Michigan
Week Four: Five Things We Learned About No. 4 Michigan
1. JJ McCarthy is human.
This may increasingly come as a shock to the overwhelming majority of the Michigan fan base, but it surely seems the JJ McCarthy is human in any case – and Saturday might have offered a little bit of perception into what made the quarterback battle so shut throughout fall camp.
Though McCarthy is an amazing expertise, he is nonetheless rising into the place and studying easy methods to be a giant time quarterback at a giant time program. He missed on a number of deep balls, took a large (avoidable) hit and fumbled the ball twice.
On the flip facet, McCarthy completed his afternoon finishing 18-of-26 for 220 yards and a couple of touchdowns – bringing his season whole to 48-of-60 for 693 yards and 5 touchdowns (with zero interceptions). As a comparability, veteran QB Cade McNamara was 33-of-53 for 534 yards and three touchdowns by way of the primary 4 weeks of the 2021 season.
Put merely, McCarthy is doing simply fantastic.
He’ll must get some issues cleaned up over the following couple of weeks earlier than convention play will get considerably tougher, however the excellent news is that McCarthy nonetheless seems actually, actually good – and nonetheless has loads of room to develop.
2. Blake Corum? Canine.
On a day the place the Wolverines wanted each single ounce of what he might carry, Corum delivered. The junior operating again completed the afternoon with a career-high 243 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries – brining his season whole to 478 yards on and 9 touchdowns on 64 carries.
Corum’s 9 dashing touchdowns presently lead the Huge Ten convention.
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3. Mike Sainristil is the actual deal.
Mike Sainristil has been so good on protection that it is exhausting to consider he spent the primary three years of his profession at Michigan on the offensive facet of the ball. By way of the primary 4 weeks of the 2022 season, Sainristil leads the Michigan protection in solo tackles (12) and sacks (2.0).
4. The offense is nice, not nice…but.
Coming into the 2022 season, there was loads of discuss concerning the Michigan offense and all the weapons at its disposal. A part of the issue, nonetheless, is determining easy methods to make the most of all of these weapons successfully. Here is how the Michigan offense stacks up towards the remainder of the Huge Ten by way of 4 weeks:
- Speeding YDS: No. 2 (937)
- Passing YDS: No. 8 (1,019)
- Whole YDS: No. 3 (1,956)
- YPG: No. 3 (489)
- Touchdowns: Tied for No. 2 (24)
- Scoring: No 1 (50.0 PPG)
Convention rankings for U-M’s prime performers (offense):
- Passing YPG: JJ McCarthy, No. 12
- Speeding YPG: Blake Corum, No. 4
- Receiving YPG: Ronnie Bell, No. 12
- Scoring: Blake Corum, No. 1
5. The lack of Hutchinson and Ojabo is noticeable.
After a scorching begin that included a whopping seven sacks on the quarterback in week one, the Wolverines have managed to notch simply 4 sacks within the final three video games. Whereas sacks aren’t essentially the end-all-be-all, it is clear that Michigan remains to be attempting to determine easy methods to change the manufacturing of two elite first-round edge-rushers in Hutchinson and Ojabo. It is clearly not an enormous deal towards groups like UConn and Hawaii, but it surely turns into a a lot greater deal towards groups like Penn State, Michigan State and Ohio State.
The manufacturing will undoubtedly enhance because the season progresses, but it surely’s nonetheless barely regarding to see a protection like Michigan’s averaging somewhat over one sack over the past three contests – notably towards inferior opponents.