BLOOMINGTON - All it took was a little patience. And that's been characteristic of the slow-starting Michigan team this season, just a little time to warm up before laying it on its opposition.
After a sluggish first quarter, the heavily favored Wolverines proved the oddsmakers right, dumping 28 points on Indiana in the game's second 15 minutes en route to a 37-0 blowout and leaving a sour gift for the Hoosier faithful at their Homecoming.
"So many times when you're favorite and you're coming off an emotional win, you have a letdown," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.
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| WARREN ZINN/Daily Using stiff-arm tactics to his full advantage, Michigan tailback Chris Howard led a vaunted Michigan attack during its 37-0 blowout of Indiana on Saturday. While Howard only compiled 14 yards on the ground, three of those were for a score in Michigan's 28-point second quarter. |
Brian Griese, despite playing just a little more than half of the game, continued his magnificent play, completing 16 of 26 passes for 204 yards and going a third-straight game without throwing an interception.
"We wanted to establish some balance between our running game and passing game," Griese said. "But we came out and threw a lot more in the first half. That's something we wanted to do and that will help us down the road, and we're going to have to do it again."
Griese, as well as those who followed him under center, Tom Brady and Jason Kapsner, gave Indiana fits with simple dump-off passes to Michigan's backfield all day long. The running backs caught 15 passes from Michigan quarterbacks mainly because the Wolverines were able to exploit Indiana's man-to-man defensive scheme.
"Their defense over-pursues a lot," fullback Chris Floyd said. "They go with fakes and put pressure on the quarterback and in the process of putting that pressure on, the back can sneak out and get wide open and we hit that for big plays."
Surprisingly, after Michigan found much success with that play in the first half, Indiana coach Cam Cameron, a former Michigan assistant, did not make any halftime adjustments and the Wolverines proceeded to execute effectively in the second half.
"I thought in the second half, we'd run it up the middle because in the first half we were running around the ends," Floyd said. "Our game plan was to test them on the outside and around the ends and when they adjust to that, then we would hit it up the middle. But they never adjusted at all so we stuck to our game plan."
It took awhile for Michigan to put that game plan to practice. The Wolverines came away from the first quarter with only a 27-yard field goal from Kraig Baker to show for themselves.
The Wolverines' opening drive was stopped by a zealous Indiana defense inspired by the Homecoming crowd.
But early in the second quarter Michigan began taking the red-clad spectators out of the game when a 12-play, 87-yard drive was capped by a three-yard touchdown run from Chris Howard. The drive was indicative of the Wolverines' ability to do with the Hoosiers as they pleased as far as controlling the ball and the game's tempo.
After holding Indiana to three and out the next drive, Michigan marched 56 yards in just three minutes. The drive finished when Tai Streets hauled in a Griese pass over the middle at the Indiana 10-yard line, juked three Hoosiers and scampered into the endzone for an 18-yard score, giving the Wolverines a 17-0 advantage.
Freshman running backs Anthony Thomas and Patrick McCall rushed for touchdowns of 14 and three yards respectively, on Michigan's next two possessions, which put the Wolverines up 31-0 with two minutes left in the half.
Both drives were set up by the defense, forcing the Hoosiers to turn the ball over. The first came when Dhani Jones and James Hall stuffed Indiana's De'Wayne Hogan on a fourth and one from the Indiana 41-yard line, and the second when Charles Woodson picked off a Jay Rodgers pass at the Indiana 14.
Even when Indiana wasn't turning the ball over to Michigan, the Wolverines' defense smothered the Hoosiers, holding them to just 17 yards rushing including minus-six yards in the first half.
Rodgers, who came into the game averaging almost 240 yards in the air per contest, was held to just 115, while getting sacked four times as he was clearly rattled by Michigan's intimidating front seven.
All told, Michigan outgained the Hoosiers 436-157 in total offense and regained the time of possession advantage, 32:40-27:20, which they lost against Notre Dame last weekend.
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