ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Unlike the fans who surrounded him on the field, Kyle Whittingham didn’t feel joy after JJ Buchanan hauled in a Hail Mary to save Michigan from an embarrassing defeat. He didn’t feel satisfaction. A bit of relief, maybe, but that wasn’t the dominant emotion.“I was mad,” Whittingham said roughly 45 minutes after Michigan’s replay-aided escape against Western Michigan. “I’m still pissed.”Michigan isn’t supposed to need officiating interventions and desperate heaves to beat Western Michigan. Michigan’s roster is believed to be earning between $35 million and $40 million this season, including $3 million for quarterback Bryce Underwood. Western Michigan and other programs in the MAC build rosters with a fraction of those resources.Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor makes $1.2 million per year, compared to more than $8 million for Whittingham. The money Michigan guaranteed Western Michigan when the programs scheduled this game — $1.5 million, according to MLive — would cover more than a year of Taylor’s salary.For all those reasons, Michigan didn’t see a lot to celebrate in Saturday’s 13-12 victory, which came after officials made a controversial call to put one second back on the clock. The controversy subsided a bit after the Big Ten released footage of the replay decision, though the discrepancy between the clock shown on TV and the clock viewed by officials hasn’t been fully explained.What in the world just happened at Michigan?Austin MeekWhat should have been a run-of-the-mill season opener turned into a national storyline, and the Wolverines had only themselves to blame.“Sick to my stomach is the way I would explain the feeling of that game,” Michigan defensive end Dominic Nichols said. “It should have never came down to that.”With No. 10 Oklahoma coming to Michigan Stadium on Saturday, the No. 16 Wolverines have a lot to fix in a short amount of time. Here’s a deeper look at what went wrong in Whittingham’s debut.Problem: Lack of explosive runsIs it fixable? Yes.Even when Michigan’s offense was one-dimensional in recent years, the Wolverines could count on their rushing attack. Hiring offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the man behind two of the top rushing offenses in the FBS the past two seasons, seemed like a natural continuation.Michigan has the coordinator and the personnel to run the ball effectively, but the parts didn’t mesh Saturday. Excluding sacks, the Wolverines averaged 4.5 yards per carry, which isn’t terrible. The problem was that the offense couldn’t stay on the field long enough to generate any momentum in the running game, in part because the Wolverines weren’t creating explosive plays.Michigan’s longest rush was 15 yards by Jordan Marshall. The Wolverines had one other run that covered more than 10 yards, and that play ended with a Bryce Underwood fumble.Utah was No. 2 in the FBS in runs of 10-plus yards last season and tied for first in runs of 40-plus. Beck knows how to dial up those plays, and Michigan has running backs who can take advantage in Marshall and Savion Hiter.Marshall and Hiter both looked a bit tentative Saturday. Third-string back Bryson Kuzdzal had the best run of the day, which was called back by a rare holding penalty on the quarterback. A conservative game plan, some first-game jitters and a defense that was selling out to stop the run made it tough for Michigan to get much traction on the ground.Problem: Mistakes from the offensive lineIs it fixable? Yes, but maybe not right away.Michigan’s offensive line is supposed to be a strength, but it didn’t look that way Saturday. Upon further review, it appeared Michigan’s struggles were less about getting overpowered at the point of attack and more about missed assignments and confusion in its blocking schemes.One of Beck’s calling cards is employing extra offensive linemen. At several points in the game, Michigan had Manuel Beigel (a converted defensive tackle), Jalen Hoffman (a fullback/tight end) and Avery Gach (a backup offensive guard) blocking on the line of scrimmage. That’s a lot of gaps to block and a lot of assignments to execute, using players with little or no experience in those roles. The results were predictably clunky.There’s something to be said for lining up and running the ball with five offensive linemen and a tight end or two. That worked for a long time at Michigan. With the role of the tight ends shrinking, Michigan is using more extra linemen in unconventional ways. When it works, as it often did at Utah, it looks great. Based on what we saw Saturday, it could take time for Michigan’s personnel to adjust to Beck’s blocking schemes.Problem: Third-down defenseIs it fixable? Probably.Western Michigan did what Michigan couldn’t do. The Broncos churned out yards on the ground, got themselves in manageable third downs and kept their offense on the field for lengthy drives.Michigan’s defense deserves credit for limiting the Broncos to four field goals and keeping them out of the end zone. The worrisome part was the 20-play, 71-yard drive that chewed up almost 14 minutes of clock in the third and fourth quarters.The Broncos were 4-for-5 on third down on that drive and 8-for-18 in the game. Limiting one of the best rushing attacks in the Group of 6 to 3.2 yards per rush (excluding sacks) wasn’t awful on Michigan’s part, but the Wolverines set a high standard by talking up their defensive front as the strength of the team. Outside of Nichols, who finished with nine tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss, that group wasn’t as dominant as expected.Utah transfer John Henry Daley looked a bit rusty after his recovery from an offseason injury, and defensive coordinator Jay Hill wasn’t throwing everything in the playbook at Western Michigan. The bend-don’t-break strategy will need to evolve as Michigan gets deeper into the season.Problem: Lack of touches for Andrew MarshIs it fixable? In theory.After a stellar freshman season, Marsh set his sights on 1,000 receiving yards as a sophomore. Michigan targeted him five times Saturday, resulting in two completions for 15 yards. That’s simply not enough touches for one of Michigan’s most talented players.Buchanan was the No. 1 target in the passing game with six catches for 126 yards. Everyone else combined for 44 yards on six receptions, with no catches for Channing Goodwin, Salesi Moa or Jaime Ffrench. The Wolverines need to get all of their wide receivers more involved — especially Marsh, who has shown he can be a No. 1 wideout in the Big Ten.Perhaps that was part of Whittingham’s frustration with the offense. It’s been a while since a Michigan coach was as direct as Whittingham was Saturday night in critiquing his staff’s decisions.“I don’t know if we were a little conservative in our play calling,” Whittingham said. “Maybe we should have taken some more shots down the field to open up the pass game a little bit. I’ll have some better answers for you (Sunday) after I digest the tape.”Problem: Quarterback playIs it fixable? Maybe not.A segment of the Michigan fan base was holding out hope that Underwood would look like a completely different quarterback in the first game of his sophomore season. It will be hard to find many Underwood believers after Saturday’s performance, even with his heroics on the final play.For all the talk of offseason improvement, Underwood’s mechanics and decision-making are still erratic. With a 14-game sample size as Michigan’s starting quarterback, he’s had plenty of time to establish an upward trajectory. Instead, the trend has been mostly flat, even a bit of a downward slope. At a certain point, Michigan will have to deal with the quarterback Underwood is, not the quarterback he can become.Whittingham didn’t indicate that a move to backup Tommy Carr is imminent, but Michigan will have to consider it if Underwood’s struggles continue.“I’m not saying Bryce played a bad game,” Whittingham said. “This isn’t on Bryce Underwood. It’s on me. I’ve got to figure out a way to have these guys better prepared and get into a rhythm offensively.”