Michigan Monday vs. Indiana

Michigan Monday is up over at Ohio State website The Ozone. Not as good a read as usual.

LINK:  Wolverines Stopped Hoosiers When It Mattered (But Only Then)

I will cut and paste several points here for those of you who are too lazy to click through. FTR, these cuts are long . . . excerpts are less than a third of the whole article, so go if you want more content.

Overview:

The 307 yards are the most that a Michigan defense has given up since the Buckeyes went for 393 yards in the 2013 game. Other than those two games, however, nobody else has eclipsed the 300-yard mark on the ground against the Wolverines since 2010.

Indiana running back Jordan Howard carried the ball 35 times for 238 yards (6.8 ypc) and two touchdowns. He was stopped for a loss just once in those 35 carries, which gives you an idea of the kind of control that the Hoosiers had at the line of scrimmage. Fortunately for the Michigan defense, the Michigan offense got to play against an Indiana defense that defends the pass about as well as a watermelon defends a sledgehammer.

We’ll get into it more down below, but it was an impressive performance from a quarterback who is just overflowing with confidence right now. That being said, getting too worked up about 440 yards through the air against Indiana is a little like bragging to your wife about how you just destroyed Junior in Trivial Pursuit, and then adding that you’re “not sure what his third-grade teacher is even teaching him at that backwards, hillbilly school.”

When Michigan was on offense:

The Wolverines threw the ball 46 times and ran it 28 times – although one of those “runs” was actually a sack during a pass play. Also, Rudock scrambled a handful of times as well, so basically they tried to throw it about 50 times and tried to run it about 25 times. This all seems very un-Jim-Harbaugh-like, but such is the state of the Michigan offense right now.

Of note, Rudock completed four passes that lost yards: -10 yards to Jake Butt, -7 to Jake Butt, -8 to Jabrill Peppers and -2 to De’Veon Smith. Had those guys dropped those four passes, Rudock would have thrown for 467 yards instead of 440 yards, which is sort of funny.

There are two reasons why Michigan threw the ball so well and so often against Indiana. The first is because Indiana’s pass defense is an abomination. The second reason, however, is because Michigan couldn’t simply line up and run the ball on the Hoosier defense.

All told, the running backs carried the ball 21 times for 77 yards (3.7 ypc) and no scores. Rudock’s 71 yards gained was a life saver for Michigan, as he was 3 for 3 on picking up the first down on third-down carries. Michigan scored 17 points in regulation on those three drives.

When Michigan was on defense:

The Wolverines missed quite a few tackles in this game, and the worst thing about it is that they weren’t misses in space, they were misses in the box. They had players in position who could have kept Jordan Howard from rushing for 238 yards, but they didn’t.

This wasn’t a good game for the linebackers as evidenced by the fact that Indiana ran the ball 55 times and starters Joe Bolden (8) and Desmond Morgan (5) combined for just 13 tackles. Safeties Delano Hill and Jarrod Wilson, meanwhile, each had 10 tackles, and Hill didn’t even get the start.

As I said above, I fully expected the linebackers and safeties to be attacked in the passing game, but Indiana went at them with the running game, which isn’t a good sign for what still lays ahead of the Wolverines.

When Michigan was on special teams:

Michigan has found something with Jourdan Lewis at kickoff return. He averaged 30.3 yards on his three returns with a long of 38 yards. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go the distance in one of Michigan’s remaining games this season.

What does it all mean?

It means that maybe Michigan fans shouldn’t have reveled in Michigan State constantly talking about their injuries because now the Wolverines are seeing what happens when an area like the defensive line thins out more than a team can handle.

I still think these next two weeks could turn out perfectly fine for Michigan because Penn State’s offense isn’t all that tricky and the Buckeyes seem to be addicted to slow starts this season. But what happens in the fourth quarter when the Wolverines are tired on defense? Will they be able to put up a stop? They were this time around, albeit against an Indiana team that has the intimidation value of a puppy on a birthday card.

But it also means that maybe Michigan can throw the ball around on teams that don’t happen to possess the worst pass defenses in the nation. The protection needs to hold up, as does Rudock’s confidence, but with receivers like Jehu Chesson, Jake Butt, Amara Darboh (provided he actually catches the ball), and Jabrill Peppers, there is definitely something to work with here.

It has been a pretty memorable year for the Wolverines, but exactly how this season is judged will be determined in these next two games. And it can go either way.