Grade Session: Michigan offense vs Rutgers
Tommy Carr had a complete performance against Rutgers, with the entire Michigan offense running through its quarterback.
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.
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 finally found some offensive life against Penn State. It also found it in a way that will be much harder to duplicate Saturday.
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.
Michigan has spent two weeks hearing about turnovers, offensive identity and a season that went from 3-0 to 3-2 in the span of eight days. Now there is nowhere left to hide behind the schedule or the lack of practice time.
There is no way to watch Michigan's offense closely and decide the quarterback is the primary reason it has become this dysfunctional.
Michigan played its best offensive game of the season against Iowa and still found a way to leave the stadium with a loss. That makes the first road trip of the year less about proving Michigan can play good football and more about proving it can stop wasting it.