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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan defeated Indiana on Saturday, 29-7, to keep the Big Ten championship and playoff hopes alive.
The offense ended up doing what it needed to do in order to win, Hassan Haskins had a career day, and the defense was as good as its been all year. The duo of Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo remains outstanding and it is as good of an edge duo as there is in all of college football.
So, what were the issues from Saturday? Michigan had the injury bug. The Wolverines lost Blake Corum, Gemon Green, Andrel Anthony, and A.J. Henning — none of which returned to the game. The other problem is the continuing issue in the red zone. The Wolverines were six-for-six scoring in the red zone, but Jake Moody was asked to kick three field goals inside the 20-yard line.
After Saturday, Michigan is second in the nation in red-zone field goals made with 17 — not great.
This has been an issue all season for the Wolverines, but it has only affected the maize and blue one time this year, which was against the Spartans. The season is down to just three games left and this is a pivotal point in the year. Michigan has to get more touchdowns in the red zone than it is right now and however the Wolverines need to go about changing the red zone offense — it needs to be done.
The Wolverines have been able to be more physical than the mid-tier teams and dominate in the trenches, which means field goals are fine. But once the Wolverines played a high-scoring team, like MSU, field goals won’t get the job done. Now the Wolverines have to still face Penn State and Ohio State with a ton on the line. If the maize and blue can play the same game they did against Michigan State, but get the red zone offense under control then the sky is the limit for this team.
The Wolverines have a good enough defense to help win games, and the running game is one of the best in America. We saw that Cade McNamara has the capability of leading a team when asked to like he did against the Spartans, so this team has the formula to win the tough games. It will all come down to the red zone offense.
As mentioned earlier, the Wolverines scored three touchdowns and three field goals in the red zone against Indiana. Jim Harbaugh talked about the red zone offense in his post-game press conference.
“First of all, it’s good when you can drive and get the ball to the red zone,” said Harbaugh. “Always wanting to finish it with touchdowns. I thought we did a nice job on one occasion of overcoming a penalty on a first-and-15. But Schoony was a big factor in converting in the red zone tonight, so that’s a plus. It was great to see him have another good game. He’s had good games before, but yeah — a tight end, a big tight end like that — like you saw Erick All last week. I think Erick will be back this week. That can be a big factor in the red zone.”
Luke Schoonmaker did get the start for Erick All on Saturday, and he had one career touchdown going into the game. Schoonmaker had two touchdown catches on the evening, and he had another that was caught one-handed, but he was out of bounds. Schoonmaker had a little to say about the tight ends being more involved in the red zone, and what needs to be done.
“Yeah, absolutely,” said Schoonmaker on getting the tight ends involved. “We were attacking that tonight and I think that will be something we focus on with the weeks coming. We will keep working on it.”
“I think – just everyone doing their job. Not freaking out, overthinking, and executing. It will be something we continue to work on,” Schoonmaker said on executing in the red zone.
This will be something that the Wolverines continue to work on in practice, but we are now nine games into the season. Time is running out for the maize and blue to get their red zone offense intact.
Michigan is headed to Penn State next weekend, and this will be another game that the red zone offense will be crucial.
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