Three storylines I’m Watching Most as Michigan Looks for a Bounce-Back Win Against Rutgers

After suffering its third loss of the season, Michigan football is back in action on Halloween and looking to get back on track. The Wolverines are hitting the road for just the second time this season, heading to New Jersey to take on Rutgers with a 12:30 p.m. kickoff time.

The Scarlet Knights are sitting at 2-5 overall and 1-3 in conference play, with their only Big Ten win coming against Maryland (37-30).

Here are three storylines I am watching most as the Wolverines look to get back in the win column.

Spoiler alert: none of these storylines will be defensive-related, as UofM has been phenomenal on that side of the ball.

The offense, however, has been lackluster. There is too much talent for them to be this bad. If the Wolverines could’ve generated even a little bit of offense against Indiana, they would’ve won that game.

Not being able to score a single touchdown and only gaining 224 yards of total offense isn’t going to get the job done against good opponents.

Michigan not being able to run the ball is seemingly unheard of in recent history. Yes, there have been a lot of years where throwing the ball has been a struggle, but they have always been able to fall back on the run game. Well, not this season.

Last week, Michigan ran for a total of 57 yards on 42 carries; Jordan Marshall led the team with 26 yards on the ground. That is objectively horrible.

Who to blame for the struggles running the ball is still a mixed bag. But one thing that is being brought up consistently by fans and analysts is the lack of running the ball between the tackles and downhill.

The Wolverines keep trying to run to the edge and it is continuously not working. But when they do run between the tackles, they are finding success, so why not keep it simple and do what works? That goes back to Jason Beck and the playcalling in Ann Arbor.

Michigan should be able to run for over 150 yards as a team this weekend; if they don’t, that is a problem. Rutgers give up nearly 200 yards per game on the ground.

Essentially eliminated from College Football Playoff contention, the season isn’t going as expected and they've dropped three of their last four games; will this team fold?

Watching the body language and the overall energy and sense of urgency will be interesting when this game kicks off Saturday afternoon.