The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports Wednesday, September 8, 2021 — 9 A public lecture and reception; you may attend in person or virtually. For more info, including the Zoom link, visit events.umich.edu/event/84260 or call 734.615.6667. KEN KOLLMAN Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor Professor of Political Science Why You Should and Should Not be Worried About AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Tuesday, September 21, 2021 | 4:00 p.m. | Weiser Hall, 10th Floor LSA LECTURE The last time Cade McNa- mara took the field in Michigan Stadium, little went according to plan. Facing Penn State in his first collegiate start last November, McNamara finished just 12-of- 25 through the air for 91 yards before leaving the game early with a shoulder injury. Unable to muster any offense, Michigan slogged through a 10-point loss. Saturday told a different story. In the Wolverines’ 2021 season-opener, McNamara flourished, going 9-of-11 with 136 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns, leading Michigan to a 47-14 victory. By the time he departed with 5:48 minutes left in the third quarter, the Wolver- ines had a comfortable 26-point lead with McNamara having engineered four touchdown drives. “He moves our team,” Michi- gan coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game. “All the drives he’s been in — we score points when he’s out there.” Entering the season, some anticipated a quarterback com- petition would unfold between McNamara, prized 5-star fresh- man J.J. McCarthy and Texas Tech transfer Alan Bowman. Instead, the Michigan coaching staff handed the reins to McNa- mara without much of a contest. One game in, the returns are undeniably positive. McNamara’s performance against the Broncos was not flawless, but growing pains are to be expected from a first-time full-time starting quarterback. A pair of McNamara’s passes were batted down at the line of scrimmage, perhaps a product of poor pass protection; on a sepa- rate series, McNamara missed a wide-open Roman Wilson for a would-be touchdown, instead electing to dump the ball off in the flat. After the game, McNa- mara noted that the offense had one communication mishap which he took fault for. For now, Michigan has no choice but to ride out McNama- ra’s learning curve. The miscues are certainly palatable when accompanied by the consistent production that McNamara pro- vided on Saturday. From the onset, McNamara appeared comfortable. On Mich- igan’s first drive, the Wolverines set the game’s tone, steamrolling their way 75 yards down the field in 3:51 minutes. McNama- ra completed his only two pass attempts, ran the offense with tempo and helped complete a fourth down conversion. As the Wolverines continue to place an emphasis on the run game — which multiple play- ers have labeled as the team’s offensive identity — McNama- ra’s opportunities to sling the ball downfield may be limited. Yet, when called to do so against Western Michigan, he execut- ed with precision, a trait that plagued his predecessor, Joe Milton. Early in the second quarter, McNamara dropped in a beau- tiful pass down the sideline for senior receiver Ronnie Bell, who made a tremendous catch that was called back due to a dubious offensive pass interfer- ence call. On the very next pos- session, McNamara found Bell again, floating in a perfectly placed spiral that Bell took the distance for a 76-yard touch- down. “They were showing us a few different things that we were expecting,” McNamara said. “I was able to recognize it and was able to see the 1-on-1 with Ron- nie. He made a great route, and all I had to do was put it out front for him.” McNamara makes it sound simple, but for a Michigan offense hoping to assert itself in the running game, he may not be asked to do much more. In the second half, McNamara attempt- ed just two passes on two total drives. Still, one of those drives resulted in a touchdown follow- ing a 74-yard jet sweep to sopho- more receiver A.J. Henning. If McNamara can continue to complete passes like the one to Bell on a consistent basis, Michi- gan would appear to be in good hands. “I think whatever the game- plan sees fit will determine our run-to-pass ratio,” McNamara said. “I don’t mind — I thought the calling today was perfect. We got the job done. Running the ball a little bit more, I don’t mind that, it makes my job a lit- tle bit easier.” McNamara’s difficulty is only amplified from this point forward. A primetime matchup against No. 20 Washington on Saturday, Sept. 11, and with Bell’s status suddenly precari- ous following a right leg injury, he may be without his most- dependable option for the long haul. But for one game, at least, McNamara gave the Wolverines all they could have asked for. In season opener, McNamara performs as hoped JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Editor At first, it looked as if noth- ing had changed. On Western Michigan’s first drive against the Michi- gan football team on Satur- day, it had no trouble picking apart defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald’s “new-look” defense. On the first play, a receiver found himself open on a crossing route but dropped the open pass. Moments later, senior cornerback Gemon Green — the team’s strongest corner in 2020 — got beat over- the-top for a 28-yard gain. As the Wolverines continued to struggle in coverage, the Bron- cos easily marched down the field and quickly evened the score at seven. But somewhere en route to Michigan’s 47-14 thumping of Western Michigan, those problems dissipated. As if spurred by the possibility that significant struggles could derail the entire season, the Wolverines’ defensive backs glued themselves to opposing wideouts and paralyzed the Broncos’ initially lively pass- ing game. Those seven points on the first drive ended up as their only non-garbage-time points of the game. “I thought (Macdonald) did a great job mixing the coverag- es,” Michigan coach Jim Har- baugh said. “Right before the second half, (he) started going to more of a two-high shell as we were stopping the run and playing more coverage, which made their quarterback hold the ball a little bit longer, and we were able to apply some pressure.” Those adjustments made an immediate impact. After for- feiting 89 yards and 8-for-12 passing in the first quarter, Michigan held Western Michi- gan to just one completion for no gain on six attempts in the second quarter. In total, the Wolverines allowed 11 comple- tions for 102 yards in the final three quarters. Central to that improve- ment was junior Daxton Hill, who played mostly as a nickel corner after starting as a deep safety last season. Playing closer to the line of