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The 2020 Michigan football team suffered a season-defining 38-21 loss Saturday to Indiana as it lost to the Hoosiers for the first time since 1987. This loss eliminates any hopes and dreams for the Wolverines to hoist a championship trophy, whether in the conference or in front of the country.
The Wolverines offense once again wasn’t able to put up points after failing to put up over 24 points last week. The running game didn’t exist, and the Wolverines needed to sling the ball around to try and spark a comeback. The defense for Michigan was a huge issue as well. It didn’t have an answer for Indiana’s passing attack: The secondary was torched all day.
While this loss doesn’t hurt as badly as the loss last week, considering Michigan State lost to Iowa 49-7 this week, it still isn’t what Michigan needed to show in front of the country. Indiana is a good football team. On paper, Michigan is better, but when it came to it happening on the field, the Hoosiers were the better team yesterday. How did each position do in the loss?
Offense
Quarterback: C+
Starting quarterback, Joe Milton was asked to pull this offense out of the hole they were put in and lead them to another comeback. While he didn’t throw the football as much as he did last week, Milton could still make some good plays, but it could have been a better showing for the young quarterback. Milton finished the game going 18-of-34 for 344 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions, along with five carries for negative-9 yards.
Milton had to escape pressure many times and was sacked three times. The first interception Milton threw was a mistake solely on Milton. He seemed to have underthrown a pass, but that wasn’t the issue itself. He didn’t see cornerback Jaylin Williams near the receiver as he intercepted the pass. The second interception he needed to make a play and threw it deep. That one you can’t blame him for entirely.
Milton also didn’t have the help he was looking for during the game. Multiple players dropped passes they should have caught, but they aren’t alone in the mistakes. Milton overthrew a few passes and was just a touch too hard on his throws. Twice his receivers had to dive for the ball, and both came up just short. It was Milton’s worst game as the starting quarterback, and for his worst performance so far, it still wasn’t a bad game overall.
Running Back: D
The rushing attack saw no life against the Hoosiers. Hassan Haskins saw the most carries with six for 19 yards; he was the leading rusher. Chris Evans was next with three carries for five yards. Zach Charbonnet only had one carry for four yards. Now the poor grade for the running backs isn’t all on them. With no holes created by the offensive line, the backs struggled to move the ball forward.
Michigan had to abandon the running game being down by 17 at halftime, so they weren’t given much of a chance in the final two quarters. When the running game fails to live up to expectations for the Wolverines, the offense struggles as a whole.
Wide Receiver: C+
Though the team had 344 yards through the air, one wide receiver had almost half of those yards. Ronnie Bell had six catches for 149 yards and a touchdown. Another wide receiver that had a big day was Cornelius Johnson, who finished with four catches for 82 yards and a touchdown. Freshman wide receiver Roman Wilson was the final receiver to catch a touchdown on his lone catch for 13 yards.
While some big plays were made by the receivers catching the ball, they also made big plays by dropping the ball. Some of the throws were overthrown or too high for them; that is on Milton. Others were right in the breadbasket, and they couldn’t hold on. They didn’t have issues getting open against Indiana, but they had issues holding onto the football, and when you can’t run the football and struggle to catch it, your offense will continue to fail over and over again.
Tight End: D
Another unit that had issues with drops was tight end. Starter Nick Eubanks had one catch for 22 yards but had a drop as well. Backup Erick All had a drop as well as that would be his only target of the game. The groups blocking didn’t help the running game either, and both of them need to have a better game next week if they are going to try and win.
Offensive line: F
With two starters out of the lineup, no position saw a bigger challenge than the offensive line. Even with two new starters, left tackle Karsen Barnhart and left guard Zak Zinter, the offensive line shouldn’t have performed this poorly. They struggled to keep Milton free from pressure: He was sacked three times and had to escape the pocket to try and keep passing plays alive too many times. The running game suffered the most with the way the offensive line played. If this unit isn’t able to fix its problems, this season could get even worse.