Michigan Football: Expect a shootout in Bloomington

The Michigan football team rides a three-game win streak into Bloomington, Indiana this afternoon with hopes of leaving with the streak intact.

It’s been an impressive stretch of football played by the Michigan Wolverines of late.  It started in the second half of the loss to Penn State.  The first half was much of the same; it appeared the second half of the season would be similar to the first for the Michigan football team.  Underwhelming.

I don’t know what was said in that locker room before taking the field in the second half four weeks ago, but it worked.  Michigan came out flying; Shea Patterson appeared to be reborn.  Instead of releasing a wounded duck or spiking a pass at the feet of his intended receiver, he was completing firm throws on target marching the Wolverines balanced offensive attack down the field.

That was the night I became a Shea Patterson fan.  The man scored on a quarterback keeper while getting his eyes gouged at the bottom of the pile for quite some time while the officials tried to un-pile the carnage that lay on top of the senior quarterback.

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Sometimes that’s all it takes to win over a fanbase.  I’m not going to sit here and say he’s my favorite quarterback of all-time or Michigan football shouldn’t have a better option, but that single play that showed some toughness certainly earned the young man some respect in my book.

After being blown out in the first half, the Wolverines were suddenly within a score.  It was Ronnie Bell with a blunder.  The sure-handed, dependable receiver, Michigan’s best, in fact, dropped a game-tying pass on fourth down late in the fourth quarter.

Patterson hit Bell, who was briefly wide-open in the breadbasket and wasn’t able to secure the throw.  He was shown on the Michigan sideline in tears moments after.  This game can undoubtedly be humbling.  But despite that loss, the second half of that game seemed to spark the Michigan offense, which had been disastrous to that point for most of the year.

Since then, the Wolverines have scored 45 in a blow-out victory over the Fighting Irish, 38 on Maryland, and most recently 44 on their interstate rivals the Michigan State Spartans.

Expect another 40-plus effort today against Indiana.  The game this afternoon is shaping up to be a shootout style of game.  The Wolverines defense has continued to improve as the season has grown old, but they simply don’t have the playmakers throughout the group they’ve once had.

Indiana currently sits atop the Big Ten in passing offense averaging 314 yards per game through the air.  They are second in the conference averaging 448 yards per game.  This will be no walk in the park for the Michigan Wolverines.

The Hoosiers are coming off of a very close loss to Penn State 34-27.  Last year the Wolverines beat Indiana 31-20, but the Hoosiers we able to exploit Don Brown‘s man-to-man defense with a plethora of crossing routes.  It served as a template for Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes to gameplan the same way, and using much more skilled players than Indiana allowed Ohio State to blow out the Wolverines.

Expect a snug game for most of the afternoon with the Wolverines edging Indiana somewhere in the neighborhood of 42-35.  It’s shaping up to be a high scoring affair.

What: Michigan Wolverines 8-2 at Indiana Hoosiers 7-3

Where: Bloomington, Indiana

When: 3:30 PM Est

Watch: ESPN

Previous Matchup: Michigan 31-20, November 17th, 2018