Michigan Football: 3 Keys for Wolverines against Indiana

1. Stop the deep ball

This one is fairly obvious, but still, one that needs to be pointed out. The Wolverines were burned the whole game against Michigan State by the deep ball. So much so that it was shocking that the Spartans didn’t go to the well more often.

The scary thing about how the defense played is that the Hoosiers have better receivers. Much better.

Whop Philyor is possibly the best receiver in the Big Ten and they have Ty Fryfogle on the other side. Philyor is averaging 17.3 yards per catch on 10 catches. He can stretch the field and has a knack for the end zone. He is a tough matchup for any time, better yet one that has struggled as much as the Wolverines have.

Michigan, obviously doesn’t want to give up any completions, but the underneath routes aren’t the ones that are going to kill them. They need to limit the big plays and slow down Philyor and Fryfogle on the outside.

Take the deep ball away and force them to dink and dunk it down the field, which will play in the hands of the Wolverines. Stevie Scott is a very good running back but he only has 138 yards on the year and is struggling to get things going.

In Indiana’s win against Penn State, it had just 211 yards of offense. The Hoosiers haven’t shown the ability to put together long drives and Michigan needs to use that to its advantage. Stop the deep ball and big plays and it should be in great shape.