ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The result was a victory, yet some fans of the Michigan football team came away from Saturday’s game puzzled.
The Wolverines opted to run the football 56 times for 343 yards and four touchdowns, operating a true ground-and-pound offense in a 31-10 win over Washington that invoked memories of a previous decade.
Running the football was the primary objective, and only did Michigan throw when it absolutely had to — evident by quarterback Cade McNamara’s eye-popping line: 7 of 15 for 44 yards.
“I heard a little bit of the noise,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, unprompted, said Monday. “‘Why so much running? Are you going to throw more?’ That kind of thing.”
And while Harbaugh purposely avoided having to answer the questions directly, he reinforced his comments from after the game on Saturday. That Michigan had a plan going in to do just that — and when it was apparent the Huskies had no answer for running backs Blake Corum (171 yards, 3 TDs) and Hassan Haskins (155 yards, TD), they continued their mission unabated.
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“We all know there’s different ways to travel,” Harbaugh continued. “Some people choose to travel on the ground; some people by air. (Former U.S. Army general) George Patton was able to get his job done on the ground; Neil Armstrong through the air.
“Last Saturday night, we chose to grind it out on the ground.”
While Harbaugh declared “mission accomplished,” it was the second straight game that Michigan’s offense leaned on its ground game for production. A week earlier, the Wolverines rushed 43 times for 335 yards and three touchdowns in a 47-14 win over Western Michigan. Again, Corum and Haskins handled most of the workload, combining for more than 180 yards.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to help the team,” starting offensive guard Trevor Keegan said Monday. “We loved it. We imposed our will on them. They did a lot of things to try and stop the run — they tried to blitz off the edges and ruin our run-lanes — but we had answers for it.”
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Coaches and players have talked about their new-found “physical” attitude and emphasis since fall camp, a sharp contrast to the style of play Michigan had slowly been adopting since offensive coordinator Josh Gattis came on board in 2019.
The results so far have been encouraging, with Michigan ranked fourth nationally (first in the Big Ten) on the ground and fifth in yards per carry (6.85).
The concern publicly is whether this type of attack is sustainable. After Saturday’s game against Northern Illinois (Noon, Big Ten Network), the Wolverines open up Big Ten play against Rutgers — then take a trip to Madison, a difficult place to play, to play Wisconsin. Until then, Harbaugh and his players are standing behind their performance over the weekend.
“Obviously, throwing the ball might be more enjoyable to watch,” starting offensive tackle Andrew Stueber said. “But playing in it as an offensive linemen, I love running the ball every play. Being able to come off the ball and reduce the defenders physically, it’s something I take a lot of pride in. I think everyone does as well.
“While some people might say it wasn’t the most fun game to watch, playing in it was definitely much more fun than people thought.”
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