Everyone knows how blowouts work. Through efficient offense and a stout defense, a team builds a big lead. Then the team pulls its starters, closes the playbook and safely high-steps into victory formation.
Rarely do they involve temper tantrums, livid halftime speeches or two-point conversions. But then again, Jim Harbaugh is a rare breed.
Less than a quarter into Saturday’s game, the Michigan coach and his staff had done their jobs. Rutgers has been an embarrassment on and off the field this season, and looked the part Saturday.
Jake Rudock had a career day despite still recovering from a rib injury, Michigan’s defense didn’t allow a touchdown and 17 Wolverines had a catch or carry en route to the team’s largest offensive output of the season. Whatever Michigan’s game plan was, it worked.
No matter what angle you look at the game from, the Wolverines cruised from start to finish, moving one step closer to their postseason aspirations.
Michigan thoroughly drove the Scarlet Knights into the ground, but Harbaugh refused to coast.
“Maybe from where you were sitting it seemed like a lopsided (game), but from where I was standing with the kickoff returns and punt returns … I play out those bad scenarios in my head,” Harbaugh said. “(We were just) playing. Playing as fast as you can as hard as you can as long as you can. That’s what our guys did today and I’m very proud of them for doing that.”
Instead of coasting, Harbaugh accelerated. The coach protested the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that “offended” him, elected to attempt a two-point conversion when up by 25, and waited as long as he possibly could to start running out the clock.
He also chewed out his team for only being up by 19 at halftime.
“He was livid in the locker room,” said redshirt freshman safety Jabrill Peppers. “He was angry because we weren’t really covering kicks at our best, and the defense wasn’t really playing how we should have been playing. He got after us a bit in the locker room, and we always try to find a way to respond the best way we can.”
Naturally, the Wolverines shut out Rutgers in the second half.
By now, fans and players alike have come to expect this from Harbaugh. He gets paid $5 million a year to win football games and, outside of close losses to No. 7 Michigan State and No. 12 Utah, has done that. Michigan has outscored opponents by a 238-56 margin in its seven wins.
More importantly, his players have taken after the coach’s unrelenting ways. The Wolverines, led by Harbaugh, did not take kindly to Rutgers celebrating a field goal that brought the Scarlet Knights within 19 to end the first half.
“(The Rutgers players) were just saying things like, ‘It’s our time, this second half. We the comeback kids. These guys can’t really finish games,’ ” Peppers said. “That just added the extra fuel to the fire.”
Added senior safety Jarrod Wilson: “I love it. Give the opponents no chance. Give them no hope.”
After Saturday’s win, Michigan enters the toughest three-game stretch of its season. Traveling to Indiana and Penn State before hosting No. 4 Ohio State, the Wolverines aren’t getting a late break as they continue to contend for a Big Ten title.
But thanks to a coach who doesn’t seem to know what a break is, they don’t want one anyway.
“He’s the ultimate competitor,” said junior tight end Jake Butt. “I think that’s pretty clear at this point; everybody knows that. I think down to the last tick on the clock, he’s going to be competing for everything. If it’s a call or if it’s a bad block, he’s going to be out there getting fired up and getting everyone around him fired up.”
It’s not your typical blowout, but it’s more fun this way.