ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Tied 10-10 at the half, the University of Michigan shutout the Indiana Hoosiers in the second half scoring 21 points for the 31-10 win. They moved to 6-0 on the year and 3-0 in the Big Ten but was a messy, gritty win for the Wolverines in Bloomington, Ind. It is the first time that Michigan has had back-to-back 6-0 starts to a season since 1976 and 1977.
“I think it was a great game without a doubt. We started off slow and made a lot of mistakes but the way we recovered and bounced back from adversity was really good today. I’m really proud of this team and of all us,” says player Kris Jenkins.
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It was the defense that shined in the second half allowing just 29 yards of offense from Indiana. Overall, Michigan had 10 tackles for loss and seven sacks on the day. The defense now has at least three sacks in four of the last six games.
“That’s the one thing we wanted to preach on was the fourth quarter shut out. We came in a halftime and made adjustments and all the players bought in to what the coaches were talking about,” says Michael Barrett
A big difference in the game came at the beginning of the second half. Coming out of halftime tied, Indiana drove to midfield but was stopped. James Evan came on and booted a 47-yard punt pinning Michigan at the two-yard line. What looked like a momentum headed to Indiana with the great punt, turned into an eight-minute drive putting Michigan ahead, 17-10. Blake Corum had four rushes in the series for 26 yards before J.J. McCarthy ended the drive on a 29-yard pass to Cornelius Johnson for the go ahead touchdown.
Johnson commented on the 98-yard scoring drive saying, “It was crazy. There was a lot of stuff going on. Players being subbed in and out. That was a summary of the game in a away. We were able to come back and punch that one into the end zone and that gave us momentum.”
McCarthy set a career best with 28 pass attempts with 36 completions for 304 yards passing. This was his first 300-yard passing game at Michigan. Ronnie Bell also had a day with a career-high 11 receptions for 126 yards.
Michigan scored first in the game on a 77-yard drive to start the game. McCarthy was 3-of-3 passing and Corum had a 50-yard rush finishing it off on a one-yard touchdown run. Almost eight minutes later, Indiana tied the game on an 11-yard pass from Connor Bazelak to Josh Henderson topping off a 76-yard drive. Jake Moody ended the first quarter at 1:02 with a 44-yard field goal to make it 10-7 in favor of Michigan.
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Indiana’s Charles Campbell hit a 41-yard field goal to tie the game at 10 in the second quarter with 12:08 to go. Michigan’s final two drives in the second quarter ended on a missed field goal and turnover on downs. Michigan did block Indiana’s attempt to take the lead with 3:17 left on a 24-yard attempt to keep the score tied at 10.
The second half was all Michigan offense scoring 21 points. After the opening drive score to take the lead, Michigan scored on a nine-yard pass from McCarthy to Luke Schoonmker with 9:43 left in game making it, 24-10. The final score came on another pass from McCarthy to Johnson from six-yards for the final 31-10 score.
Michigan will have their biggest test of the year on October 15 when they host Penn State at 12:00 p.m. in Ann Arbor.
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