Michigan 34, Indiana 10 Comment Count

Ace



The pride of Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. [Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog]

It's a new day. Sort of.

There was plenty to celebrate in the first Michigan game of the post-Brandon era. The Wolverines thoroughly dominated Indiana, more than doubling their total yardage and earning the team's first double-digit win since the Miami game.

Devin Gardner set a season high in passing yardage. Amara Darboh posted the best day of his career. So did Ann Arbor native Drake Johnson, who rushed for 122 yards and two scores in his first extended action at running back. The defense shut down the nation's leading rusher, IU's Tevin Coleman, and even forced a pair of turnovers.

There was plenty of bad that was familiar, too. Gardner tossed an ugly interception and narrowly avoided a pick-six when the game was still competitive. Brady Hoke bungled basic clock management at the end of the first half, robbing Michigan of a chance to score before the break. The Wolverines punted from the Indiana 43 on a fourth-and-short. And, of course, the entire game came with the caveat of facing an IU squad with a miserable defense and a depleted depth chart at quarterback.

Oh, and the announced attendance of 103,111 was met with a mixture of laughter and boos; perhaps the program sold that many tickets, but on a chilly afternoon in Ann Arbor, there certainly weren't that many seats filled.



Eric Upchurch/MGoBlog

On this day, though, the good should be the focus. With Jake Butt suspended for the game for a violation of team rules, reserve tight end Keith Heitzman was able to record his first career touchdown on an improvised shovel pass from Gardner (pictured above).

Injury also created opportunity in the backfield. With Derrick Green out for the season and De'Veon Smith in and out of the game with a dinged up ankle, Johnson got 16 carries—14 of them in the second half—and he salted away the game, playing kitty-corner from where he starred in high school at both football and track. Johnson, who'd seen mostly special teams duty in his time at Michigan, showed off that track-star speed by breaking multiple runs into the Indiana secondary.

Darboh broke the century mark on nine receptions, scoring from 12 yards on a hard-thrown post from Gardner to give Michgian a 17-0 lead that would stand as the halftime score. He and Devin Funchess combined to reel in 16 of Gardner's 22 completions; no other Wolverine had more than one.

The defense dominated an Indiana offense sorely missing injured quarterback Nate Sudfeld. They got some help from IU coach Kevin Wilson, as well. Wilson benched Tevin Coleman after he put the ball on the turf twice, losing the second on a recovery by freshman Bryan Mone. Indiana couldn't generate any offense without Coleman, who'd finish with a season-low 108 yards—must be nice—on 27 carries; his mark of four yards per carry was well below his season average of 8.8.

The Hoosiers also insisted on running much of their offense from the Wildcat, which Michigan had dead to rights for most of the game. Jake Ryan recorded 2.5 TFLs among his team-high 11 tackles; fellow linebacker Joe Bolden had two TFLs of his own as M repeatedly shot gaps into the IU backfield. Any hopes Indiana had of getting back into the game were dashed when Ryan Glasgow sacked IU QB Zander Diamont, stripped the ball, and came up with the recovery in the third quarter; Johnson got the corner for his first touchdown on the ensuing drive.

The final yardage read Michigan 404, Indiana 191.

Hoke refused to address questions about Dave Brandon's resignation in the aftermath of the game, and that felt right. Today was about the team on the field, and while the opponent wasn't a strong one, they were able to ignore this week's distractions and take care of business. That alone was an impressive feat.

Comments

leu2500

November 1st, 2014 at 7:29 PM ^

in the post game presser. He eplained his reasoning.  You may not agree with his strategy, but "bungled" might not be the best characterization.

m1jjb00

November 1st, 2014 at 9:05 PM ^

I wanted to say the same thing.  (So I will.)  Bungled to me sounds like you wanted to do A, but your synapses wouldn't fire quickly in the right way to accomplish the act, so you ended up with B.  It seemed to me like Hoke wanted to play it cautiously, and without an indication of something well within reach, figured 17-0 was good enough.  As leu2500 implied, there's plenty of room for disagreement, but it didn't feel like the same kind of incomepetnece we've seen elsewhere.  I'm not being an unabashed apologist.  Instead, I want the criticism to be above questioning.

