ANN ARBOR, Mich. — We’ve been through this same rigamarole each of the last three years. Michigan football has a limited offensive outing in one way or another and fans get up on their pulpit and scream, ‘You’re not going to beat Ohio State like that!’
True, but Michigan didn’t play Ohio State last week. It played USC — and won with only 32 yards passing and 290 yards rushing.
Alex Orji was in his first start at quarterback and he didn’t exactly get a wealth of attempts passing downfield — the coaches called a conservative passing game, especially with tight end Colston Loveland out with an injury.
On Wednesday, Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale — who may be on the other side of the ball, but had some strong feelings about the state of the offense — bristled at the notion that Orji and the offense can’t pass the ball if necessary. He pointed to the NFL and noted that not every team wins games by throwing it all over the place.
“There we go again with that narrative,” Martindale said. “Do you realize what happened this past weekend in the NFL? The Baltimore Ravens ran the ball 45 times, I think they threw it 12. And they beat the Cowboys pretty bad, right til the end of the game, right? The Saints (and) Derek Carr threw for what? 12 passes in his first game, I think 16 in the second. Don’t quote me on that. I’m not sure, but I know it was a low amount of passes they were chewing up, right? Look what Washington just did to Cincinnati. So the pendulum’s swinging either way you want to look at it.
“And I think that with our offense, and with our offense it can do, and our defense and our special teams, we have the flexibility in our scheme to do whatever we need to do to win that game, that week when we prepare for it. And I think that sometimes the narrative about Alex — OK, one thing about being old, I do have experience, and I’ve seen quarterbacks take over an offense and run with the offense. And I think that’s what’s going to happen with this guy. I love the kid. So I’m not evaluating anything or anything else offensively, because got my hands full where we’re at, but I think that there shouldn’t be any limitations put on because it’s one of those things. Same thing I was talking about the defense every day. Just try to get better, try to get better, and you build it as you go. And what happens is, there’s overreactions when you have a different schedule than what we’ve had here in the past, the past few years, right? And there’s a you stub your toe, which is Texas, right? But there’s an overreaction to it. The bottom line is, just come in every week and be 1-0. So whatever it takes.”
Martindale isn’t wrong. If Michigan passed for 400 yards but ran for 50, fans wouldn’t have much to say, nor would the media. Being able to pass has tended to cover up a lot of issues teams might have running the football, and usually fans and media give those teams a pass.
That said, Michigan does still need to prove that it can throw the football to win games, especially with Orji at the helm. But it’s not like it plays the toughest teams on the schedule just yet. OSU comes at the end of the season, Oregon is a few weeks before that. Orji is coming off of his first start, and as Martindale noted, he can grow in that role.
As far as the offensive perspective, offensive line coach Grant Newsome says that the team is focused on whatever it takes to win, not winning a popularity contest. Given how Michigan has won in the past three years across multiple big games, he notes that the team should be given the benefit of the doubt.
“That’s, I guess, to be determined. But I know I trust all of our guys. I trust our coaches,” Newsome said. “I think we’re going to do what the game calls for, like I said. And I guess the only evidence I can give you is that there were people saying this last year after Penn State — ‘You won’t be able to beat Ohio State doing this. You won’t be able to win the Big Ten championship. It’s not going to work for us against Alabama.’ And we did what the game called for. Coach Moore called the game as it needed to be called. Coach Campbell’s going to call the game as it needs to be called.
“So I’m not trying to be smart in my response, but it’s the reality. I don’t think anyone in this building cares about how sexy something looks, cares about if it works or not. If it doesn’t work, then as coaches we’ve got to reevaluate it and make sure it does. But if we win every game throwing for 500 yards and have two yards rushing, I’ll be happy we won the game. If we rush for 300 yards again and have 32 yards, because that’s what the game called for, I think we’ll be pretty happy, too, because we’re winning games.”
Stats tell part of the story, and it tells how a game went. Just like the loss to Texas showed a potentially improving offense, the turnovers were what killed the Wolverines in that game. If Michigan can beat USC the way it did how it did, who’s to say it can’t some of the other big teams on the schedule?
We’ll find out in short order if the Wolverines can change the narrative.