Michigan had a few new features to their game against Indiana.

Everyone knows the Wolverines have the main test of their season and Jim Harbaugh's reclamation project coming up on the schedule. The Penn State Nittany Lions are one of the four programs who've shown they have the resources and capacity to win a Big 10 East crown, Harbaugh is 3-3 against James Franklin's program. They're up next.

We saw Michigan mix in three approaches against the Indiana Hoosiers which are liable to matter against Penn State and the remaining schedule.

Mike Macdonald played some coverages designed to take Ty Fryfogle out of the game and force Indiana's freshman passer Donaven McCulley to beat them without his top target. The Hoosiers were forced to try and force the ball to tight end Peyton Hendershot (who also received some attention) and lean on the quarterback run game in order to try and move the ball.

J.J. McCarthy got a lot more snaps and passing opportunities in this game than we've seen in previous contests. He was 5-10 on the day for 55 yards at 5.5 ypa with zero touchdowns and an interception.

The offensive line mixed in some new running schemes to an already jam-packed arsenal of play-calls. They ran outside or "stretch" zone for perhaps the first time all season and they ran two different varieties of the scheme.

All of these developments are likely to matter for the Wolverines against Penn State and for this final stretch of the season.

[EXPLANATIONS AFTER THE JUMP]

Preparing for Jahan Dotson

One of the best but often underutilized features to Don Brown's playbook at Michigan were his Cover 2 blitzes. "Dr Blitz" had some schemes in which the Wolverines could play his trap 2 coverage to one side of the field, usually the side with a slot receiver, while playing zero-man coverage on the opposite edge and using the extra player to bring five pass-rushers.

It was a useful tactic for use in employing a Bill Belichik-ian "take away their right hand" strategy against teams and opposing quarterbacks in particular. Really at every level of the game but certainly in college, quarterbacks are often given pretty specific assignments on the play-call. "We want the ball to go to A, if it's not there, then think options B or C, but expect to find A right here..."

A freshman quarterback like Donaven McCulley is going to have his hand held with a few targeted play-calls he's repped in practice involving their most dependable receiver. So just make sure he can't throw it there and everything can unravel in a real hurry.

Michigan had a number of calls designed to play a safety over the top of Fryfogle's side of the field while playing a variety of different combinations on the opposite side of the field.

Here were a couple which stood out.

This is your most basic "access denied" defense, Cover 6, which has made up a considerable percentage of the Iowa Hawkeye defense for about as long as I've been alive.

Quarters over the twin receivers in the boundary and then Cover 2 over the solo side receiver. The dig-post combination being run by the twin receivers is pretty hard to cover in quarters coverage, but Hendershot (Y) is in protection and Fryfogle (X) is getting erased by a double team, so it doesn't matter.

Freshman college quarterback ain't going to beat your call with a great read and throw into quarters if it doesn't involve one of the top skill players. Indeed, McCulley looked longingly at his X receiver before having to bail off his spot because of an effective four-man rush and ultimately took the sack.

Here was a more complicated variety Michigan mixed in.

It's a wild, overload blitz from the field side bringing the field outside linebacker/end, the actual Sam linebacker (Michael Barrett, who started in lieu of using a nickel package), and then nickel/strong safety Daxton Hill ALL coming from the wide edge.

On the opposite edge the dropped the boundary outside linebacker/end and basically played cover zero while double-teaming Fryfogle with the corner and the free safety rolled over from the other side of the field.

Indiana saw it coming, checked the play, and then McCulley still ended up running for his life and haphazardly tossing it toward Hendershot in the flat for an incompletion. On earlier occasions when they ran this blitz he had hit a checkdown into the boundary to beat it but not this time.

All of this matters for next week because Penn State is pretty reliant on Jahan Dotson. They don't depend upon him to the same extent a freshman McCulley needed to land shots to Fryfogle to hurt Michigan, the supporting cast isn't incompetent, but they do need Dotson to make plays in order to win big games.

The fact Michigan has multiple tools in the box for bracketing troublesome deep threats is a good sign for handling the Penn State passing game on Saturday.

