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 Michigan's first deficit of the season.
That didn't last long.
After getting outgained, 141-17, in total yards in the first quarter, the Wolverines scored 45 points over the final three quarters of play, and scored on their next eight possessions to waltz to a 52-7 victory on Saturday.
J.J. McCarthy, sensational again, made a number of highlight plays, which included one late in the first half when he avoided the rush from his blind side, turned and ran left before he shovel-passed 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.
McCarthy finished the day 14-for-17 for 222 yards, three touchdowns and added 27 rushing yards.
Jack Tuttle came in as his replacement against his former team and completed 5-of-5 passes for 22 yards and a touchdown pass to Karmello English.
Overall U-M didn't do much on the ground — it didn't help short-yardage specialist Kalel Mullings was ruled out pregame — but Blake Corum did lead the way with 13 rushes for 67 total yards and two touchdowns as he continues to pace the nation in ground-scores.
The Wolverines as a team ran 4x times for 16x yards and three scores.
That included Edwards, who ran nine times for 20 yards and though he had just one run of more than three yards, he did find the end zone in the fourth quarter for his first touchdown of the season.
The defense, whose 141 yards allowed in the first quarter were more than any first half this entire season, made all their adjustments after the first quarter as the Hoosiers managed just 40 yards on their next seven possessions, which incldued four takeaways.
Rod Moore had an interception, Michael Barrett recorded a strip sack and recovered the fumble, and Jaylen Harrell forced another fumble that was recovered by Mason Graham and an interception by Keon Sabb as Jesse Minter's unit finished with six quarterback hurries, seven tackles for loss, six sacks and four takeaways.
Attack through the air
Michigan entered the game tied for No. 2 in the nation having allowed just three sacks in the first six games.
U-M then allowed three sacks in the first quarter, the main reason the offense couldn't get in a rhythm early.
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 of the end. On the next drive, McCarthy was dropped on second-and-4 as the pocket collapsed around him, before the ensuing series, when he was chased down from behind and fumbled on second-and-8 for the third sack in eight plays.
However that's when the game flipped, as McCarthy threaded the needle to Loveland on a corner route for the team's first first down of the game.
It's the pass that got McCarthy going, he completed 14 of his final 15 attempts − the first eight of which all went for gains of at least 13 yards − as he sliced the Hoosiers defense apart by connecting with seven different U-M pass catchers to score touchdowns on five consecutive possessions.
The first, a one-yard touchdown run by Corum, to cap an 11-play, 77-yard drive.
The next drive went 11 plays for 87 yards and ended with a two-yard play-action touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal to Roman Wilson, whose ninth touchdown reception is the most for a U-M wide receiver in a season since Mario Manningham (2007).
Michigan's next three drives were all set up thanks to solid field position; going six plays for 46 yards, four plays for 65 yards and five plays for 52 yards, which ended in scores by Corum, Loveland and Semaj Morgan, who caught a seven-yard screen pass before he broke four tackles and scored the second touchdown, respectively.
Defense does the rest
Indiana switched offensive coordinators during their bye week, appointing in Rod Carey to engineer the attack, one reason the Wolverines equated the contest to a season-opener, where they weren't sure what to expect.
That led to a conservative game plan at first for Michigan's defense as it assessed Indiana's plan. After the Hoosiers went three-and-out on its first series, they became the first team to make it inside U-M's 10 yard line all year when Tayven Jackson completed six of seven passes to dink and dunk his way down the field.
However, on third-and-12, he forced a pass over the middle which was deflected by Mike Sainristil and intercepted by Rod Moore and returned 38 yards.
On the next drive, IU came with some trickery, when former quarterback turned wide receiver double-pass from Donaven McCulley to Jaylin Lucas − safety Sabb bit hard on the fake and lost eye discipline − to go up 7-0.
Indiana's next seven drives went as follows: punt, punt, half, punt, fumble, fumble and interception.
The first fumble came on third-and-9 late in the third quarter, when linebacker Michael Barrett came untouched up the middle and forced the sack, fumble and came away with the recovery. Jaylen Harrell forced the next fumble on fourth-and-3 late in the third quarter, which was recovered by Mason Graham before Sabb came away with a late pick.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football starts slow, then steamrolls Indiana, 52-7
