FootballSaturday, September 27, 2019
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I

t has become easy to forget 
there is a 
football 
game to play 
this weekend.
That’s in 
part because 
of the panic 
surrounding 
Michigan right 
now, after every 
problem came 
to a nadir at 
once last Sat-
urday. The resulting fallout from a 
blowout loss at Wisconsin has yet 
to settle. It’s also because the next 
opponent, Rutgers, can do little to 
settle it.
The Scarlet Knights are the 
worst program in the Big Ten and 
one of the worst in the country. 
The annual iteration of this game is 
usually a slow procession towards 
the clock striking zero, and to boot, 
Rutgers’ starting quarterback, 
McLane Carter, will miss this edi-
tion with a concussion. It’s hard to 
quell doubters in the way Michigan 
wants against this team.
But not impossible.

Three years ago in the lead-up to 
a trip to Piscataway, Jim Harbaugh 
was asked the inevitable question 
when an inevitable win awaits — 
one that dismissed the cliche of 
preparing for each opponent and 
tried to get at what the Wolverines 
could actually take away from the 
impending 60-minute formality.
“We’ll treat it as a big game,” 
Harbaugh said. “We will treat it as 
a championship game.”
Five days later, Michigan walked 
off the field with a 78-0 win. The 
Wolverines went for 605 total yards 
and held Rutgers to 39. When they 
were up 27-0, they went for two. 
Not only that, but they did so by 
faking the extra point. They played 
ruthlessly, but as close to perfect 
as you can play a game of football. 
They showed a killer instinct to the 
point of bad sportsmanship.
It’s not just the only time this 
century the Wolverines have won 
a game by 70, it’s one of just two 
they’ve won by 60 or more. The 
other was just weeks earlier in the 
same season, against Hawaii.
It was hard not to be think-
ing about the unyielding style of 

football Michigan used to play this 
week when, in the equivalent press 
conference five days before play-
ing Rutgers, Harbaugh brought up 
questions of effort and hustle.
He wasn’t alluding to Rutgers, 
an opponent where effort and hus-
tle might naturally stray, either. He 
was alluding to Wisconsin — which 

Michigan should have been amped 
up to play, a game where it wanted 
to prove something.
“Players have to focus. Always 
have to play with focus,” Harbaugh 
said. “That has to be coached, too. 
That’s not getting done.”
That’s a far cry from treating 
every game like a championship. 
So is the rest of the conversation 
around Schembechler Hall this 
week.
“Not trying to call out anyone,” 
said fifth-year senior tackle Jon 
Runyan Jr., “but I feel like there 
were some plays (against Wiscon-
sin) where the effort could’ve been 
better.”
“We’ve really faced some tough 
adversity — and not really neces-
sarily faced some tough adversity,” 
said offensive coordinator Josh 
Gattis. “We’ve really kind of put 
ourselves in some tough adversity.”
“We didn’t want to put that on 
national TV,” said graduate trans-
fer defensive end Mike Danna. “We 
didn’t want that on our record or 
on our label or whatever. Because 
that’s not our identity and that’s 
not how we play football.”
Right now, though, it is how 
Michigan has played. It’s in the 
numbers, and it’s on the tape. The 
Wolverines have never been fur-
ther removed from that identity-
affirming 78-0 demolition than 
they are now.
It’s not much of a question as to 
whether Michigan will actually 
win this Saturday. It’s a 27.5-point 
favorite. But in their last six games 
against the spread, the Wolverines 
have failed to cover. All by at least 
two touchdowns.
Even under normal circum-
stances, just beating Rutgers 
wouldn’t be particularly notable. 

Here, it would be cause to keep 
the alarm bells ringing as Iowa, 
a real opponent with a chance of 
winning, comes to Ann Arbor next 
week.
To convince anyone of anything, 
covering the spread is a bare mini-
mum.
Want to get some confidence 
around this program again? Want 
to get everyone to shut up about 
what Michigan can’t do and open 
up some room for belief?
Treat this the way this team 
treated this game three years ago. 
Like a championship game. Play 
with a killer instinct. Don’t step off 
the pedal.
Show everyone what this 
offense’s ceiling is — how three 
NFL-level receivers can dominate, 
how a senior quarterback can lead, 
how this offensive line can plow 
open holes for its vaunted fresh-
man running back. Show everyone 
how this defense can dominate 
like Michigan has throughout Don 
Brown’s tenure as coordinator — 
everyone swarming the ball, the 
quarterback running for his life. 
There won’t be a better chance.
It won’t fix every problem, and 
being unable to kick the hell out of 
Rutgers isn’t one of the existential 
crises of the Jim Harbaugh era. But 
Rutgers is the opponent in front 
of the Wolverines this week, and 
doing that would at least be a start.
“You look through the game, 
you really don’t need to look at the 
stats,” Gattis said.
He was talking about last week. 
He should be able to say the same 
about this week.

Sears can be reached at 

searseth@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethan_sears.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh took his share of the blame for the disappointing 35-14 loss at Wisconsin last week.

In easy matchup, Michigan can rediscover a killer mentality

ETHAN 
SEARS

