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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | November 6, 2017
Worth the wait
Led by its senior class,
the Michigan field hockey
team secured the Big Ten
Tournament title to complete
an elusive conference sweep.
» SportsMonday Column,
Page 2B
Career night
Sophomore VIPER Khaleke
Hudson broke out in a big
way against the Golden
Gophers, showing why he
was picked to replace Jabrill
Peppers.
» Page 2B
Football doesn’t need to be
calculus.
It can be as simple as rock,
paper,
scissors.
Saturday
night, it didn’t matter that
Michigan
was
missing
its
starting right guard, its second-
string running back or its best
blocking tight end. It didn’t
matter that the Wolverines
hardly alternated their play-
calls.
Michigan kept throwing rock
— and promptly bludgeoned
Minnesota into submission.
“I felt like maybe we were
playing on our heels and didn’t
hit them in the mouth first,”
said
Minnesota
linebacker
Blake Cashman. “If we would
have done that, who knows
what would have happened.”
Just
last
week,
the
Wolverines churned out 334
yards on 51 carries against
Rutgers. That was a season
high. It took just under three
quarters against the Golden
Gophers to smash that number.
With sacks removed, Michigan
finished with 34 carries for 394
yards and four touchdowns.
Karan Higdon toted the ball 16
times for 200 yards, finding the
end zone twice. His teammate,
Chris Evans, tacked on 13
carries for 191 yards and two
scores of his own.
It was the type of performance
one might have expected from
a vintage Jim Harbaugh team
during his Stanford years, and
proof that Michigan’s offense
continues to take a step in the
right direction.
“Yeah, (the run game has)
just gotten a little bit better
and better,” said Jim Harbaugh
after the game. “Good precision
there. I think the backs are
doing a really good job of
making the blocks right. That
was my impression watching
the tape last week and tonight.
“The
way
they’re
seeing
things and cutting and making
the blocks right, it’s impressive,
and they’ve been breaking out.”
In
contrast
to
whatever
Michigan was running earlier
this season — an ineffective
potpourri of gap-blocking and
inside zone schemes — the
Wolverines have found what
they’re good at.
Powers
and
counters:
as
simple as bread and butter,
and just as crowd-pleasingly
effective.
“I mean, we’re just running
what works, I think,” said
sophomore
tight
end
Sean
McKeon. “We got some zone
plays in there too besides the
powers and counters, but that’s
what’s working for us right
now, out of two tight ends and a
fullback, so I think that’s what
we’re going to stick with.”
Earlier in the season, Jack
Harbaugh asked his son why
he wasn’t running the counter
more. The question from the
former coach clearly worked.
The play has been a staple
of Michigan’s offense since
the Indiana game, and it was
the call on Higdon’s 77-yard
touchdown in the first quarter
Saturday — a play that featured
picture-perfect execution.
Minnesota’s
linebackers
were clearly thrown off by
the misdirection. Left guard
Ben Bredeson pulled, blasting
a
defensive
end.
Fullback
Khalid Hill followed into the
breach,
lowering
his
head
into a linebacker. Higdon saw
daylight, turned on the jets and
did the rest.
There
were
times
when
the
backs
made
something
out of nothing, too. Midway
through the second quarter,
the Wolverines ran power after
three consecutive counters that
gained one, 12 and 18 yards.
It looked like Evans would
be tackled after a three or four-
yard gain. But he shrugged one
tackle, stiff-armed another and
outran the rest for a 60-yard
touchdown.
“They were really good, and
they broke a lot of tackles,”
Cashman said. “I think that’s
what ultimately hurt us, we
couldn’t execute on tackling.”
On that play, Evans made his
offensive line look good. On
many others, they helped him
and Higdon look good. That’s
what a finely-tuned rushing
attack looks like — both groups
working in tandem to run
the ball down the opponent’s
throat, picking up the slack
when
needed.
And
while
McKeon said he feels like the
run game has been his team’s
bread and butter “for a while
now,” Michigan certainly hasn’t
put back-to-back performances
together like that in a long, long
time.
1975, in fact, was the last
time
the
Wolverines
had
two running backs with over
100 rushing yards each in
consecutive games.
“You got to give a lot of
credit,”
said
Minnesota
coach P.J. Fleck. “They were
efficient.”
Of course, Michigan doesn’t
have
Andrew
Luck
under
center. But Minnesota — and
Rutgers — knew that too, and
still couldn’t stop what was
coming. And, as Michigan’s
starting tight end brought up,
there was no need to throw
when his team was averaging 10
yards and a cloud of dust.
“If you’re running the ball
like that,” McKeon said, “why
would you do anything else?”
ORION SANG
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan keeps it simple, run game explodes for 371 yards
MONDAY
Seeing
DOUBLE
MICHIGAN 33
MINNESOTA 10
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN