Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy appears to be like to continue learning following victory over Maryland

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Michigan got here away with a 34-27 win towards Maryland, nevertheless it was a studying expertise for quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was taking part in in his first Huge Ten opener because the workforce’s starter.

McCarthy received the quarterback battle after the second sport of the season over final yr’s starter, Cade McNamara, and helped lead Michigan to its fourth win of the season towards the Terps. It did not come with out some errors and challenges, although, that McCarthy says he is aware of he wants to enhance.

“I would in all probability say that it undoubtedly wasn’t my finest efficiency and I would like some issues again that went on the market,” McCarthy stated after the sport. “However, I used to be proud of the way in which we had been capable of transfer the ball the instances the place we wanted to reply. That was a superb workforce on the market, Maryland’s received an ideal offense, they received an ideal protection and I used to be simply proud of the way in which we responded when some adversity creeped in.”

Adversity hit a number of instances within the sport as McCarthy had two fumbles, each recovered by his teammates and the Wolverines discovered themselves in a back-and-forth sport with Maryland.

He completed the sport finishing 18 of 26 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns. He did not have any interceptions, however he admitted the timing was off together with his receivers all through the sport.

“With the timing, I do not assume that is a problem (for the receivers) in any respect. I take full duty for all these throws that I missed on,” McCarthy stated. “My arm was feeling like 110% at this time (after coping with soreness within the offseason) and it has been awhile because it’s felt like that. Simply having the ability to undergo the practices this week and have the ability to modify and dial again a bit of extra goes to be large.”

Michigan completed with 446 yards of offense and regardless of some errors, nonetheless received the win. An enormous a part of that victory was the run sport from Blake Corum, who completed with 243 yards and two touchdowns on the bottom. It was the primary time a Michigan operating again had over 200 yards dashing and two touchdowns since Karan Higdon did it in 2017.

Corum was the spark Michigan wanted within the sport and an enormous momentum play got here within the first half on 4th-and-1 when Corum bounced a run exterior and ran 33 yards for a landing that gave Michigan the lead going into halftime.

“That was solely presupposed to go for one or two yards, however coach received it in fast, J.J. snapped the ball fast and we caught them off guard,” Corum stated. “Towards a superb Maryland workforce, like I stated, Maryland’s protection is sweet, Maryland’s offense was good, it wasn’t like we had been taking part in some scrub workforce.”

The Wolverines are 4-0 and now they need to journey to Iowa and attempt to get the job executed on the street. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh made it a degree to notice to reporters after the sport that they will need to reply the query of whether or not or not they will go on the street, play the primary street sport of the season and achieve success.

However after this sport, Harbaugh stated he’ll take what they discovered in regards to the offense on this sport and use it to arrange for his or her subsequent check.

“You study extra as you go, proper,” Harbaugh requested. “Each single sport, each single check you study extra about your workforce and study extra about your self as a participant.”