The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1508023
OCTOBER 2023 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 61 G oing back many de- cades, the Wolver- ines have run to open up more runs … and then pass (more or less). That tra- dition has continued even with a former Heisman Tro- phy finalist and 15-year NFL quarterback at the helm in head coach Jim Harbaugh, and it's been successful, es- pecially the past two seasons. Since 2021, Michigan has been one of the nation's most dominant rushing teams, ranking 15th and fifth in rushing offense the last two seasons, respectively. The Maize and Blue strive to play complementary foot- ball, and it's certainly the case with the play-action pass game. In his first year as a starter last fall, quarterback J.J. McCarthy led the country with 13.9 yards per attempt on play-action passes, but the Wolver- ines hardly used the concept compared to many other teams. There were 74 other quarterbacks in the sport who had more dropbacks with a play fake than McCarthy's 82. Perhaps the Wolverines, who had only two of their 13 victories decided by sin- gle digits, wanted to "save" their most effective plays for the bigger games — it's one theory. They may be doing so again this season, with only 22.5 percent of the quarterback's drop-backs coming on play action. However, McCarthy and U-M look like they're even better at it, though the first three opponents — East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green — were no murderer's row. According to Pro Football Focus, McCarthy is a perfect 16-of-16 for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns using the con- cept this season, easily pacing the na- tion with 20.4 yards per attempt, 2.2 more than second-place Dante Moore from UCLA. Twelve of McCarthy's 16 completions have gone for first downs. The 47-yard touchdown pass from McCarthy to senior wide receiver Ro- man Wilson against UNLV was a beauty, just how it's drawn up. McCarthy took the snap in the pistol and turned to fake the ball to senior running back Blake Corum, one of college football's pre- eminent ball carriers. The eyes of every single linebacker and defensive back were on the U-M backfield. Wilson jetted across the field, Mc- Carthy put the ball right on the money and the receiver did the rest by acceler- ating down the sideline to paydirt. "Marrying" the play-action calls to the run game more often has been an emphasis, per McCarthy and position coach Kirk Campbell. As the Wolver- ines' ground attack heats up, the play- action passes should be even more of a weapon. "Mid-fake, you see the linebackers practically at no depth — 1 yard, 2 yards depth, trying to turn and run with their backs to the quarterback," Harbaugh said of those plays. "That's why it's been successful." CLUNKER OUT OF THE SYSTEM Michigan turned the ball over 4 times against Bowling Green. That stat would typically indicate that the Wolverines lost, but the Falcons were significantly overmatched and 40.5-point underdogs pregame. Michigan won by 25 points, 31-6, Sept. 16 in Ann Arbor. The Maize and Blue had lost their previous six games with 4 or more turnovers — 35-14 at Wisconsin in 2019, 26-19 to South Caro- lina in 2017, 14-10 to Michi- gan State in 2017, 26-10 to Utah in 2014, 31-0 to Notre Dame in 2014 and 24-21 to UConn in 2013. At least one of the following was true in each of those games: Michi- gan was much worse than it is now or the opponent was much better than Bowling Green. Either way, the second-ranked Wol- verines got out alive this time, thanks in large part to 3 forced turnovers by their own defense. McCarthy, now a junior, has played in 28 college games with 16 starts and 1,174 snaps. A few of his worst plays came that Saturday night against the Falcons, throwing 3 picks and misfiring on some other passes. But we've seen enough of the 6-foot- 3, 202-pounder to know he'll learn from the mistakes and probably won't make that many in one game again. He's thrown just 10 interceptions on 449 ca- reer pass attempts. He had only 2 picks during the regular season a year ago. McCarthy wasn't the only Wolverine who made errors. There were several in each phase of the game. The silver lin- ing is that they put the blunders on film and can improve, all while having won comfortably. Better for them to happen that Saturday night than another one. "We got the win, and we got to learn," Harbaugh said. ❏ SAYFIE BLITZ ❱ CLAYTON SAYFIE A Thing Of Beauty Staff writer Clayton Sayfie has covered Michigan athletics for The Wolverine since 2019. Contact him at Clayton.Sayfie @on3.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @CSayf23. Receiver Roman Wilson (1) and quarterback J.J. McCarthy celebrated in the end zone after connecting on a 47-yard pass play that worked to perfection against UNLV on Sept. 9. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL