Offense notes: Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy's night 'just didn't go well' in Bowling Green win

Michigan Wolverines football junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy has thrown 10 incompletions this season, 3 of which that were intercepted, after a tough night in a 31-6 win over Bowling Green. McCarthy was 48-of-55 for 558 yards and 5 touchdowns entering Saturday, but connected on just 8 of 13 throws for 143 yards with 2 scores and 3 picks versus the Falcons.

Had McCarthy hit senior wide receiver Roman Wilson in the end zone on Michigan’s second possession, perhaps the game would have gone differently and the biggest storylines coming out of it wouldn’t have surrounded its offensive struggles. But a “spacing issue” allowed Jalen Huskey, the defender guarding senior tight end AJ Barner, to come off his man and pick McCarthy off. On the Wolverines’ next possession, McCarthy underthrew a covered graduate wideout Cornelius Johnson, a “bad read” per offensive coordinator and interim head coach Sherrone Moore. In the third quarter, he tried to throw the ball away after eluding the pass rush but didn’t get it out of bounds and it resulted in a pick along the sideline.

RELATED
• Michigan 31, Bowling Green 6:  Notes, quotes, and observations
• Wolverine TV: J.J. McCarthy, Sherrone Moore, Blake Corum, Kris Jenkins talk Michigan win over Bowling Green

Saturday night, McCarthy became the first Michigan quarterback to throw 3 interceptions in a game since John O’Korn tossed an identical number in a 14-10 loss to Michigan State in 2017. The Wolverines turned the ball over a total of 4 times, the first time they’ve done that since a 35-14 loss to Wisconsin in 2019 (also 4).

“I’ll take all those on the chin. Put them all on me,” a stoic McCarthy said after Michigan’s win. “There’s a lot of stuff that obviously didn’t go my way, didn’t go the offense’s way, but I just can’t wait to watch the tape and see the mistakes that were made and get better from it, honestly. But I’m going to take all of those on the chin. They’re all on me.”

McCarthy said that Moore told the 6-3, 202-pounder to “keep doing me,” which “helped a lot,” but the mistakes mounted. McCarthy also missed a wide-open sophomore wide receiver Tyler Morris for a would-be touchdown at the end of the first half. Overall, McCarthy wasn’t as sharp as he had been in the Wolverines’ first two contests, victories over East Carolina and UNLV.

“No matter what, whether it’s a great throw or an interception, I’m always going to move on and stay in the present moment, no matter what it is,” McCarthy said, explaining that the interceptions didn’t weigh on him. “It just didn’t go well after the first one. I just gotta watch the film and see what I can do better.”

The Michigan signal-caller did, however, have some successful throws, including on a 33-yard touchdown on a play-action pass to Wilson, who ran a post route, in the second quarter. That marked Wilson’s sixth touchdown reception of the season, tying the amount Johnson led the team with a year ago. Johnson, meanwhile, had a nifty 50-yard touchdown catch on a flea-flicker pass that he bobbled and hit off a defender’s helmet.

“It was definitely an ill-advised throw, but I saw the cornerback had a cast on, and I know I’ve got one of the best receivers in the country down there with him, so I just gave him a chance. And he made me right,” McCarthy said.

“It didn’t play out exactly as we thought the whole week, but we ended up being able to execute it,” Johnson said with a chuckle. “We had been blocking the safeties all night long. We had that play action, flea flicker type of look so we were able to sell it and go for the corner. It ended up working out well.”

The lack of ease for the Michigan offense, especially when compared to the first two outings, will be a learning experience for the Maize and Blue with Big Ten play starting next week against Rutgers.

“Humble,” Moore said of having struggles in a victory. “You live, you learn, you continue to progress. As long as you learn from it, you progress and get better. I think you always got to be humble in everything. You’re never going to play a perfect game, but obviously we’ve got some stuff to fix, and we will. We’ll continue to put our head down and work to get to where we want to be.”

