No. 3 Michigan took long enough to kick into gear against Indiana on Saturday, but the Wolverines did it eventually. They beat the Hoosiers, 20-10, in Ann Arbor, keeping control of the Big Ten East ahead of next Saturday’s game at Ohio State.
Michigan’s a win from the Big Ten East title after storming (literally) past IU
Was it stylish? No, but that doesn’t matter. Michigan’s a game away from winning the Big Ten East.
Michigan did it without starting quarterback Wilton Speight. His replacement, John O’Korn, wasn’t great, and Michigan appeared to be in some trouble well into the second half.
It took the Wolverines long enough to pull away. Indiana led at halftime, 7-3, and 10-6 with five minutes left in the third quarter. The game turned on two long De’Veon Smith touchdown runs in the final few minutes of the third quarter: one from 34 yards and another from 39. Indiana didn’t have an answer after that.
Smith’s first score, with an acrobatic finish:
It started to snow pretty hard by the end of the game. The people in Michigan are used to such conditions, and they made it work.
Winter football’s awesome. Blizzards are cool.
Someday, Indiana’s going to win a game like this.
It’s nothing remotely new for Indiana to put a scare into an elite team and then not win. Some examples from the last few years under coach Kevin Wilson:
In 2012, IU lost 52-49 to an eighth-ranked Ohio State.
In 2015, IU lost by a touchdown to No. 1 Ohio State, by eight to No. 9 Iowa, and again by a touchdown to No. 14 Michigan.
Just last week, the Hoosiers took top-10 Penn State to the wire and lost. (That made writing this post convenient, because I could just refer back to the same list of Indiana heartbreak without having to dig up old scores a second time.)
Now they’ve given Michigan a lot to handle, again. And now they’ve lost, again. Indiana and its fans deserve for one of these to finish happily. One year, one will. Probably.
For Michigan, it’s not pretty, but that’s not the point.
The Wolverines were coming off their only loss of the season, on a last-second field goal at Iowa a week ago. The absence of Speight, reportedly out for the year with a broken collarbone, was hard to miss. (Michigan hasn’t said anything official about his status, though he warmed up on the sideline at points.)
O’Korn wasn’t good in his stead. but 7-of-16 for 59 yards was good enough to beat Indiana in the snow. Can O’Korn beat Ohio State on the road next week, if need be? That’s a harder sell. The Buckeyes will feel confident.
Things look murkier for Michigan than they did a couple of weeks ago, undoubtedly. The Wolverines’ quarterback isn’t healthy, and they’ve traded blowouts for vulnerability. None of that suggests good things for the future. But they still find themselves in control of their own destiny, and that’s all anyone can reasonably ask.
If Michigan beats Ohio State next weekend, it’ll play in the Big Ten Championship Game. If it wins there, probably against Wisconsin, Michigan’s in the Playoff. It’s no more complicated than that, and for the Wolverines, that’s for the best.
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