Playing Army early in the season is proving to be quite the litmus test for College Football Playoff hopefuls. The Black Knights have taken two powerhouse programs to overtime the last two years, putting a scare into Oklahoma last season and another one into Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor. In both instances, Army came up a little short, but it also exposed each team's flaws for the world to see.

Following Michigan's 24-21 double-overtime win against Army on Saturday, there have been two different reactions. There are those who have doubted Michigan all along pointing to this game as proof that any hype surrounding the Wolverines entering 2019 was foolish. They say this will be just another season in which the maize and blue come up short. Then there's the faction that quickly points out that Oklahoma nearly lost to Army last year, but still went on to win the Big 12 and reach the College Football Playoff. The former are likely a bit too quick on the trigger, while the latter are willingly ignoring some context.

Not all close calls are created equally, and there are key differences between what happened to Oklahoma last season and Michigan over the weekend. Perhaps one of the biggest ones is that the Sooners played Army on pay-per-view, so hardly anybody saw it (though some did thanks to that one hero on Twitch). Michigan's game against Army was Fox's showcase game at noon, getting the network's A-team.

More so than the reaction is how the actual games played out. In last season's overtime loss to Oklahoma, believe it or not, Army's offense outgained the mighty Oklahoma offense. Army finished with 379 total yards to Oklahoma's 355. That stat is a bit misleading, however, because Oklahoma scored touchdowns on the first three of its seven possessions in regulation. The Sooners punted only once, turned the ball over via an interception once and turned it over on downs after long drives twice. For the most part, Oklahoma's offense was Oklahoma's offense, it was just rarely on the field. The Army offense did what the Army offense is designed to do: put together long, clock-churning drives to keep that Oklahoma offense off the field. At the end of the day, Army had the ball for 45 minutes.

It wasn't that Army was stopping Oklahoma's offense. It was that Oklahoma's defense couldn't get off the field. Against Army. It was a warning sign for the Sooners that would haunt the team all season, as the defense would prove to be the team's Achilles' heel.

On Saturday, Michigan's defense was not the problem. The Wolverines held Army to 243 yards of offense and 3.7 yards per play. Army's ground game averaged only 3.3 yards per carry, and the Wolverines forced three turnovers while picking up four sacks on the eight passing plays Army called. Both of Army's touchdowns in regulation came following Michigan turnovers. In fact, through two games this season, the Michigan defense has allowed five touchdowns in regulation, and four of them came directly after a turnover by the Michigan offense. The fifth was a touchdown by Middle Tennessee on a 59-yard touchdown pass with a minute left in the game. It cut Michigan's lead from 40-14 to 40-21. The other four touchdowns have come on drives that covered an average of 43.75 yards each.

In other words, Michigan's defense has been just fine. The weakness has been a Michigan offense that received plenty of attention this offseason. The Wolverines brought in a new play-caller in Josh Gattis, and through two games, there have been mixed results. Now, Michigan isn't working at full-strength. Starting left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. and receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones -- the unit's most dangerous weapon -- have been watching from the sidelines. Still, their absence is no excuse for five turnovers through two games. The Michigan offense lost three fumbles during the 2018 season. It lost three fumbles in the first half of the Army game.

Shea Patterson has been directly responsible for three of the lost fumbles himself. He lost two against Army a week after fumbling on Michigan's first play of the season. Jim Harbaugh did say Patterson has been less than 100 percent, though he also said following the Army win that Patterson was in better health this week.

Having two inexperienced tackles on your offensive line helps explain away some problems, but Michigan should be averaging more than 3.4 yards per carry (sack-adjusted) against an Army defensive line that averages 267 pounds. According to Michigan's depth chart, the smallest member of its starting offensive line last week was Jalen Mayfield. He's listed at 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds.

There's more wrong with Michigan's offense than just a couple of significant injuries. After all, this is Michigan we're talking about. According to 247Sports' composite talent rankings, the Wolverines have the 11th-most talented roster in the country. Army checks in at No. 128, one spot behind Buffalo, but ahead of Sam Houston State.

Whether it's the team's overall health, the condition of Patterson or the inexperience of an offensive coordinator who now has two games of play-calling experience under his belt, we don't know. Odds are it's a combination of all three of those things, plus a bunch of other factors. Whatever the case is, Michigan needs to get things figured out and do so in a hurry. The Wolverines get a much-needed bye to work out some kinks and get players like Patterson, Runyan and People-Jones back to full health, but the real schedule begins in two weeks. That's when Michigan will head to Madison to take on a Wisconsin team that has outscored its first two opponents 110-0.