Checking in on J.J. McCarthy

I've observed many folks are pretty defensive of Cade McNamara as the starting quarterback. He's a gutty and capable game manager who's can do enough to win when the Michigan run game is there.

However there are reasons Michigan doesn't put a lot on his plate in the run game running keepers or much play-action. There's a reason why Michigan State loaded the box and dared him to beat them down the stretch with 1-on-1 matchups for his outside receivers. It's the same reason Harbaugh regularly aims to get J.J. McCarthy reps. He's a much more talented player.

Michigan got McCarthy involved pretty early against Indiana, he lead a field goal drive on the second possession after halftime and then after a couple of McNamara scoring drives took over for good with a 29-7 lead.

The upside with McCarthy is clear, he has the athleticism to force defenses to worry about the shotgun-read game and the arm to hit throws outside the hash marks or down the field. The problem for him, as for so many ultra physically talented quarterbacks coming into the game, is they become used to holding onto the ball too long.

"He seems open now, but if I wait a little longer I'll be sure and I can still just throw him past the safety."

"Yeah we could take that little gain, or I could buy time and make something better happen."

You see both the arm strength and the freshman hero-ball complex in the following two plays:

Don't do this. pic.twitter.com/oBDd4Fz02E

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) November 9, 2021

With regards to the first clip, those adjustable routes outside of concepts like shallow cross can be there all day for a passer with McCarthy's arm paired with the Michigan run game. Opponents don't want to widen out their defense and leave themselves short-manned against the power run game, especially if McCarthy might be a part of it. However, it tends to take a young passer some time to trust the scheme to help him make plays rather than trying to make them appear with his own athleticism.

The second clip is the quintessential, "forget the check down, I'm not letting us lose this 3rd-and-18" hero-ball nonsense you can't get away with at higher levels of play.

It wasn't a great day from McCarthy overall, he made a few questionable decisions aside from the one above. The interception wasn't really his worst play. The ball came perhaps a touch late but Cornelius Johnson was getting manhandled before the ball arrived and tipped it for the safety to clean up.

He's coming along but he's not ready yet to make big decisions which determine games against opponents like Penn State or Ohio State.

The stretch run

It's frankly kind of bizarre to see Michigan adding to the run game at this point in the season, especially a play like outside zone which is typically a rep-intensive system. Yet they managed to mix it in for Indiana and did it quite well.

I've clipped the two biggest examples, the long Hassan Haskins run and then the 3rd-and-3 pick up later in the game.

pic.twitter.com/UoZWzJmnxy

— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) November 9, 2021

Not only did Michigan mix in some outside zone concepts here, but these even appear to be two different concepts. They ran it from the pistol as more of a wide zone play on the long Haskins runs whereas from the shotgun they ran it as more of a midzone play with the running back aiming for the playside B-gap rather than the perimeter and the O-line content to shove guys sideways rather than racing them to the sideline.

In both instances, they ran it surprisingly well. Andrew Vastardis is good in this concept, he moves well laterally and reach blocked the defensive tackle on both instances, helping the guards to release downfield to punish linebackers. The tackles Ryan Hayes and Andrew Stueber were also good at making reach blocks to protect cutback lanes.

Both of these stretch runs pair really well with split zone and zone-read, which Michigan already has in the playbook. Once the backside defender has to start worrying about the stretch cutback in addition to worrying about the quarterback keeper and the wind back trap block from a tight end, he's got a bit much on his grocery list. From there you get hesitation and then creases.

Outside zone is also a nice complement to a traditional power run game. It's a very different ballgame for defensive linemen working to beat reach blocks than to handle down blocks and double teams against power. If the Wolverines can consistently run these schemes effectively, more power to them.

Michigan put a lot on film in this game for opponents to worry about. Obviously Ohio State always manages to pack in enough film study to be pretty well prepared for what Michigan has for them at the end of the year but you do wonder whether Penn State will be ready to track it all.

At the very least, Michigan has one more option for attacking different fronts. Jim Harbaugh and his staff keep adding, we'll find out Saturday if they have enough to really break through this season against the division's better teams.