Since the No. 3 Michigan football team’s victory over then-No. 10 Penn State last Saturday, much has been made of the way in which the Wolverines got it done. For the first time all year, Michigan shifted away from a pass-focused offense and instead ran the ball over, and over again — 44 times to be exact.
With 32 consecutive running plays spanning the entire second half, the Wolverines’ game plan was simple: run the ball until the Nittany Lions broke. But implicit in that game plan was the good — and the bad — of Michigan’s offensive line.
At its worst, the offensive line’s struggles in pass protection were part of the reason why the Wolverines had to switch to a run-exclusive game. But at its best, the offensive line was one of the catalysts that allowed Michigan’s running backs to find gaps and inevitably, the end zone.
Throughout the first four drives, the only ones in which junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy was utilized in the passing game, the offensive line struggled to give him any time in the pocket. On just his second drop back, McCarthy was sacked by Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton for a loss of ten yards after Dennis-Sutton blew past graduate right tackle Karsen Barnhart.
Barnhart and the rest of the offensive line continued to struggle early on, allowing multiple additional pressures following the sack. So having already planned a run-heavy game and with his team’s pass protection struggling, acting coach Sherrone Moore made the decision to go exclusively with ground tactics.
“At the end of the day we do whatever it takes to win,” Moore said postgame. “Sometimes its throwing more, sometimes it’s running more, we’re gonna do whatever we can in that game to win. As we got into the game, obviously the run game became the priority.”
Once Moore and the Wolverines transitioned to the run, the offensive line shifted from being a liability to a key component. As senior and junior running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards got going in their best game of the year, the offensive line paved the way for their success.
A part of that came from a shift of personnel. With all of Michigan’s starters playing every snap on offense, the Wolverines added a tight end and an extra lineman to their front line for many of their offensive snaps. In doing so, Michigan’s line was able to clear gaps for Edwards and Corum to exploit, which they did multiple times as they broke out on long plays.
“Adding the seventh offensive lineman was a little wrinkle that we’ve kind of had up for a while,” Moore said. “And I thought this would be the game to do it.”
As the game wore on, the pressure on Corum and Edwards to carry the ball over and over grew, but so too did the pressure on the offensive line. But after a certain point, Penn State broke under the pressure first.
According to graduate offensive tackle LaDarius Henderson, much of that simply came down to mass.
“When we get seven, eight offensive linemen out there, just knowing that I got 300-plus pounds on this side, 300-plus pounds on this side, and they’re probably like ‘Oh crap, what am I gonna do?’ ” Henderson said Monday.
Saturday offered a strange contrast for the offensive line. Throughout the year, they had been criticized for their run blocking and praised for their pass protection. Against the Nittany Lions, the roles reversed. As Michigan moves into the meat of its schedule with a looming matchup with Ohio State, protecting just the run or just the pass won’t be an option. But against Penn State, it worked just well enough.
With 300-pounders all around, the Wolverines’ line was able to handle the pressure of 32-straight runs. And while Michigan handled that pressure, Penn State eventually buckled under it.
“It was just awesome to feel like they were worried about it — and I’m sure they were,” Henderson said.
But whether they were worried or not, the result was obvious: banner days for Corum and Edwards behind the offensive line’s push and a top-ten victory for Michigan.
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