Advice For Athletic Directors of the Week

This has become an annual plea from me in this spot, but if you're an athletic director reading this column, do yourself a favor and reread that paragraph about Army's talent level. After doing so, look at Army's record since the start of the 2017 season. It has gone 22-6 despite being at a serious talent disadvantage. It has taken both Oklahoma and Michigan to overtime on the road. Why? Because Jeff Monken is a terrific coach, and because it runs an offense that's hard to deal with. I have long been banging the table that more Power Five programs need to have the courage to embrace running an option offense.

Dare to be different. The offense is seen as gimmicky or old-school by many, but there was once a time when the spread and Air Raid were seen as gimmicks. Instead, they were just offenses utilized by teams who had a talent disadvantage as a way to level the playing field. Now they rule the sport, and teams like Alabama, Michigan and LSU have adopted their principles as a way to both stay on top, and try to get back to it.

It's always good to go against the grain, particularly if you're a Power Five school without a long history of success. After Army wins another nine or 10 games in 2019, there's no reason Monken shouldn't be the first coach called by a lot of athletic directors looking for a new coach. There's no guarantee he wants to leave Army, but make him say no. You're doing your school and your program a disservice if you don't.

Flea Flicker of the Week

Was this play solely responsible for Colorado's comeback win against Nebraska in one of the most entertaining games of the week? Probably not, but that won't stop me from saying it was. Let this be a lesson to all teams. If you're trailing in a game, and buried inside your five-yard line, always call a flea-flicker. It's the only option you have.

Heisman Hype Train of the Week

I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about LSU quarterback Joe Burrow last season. When I watched him play, I saw a lot of nice throws, but overall, his game seemed to be lacking something. That changed during the offseason. As I was preparing for the 2019 season, I was doing a deep dive on statistics for a lot of players, particularly quarterbacks. The deeper I looked on Burrow, the more I realized that he was much better than his overall numbers looked. I knew that he'd been victimized by a young receiver corps with slippery fingers, but I didn't realize how bad things were until taking that more in-depth look. So I vowed that I would approach Burrow with fresh eyes this year, and publicly declared myself a reborn Joe Burrow stan.

Well, after watching Burrow carve up Texas for 471 yards and four touchdowns on Saturday night, I am officially declaring that the Joe Burrow Heisman Hype Train has left the station and will not stop until we get to New York. I say we because I am driving this train until we reach Manhattan or get derailed. Whichever comes first.

Best Moment of the Week

It got a bit dusty in The Fornelli Football Lair on Saturday when this video came across my timeline. Arkansas State was in Las Vegas preparing for UNLV when coach Blake Anderson surprised them. Anderson has been on a leave of absence since August, as his wife died on Aug. 20 after succumbing to breast cancer.

While it doesn't fix anything, you have to believe being back with his team is a great comfort for Anderson, and obviously, his players were thrilled to see him. They went out and beat UNLV 43-17.

Teaching Moment of the Week

UL-Monroe lost to Florida State 45-44 in overtime on Saturday. The result was a sigh of relief for Florida State and a punch in the gut for the Warhawks. But it was also a teachable moment.

Listen, Group of Five teams, or any other plucky underdog. If you're on the road, in overtime, and you have a chance to knock your opponent out, take the chance. Don't do this.

Sure, if ULM makes the extra point, it goes to a second overtime, but why in the world would ULM want to extend the game? If you're playing a more talented opponent, that talent is going to win out in the long run. When you have a chance to go for the throat, you go for it. Matt Viator had a chance to do so but went conservative, and it cost his team.

Stat of the Week

One of the stats I use in my rating system to determine The Bottom 25 is something I call "Chaos Rate". It's a metric based off of Havoc Rate, which was created by Football Outsiders and Bill Connelly. It's a way to measure how disruptive a defense is. Havoc Rate simply added the number of tackles for loss, fumbles forced and passes defended a defense had and divided them by the number of plays that defense was on the field. Simple enough, right? Well, I took that stat and added blocked kicks and punts to it, because in my opinion, those are huge plays that can change the course of a game.

I call it Chaos Rate and here are the top 10 defenses according to this metric after Week 2.

Turnover Prop of the Week

Listen, last week we found out Nevada has a Turnover Towel. This week we learned that Akron has a Turnover Pencil. Maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to think the turnover props have jumped the shark.

Clearly, the next evolution is the Third Down Prop.





AP Voter of the Week

This week's award goes to The Boston Globe's Michael Vega. Michael had Washington at No. 11 on his ballot this week, even though Washington lost to Cal 20-19. I'm going to assume that Michael filed his AP ballot on Saturday night and was in bed hours before Washington's weather-delayed loss came to an end at roughly 3 A.M. ET.

College Football Playoff Projection of the Week

Clemson Alabama Oklahoma Ohio State

Until the next Monday After!