Offense notes: Michigan uses short fields, field goals to put up points in win over Iowa

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Michigan Wolverines football punted on five-straight drives, not including running the clock out at the end of the first half, but still won 26-0, covering the 22-point Vegas spread, over Iowa to win the program’s third consecutive Big Ten championship.

Saturday’s game was a defensive slugfest, with only 368 total yards gained. The longest play from scrimmage was a 19-yard pass by Iowa. Michigan’s biggest chunk play was a 17-yard rush from junior Donovan Edwards.

Iowa’s defense — which allowed only 12.3 points per game in the regular season — held the Maize and Blue to 213 yards, 12 first downs and a 3-of-15 mark on third down. Junior punter Tommy Doman punted a season-high 6 times.

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In its first game without senior standout right guard Zak Zinter, Michigan allowed 4 sacks, tying its season-worst (Indiana) and didn’t have much room to run, with 66 yards on 34 carries.

The Wolverines fizzled out on quite a few drives, leading to 4 made field goals from graduate James Turner, who hasn’t missed a place kick since Sept. 23 against Rutgers. Michigan’s only two touchdowns came on short fields, on the Iowa 5-yard line and 6-yard line, respectively.

“That’s a dang good defense,” Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said.

“Great defense. Now, we made some mistakes,” senior running back Blake Corum added. “I wish I would have ran a little better. We had dropped passes, [mistakes in] pass pro. There’s just things we can clean up, but we have a month now.

“We have a month to get guys healthy. We have a month to watch a lot of film. We have a month to practice a lot. So we have time. We can’t waste our time, but we have time.”

Corum acknowledged that the undefeated Maize and Blue are Big Ten champions for a third straight season and that the main objective, winning, was accomplished.

“Today’s performance, it wasn’t our best, but there’s nothing better than winning. It got the job done,” Corum said. “Shout out to the defense, special teams.”

Michigan junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy finished 22-of-30 passing for 147 yards but looked disappointed at the podium for the postgame press conference. He had a few dropped passes by his receivers, including 1 from each of sophomore Colston Loveland and AJ Barner. He also had a pass that was nearly intercepted and a couple mistakes.

“Me personally, I just need to do better at staying in the pocket, not moving too early, and trusting my receivers down field all the time,” McCarthy said.

Just back to the drawing board. Like Blake said, that was a great defense, and can’t wait to learn from a great defense. We’ll get better from it and continue to tighten things down to make us the most dominant offense we can be.”

Michigan’s head coach added that McCarthy “didn’t make a mistake out there tonight.”

Blake Corum becomes Michigan’s all-time rushing touchdown leader

Corum put Michigan’s first touchdown on the board late in the first quarter, then had a dazzling 6-yard rush to pay dirt in the third stanza. His two scores gave him 24 rushing touchdowns for the season and a program-record 55 for his career, tying him with Anthony Thomas.

“It feels great just being up there with the greats,” Corum remarked. “That’s something I wanted to do when I came here. Obviously, I wanted to be a great football player, but I just wanted to honestly just leave an impact on and off the field, just be a great person. I feel like I’ve done that.”

“There’s nothing I don’t think Blake can’t do,” Harbaugh said. “No matter what people tell you you can’t do, you just go back and think of all the things that you have done to get you this far.”

As for Corum’s 6-yard touchdown, Harbaugh added: “That was the best 6-yard run I’ve ever seen.”

Corum had 976 rushing yards on the season entering Saturday night, and finished with 1,028. He’s Michigan’s first 1,000-yard rusher in back-to-back season since Denard Robinson in 2010 and 2011 and first running back to do so since position coach Mike Hart in 2006 and 2007.

Miscellaneous Michigan offense notes

• Harbaugh said winning the Big Ten championship was “great and glorious.” He’s the first head coach in conference history to win three-straight outright league titles. The last stretch with three consecutive Big Ten titles for the Wolverines was 1988-92, when four-of-five Big Ten titles belonged to U-M outright (1988, ’89, ’91, ’92).

• Graduate Karsen Barnhart started his first career game at right guard, sliding down to Zinter’s spot after opening at right tackle in most games this season. Graduate Trente Jones made his 10th career start and first of the season at right tackle.

• Corum already had the program record for most rushing touchdowns in a season and has continued his mark with 24. He remains the only FBS player to score in each game this season.

• In quarterback McCarthy’s 26 career starts, U-M is 25-1 for a winning percentage of 96.2, the best mark by any starting quarterback in at least the last 20 years. That winning rate ranks above those of Trevor Lawrence (34-2; 94.4), Tua Tagovailoa (22-2, 91.7) and Trevone Boykin (22-2, 91.7).

• McCarthy (5,718 career pass yards entering) passed Todd Collins (5,858 yards) for sixth on the all-time passing list at Michigan with 147 yards Saturday.

• Michigan’s field goal drive on its first possession is the first time Iowa allowed a point on an opponent’s opening drive this season.