Offense notes: Michigan's attack still a work in progress, Harbaugh reviews QB play

Much of the hype from Michigan football’s 51-7 season opener comes from the defensive side of the ball. That said, the offense played a clean game in its victory over the visiting Colorado State Rams. While it was not always pretty, the first game under co-coordinators Sherrone Moore and Matt Weiss goes down in the books as a victory.

There were moments throughout that felt flat, especially in the early going. The offensive line dealt with injuries, and there were some errors in every unit. Still, Michigan did not turn the ball over, and head coach Jim Harbaugh liked what he saw for the first week of the season.

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“The thing that strikes me the most is the opener is when you usually get the most blown coverages or muffed punts, quarterback center exchange, turnovers. Really, nothing,” Harbaugh said after the game. “There was one penalty on the offense, no turnovers. No communication issues. No delay of games, both on the headsets of the defense, the offense, special teams. Just a real tip of the cap to the coaches and players for the preparation coming into this game.”

Despite changes in personnel, Michigan maintained all offseason it would remain balanced in its attack. The Wolverines finished the day with 440 yards of total offense (206 passing, 234 rushing) and averaged 6.5 yards per play. They held the edge in time of possession (30:30) and converted on all 7 red zone opportunities (4 touchdowns and 3 field goals).

“It was a clean game,” senior quarterback Cade McNamara, who got the start, said. “We had one penalty, we had no turnovers. There was some stuff that didn’t go our way, but I thought we handled it pretty well. Building off of this, I think it was kind of first-game stuff. I missed a couple of targets, we had a couple of drops. It just looked like a first game, I felt like, on the offensive side of the ball. So, we definitely have to clean that up, and I’m going to be a part of that.”

Quarterback battle developments

It would be impossible to sum up Michigan’s offensive efforts without a quarterback update. Harbaugh extended the quarterback battle into the regular season with McNamara getting the Week 1 nod and sophomore J.J. McCarthy starting next week versus Hawaii.

McNamara finished 9-for-18 passing for 136 yards and the 61-yard screen pass touchdown to Roman Wilson. The eyeball test was a bit of a flat showing with shades of what he did under center last year at his best. Harbaugh is judging his passers by the percentage of scoring drives they lead.

McNamara’s seven primary drives went: punt, touchdown, field goal, field goal, punt, touchdown, field goal. He was given an eighth drive, but it ended in a pair of McCarthy snaps that resulted in an 18-yard rush from freshman back CJ Stokes and a 20-yard scoring run by McCarthy.

Michigan’s final three drives with McCarthy, Bowman and freshman Alex Orji taking snaps went: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.

“I thought [Cade] was really good,” Harbaugh said. “He had a couple balls that were dropped. Just very good, executing, as I said. No issues. Again, got to give credit to the quarterback as well when that’s taking place on offense. Move the football — score points. I thought he had a really good game.”

Still, there was a noticeable jolt in the offense when McCarthy was given a shot at an extended run. He completed all 4 of his attempts for 30 yards and finished with 3 rushes for 50 yards and the touchdown. His dynamic skillset was on display a week before he makes his debut start for the Wolverines and tries to stake his claim to QB1 status.

“J.J. is starting next week, so it will be different in that way,” Harbaugh said. “But I thought things were operating really smooth in the first half. We finally said, ‘Let’s get JJ in there.’ He was electric when he got in. No question about that. I thought that he also went through his reads very well. Was great to see him really super calm, cool, collected. Conveying he’s doing a great job, too, and really improved a lot, as you would expect from going from your freshman to sophomore year.”

Nobody won or lost the job this week. The first game of the season served as data collection for Michigan. More will be gathered this week in practice and with Hawai’i in town next weekend.

“As I said, there were a few drops,” Harbaugh said. “Never go off any one criteria. I think we can all agree, the way we’re doing this, we get a lot more information after two weeks than we would have had two weeks ago.”

Rushing attack leads the way

Adjusting for sacks, the Michigan rushing attack finished with 242 yards on 39 carries (6.2 yards per rush) and 4 touchdowns. Junior Blake Corum (13 attempts, 76 yards, TD) and sophomore Donovan Edwards (12 attempts, 64 yards, TD) led the way for the Wolverines. Still, they feel like there is plenty of potential still on the table.

“Personally, I think we can take another step,” Corum said after the game. “I know this offense has more juice. I think we came out a little bit flat, and I know we have more — and that’s why I hold my teammates to this high standard, even myself.”

Corum and Edwards are Michigan’s 1a and 1b options this year, much like Hassan Haskins and Corum were last season. They received 25 of the team’s 39 carries on Saturday afternoon with Haskins — now with the Tennessee Titans — in attendance for the opener.

The third running back on the field was Stokes, who had 6 carries for 35 yards in his first collegiate game. Michigan feels like it has a potential third option there.

“Missing a guy like H2, it’s going to be tough, but football still goes on,” Corum said after the game. “He’s off doing his thing, so just for me, bringing the running back room together, we worked our tails off together this offseason. We had a great camp. It’s really like a mindset, at the end of the day.

“People were like, ‘Dang, who’s going to be the short-yardage back?’ That’s why we lift weights, that’s why we put the weight on the rack, you know what I’m saying. We just continue to play football, prepare. We’ve been playing football for a long time, so it’s nothing new. So, just go out there, ball out, be confident and everything else will handle itself.”

Sophomore Tavierre Dunlap had 1 rush for 4 yards, while senior walk-on Isaiah Gash had a 3-yard run of his own.

Miscellaneous Michigan football offense notes

• Eight offensive Wolverines made their team debuts on Saturday: graduate transfer center Olu Oluwatimi, freshman wide receivers Darrius Clemons, Tyler Morris and Amorion Walker, freshman tight end Colston Loveland, senior tight end Hunter Neff, freshman quarterback Alex Orji and running back CJ Stokes.

• Junior wide receiver Roman Wilson notched Michigan’s first touchdown of the 2022 season, a 61-yard bubble screen in the first quarter.

• Junior running back Blake Corum‘s 7-yard touchdown run in the second quarter was his 14th career rushing touchdown and 15th overall. Sophomore back Donovan Edwards‘ 1-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter was the fourth rushing touchdown of his career.

• Michigan finished the day with 24 first downs and went 4-of-10 on its third-down conversion attempts. It went 1-for-2 on fourth-down conversions and allowed only 1 sack on the day.

• The three Wolverine quarterbacks who attempted passes (McNamara, graduate Alan Bowman, McCarthy) went a combined 18-of-28 passing for 206 yards and a touchdown on the day, a first-quarter, 61-yard bubble screen to Wilson from McNamara.

• McCarthy’s 20-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the eighth in his career and third rushing score.

• Orji had a 4-yard touchdown run in his first career appearance with the Wolverines. This gave Michigan four different touchdown rushers for the first time in a game since Oct. 24, 2020 (a 49-24 win against Minnesota).

• Nine different players recorded rushing attempts on Saturday: Corum, Edwards, McCarthy, Stokes, junior wide receiver AJ Henning, Orji, Dunlap, Gash and McNamara.

• Fifteen different Michigan players recorded receptions vs. Colorado State: Wilson, wide receiver Cornelius Johnson, Loveland, tight Erick All, Stokes, tight end Matthew Hibner, Corum, wide receiver Ronnie Bell, Neff, tight end Luke Schoonmaker, Henning, wide receiver Andrel Anthony, Edwards, wide receiver Peyton O’Leary and tight end Max Bredeson.