The Michigan Wolverines had a chance at a significant win on Saturday, but fell 13-6 to the defending champion Indiana Hoosiers in overtime. After the loss, head coach Kyle Whittingham expressed his frustration with the team's offensive struggles, but emphasized that both sides of the ball share responsibility.
"Well, that was disappointing ... to say the least," Whittingham said to open his postgame press conference.
"They're an outstanding defense, but we've gotta be better than that on offense; there's no way around it. The three main issues in the game: Our inability to run the ball ... couldn't get anything going in the run game. Our inability to score touchdowns in the red zone. Can't win if you don't score touchdowns in the red zone. And we're minus one in the turnover margin. We turned it over twice in the first half."
"Offense is definitely not performing as well as the defense right now. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. However, that doesn't matter in our locker room. We're one football team. We're not divided. If the offense scores six, then we've gotta allow five or less," Whittingham said.
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Whittingham also suggested Michigan must be a "pretty good" team after taking the nation's No. 6 team to overtime on Saturday.
His comments arrive after Michigan made a major quarterback change in the previous game, benching starter Bryce Underwood in favor of Tommy Carr. The brother of Notre Dame's highly touted CJ Carr guided the team to a 21-18 win over Penn State on Oct. 17.
However, Carr finished today's game with 167 passing yards and an interception. He was also sacked five times by the Indiana defense amid the Wolverines' struggles to find the end zone.
Michigan's only points in the game came from kicker Trey Butkowski, who connected on 2 of 4 field goals. And the Wolverines' defense was outstanding in regulation, holding the defending champs to just six points.
Unfortunately, the defense couldn't prevent Indiana from scoring in overtime. Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover had the game's only touchdown, a rushing touchdown, helping the Hoosiers improve to 7-1.
Whittingham and the Wolverines will go back to work at practice to see if they can address their offensive struggles. The team only had 57 rushing yards and averaged just three yards of offense per play.
While Michigan had the ball longer on offense than their opponents and converted two fourth downs into first downs, the team's red-zone execution needs major improvement.
After falling to 4-3, they'll get a chance to bounce back against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 12:30 p.m. ET.
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