating an injury at the end of the Sugar Bowl. But he said he "felt like I was fine" before his ankle got rolled up, which prevented him from being as explosive as he could be.

"There's only so much your body can do, you know?" Johnson said. "It was just one of them nights."

The thing about Penix this season was, despite being one of the best quarterbacks in the country and finishing second in Heisman Trophy balloting, he wasn't always the most accurate passer (at 66.7%, he's ranked No. 21 in the nation). Texas may not have been able to get to him a week ago, but Michigan did. Washington figured out ways to get downfield in shorter chunks, but Kalen DeBoer's offense wasn't the same without a deep threat. It didn't help that Washington had too many penalties and often found itself in third-and-long situations as well.

Even so, Washington had a chance to tie the game four different times in the second half and was unable to do so. The Huskies defense was playing lights out, at one point holding the Wolverines to six points in eight drives. But the offense couldn't pull its weight.

"Extremely frustrating," Odunze said. "We carry ourselves to be an offensive weapon, an arsenal. So to be able to go out there when the defense is making play after play and making stop after stop and we can't even tie it, much less take the lead. It was disappointing. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. It seemed like we couldn't all click on one play."

In the fourth quarter, with Michigan only leading 20-13, Penix connected with Odunze for a 32-yard shot that was immediately negated by a holding penalty by right tackle Roger Rosengarten, putting them into a third-and-long, and eventually needing to punt.

Washington would have one more drive, which ended in Penix's second fateful interception.

"We didn't execute the moment whenever we needed to," Penix said. "I don't feel like we were confused or anything like that, I just feel like it came down to executing. I missed a couple of throws. A couple of reads on routes and stuff like that. Just small details within our system that we do great all the time."

Hobbled and holding his lower abdomen – Penix's teammates said afterward they thought he may have had a rib injury — Penix wanted to stay in the game until the final whistle and finish out his career.

"He's a warrior," Odunze said.

"I'm just happy that I was able to finish it with the guys," Penix said. "I knew that I didn't want them to take me out of that game because I've been through too much. And I knew that no matter what, I was going to make sure I finished for the guys. And just give it my all."

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Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.

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