Michigan’s offense left a lot to be desired at times last year, finishing a disappointing 58th nationally in yards per game (424.9). It was unable to pick up key first downs that would’ve sealed potential victories over Iowa and Ohio State in November.
Opposing defensive players spoke about what they saw from the Wolverine offense on Monday at Big Ten media days.
Though it lost the game, Wisconsin held Michigan to just 14 points in a 14-7 loss last season, and redshirt junior linebacker T.J. Edwards touched on what he saw.
“We just did a good job of playing team defense,” Edwards said. “Nobody tried to do too much. We got beat on a couple of good plays by their offense, but that’s just how football works. For the most part we played great team defense and everyone was accountable for their assignments, and there weren’t many mental mistakes.”
Edwards also discussed what he saw from redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight.
“He was very good. He’s a bigger body, so even when you had an open shot at him, you really had to fight to get him down and even had to get some help. I think he grew throughout the year and played well under pressure – he threw a great pass to beat us.”
The Wolverines travel to Camp Randall Stadium on Nov. 18 this upcoming season, in what will likely be one of the toughest games of the year.
“It’s exciting,” Edwards said. “Having them come here to Camp Randall is great, and we definitely hope to repay them. At the end of the day it’s another game, but it would be great to win for sure.”
Michigan’s offense also struggled to put points on the board in the Nov. 12 loss at Iowa, and fifth-year senior linebacker Josey Jewell admitted he doesn’t quite know how his team’s defense held Michigan’s offense in check.
“I don’t know if I can put it into words,” he said. “They were a great team, and we played a good game. I don’t know how it exactly worked. We all game planned pretty well.”
Speight certainly didn’t play his best game against the Hawkeyes, and Jewell touched on that as well.
“I thought he made ok decisions with the ball,” Jewell said. “He didn’t turn the ball over and made some great throws early on, but as we settled down we did a much better job against him.”
Although Michigan had a lot more success in a 59-3 rout of Maryland the previous week, fifth-year senior linebacker Jermaine Carter said his team faced some better offenses.
“I thought they executed at a high level,” Carter said. “They were well-prepared, but we just have to be more prepared next season.
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying they were one of the best offenses we saw, but they did a great job. It wasn’t an offense where they were spreading it out or were fast-tempo. They slowed the game down, but did a great job of executing. We had too many mental lapses in that game, and we had a lot of freshmen out there.”
Carter explained how the game against Michigan two years ago gave his team the confidence to potentially hang with the Wolverines in the future.
“A couple years back when they came to our place, the score might not tell the story of the game, but it was 6-0 going into the fourth quarter,” he explained, before Michigan went on to win 28-0. “So we felt like we had a great chance to win that game. They started out that season hot, and we could’ve pulled that game out.”
Like Carter, Indiana senior linebacker Tegray Scales admitted they saw some things in Michigan’s offense they felt like they could expose. It obviously worked pretty well, as the Hoosier defense held Michigan to 20 points in last year’s 20-10 loss.
“We just picked up on some of their tendencies we saw,” he explained. “It was just one of those deals where Coach [Durkin] saw something, and it worked out.”
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