ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Game was going to come down to a few things: which team was going to run the ball more effectively? Which quarterback was going to make the fewest mistakes? And which quarterback was going to make the bigger plays?
For all three, Michigan football came out on top against Ohio State.
Yes, OSU QB Kyle McCord made some big plays passing downfield and outdueled J.J. McCarthy in terms of yards. But McCarthy made more timely plays, and unlike McCord, he didn’t turn the ball over.
But it took some gutsy plays by the Michigan football quarterback to get his team over the finish line.
Two plays particularly stand out of McCarthy’s: the touchdown throw to Roman Wilson where he split two defenders, and the scramble play in the fourth quarter when McCarthy moved to his right and then threw across his body into the middle of the field to hit Cornelius Johnson. Both were dangerous throws, but the Wolverines came out on top on both.
Michigan quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell was sweating both in the moment, but he’s happy to have a signal caller who is able to defy convention.
“The one at the end of the game, that’s a little bit crazy,” Campbell said. “We want to make sure we control those and not throw the ball back across the middle as much there.
“But the one that Roman, that’s one of those ones as a coach you’re like, ‘No, no, no, no — yes! Yeah, touchdown Michigan!’ You see what he saw but he’s in a different position than I am in the box. So you can see the defender’s not fully cued in on him, he can see that. I’ve talked ad nauseam, I think he sees the field so extremely well using his eyes. To the right, he looks back left, right, when he goes to throw the ball, the defender starts looking at the receiver. At that point, he was able to make the throw.
“And in big games, some of the times those balls are tight windows. You gotta make them and that was a big play in the game. And I couldn’t be more excited that he made that decision.”
With the touchdown pass to Wilson, McCarthy said on Monday that he knew he could throw that ball when the safety in the middle of the field started to eye the receiver as he came on a cross. Once his head started turning, McCarthy let it rip because there was no way he’d see the ball as it whizzed by his ear. The Michigan QB made a similar play on the touchdown to Colston Loveland against Michigan State. And it’s part of the repertoire and something McCarthy is coached to notice.
“We 100% look at that stuff,” Campbell said. “There’s gonna be throws that the defenders — you’re talking about depths of defenders, right? Are they deep enough? Can we get the ball up and down over are their backs turned to us? You think about the Colston Loveland touchdown against Michigan State, it’s the same exact situation. The linebacker was turned around and he put the ball back over his head. When the defender is not looking at you, you can always put that ball over his head because there’s very few times that he’s ever going to turn back around. Like, there’s no reason for that. Now he’s in chase mode with that DB because the receiver’s behind him.
“So now those are things we talk about film to be able to execute it, that’s just a special player there.”
McCarthy is going to need yet another good game on Saturday in the Big Ten Championship as the Wolverines face a stingy Iowa defense in Indianapolis.