Joel Klatt explains what JJ McCarthy needs to fix in order to beat Ohio State

After starting off the year strong, Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy has seen his numbers drop a bit over the last three weeks. He’ll have quite a stage to try and bounce back when the Wolverines take on arch rival Ohio State this week — and FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt diagnosed some of the problems.

Klatt broke down some film during Wednesday’s edition of “Breaking The Huddle with Joel Klatt” and pointed to a few areas of concern for McCarthy. One of them was his tendency to force passes rather than finding an open player, and that’s an area he has to improve in this week against a tough Buckeyes defense.

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“J.J. McCarthy was leading the country in completion percentage through, I think, eight weeks of the season,” Klatt said. “Then, the last three weeks of the season, he’s thrown for basically 50%. So, regressing rather than progressing. We would rather him be playing his best football, wouldn’t we, Michigan fans? Is he? I don’t know.

“Well, there’s some small things he can do that will raise his level of play. … No. 1, when you have an opportunity to hurt Ohio State, you take it. … A lot of this is taking what they give you, but it’s also when they give you a big one, take it. You’ve got to take it. You cannot pre-decide where the ball’s going to go. You’ve got to make adjustments post-snap, read it out and allow your offense to succeed for you. When something appears that could be a big play, he’s got to take advantage of it.”

Desmond Howard reveals key to a Michigan upset of Ohio State in The Game

College football analyst Desmond Howard won a Heisman Trophy while playing for Michigan. The rivalry with Ohio State is one he knows incredibly well, but he also knows the Wolverines will likely struggle if they can’t run the ball on the ground like they want to do.

The problem with that for Michigan is the health of Blake Corum, who is banged up coming into the Ohio State game.

“A lot of weight is on the decision of Blake Corum, the running back for Michigan who got hurt in the Illinois game,” Howard explained on Get Up. “If he’s able to go, if he’s able to play, then obviously that’s going to be a tremendous boost for Michigan because he’s such a huge part of that offense.”