Michigan Football: 4 things on Wolverines bye week to-do list

It didn’t seem like the offense would have been the problem for Michigan football anyway against Army.

When you prepare to play a service academy, you prepare for the triple-option. The Wolverines have been doing so since the spring, and they’ve been answering questions about it all week. The Black Knights have been known to churn up yards, eat up clock and leave unfamiliar teams bewildered. Michigan’s young defense easily could have been the next to suffer that fate.

Instead, the unit probably carried the Wolverines to victory.

The Black Knights averaged just under 3.3 yards per carry and racked up 243 yards of total offense. The Wolverines consistently filled their gaps and maintained their discipline. Connor Slomka and Kelvin Hopkins pounded the ball up the middle, but Army only had one rush of more than eight yards for the game.

Against most offenses, that’s stout. Against the Black Knights, it’s next-level. On Saturday, it turned out to be essential.

The Black Knights’ passing attack is extremely limited by its playing style. Hopkins can’t drop back to pass like a normal, pro-style quarterback, as his offensive line isn’t strong enough to stand its ground.

Michigan football took advantage, as LaVert Hill came up with a game-changing interception on third-and-goal with Army threatening to go up by two touchdowns. And it was Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye who combined for the sack and fumble on the final play, sealing the win and allowing all of us to forget about the entire catastrophic affair.

Furthermore, the Wolverines held Army to 5-of-16 on third downs, making the Black Knights do something they don’t like to do very much — punt. They kicked the ball away four times Saturday, which doesn’t seem like much until you realize that they only punted that much twice last season.

That meant that Michigan almost did the unfathomable — nearly winning the time-of-possession battle against Army. The Wolverines’ defense spent just 31:35 on the field.

We can probably say it again — a Don Brown defense is probably going to be just fine. As Gattis’ offense gets up to speed, Michigan faithful should be able to rest assured that Hill, Hutchinson, Khaleke Hudson and company have their back.