Jim Harbaugh on red zone creativity: 'All options are open'

It was clear that red zone inefficiency was addressed by Michigan in practice last week, as the Wolverines were near-perfect converting field position inside the red zone into touchdowns against Rutgers.

The week prior, however, was a different story. While it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, the Wolverines had issues scoring touchdowns in the red zone and elected for field goals instead.

What happened against the Spartans reflected in what the Wolverines were trying to do against Rutgers, according to Jim Harbaugh.

"The previous game we played where we got down there four times and we didn't get the ball in the endzone twice, two of those were the results of losing yardage," Harbaugh told the media on Monday. "You get the ball on the six-yard line and you run a play and it's a pass play, it was the first play we called. Creative play but we ended up losing three yards on it. We had run an outside zone play I believe it was, lost another three yards."

In terms of overall play creativity, the Wolverines certainly didn't show much of it. However, it didn't really need to, either. The offense would utilize all four downs to run up the middle on the goal line.

That won't be the permanent recipe moving forward, though. Harbaugh said that all options are open in terms of playcalling creativity in the red zone.

He just wanted to see positive yardage as a good first step.

"I really wanted to see more—you get the ball on the five or the six in this game that we were going straight ahead," Harbaugh said. "First and six become second and two. Second and two became third and one. Third and one became fourth and one. Fourth and one became a touchdown. I wanted that scenario to play out in this game. We were fortunate enough to get it in. Now that we've done that, all options are open going forward, of course. We have gotten it in different ways. Fly sweep, we've thrown it in. All those options are open."