scrim- mage, Hill was more regularly involved in the pass defense and used his athleticism not just to disrupt passes that went his way, but also to dis- guise coverages and confuse Broncos quarterback Kaleb Eleby. Even when he looked beat, Hill managed to make plays, such as late in the third quarter when he dove to break up a pass over the middle near midfield. “That position makes a big difference for us in the back seven,” senior cornerback Vincent Gray said. “Because his disguises and what he does with his disguise plays a big role in the quarterback’s checks. … Whether he’s blitz- ing or whether he’s not blitz- ing, the coverage he’s playing or not playing, they’re pretty much looking at him to see what we’re in, so him moving around and giving him differ- ent looks is really good for us in the back seven.” The defensive front, too, played a major role in Michi- gan’s improved pass defense. After struggling to get enough push early on, the Wolverines’ blitzers — led by senior defen- sive end Aidan Hutchinson and junior defensive lineman Mazi Smith — wore down the offensive line and put more pressure on Eleby as the game wore on. Ultimately, that effort was highlighted by a third quarter strip sack from Hutchinson. There were, of course, still some shaky moments. On Western Michigan’s last drive of the first half, Gray found himself beat over the top by Broncos receiver Jaylen Hall. Hall ended up dropping the pass, but the play still demon- strated how, even when Michi- gan drops into zone, opposing offenses will find ways to get the one-on-one matchups they want. Regardless of the scheme, the cornerbacks still need to be able to run with receivers, and if they can’t, the problems of 2020 will persist. Still, the Wolverines’ staff seems to recognize that. The willingness to adjust after those first quarter struggles marks a departure from the defenses of years past. A win over Western Michigan only says so much about the team’s overall improvement, but any remaining questions will almost certainly be answered next week against Washing- ton. “We haven’t done any- thing yet,” Gray said. “We can improve a lot. We made a lot of mistakes that probably will go unnoticed.” Added Hutchinson: “We haven’t done a damn thing.” After shaky start, pass defense settles in against Western Michigan BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Editor As the offseason dwindled down and the predictions for the 2021 season started to pour in, it didn’t take long for the comparisons to start. Blake Corum — the Michigan football team’s athletic 5-foot-8 sophomore running back — bore a strikingly similar figure to Mike Hart, the legendary 5-foot-9 former rusher who returned this season as the Wolverines’ running backs coach. Writers, of course, happily pointed out that similarity. Hart, though, was quick to dis- miss the narrative. “He works a lot harder,” Hart said on Aug. 19. “… He’s a lot faster than me, a lot quicker than me. If I was that fast, I’d probably still be in the NFL.” One of the main questions fac- ing the Michigan offense enter- ing the season was how it would divide up carries within its talent- ed, albeit shallow, running-backs room. Would it rely on senior Has- san Haskins — the program’s most experienced runner and the leading rusher in 2020 — as a de facto work- horse back or use the Hart-like tal- ents of Corum and elite athleticism of freshman Donovan Edwards for a more dynamic rushing attack? Saturday’s 47-14 win over West- ern Michigan began to answer that question. Corum’s performance — which featured 111 rushing yards on 14 attempts, two receptions for 22 yards, two total touchdowns and an electrifying 79-yard kick return — showed just how effective he can be when used properly. When placed alongside Haskins’s 70 yards on 13 carries, it highlighted the coaching staff’s intent to use the two backs as virtual co-starters. Even more, it showed that Corum deserved his place in that one-two punch. “Both (are) standout players,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters Monday. “We’ve been saying they’re both the starting running back. Said we were gonna lean on them and ride them. That’s the plan.” For Corum, that step into a starting job marks an upgrade from last season, where Haskins more than doubled Corum’s workload and production. Many of the play designs were similar to last year — lots of swing routes, runs around the edge and plays designed to get the ball into space — but Corum’s role in the offense visibly grew in that first game. In that starting role, he flour- ished. The stats communicate that Corum had a strong game, but they don’t even tell the full story. They don’t show how, on his swing-pass touchdown, Corum waited for junior wide receiver Mike Sainris- til’s block before bursting into the gap. Nor do they say how — on his 30-yard rushing touchdown later on — he knew exactly where to cut back to find the most space. The film doesn’t just display a sophomore back with some excit- ing athleticism; it tells the story of a smart player gaining more con- fidence in his abilities with every rush. “I feel like I was more patient today,” Corum said Saturday. “But when you’re playing, you can’t really tell how patient you actually are. I feel like I took what I did in the offseason and applied it today.” That doesn’t take anything away from Haskins, either. Much of the discrepancy in yardage between the two backs can be attributed to how they were used. In three different scenarios, Haskins was brought in on third-and-one to pick up the first down. Although one of those plays resulted in a 22-yard touchdown run, the use of Haskins in third-and-short situations dem- onstrates how the coaches see him more as a short-yardage back because of his physicality. Corum’s only third-down runs, conversely, came on third-and-five and third- and-15. “(Haskins), he’s a strong dude,” Corum said. “It’s hard to tackle him, so he might run through you. Me, I’m more of a finesse guy, so I might make you fall. With a one-two punch with both of us that can make people miss at the second level, it’s hard to stop that. “It’s kind of like thunder and lightning.” Blake Corum shows his dynamic abilities in first game of season BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Editor ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily Michigan sophomore running back Blake Corum ran for 111 yards against Western Michigan. ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily Michigan junior defensive back Daxton Hill used his athleticism to impact the passing game. MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Michigan junior quarterback Cade McNamara ran the offense the way it was meant to be run Saturday.