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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Michigan Wolverines are off to a great start to the young season after defeating the Washington Huskies, 31-10, on Saturday night. The maize and blue improved to 2-0 with the victory.
Michigan wanted to keep the ground game going on Saturday after last weekend when the Wolverines rushed for 335 yards against Western Michigan. The maize and blue were able to top that feat by rushing for 343 yards on 56 carries against the Huskies.
The stars of the show, once again, were ‘Thunder and Lightning,’ Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum. Corum zigged and zagged his way to 171 rushing yards and three scores, while Haskins bruised his way to 155 yards and a score of his own.
Michigan ran the ball at an elite rate as it averaged 6.1 yards-per-rush.
Even though they aren’t listed on any stat chart you look at — other than PFF — the offensive line has to get some major credit for the beatdown Michigan gave to the Huskies on the ground. The Wolverine offensive line gave phenomenal push and opened up gaping holes for the running backs most of the night, and both backs took advantage.
The running backs and coach Jim Harbaugh met with the media after the game and they all shared their opinion of the line play. The opening statements from both Corum and Haskins were resounding compliments to the line.
“First off, shout out to the O-line,” said Corum. “As you guys saw tonight they fired off the ball and were real physical. It made H (Haskins) and my job easy. Shout-out to them.”
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“ I just want to thank them (offensive line), once again,” Haskins added. “They’ve been working — they’ve been working their (expletive deleted) off. They just make holes for me and Blake, and that’s how we get our rushing yards. I just can’t thank them enough – they definitely been working and getting better each day.”
Washington came into the game with the game plan of stopping the run, in fact, a few players said they would stop the run, but it was to no avail. The Huskies were throwing different looks at Michigan all game, but it didn’t matter — the Wolverine offensive line kept pushing the Husky line around.
Jim Harbaugh had more of a detailed talk about what he saw from the Michigan offensive line against the different packages Washington drew up.
“Yeah, the line really did a great job,” Harbaugh said. “Obviously, runs for 343 yards, that’s gonna be the case. But it was even more than that. Washington kept changing their defense from four-down to three-down, bear to strong safety SAM blitz, corner blitz and double corner blitz. They were doing everything they could. But they were just having a hard time tackling the backs. Hassan, Blake and then the way our offensive line was, when they started bringing the edge pressure, there were some real creases in between the tackles. Our guys hit them. Blake hit the big long one. Both backs — Hassan was 150 and some change and Blake was 170s or 180, even. Very impressive. Very impressive.”
If disguising blitz packages didn’t get the job done, then why not stack the box? Well, that didn’t work either, and Blake Corum shared why — obviously, again, it was because of the offensive line.
“I believe they started to stack the box tonight, but we kept running it,” said Corum. “It’s not a matter if they stack the box or not, but if they can stop it. I have faith in my offensive line to follow the ball and do their job. If you can’t stop the offensive line, then stacking the box doesn’t matter.”
Michigan has a good chance to make it three straight 300-plus rushing games next Saturday when it hosts Northern Illinois. If the offensive line keeps playing the way they are, then the Wolverines will continue to have success in the ground game.
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