Baloo

November 1st, 2014 at 7:29 PM ^

 

Brady Hoke bungled basic clock management at the end of the first half, robbing Michigan of a chance to score before the break.

The way Gardner and the defense were playing, I'm not sure it's fair to say Hoke bungled the end of the half. In that context, it was a reasonable strategy.

pearlw

November 1st, 2014 at 7:35 PM ^

At that point, I had no interest in seeing Gardner throw downfield into the wind with a minute left in half. He had just thrown a pick and an almost pick-six going in the same direction. More than happy to go in the locker room up 17-0 and getting the ball back to start the second half.



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charblue.

November 1st, 2014 at 7:45 PM ^

was still too conservative an approach given the circumstances and the opportunity to give your team confidence instead of telling everyone that we don't really trust you not to make a mistake because we get the ball starting the second half. And then coming out in the second half and not moving the ball. So what was the point of doing nothing? Risking nothing you get more of the same against a team that can't pass and couldn't break any big plays running the ball.

At this point, I guess it matters not.

GoBLUinTX

November 1st, 2014 at 8:00 PM ^

a pick 6, which he is wont to do, you would be leading the chorus berating Hoke for allowing such a travesty to occur when they could have gone into the locker room up 17-0 instead of 17-7.

There are much deeper problems with the team than back bench ankle biting about closing out the half leading 17-0.

WhoopinStick

November 1st, 2014 at 9:12 PM ^

I thought Brady made the right move. The team was up 17-0, going into the wind with a QB that had just made a couple bad passes, and they were getting the ball to start the second half. In that situation you play conservative and be happy with taking a 3 score lead going into the half.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

November 1st, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^

knows UM is passing - not a good scenario for DG. He would likely stare down WRs and hesitate to run. An INT was probably more likely than another score.

Pushing for points would appear desperate. Hoke actually showed discipline by playing it cautious. He made some otter mistakes, but this wasn't "bungled".

Mgoscottie

November 1st, 2014 at 8:54 PM ^

if he had called a timeout that ended up unused they could have run the ball without Gardner throwing once and still gotten a field goal before the half.  It was bad clock management and Hoke has a history of it.  Additionally we get scored on by rivals before the half very frequently.

Lucky Socks

November 1st, 2014 at 10:48 PM ^

IN fact, I argue that it was the correct strategy. We're up 17-3 and will the ball after the half. IU can't drive on us. Our QB is a turnover machine. Putting him in an unnecessary fast break offense could give IU a TO, points, and momentum heading into the half. It was absolutely the right move. And we ultimately won by 24, so any arguments against that decision are moot during this game.

snarling wolverine

November 1st, 2014 at 7:39 PM ^

 

Oh, and the announced attendance of 103,111 was met with a mixture of laughter and boos; perhaps the program sold that many tickets, but on a chilly afternoon in Ann Arbor, there certainly weren't that many seats filled.

 

It's tickets sold plus all the press/field passes given out, plus I think all the workers there too. Subtract them all (and there are always extra for Homecoming, with the alumni band present) and you end up with like 98,000 tickets sold in a 109,901-seat stadium.  That sounds about right.  Aside from the overflow sections behind the students (which is where the unsold tickets would be located) it was reasonably full, at least in the first half.  It didn't seem too different from earlier cupcake games IMO.

What did strike me today was how many students bailed at halftime.  I don't know if I've ever seen that before.

 

 

 

snarling wolverine

November 1st, 2014 at 7:59 PM ^

When I say "reasonably full" I don't mean packed like sardines (like for an OSU/MSU/ND game) but enough people to look from a distance like it's full.  Look at the photos above.  

Up close you could see the empty pairs of seats here and there but aside from the overflow sections, you couldn't tell from a distance - until the second half when people, starting in the student section, progressively filed out. 

 

You Only Live Twice

November 1st, 2014 at 11:29 PM ^

We're playing for a bad bowl game and the weather has turned.  Can't expect too much.. I still remember the Boy Scout leader in my section, a couple rows up, instructing me on how to get the pain out of my frozen feet.  No luxury boxes then but plenty of empty seats all around, among the snowdrifts and we had winning season after winning season.