Michigan Football: What to watch for Wolverines against Indiana

Score more TDs in the red zone and fewer FGs

I feel like this is constantly an issue for Michigan football teams, but it will be really important for the Wolverines to score touchdowns in the red zone.

Although Indiana has had a lot of injuries on their defense, they still play well on defense, and whenever U-M gets in the red zone, it will need to capitalize on its opportunities with touchdowns.

Indiana held Michigan State to 20 points a few weeks ago, and MSU has arguably more offensive weapons than Michigan does, so it will be very important for Michigan’s red zone offense to click on Saturday.

Final Thoughts

Although Indiana has four losses this season, all or very nearly all of them have come against top-10 teams this season. Indiana has been known to play Michigan hard almost every single year over the last six to seven seasons.

This is a classic trap game. Michigan football is just coming off a loss, and Indiana is a team hungry for their first win over a top-10 team this season.

Like I mentioned earlier, Michigan can’t sleep-walk through this game. The Wolverines need to show that they put the MSU game behind them and are focusing on their remaining opponents.

If there’s anything that Indiana hangs its hat on this year, it’s defense. If there’s one aspect that can keep Indiana in the game against Michigan on Saturday, it will be the Hoosiers’ defense.

With all of that being said though, I think that Michigan’s players and coaches understand what’s expected of them and they will be motivated to get the bad taste of a loss out of their mouths.

They’ll also have added motivation because of last year’s loss to Indiana, so that should only add fuel to the fire. And if all of that wasn’t enough, Michigan will be playing at home, in front of their own crowd, so they can get some added juice from that.

I don’t see Indiana keeping pace with Michigan at all on Saturday. They’re down to the so third-string QB, they struggle mightily to score points, and they just don’t seem to have that same swagger that they had last year. I expect Michigan to cover the spread on Saturday.

Final score: Michigan 38, Indiana 10