How Michigan surprised, outplayed Alabama on the offensive line

In the Rose Bowl semifinal between Alabama and Michigan, the battle of the trenches proved extremely important. But it was the Wolverines, not the Crimson Tide, who ultimately came out on top.

And the truth of the matter is the matchup wasn’t all that close. On3’s Andy Staples pointed out Michigan dominated up front.

“I think they did as well, and it surprises me,” The Wolverine’s Chris Balas said on the Andy Staples On3 show. “Without Zak Zinter and the way they’ve played all year… but they stepped up. I thought Alabama’s ceiling was higher. Turned out it wasn’t.”

While Michigan’s defensive line managed to hound the Alabama offensive line throughout the afternoon, coming up with six sacks of quarterback Jalen Milroe, Alabama’s pass rush was mostly ineffective.

Alabama produced just a single sack in the game, allowing quarterback JJ McCarthy to operate mostly unimpeded.

“I was stunned at how well they did against their edges,” Balas said. “I thought that might be the difference in the game. They’ve got two guys that are going to be playing on Sundays, and they had a tough time with Chop Robinson remember against Penn State. They’ve got two of these guys out there, but what a job those guys did out there stepping up.”

With the strong blocking up front, Michigan was able to establish enough of a ground game to keep the offense balanced. The Wolverines ran for 130 yards on the ground, and tailback Blake Corum scored once.

That allowed McCarthy to go to work in the passing game, where he threw for three touchdowns without an interception.

“JJ McCarthy was asked about it after the game and he said Brad Nessler, the CBS announcer, had called him up and said, ‘Hey, watch out for 15 and 41,'” Staples said. “He was talking about Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell. And JJ McCarthy goes, ‘I didn’t feel them all game.'”

And now, because Michigan’s offensive line manhandled the Alabama defensive line, the Wolverines have finally advanced past the semifinal round and will play for a national championship.

The matchup that few thought would go in favor of the Wolverines went their way after all.

“That was to me probably the most stunning part of this football game, but credit to these guys,” Balas said. “These guys are veterans and they really needed to get to that next step to legitimize themselves as an elite program, and credit to them doing that.”