TheWolverine.com Podcast: Balas and Skene on Michigan win over BGSU, O-line, more
Michigan didn’t play its best game in a 31-6 win over Bowling Green — not be a long shot — but still pulled away for an easy victory over the Falcons. The U-M offensive line is still a work in progress, and there’s still plenty of work to do in Big Ten play. The Wolverines will get their first shot Saturday when Rutgers comes to town.
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Against Scot Loeffler’s team, the Michigan offense started fast with a 54-yard Blake Corum run, but it wasn’t all great. Corum rushed for 101 yards, junior Donovan Edwards 50, but junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy struggled throwing the ball and didn’t always have time to throw.
“The first drive was really successful on the ground, trying to stay balanced with everything,” interim coach Sherrone Moore said. “The second drive we drive all the way down there again and we’re not spaced up, and then we have a pick. So that all equates to it. It wasn’t a bad throw. We weren’t spaced up on the outside, so that equated to bringing the corner in there and throwing a pick.
“We get the ball again, keep it moving, and just a bad read. So, there are things that we’ve got to clean up; got to be better at. I thought we ran the ball better. I thought we asserted ourselves at the line of scrimmage better today. The backs ran extremely hard, extremely physical, so we’ve got to continue to build on that.
The Michigan coaches were okay with the offensive line, though they moved Karsen Barnhart from left tackle to right in the second half and put LaDarius Henderson at left tackle. The Michigan offense seemed to move the ball pretty well with that group, which included the usual suspects in the middle of the line.
“I thought they played good,” Moore added. “We’ll 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.”
TheWolverine.com’s Chris Balas and former Michigan All-Big Ten offensive lineman Doug Skene break it down in this week’s podcast.