Big Ten Power Rankings, Week 4: Michigan’s offense sputters again

4

Michigan Wolverines (3-0)

Last week: W vs. Air Force, 29-13
Last rank: 3rd

Even though Michigan has started the season 3-0, there’s a reason why the fans have booed the team for two consecutive weeks. For the second straight game, Michigan had to pull away late in the fourth quarter against a team they should’ve steamrolled.

While Quinn Nordin will feel proud for tying a school record with five field goals, Jim Harbaugh won’t be happy that they failed to find the endzone in all four of their red zone attempts. Through three weeks, they rank dead last among Power Five schools in percentage of red zone trips that end in touchdowns.

Perhaps because Michigan is a name brand school and have started the season 3-0, they’re ranked 8^th in the AP Poll, meaning they’re the second-best team in the Big Ten. However, that doesn’t reflect how they’ve played so far. I wouldn’t put them ahead of Ohio State or Wisconsin, I wouldn’t even put them ahead of Georgia. Even in their win against Florida, they were playing a team that had 10 players suspended.

It’s clear that Michigan’s offense has lacked the creativity and explosiveness they displayed last season when they averaged over 40 points a game. There are some positives to take with them heading into conference play, namely that Don Brown has their defense looking even better than last year’s. And in Nordin, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Devin Bush, Harbaugh’s recruits have been among the standout players for Michigan, so he’s clearly doing something right in that regard.

But while settling for field goals and relying on defense is good enough to beat the Air Forces and Cincinnatis of the world, it won’t get them past the other top teams in the Big Ten East.

3

Ohio State Buckeyes (2-1, 1-0)

Last week: W vs. Army, 38-7
Last rank: 4th

Even after coming off a crushing loss to Oklahoma, few people expected Ohio State to lose in Week 3. There are some questions regarding the secondary, but Army’s triple-option offense posed no threats to them, considering they came into the game allowing 1.9 yards per rushing attempt.

There were plenty of Ohio State fans that called for J.T. Barrett to get benched, but he showed in this game why he’s so valuable to the program. By rushing for a touchdown and throwing for two, Barrett broke Drew Brees’ Big Ten record for all-time touchdowns. It was a return to form for Barrett, who was efficient in both the passing and running game.

But the real story of the game for Ohio State was J.K. Dobbins. He managed to put up 172 yards on just 13 carries, although 52 of them came on a long touchdown run. Through three games of his college career, he has made Mike Weber an afterthought in this Buckeyes offense – if you want to know how crushed his confidence is, Parris Campbell had more rushing yards than Weber.

The good thing about losing to a top-five team is that Ohio State can still manage to make the College Football Playoff. But the only way they’ll do that is by running the table, making their margin for error very small.