Fast start and Michigan run game

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and Moore spoke earlier in the week about emphasizing the run game heading into the clash with the Falcons. Senior running back Blake Corum had been disappointed with not breaking a big run in last week’s win over UNLV, but he didn’t have to wait long to race for a chunk gain in this one. He dashed 54 yards on the first play from scrimmage, a power run to the right that he cut back. That marked the Wolverines’ longest rush of the season.

“I was able to cut underneath, press the toes of the safety, make a move on him and take off for 54 yards. Great way to start the game,” Corum said.

The Maize and Blue rushed for 5.5 yards per carry, a season high, racking up 169 yards and 2 Corum scores on 31 attempts.

“We had a great week of practice,” said Corum, who put up 101 yards on 12 rushes. “I felt more confident out there.”

The Wolverines ran only 44 plays compared to Bowling Green’s 57, only possessing the ball for 23:36, due in large part to the interceptions and the Falcons’ desire to run the ball (they did so 36 times). The last time the Wolverines had the ball for less time in a game came in a loss to Penn State in 2020 (23:24).

“We ran the ball pretty well,” Moore said. “We had Blake go over 100, we only had the ball for 44 plays but had 312 [total] yards. Obviously when you have the interceptions, the turnovers, that’s what’s going to happen.”

Michigan’s 312 total yards are the least amount the program has accumulated in a game since a 20-13 win over Rutgers Sept. 25, 2021 (275). In that game, though, Michigan registered 2.9 yards per play, much less than the 7.1 the Wolverines racked up Saturday.

Michigan offensive line rotation and first sack allowed

Coming into this week, Michigan was one of just seven teams in the country to not allow a sack this season. The Wolverines gave up their first of the year late in the second quarter, on a third-down play that blew up their chances of scoring on a two-minute drive. Bowling Green linebacker Darren Anders was a free rusher in the ‘A’ gap between center and left guard.

“For the most part, it was really good,” Moore said of Michigan’s pass protection. “There was one at the end of the half, and it was just a miscommunication. Because besides that, up front I think we did a pretty good job. We’ve just got to make sure communication-wise between every position that we’re locked into any checks or things that may happen that will continue to tighten up and help us be better.”

The Wolverines started the same five on the offensive line as they had the first two outings — graduate Karsen Barnhart at left tackle, graduate Trevor Keegan at left guard, graduate Drake Nugent at center, senior Zak Zinter at right guard and senior Myles Hinton at right tackle. However, Moore and Co. switched things up early in the third quarter, taking Hinton out, moving Barnhart to right tackle and inserting graduate LaDarius Henderson at left tackle. Michigan rushed 11 times for 53 yards in the third quarter, a 4.8-yard average.

“Thought they played good,” Moore said of the different combination, not committing to any permanent changes. “Just continue to work those guys in in different situations. We know this is a long season, and you’re going to need more than five guys to get to where we want to be since I’ve been here. It’s never been the same five guys. So you always got to have those guys ready to go. I’ll just continue to do that to work those guys in.”

While the Wolverines didn’t explode for huge rushing numbers, the 1 sack was their only negative play of the night, and the Falcons didn’t have a quarterback hurry.

Miscellaneous Michigan football offense notes

• Moore is now 1-0 as a college head coach. Michigan will have Harbaugh back on the sideline for next week’s tilt against Rutgers.

• Michigan

• Freshman running back Cole Cabana made his college debut and carried 2 times for 6 yards. He’s one of 21 Wolverines to have made their U-M debuts this season, including nine freshmen and eight transfers.

• McCarthy has now thrown 34 career passing touchdowns, 1 shy of entering the top 10 in Michigan’s record book.

Corum has entered the Wolverines’ top 10 for all time 100-plus yard rushing games (13).

• With 37 career rushing scores, Corum is only 2 away from matching Chris Perry with 39 and joining the top five. His 2,746 career rushing yards are just 154 shy of the top 10 all-time.

• Sophomore quarterback Alex Orji made his season debut, posting 11 rushing yards on 2 carries.

• Only Desmond Howard (6 reception touchdowns in 1991) has as many touchdown catches as Wilson in the first three games of a season in Michigan history.