If there's one area of concern for an undefeated Michigan team that's eyeing its second straight Big Ten title, it might be the red zone offense. Even after the Wolverines went 6-7 in the red zone in last week's win over Rutgers.
"C'mon man," Jim Harbaugh said Tuesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "You don’t like the way we scored?"
It wasn't always pretty, not that it has to be. On first and goal from the 2, Michigan scored its first touchdown by ramming the ball four times up the middle until Blake Corum finally found the end zone. And on first and goal from the 7, it scored its second touchdown essentially the same way: four straight runs. This didn't exactly quiet critics asking for more creativity near the goal line.
Of course, it was better than the week prior when Michigan failed to score a touchdown on first and goal from the 4 and first and goal from the 6 and went 2-5 in the red zone against Michigan State.
"We got into the end zone and now we’re going to question how we got into the end zone?" said Harbaugh.
Sometimes, the simplest play is the best one.
"Last week, if you recall, we tried to run it outside from the six-yard line and got a three-yard loss, which made it a lot tougher," said Harbaugh. "Then we tried a roll-out pass from the six-yard line and that was a three-yard loss.
"So this week, first and (goal on the 2), yeah, we went right up the middle and then it was second and 2, then third and 1, then fourth and 1 and we got in. I like those chances of making it, instead of a third and 8 or third and 7 where you don’t have the fourth down at your disposal anymore and you really need to kick the field goal."
No. 3 Michigan has scored a touchdown on 66.7 percent of its red zone trips this season, almost identical to No. 1 Georgia's mark of 68.6 percent. For further comparison, No. 2 Ohio State is at 81.4 percent, No. 4 TCU at 66.7 percent and No. 5 Tennessee at 77.1 percent.
For Michigan, pounding the ball with a Heisman-candidate running back behind one of the best offensive lines in the country makes sense. It also opens up other options moving forward, which could pay dividends in Michigan's biggest game(s) of the season.
"That’s how you get an easy throw. When you can establish that we can just run it here four times from the 10-yard line and score the touchdown, that’s how those other easy plays come," Harbaugh said. "But I have a feeling that teams would rather have us not to do that. They’d rather have us try one of those fly sweeps and they defend the edge and get a three-yard loss.
"But now everything is open. We’ve established that we can run it right up the middle three or four downs and get the touchdown, so yeah, the perimeter plays, the throws, we’re not always going to do it the exact same way. It’s not always going to be run-run-run-run."
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