Jim Harbaugh reacts to J.J. McCarthy interceptions, addresses plan to prevent them

Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy turned in a clunker last Saturday against Bowling Green, tossing a trio of interceptions as his squad still cruised to a win. It was a stark departure from his sterling start, and something head coach Jim Harbaugh is sure McCarthy will learn from.

And going forward, it’ll be about finding the right balance of aggression and risk taking versus avoiding critical mistakes. Either way, the Michigan head man was pretty sure his quarterback wasn’t going to go the entire season unblemished.

“But law of averages are going to catch up to you at some point. And you do what you can to keep those balls in the air,” Harbaugh said, pantomiming juggling. “They want to come down. Where were we, where were we just at? We were comparing touchdowns to incompletions ratio, we weren’t talking touchdowns to interceptions because there hadn’t been any. I mean that, there’s no way that’s gonna continue. It’s not going to happen that way.”

Heading into Week 3, McCarthy had nearly as many touchdowns (5) as incompletions (7), as Harbaugh alluded to. Now he’s sitting at seven touchdowns and three interceptions, looking to get a big bounce back in the Wolverines Big Ten opener against Rutgers on Saturday.

And what befell McCarthy might not be something that Harbaugh wants to entirely coach out of his quarterback.

Harbaugh called it “optimistic bias,” meaning a predisposition to thinking the good outcome will happen and the risk won’t pan out. This can be a good way to play, Harbaugh said, but needs to be meted out properly. Too much trust in the good outcome happening can result in some troublesome mistakes.

“I mean you want confident, you want aggressive — optimistic! Everything’s going to work out. And there’s a little bit of, sometimes even as a football player, optimistic bias that can get you in trouble, sometimes leave you unprepared,” Harbaugh said. “Certainly does in life. Now, in football or athletics, you’re much better off there than playing scared. It works out better, when you play that way. But some precaution’s got to be taken and some risks avoided and turnovers, ball security — that’s the big one.”

And on a personal level, Harbaugh is confident McCarthy can handle trying to thread this needle.

“And J.J.’s smart enough to know he didn’t play a very good game. But he’s also smart enough to know that he can learn from it as well,” Harbaugh said.