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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

