The good news for the Michigan Wolverines is that Saturday offers a clean look at bouncing back following the defeat against Oklahoma. The Central Michigan Chippewas are a bottom-20 team per SP+, with the offense ranking 126th in the country. Vegas thinks it will be hard for the visitors to top seven points, which seems like a good bar to set for a defense wanting to reset.
Much of the game state will
necessitate throwing, but the Chips do lean heavily towards the ground game, including a 41-to-27 run-pass split in last week’s 28-point loss to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, this preference has not yielded much success, and it now faces a Michigan defensive line that still poses a significant threat despite a minor setback. Unless John Mater transfers to CMU this week, this battle could get ugly.
Nowhere to run
After running back duo Nahtree Biggins and Trey Cornist (a Tulane transfer) put up over 200 combined yards against San Jose State in the opener, the duo averaged just 1.72 YPC against Pitt. The Panthers are not a joke defensively, but the outcome was what one might expect when a bad run game goes up against a Power Four opponent.
As a result, CMU ranks 127th (out of 136) in yards per carry and has found the end zone on the ground only twice this year, with one of those scores coming from backup quarterback Jadyn Glasser. The offensive line does have some experience, but there is just a massive talent gap between this group and players like Rayshaun Benny, Derrick Moore, and TJ Guy.
Why even highlight this discrepancy? Well, the reality is all four unit-vs-unit matchups in this game are fairly lopsided, as is the expectation when teams like this meet. What makes this contrast interesting is the combination of CMU’s desire (or need?) to run with the talent along the Michigan defensive front, which remains the strength of this team.
Get right
Unquestionably, John Mateer’s legs caused the Wolverines fits last weekend, as he rushed for 74 yards and two scores, while also hitting some big passes after escaping tons of pressure. Taking out the quarterback, though, left Oklahoma with just 64 rushing yards on 21 carries for a modest 3.05 YPC. With New Mexico just averaging only 1.79 YPC on the young season, the Wolverines run defense is in a great spot.
As was the case last year, Michigan not only needs the defensive line to be great, but enough to compensate for deficiencies elsewhere. The secondary could be a strength, but trails the front seven in experience, and the offense is still incomplete because of the offensive line and the passing game. That means that the run defense will likely need to steal a game or two if the College Football Playoff is going to stay on the table.
Hopefully this Saturday does not fit into that bucket, as no heroic effort should be needed to limit this Chips ground game. However, this is a good chance for the defense to wash away the struggles from Norman and take advantage of an inferior opposition with no dual-threat quarterback to cause frustration. A complete domination of the CMU ground game would rekindle some of the enthusiasm for the year ahead, seeing the cornerstone of the roster thrive.
