The difference between Michigan football and No. 1 Oregon became apparent in the first two series of the Wolverines' 38-17 loss at home on Saturday.

Michigan got the ball first and punted after picking up 3 yards on three plays and the Ducks offense answered with a 12-play, 63-yard touchdown drive. Dillon Gabriel lofted a back-shoulder throw to Evan Stewart in the corner of the end zone, and the Oregon receiver appeared to make the catch through contact from cornerback Aamir Hall.

However, the replay showed Stewart did not maintain possession of the catch as he went to the ground. But, the call did not get overturned and the game continued on without a review with Oregon leading 7-0.

After the game, head coach Sherrone Moore said he did not challenge the call and expected it to be reviewed, as all scoring plays in college football are supposed to be.

"Every touchdown is supposed to be reviewed," Moore said. "I think that's something we got to talk to the Big Ten about. Every touchdown is supposed to be reviewed so that definitely should've been called and looked at."

In a pool report postgame, head referee Rod Snodgrass said they got the signal from replay assistants on the field the play was cleared and they moved on as normal.

"All scoring plays are reviewed and cleared by replay," Snodgrass said in the pool report. "That’s why we always hold up the try. We’re looking for like a two-thumbs up from replay assistants on the field, we got that and moved on from the play. That’s what happened."

In a follow-up question about whether the right call was made, Snodgrass said he had not seen a replay, but repeated the referees got the all-clear signal.

Ultimately, the touchdown that stood didn't prove to be a massive difference between the two teams, as Oregon got off to a dominant start and jumped ahead 28-10. They rode the big lead in the second half to a comfortable 38-17 win for the Ducks' sixth win in the new Big Ten conference.

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Oregon lived up to the No. 1 hype immediately. After the opening touchdown, Oregon's defense forced another stop and the offense pushed it to 14-0 by the start of the second quarter. It took a muffed punt by Oregon for Michigan to score on a short field, and the Ducks found another answer with a second Noah Whittington touchdown.

"We've got to flip that around, we can't start slow," Moore said.

The unsuccessful challenge on Loveland's near-catch

Michigan looked like a changed team coming out in the second half with a forced three-and-out and touchdown to cut Oregon's lead to 28-17.

Oregon answered with a field goal drive aided with a special teams penalty against Michigan negated a punt and extended the Ducks' drive at midfield, ultimately letting them try and make a 26-yard field goal.

Michigan's drive to try to find an answer stalled after gaining just 2 yards on first and second down. On third down, Davis Warren found tight end Colston Loveland, who finished with seven catches for 112 yards on nine targets, along the sideline for what seemed to be enough for a first down.

Loveland made an acrobatic catch and got a foot and knee down in bounds, but got driven into the turf and the ball popped loose right in front of Moore and the Michigan sidelines. The referees ruled it incomplete, but Moore called a timeout to challenge the call. Replay officials confirmed the call, doubling down on the incomplete call and depriving Michigan of its second timeout of the second half.

"I just thought that he caught the ball, got a knee down, then went down and he rolled out of bounds and then the ball came out," Moore said. "And so, the kids were fighting and I was going to fight. I was going to fight with them and it looked to me like a catch."

On the CBS broadcast, announcer Gary Danielson admonished Moore and Michigan's coaches for wasting a challenge and timeout on an obvious play which happened directly in front of them.

"That is just a mistake on the Michigan staff," Danielson said on air. "They do not know the rule, and it cost them a timeout. They just don't understand the rule."

Michigan only had one more full offensive drive after the failed challenge, which ended with a turnover on downs after a failed trick pass trying to hit quarterback Alex Orji on a reverse pass, before Oregon salted it with one more touchdown in the final 30 seconds.

"We've got to make plays like that," wide receiver Tyler Morris said. "We got to execute better and like I said earlier we got to start fast because it's only a certain amount of time we've got."

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's Sherrone Moore explains failed challenge