What Jim Harbaugh said after Michigan football’s win over Rutgers

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — As Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh noted after the game, he’s not concerned about a win that wasn’t pretty — until they actually add style points to the scoreboard. In a way, pretty is accounted for in the overarching progress of the season by way of the polls, but until the College Football Playoff rankings come out, there’s not much point in winning pretty.

It was a tale of two halves, as the Wolverines dominated Rutgers in the first half but were inept offensively in the second. The defense bent and bent and bent, but didn’t quite break, holding the Scarlet Knights to 10 second-half points and forcing a turnover against a then-turnover-less team to secure the win.

Jim Harbaugh seemed mostly pleased after the game, but certainly didn’t pretend that the 20-13 win over Rutgers wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Here is everything he had to say after the game.

List

3 things we learned about Michigan football after defeating Rutgers

Message to the team after this game

"I was really proud of them. Found a way. Defense, thought they really competed right to the fumble. Thank goodness for red zone defense, put a lot of time into it. Practiced it a lot. The defense was in a bad position. Offensively, we weren't moving the ball. Three-and-outs, four straight drives to start the second half. But showed the character of the defense. I'm really proud and pleased with that and that they found a way -- got it done. "Gritty game. Wasn't pretty, but when they start making the space for pretty on the scoreboard, we'll worry about that. Right now, it doesn't go up on the scoreboard. So yeah -- proud of the guys."

Challenges in facing Rutgers' offense

"Especially with the momentum that they had, they were able to keep for most of the second half. A lot of things were going against us defensively but found a way. Had the wide zone play, stretch play, and the quarterback read off of that. It was getting us and we were rotating the young linebackers in there and I thought it was a real growing place for them -- Nikhai and Junior and Kalel. We're gonna look back on it and go, 'Man, there's things we would've, could've done better.' But pleased with the win, pleased with the gritty win."

Why did Michigan run the ball up the middle so much in the second half?

"I thought we were -- yeah, we weren't picking up the first downs, we weren't moving the ball. But do I think we fell in love with our stuff? No. You do that, you can't get better."

On Rutgers' offensive success on the short passing game

"Yeah, we were a little soft on the hitch routes and they were hitting those on first downs and getting way ahead of the sticks -- second-and-2s, second-and-3s, second-and-1s. We adjusted and tightened up the coverage on the two outside receivers."

On Michigan's success on fourth down

"I said earlier, the character of the defense, to be in some really tough situations and their team had seized the momentum, had it, and had it in areas of the field that was allowing them to go for it on fourth down. Give an offense four downs and most of the time they pick it up. But it was huge, huge fourth-down stops. Two that I can think of: one right before the half and then the other in the second half. And then the third-down stop in the red zone that forced the field goal which they ended up missing. "Yeah, those were huge. Those are turnovers. They're like turnovers, like the fumble. That's what we ultimately needed to win. Those were critical."

Was the defense fatigued in the second half?

"I think that's part of it. When -- that many three-and-outs, that's gonna be a factor. Those kind of things stacked up against them. On the field too much, field position -- we just talked about that. Momentum against them. All stuff that's gonna be a learning, growing thing for our guys. That's why I said, I think it hit the nail right on the head: that showed the character of our defense today."

Why did Michigan kick the field goal at the end of the half

"Had the ball on the two-and-a-half yard line. Tried the first one to run it in. We had nine seconds, we had two timeouts in our possession. We knew we could run at least two, maybe three plays -- it was 16 seconds, I believe. And then -- probably should have -- the one we threw, that was open. We should've hit that. And then we didn't. Five seconds? That's dicey. That's dicey to run a play and still be able to kick the field goal if you don't get the touchdown. So, decided to get the three points and it ended up being a good three points to have as the game fared."

Was Michigan trying not to pass in the second half?

"No, four drives were three-and-outs -- that's 12 plays. And some of those were passes we didn't hit. We weren't in our rhythm there. But it wasn't an intentional way to go away from the passing game. One of those three-and-outs was three-straight passes."

Update on Josh Ross' injury

"Yeah, he's gonna be OK. He had -- he was working through something and just didn't quite get the strength back to be cleared to go back into the game."

How did the team handle the adversity of it being a one-score game?

"Good! Thought it was a gritty win that way. Handling the circumstances -- thought it was great character of our defense. Like I said, they competed. They competed through some of those things that were going against us, that were stacked up against us and competed. Just competed, right until they got the fumble in the two-minute defense. Tremendous job in the red zone. I thought they did well. I was really proud of them."

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