Key questions facing Michigan Football and Ohio State in ‘The Game’

1. How Healthy is Michigan football?

This is atop every Michigan fan’s mind, including mine. The Wolverines have been ravaged by injuries over the past few weeks. Blake Corum, Mike Morris, Donovan Edwards, Luke Schoonmaker, Trevor Keegan, and AJ Henning were all out/hurt against Illinois. Every Wolverine fan is holding their breath surrounding the status of Blake Corum.

Corum had almost 150 yards of total offense in the first half against Illinois until a missed block brought an Illinois defender’s helmet into Corum’s knee. Although the game was close, Michigan football was going to handily beat Illinois if Corum didn’t get hurt.

These are all key injuries for the Wolverines. It seems like everyone except for Corum was held out of the Illinois game so that they could be at full strength for The Game, but you never really know when it comes to Jim Harbaugh.

Harbaugh did say that Corum was medically cleared to re-enter the Illinois game, so you’ve got to imagine that he’ll be playing on November 26th.

Michigan was without a major chunk of their offensive production, along with their best defensive player. Simply put, the Wolverines likely don’t stand much of a chance against the Buckeyes without most, if not all, of these players returning.

We’ll likely find out more as the week progresses. Mike Morris said that he was sitting out against Illinois to ensure he’d be healthy for the Buckeyes.

My bet would be that all of these players at least try to play. If the Wolverines can recover enough within the next week, they’ll have a real shot to knock off the Buckeyes.

2. Can the passing game get it done?

To be honest, if I’m Ohio State Defensive Coordinator Jim Knowles, I’m stacking the box and run committing until JJ McCarthy shows that he can hurt me for it.

McCarthy has missed too many open throws, and the receivers have dropped too many good passes to be weary of the pass. I still have confidence that JJ can put it all together though. He understands what the rivalry means, and I think if there’s any game that can fix him, it’s this one.

JJ threw a beautiful deep ball to Andrel Anthony that should have been a touchdown. He thread it between the corner and the safety, in a place only Andrel could get it.

What’s interesting is that JJ made that throw on a play that he thought was, and that should have been a free play. That tells me that JJ is in his own head.

With nothing on the line, he was able to make a perfect throw. While I’m not willing to bet on it, we can’t dismiss the possibility that JJ finally puts it all together.

We know the talent that he has. He can turn this team into a championship contender. A year ago he had a clutch throw versus the Buckeyes. We’re going to see what he’s made of on Saturday.

3. Can the Michigan defense do what it did last year?

Michigan’s pass rush struggled against Illinois. I don’t think that in itself is the reason for too much concern. Michigan football was without star defensive end Mike Morris. The Illini are a run-first team and ran the ball 34 times while passing for under 200 yards. The Illini also boasts an elite offensive line.

While there are legitimate excuses for the lack of a pass rush against Illinois, the pass rush must show up against Ohio State.

Michigan should be at full strength defensively. Michigan’s defensive line will be the best it’s been all year, with Mason Graham improving every week, and freak freshmen Derrick Moore and Kenneth Grant getting more and more playing time.

The X-Factor here could be Eyabi Okie. If he can show the dominance that made him a five-star recruit, he could change the outcome of the game.

We can’t talk about the pass rush without talking about the linebackers and the secondary. They have an extremely tough task in front of them, with the Buckeyes probably having the best passing offense in the nation. The Wolverines won last year because they were able to pressure Stroud and because the DBs didn’t get beat deep.

As I said, I think that the Buckeye receivers this year are not as good as they were last year. Obviously, that’s not saying much, considering Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave were first-round picks, but it’s something. I will say that I think Marvin Harrison Jr. could be the best Buckeye receiver in a long time.

On the other hand, I think the Michigan secondary is just as good, if not better than last year. While Dax Hill was obviously a stud, the additions of Will Johnson and Mike Sainristil give me confidence in this group. If they can stop the big plays and make the Buckeye offense work for every yard, it’ll help tremendously.

Michigan’s defense, along with the leg of Jake Moody, won the game against Illinois. The defense didn’t allow a fourth-quarter point, which was huge for Michigan’s slow and steady comeback. With the health of the Michigan offense in question, the defense will be called upon to have their best game of the year.

Both teams obviously have many questions heading into the week. As the days go on, we should know more about the health of each team. Under a week, folks. Stay tuned for more analysis of this matchup as the week progresses.

Go Blue, beat Ohio.