Best and worst from Michigan's win over Indiana
Michigan Wolverines football trailed 7-0 after one quarter but exploded to score 52 unanswered points and blow out Indiana, 52-7, Saturday afternoon at The Big House. Here are the best and worst from the game.
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Worst quarter
Michigan played its worst quarter of the season to open the game. The Wolverines’ offense went three-and-out twice and didn’t notch a first down until there was less than a minute left in the stanza. The defense allowed two long Indiana drives, one of which went for a touchdown. After the first quarter, Indiana had 147 yards to Michigan’s 17, and the Hoosiers held a 7-0 advantage.
Michigan responded as well as it could have, scoring the game’s final 52 points. In the next two quarters, the Hoosiers totaled only 40 yards. They also added 51 in the fourth against Michigan’s backups.
Worst decision
Michigan junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy has been great on broken plays — what he calls “scrambled eggs” — getting out of the pocket and making the magic happen. He had another sparkling play in one of those situations Saturday, putting the defender in between McCarthy and sophomore tight end Colston Loveland in conflict. For whatever reason, Indiana defensive back Phillip Dunnam chose to go after McCarthy, while Loveland split off his route and went deep at his quarterback’s request.
Wrong choice.
McCarthy hit Loveland, who made a nice adjustment, and scored from 54 yards out, marking the tight end’s longest score in his career.
Most elusive
Michigan freshman Semaj Morgan has carved out a niche for himself as a catch-and-run guy out of the slot. He caught a screen pass on second-and-goal from the 7, and at a couple different points it looked like he’d either get stopped for a loss or not be able to score. He used a few moves and broke a couple tackles to find the end zone.
Ball disruption
The Michigan defense notched 4 takeaways — 2 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries — for the first time since a 10-3 win over Iowa Oct. 5, 2019 (also 4). The Wolverines have emphasized “ball disruption” this season, repping drills before, during and after practice, and it’s paid off. U-M now has 12 takeaways through seven outings, after gaining 18 in 14 games last season.
There were some spectacular plays in there, too. Graduate defensive back Mike Sainristil tipped a ball (and should’ve caught it) with junior safety Rod Moore cleaning it up with an interception. Sophomore defensive tackle Mason Graham recovered a senior EDGE Jaylen Harrell-forced fumble. The most impressive was a graduate Michael Barrett strip sack after he came firing through the line of scrimmage on a blitz. He recovered the fumble in one motion. Sophomore safety Keon Sabb also had his second interception in as many weeks on a ball floated up over the middle.
Weight off the shoulders
Michigan junior running back Donovan Edwards nearly got into the end zone last week at Minnesota, but he returned from Minneapolis the same way he arrived — without a touchdown on the season. He finally got his first score Saturday, on a 2-yard rush early in the fourth quarter. Head coach Jim Harbaugh said it’s like an olive jar. Now that one ‘olive’ (touchdown) came out, the rest will flow out. More to come.
Edwards still struggled as a runner overall. He had 9 carries for 20 yards with a long of 5 yards. He did haul in 2 catches for 33 yards, though, and continues to excel as a receiver.
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Automatic
Michigan senior running back Blake Corum has attempted 15 rushes from the opponents’ 5-yard line or closer. Twelve of them — all of his rushing touchdowns on the season — have resulted in touchdowns. He’s as automatic as one can be at the goal line. There’s a reason why Michigan went with him over Edwards — despite Edwards trying to wave Corum off and stay in the game — for Corum’s second score of the afternoon.
Nice to see ya
Two Michigan players were facing their former team — graduate quarterback Jack Tuttle and senior tight end AJ Barner — and each had their moments.
Barner was charged with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play on Michigan’s first touchdown of the afternoon, a weak call. He got his frustration out with some great blocks on plays later in the game, including on sophomore Tyler Morris’ nice 27-yard punt return in the second quarter. Barner drove his former roommate, Indiana tight end Aaron Steinfeldt, to the ground with a crushing block. Harbaugh called him the best blocking tight end in the country. He also reeled in an 18-yard catch.
Tuttle, meanwhile, paid back his old school by throwing a 4-yard touchdown pass to freshman receiver Karmello English. That marked Tuttle’s first scoring toss of his Michigan career.
Rod Moore is back
Moore had some rust to shake off after returning from injury at the beginning of Big Ten play, but he’s looking more and more like himself by the week. He had 4 interceptions last season, the most by a Michigan player in a campaign since Channing Stribling in 2016 (also 4) and most by a U-M safety since DeWayne Patmon in 1998 (4). For that, Moore hung onto Michigan’s turnover buffs all offseason. He got to don this year’s pair of buffs for the first time after his first-quarter pick that ended a long Indiana drive.
Flashback
Another example of McCarthy’s improvisation came when he used a nifty flip pass to connect with Edwards, who caught and ran down to the Indiana 2-yard line.
He’s not the only Michigan quarterback to have made a play like that. His own head coach did so at Iowa in 1985, flipping one for a touchdown to running back Gerald White.
Best quote
This about sums up how Michigan’s season is going…
