Grade Session: Michigan offense vs Rutgers
Tommy Carr had a complete performance against Rutgers, with the entire Michigan offense running through its quarterback.
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Tommy Carr had a complete performance against Rutgers, with the entire Michigan offense running through its quarterback.
Michigan has spent most of this season asking its defense to survive while the offense searches for answers. Rutgers is the matchup where that script should finally flip.
This is not a matchup where Michigan should have to choose between getting the run game going and letting Tommy Carr throw it. It should do both.
Michigan changed quarterbacks. It did not change the results of an offense that keeps putting itself behind schedule.
Indiana did not prove Carr cannot be the answer. It did prove, as expected, that changing the quarterback was never going to magically solve everything wrong with this offense.
Michigan found a way to beat Penn State after Tommy Carr changed the second half. Indiana is a much tougher test of whether that offensive spark can become a real identity.
Michigan finally found some offensive life against Penn State. It also found it in a way that will be much harder to duplicate Saturday.
Penn State turned Michigan's two first-half turnovers into zero points. It rushed for 65 yards all afternoon. And when Michigan finally needed something more than another stop, the defense started handing the offense the football.
There is real reason to be encouraged by Carr.
There is not enough here to give Jason Beck and Whittingham a blank check and declare the offense fixed.
Michigan has had two weeks to sit with the ugliest offensive performance of the season. Penn State arrives with three straight losses and one of the Big Ten's most vulnerable run defenses.