Saturday’s 13-6 overtime loss to Indiana landed in the kind of territory Michigan fans don’t forget easily. The Wolverines had four possessions that began inside Indiana’s 12-yard line and came away with just three points and one yard from those drives.
That kind of output is hard to even process. After the Minnesota game, the scrutiny fell on Bryce Underwood. He threw two first-half interceptions and got benched, and the 36 rushing yards were ugly too.
Then Michigan flashed something different against Penn State, when the Wolverines piled up 175 rushing yards in the second half. That raised the question of whether it was real progress or just a mirage for an offense that averaged 210 rushing yards per game in 2025, with most of those players back.
Saturday answered that. Jason Beck went back to the Rhino and back to the same things that had failed for five straight games. The result was a wreck: 41 rushing attempts, 57 yards.
Indiana’s defense is good, but it is not that good. That performance was awful, and there’s no way around it.
The larger picture is even uglier. Over Michigan’s last 27 drives that did not start after a defensive takeaway, the Wolverines have managed only 3 points. In that stretch, they’ve had 17 punts, five interceptions, and a fumble.
That means the offense has produced twice as many turnovers as points.
The sequence tells the story all by itself:
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
INT
INT
PUNT
PUNT
DOWNS
PUNT
PUNT
INT
PUNT
INT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT
FMB
PUNT
INT
PUNT
MISSED FG
MISSED FG
PUNT
PUNT
MADE FG
27 drives, 17 punts, 5 picks, 1 fumble,
3 points.
Wow.
Seven games into the 2026 season, Michigan’s offense has become one of the worst the program has ever put on the field. That is especially jarring because the defense has been outstanding. Indiana did not score on a single drive that started in its own territory.
And at this point, the problem doesn’t look like a quarterback issue, or a running back issue, or a receiver issue, or an offensive line issue. It looks like a Jason Beck issue.
The frustrating part is that Kyle Whittingham keeps pointing back to Beck’s past success while the present keeps getting worse. If this doesn’t get an offensive coordinator fired, it’s hard to know what would.
The biggest problem may be that Whittingham doesn’t seem to see it.
In Other News...
Michigan May Have A Costly Kyle Whittingham Decision Coming
Kyle Whittinghams first year in Ann Arbor has already put Michigan in a familiar modern college-football bind: the bigger the coaching gamble, the bigger the financial consequences if it does not work out. Whittingham was hired on a five-year, $41 million deal, and the buyout language attached to the contract means Michigan would owe 75% of his remaining salary if it moved on without cause, a figure that currently sits at $25.8 million.
The same concern extends to offensive coordinator Jason Beck, whose three-year, $9 million contract carries its own financial protections if the school decides to change direction before the deal runs out. For Michigan, the issue is no longer just whether the staff is delivering on the field, but how much it would cost to reset if the results never catch up to the investment. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Escaped Michigan But A Bigger Problem Is Starting To Show
Indianas 13-6 overtime win in Ann Arbor was the kind of road result that will be remembered in Bloomington for decades, not just because it finally broke a drought stretching back to 1967, but because it came in a game defined by offensive frustration on both sides. Michigan never found a rhythm, managing only three yards per play, while Indiana was hardly any cleaner despite leaving with the win.
For Michigan, the larger concern may be what the performance said about the offense itself, especially with freshman quarterback Tommy Carr making his first career start. Carr got off to a shaky beginning and the Wolverines never fully recovered, letting Indiana hang around long enough to create the opening that decided the game. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Wasted A Defensive Effort Fans Wont Soon Forget
Michigans defense turned in one of those performances that should have been enough to win on almost any night, keeping Indiana out of the end zone for all of regulation and allowing only six points before overtime. The problem was on the other side of the ball, where the offense never found enough rhythm to reward that effort, leaving a game that was there to be taken slipping into extra time.
Tommy Carr finished 20 of 32 for 167 yards with an interception, and the ground game never gave Michigan much help, producing just 57 yards on 42 carries. Indiana needed only an early touchdown in overtime to end it, turning a gut-punch loss into a reminder of how thin the margin can be when a defense does everything right and the offense cannot finish the job. [Read more 🡒]