Michigan Sideline: Breaking Down What Wolverines Need to do on Saturday

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – There's some interesting perspective coming out of Ann Arbor in regards to what Michigan needs to do to beat No. 13 Indiana on Saturday.

This is new. In years past – or decades past — that only thing you needed to know about how Michigan would beat Indiana is for them simply to show up.

Michigan has beaten Indiana 24 times and a row and the Hoosiers haven't won since 1987. That's a long time. But after the Wolverines looked terrible in a home loss to Michigan State and Indiana is off to an impressive 2-0 start, this might finally be the year that the tide turns.

My Sports Illustrated counterpart at Michigan, Wolverine Digest publisher Brandon Brown, broke down the three things that Michigan needed to do to beat Indiana, and it made for interesting reading. Here were his three headlines;

1. Change up the man coverage approach
2. Scrap the inside zone
3. Turn Joe Milton loose

Brown broke down the problems with Michigan's pass coverage. Cornerbacks in man coverage got scorched by Michigan State true freshman Ricky White last year, as he rolled up 196 yards in the air on his eight catches.

He also questioned the effectiveness of Michigan's inside zone running game, which has struggled for the most part and has been very predictable. And lastly, Brown thinks Michigan needs to open up the offense and let quarterback Joe Milton attack horizontally.

You can read Brandon's entire story here. CLICK HERE

Brandon picked my brain for the story, too. Here were some of my comments for his story.

ON ATTACKING MICHIGAN'S CORNERBACKS: "Attacking the cornerbacks is absolutely the plan. ... They definitely want to throw it deep and they definitely want to take their shots. They watched the Michigan State film too."
ON STOPPING MICHIGAN'S RUN GAME: "Against the run, at least stopping running backs, Indiana has been pretty good. [Penn State quarterback] Sean Clifford ran all over the place but a lot of that was on broken plays where he took off. They've been really good on stopping third and fourth and shorts. Their interior guys are very talented. Jerome Johnson is in All-Big Ten conversations. Demarcus Elliott and Sio Nofoagatoto'a rotate at nose guard and are both excellent.''
ON MICHIGAN THROWING DEEP: "Indiana's corners are very good," Brew said. "Taiwan Mullen, Reece Taylor and Jaylin Williams are all playing well. Mullen even had 2.5 sacks on blitzes last week."

It's a good week to pay attention to our Michigan site as well on our Sports Illustrated platform. Brandon does a great job. Same for during the basketball season. You can follow the site here. CLICK HERE

Related stories on Indiana football