BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — If Michigan reached bottom after losing as three-touchdown favorites to Michigan State last week, this was subterranean for the Wolverines.
Michigan, for the second consecutive week in this abbreviated season, was outplayed and outcoached, and lost decisively, this time at No. 13 Indiana, 38-21, at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. The Wolverines, ranked No. 23, are now 1-2. Indiana (3-0) had not beaten Michigan since 1987.
The Hoosiers, with their highest ranking since that 1987 season after upsetting Penn State in the opener and beating Rutgers a week ago, thoroughly dismantled Michigan's defense, as Michael Penix threw for career-best 342 yards and had three touchdowns.
They took advantage of Michigan's inexperienced corners and also benefited from the loss of Wolverines defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who left the game early with an apparent right ankle injury. Michigan also lost starting end Kwity Paye to injury late in the third quarter. It was also another penalty-riddled performance by the Wolverines, who had eight penalties for 89 yards.
Michigan finished with 357 yards, including 13 rushing, and were 3-of-11 on third down.
Indiana built a 31-14 lead with just more than four minutes left in the third quarter, but at the start of the fourth, the offense showed some signs of life.
Michigan pulled to 31-21 on a 21-yard pass from Joe Milton to Ronnie Bell, who led the team with five catches for 132 yards. On the Wolverines' next possession, Milton, in his third start, was intercepted by Jaylin Williams, who returned it 36 yards, setting up Indiana's dagger score. The Hoosiers built a 38-21 lead with 8:40 left on a two-yard run by Stevie Scott.
The Wolverines reached the IU 35, but after taking a sack, Milton had his second interception of the game with 5:05 left.
Milton was 18-of-34 for 344 yards. He had touchdown passes to Cornelius Johnson, Roman Wilson and Bell. But he got no help from the running game, considered the strength of the offense entering this season. Michigan obviously had to rely on its pass game in catch-up, but finished the game with 13 rushing yards on 18 carries — .7 per carry. That includes the three sacks of Milton for 20 yards.
The way Michigan started the game looked a lot like the previous week in the loss to Michigan State. The Hoosiers led 24-7 at halftime and made clear early they had no problem moving the ball in the air against Michigan's defense with its inexperienced cornerbacks.
Indiana had 294 yards, including 254 passing. Penix was 22 of 32 with touchdowns of 13, 24 and 1 yard. The Hoosiers took the lead first, as MSU did the week before, and Michigan tied the game, but Indiana scored 17 unanswered points.
Michigan, strung from the loss to MSU, was stagnant in the first half at Indiana. The Wolverines were without starting offensive tackles Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes, both not making the trip because of injuries. Karsen Barnhart filled in at left tackle, freshman Zak Zinter was inserted at right guard for Andrew Stueber who moved to right tackle.
The Wolverines got little going on offense the first half and mustered 111 yards, including 15 rushing — that total took a hit when Milton was sacked for a 13-yard loss on their final series of the half. Michigan was 0-of-6 on third down, while IU was an efficient 5 of 8.
Michigan radio analyst Dan Dierdorf, who has been working the Wolverines games since 2014, declared it the "worst half" of UM football he had seen since being in the radio booth.
He wasn't wrong — Michigan had four three-and-outs in seven possessions.
Clearly, this wasn't all on the offense. The defense, which played most of the game without starting defensive end Hutchinson, who left the game early in the first quarter with an apparent right ankle injury, had three tackles for loss but couldn't get to Penix for a sack. Indiana finished with five tackles for loss and three sacks.
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