Michigan football overcomes sloppy start, sloppy weather to smash Indiana 52-7

Michigan football's start against Indiana was almost as sloppy as the weather on this wet, gray October afternoon in Ann Arbor.

The offense allowed a sack on each of its first two offensive possessions, which led to consecutive three-and-outs. A bad punt in the middle of that stretch provided the Hoosiers solid field position. And though U-M came away with one interception inside its own red zone, IU put together another lengthy drive on its next turn, which ended with a 44-yard trick play for a touchdown, and led to an early hole for Michigan.

It didn't last long.

After getting out-gained, 141-17, in total yards in the first quarter, the Wolverines scored 52 unanswered — including points on its final eight possessions, seven of which ended in touchdowns — to waltz to a 52-7 victory on Saturday.

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"Tremendous job responding," Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. "At one point, I think they had 139 yards to our minus eight and then we respond with the touchdown drive, tremendous. ... There's a devotion to the fundaments of Michigan football and you just go to work responding. That's the best strategy you can do."

Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, sensational again, made several highlight plays, including the one late in the first half when he avoided the rush from his blind side, turned and ran left before shovel-passing the ball to Donovan Edwards for a gain of 16. Two plays later, Michigan scored.

On another such play, third-and-10 early in the second half, he rolled right, appeared as though he was going to run for the first down, then at the last moment flipped the ball to a streaking Colston Loveland for a 54-yard touchdown reception, the longest of the sophomore's career.

"I was able to escape the pocket, then it was two-on-one with that defender and me and Colston," McCarthy said. "I told (Colston) go up field, so he's got to pick his poison, and he picked the wrong one."

McCarthy finished 14-for-17 for 222 yards and three touchdowns and added 27 rushing yards. Jack Tuttle came in as his replacement against his former team and completed all five of his pass attempts for 22 yards and a touchdown pass to Karmello English, the second true freshman to score Saturday.

"The other thing that really hit me during this game, there's so many players to talk about," Harbaugh said. "So many great performance by every position group, by every player that was out there. And you see the development, you se the plays that they're making.

"Then the next wave of young guys, you see them coming up."

Overall, U-M didn't do much on the ground — the run game took a hit when Kalel Mullings was ruled out pregame — but Blake Corum led the way with 13 rushes; those accounted for 52 yards and two touchdowns, keeping him pacing the nation in ground scores.

In all, the Wolverines ran 42 times for 163 yards and three TDs.

That included Edwards, who ran nine times for 20 yards; though he had just one run of more than 3 yards, he did find the end zone in the fourth quarter for his first touchdown of the season. Though it may not have been eye-popping, Harbaugh believes it could be Edwards' "first olive."

"They're packed in so tight, the big screw-top is wide (open), you unscrew it and you turn the olive jar over, nothing comes out because they're packed in so tight," Harbaugh began. "But if you can get just one to shake loose, they all start flopping out."

The defense, whose 141 yards allowed in the first quarter was more than any it allowed over a full first half this season, made a quick adjustment; the Hoosiers managed just 40 yards on their next seven possessions, with the Wolverines getting four takeaways.

Rod Moore and Keon Sabb each had a interception, Michael Barrett recorded a strip sack and recovered the fumble and Jaylen Harrell forced another fumble that was recovered by Mason Graham; Jesse Minter's unit finished with eight tackles-for-loss, seven quarterback hurries, four sacks, two interceptions and two forced fumbles.

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Attack through the air

Michigan entered the game tied for second in the nation in fewest sacks allowed (three). U-M matched that total in the first quarter alone.

The first came on third-and-7 on the opening drive: Left tackle LaDarius Henderson appeared to think he had help from a running back and left a free rusher off the end. On the next drive, McCarthy was dropped on second-and-4 as the pocket collapsed around him. On U-M's ensuing series, he was chased down from behind and fumbled on second-and-8 — three sacks in eight plays.

"That's football," McCarthy said. "Sometimes we don't have the right hand for the situation and they did."

Still, the fumble rolled out of bounds, giving U-M another shot, and McCarthy made the most of it. On third-and-10 from his own 23, the QB threaded the needle to Loveland on a corner route for 13 yards and U-M's first first down.

McCarthy completed 14 of his final 15 attempts — the first eight of which all went for at least 13 yards — as he sliced up the Hoosier defense while connecting with seven different U-M pass catchers en route to touchdowns on five consecutive possessions.

First up, a 1-yard touchdown run by Corum capped an 11-play, 77-yard drive.

The next drive went 11 plays for 87 yards and ended with a 2-yard play-action fourth-down touchdown pass to Roman Wilson. It was Wilson's ninth TD catch, the most for a U-M wide receiver in a season since Mario Manningham had 12 in 2007.

"I know the ball is going to be in No. 9's (McCarthy's) hands," Harbaugh said, explaining his decision to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal. "I just have great confidence that the odds are in our favor."

Michigan's next three drives were started with solid field position; the Wolverines went 46 yards in six plays, 65 yards in four plays and 52 yards in five plays, with TDs by, respectively, Corum, Loveland and Semaj Morgan, who caught a 7-yard screen pass before he broke four tackles.

Morgan and linebacker Mike Barrett — who had three tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery — were serenaded with "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow," after the game, per the Wolverines' new post-victory locker room tradition.

"I've been the one singing for a few weeks now," Barrett said. "I was waiting for my turn to be a jolly good fellow. So it feels great."

McCarthy, meanwhile, neared the top 10 on U-M's career passing yards list; his total of 4,747 yards (including 222 on Saturday) sits just behind the 4,860 of Steve Smith (1980-83) at No. 10. After that, it's Tom Brady at No. 9 (5,351) and Harbaugh at No. 8 (5,449).

"It means a lot," McCarthy said. "But at the end of the day, stats, you know me, it doesn't matter at all. Doesn't matter where I am on the leader boards, I'll look at that when I leave this place. It's onto next week."

Defense does the rest

Indiana switched offensive coordinators during their bye week, promoting offensive line coach (and former Northern Illinois head coach) Rod Carey to play-caller, prompting the Wolverines to equate Saturday to a season-opener, with no idea what to expect.

That led to an early conservative plan for Michigan's defense. After the Hoosiers went three-and-out on their first series, Tayven Jackson completed six of seven passes to dink and dunk down the field and make Indiana the first team this season to run a play from U-M's 10 or better.

"We just had to settle in; we called it a 'training camp game' because they had a new OC and were coming off a bye," Harrell said. "We knew they'd do some things we weren't prepared for, but we just tried to stay on our assignments. ... And we clicked when we needed to."

Indeed, on third-and-12 from U-M's 16, Jackson forced a pass over the middle; it was deflected by Mike Sainristil and intercepted by Moore and returned 38 yards.

On the next drive, IU came with some trickery, when quarterback-turned-wide receiver Donaven McCulley completed a double pass to Jaylin Lucas — Sabb, the safety, bit hard on the fake — to go up 7-0.

That was about it for the Hoosiers; their next seven drives ended thusly: punt, punt, half, punt, fumble, fumble, interception.

The first fumble came on third-and-9 from IU's 26 late in the third quarter, when Barrett came untouched up the middle and forced the sack, fumble and came away with the recovery. Harrell forced the next fumble with a sack on fourth-and-3 on Michigan's 32 late in the third quarter.

"Every day, coach Jay (Harbaugh) has a big emphasis on ball disruption," Harrell said. "Just had to carry that over to the game."

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him @realtonygarcia.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football starts slow, then steamrolls Indiana, 52-7