Report Card: Grading Michigan in a 31-10 win over Indiana
Grading Michigan football in all aspects of a 31-10 win at Indiana. The Wolverines improved to 6-0 after dominating the second half and pulling away.
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Michigan rushing offense: B-
Junior running back Blake Corum had another good game, finishing with 124 yards and a score and averaging 5.0 yards per carry. Take out his 50-yard run early, however, and he carried 24 times for 74 yards — only 3.24 yards per carry. And the Wolverines still haven’t developed a second back. Sophomore Donovan Edwards carried 7 times for 15 yards. In addition, 5 of the Michigan runs resulted in tackles for loss.
The Hoosiers were stacking the box, but U-M continued to attack it. The first down running game, in particular, failed outside of two big gainers (Corum for 50 and 18 yards). It was the worst halfway through the first quarter through the second. Michigan backs carried 5 times for 4 yards on first down in that stretch, and Michigan managed 12 yards on 9 carries in the second quarter.
A 165-yard, 4.1-net average game isn’t bad — but it’s not great against this team.
Passing offense: A-
The coaches finally unleashed sophomore J.J. McCarthy a bit, and he stepped up. There were a couple bad throws — one interception, and one that should have been (grad student Ronnie Bell took it away from the defender). Still, McCarthy led the win with his arm. He completed 28 of 36 passes with 3 touchdowns, and he saved his best for when it mattered most. He was 9-for-9 for 89 yards in the fourth quarter, including 2 touchdown passes, and was 15-for-18 in the second half alone.
Bell has been the bell cow for the offense, as expected. He caught 11 passes for 121 yards, while grad student Luke Schoonmaker added 9 catches for 67 yards. They’ll need to open up the offense when teams stack the line like Indiana did Saturday, and McCarthy proved he’s up to the task.
Michigan rushing defense: B+
Indiana barely tested Michigan on the ground, as expected. The backs had three good runs — 39, 15, and 11 yards when they changed it up from throwing 49 times — but the 0.8 yards per carry was skewed by sack yardage. The top three backs rushed 17 times for 80 yards, which is more than 4 yards per carry.
Overall, however, the guys up front did their job. Indiana managed negative-11 yards rushing in the second half when Michigan took over. The backs carried 6 times for 26 yards in the stanza.
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Passing defense: B-
A tale of two halves. Indiana quarterback Connor Bazelak picked the passive Michigan defense apart on the edges, especially, in the first half. He threw for 163 yards in the stanza, and the Hoosiers notched 10 first downs in the second quarter alone.
Indiana managed 40 yards passing in the entire second half when Michigan tightened up the coverage. The pass rush had something to do with it, too. Bazelak was sacked 7 times and pressured relentlessly, especially in the second half. The Wolverines were credited with 4 quarterback hurries, but they probably had more.
Michigan special teams: B
Grad student Brad Robbins had a short punt again, but his 58-yarder to start the fourth quarter was big. It pinned Indiana deep with Michigan up 17-10. A defensive stop created great field position, and the Wolverines scored to go up 2 touchdowns.
Jake Moody had a 26-yard field goal blocked, but the Wolverines’ Mike Morris blocked a short one on the other end, too. And though a bogus penalty erased a nice punt return by junior AJ Henning, he still had a 35-yarder and fielded the punts well — for the most part. He let one go that ended up inside the 5.
Once again, punt coverage was fantastic — only 1 return for 8 yards. Ditto kick returns — 1 for 20.
