ANN ARBOR, Mich. – J.J. McCarthy did not have his best game this weekend, as Michigan football took down Bowling Green in a sloppy Saturday night matchup.
He threw three interceptions, he missed a couple of open receivers, and the offense as a whole just looked out of sorts. It was a jarring difference from his crisp, nearly perfect performances against East Carolina and UNLV.
In the first two games, McCarthy completed 48 of 55 pass attempts for 558 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. He was completing nearly 90% of his passes for over 10 yards per attempt. It was the most impressive quarterbacking Michigan has gotten in a long, long time.
Those first two games validated what we heard about McCarthy all offseason. He was already very reliable in leading the Wolverines to an undefeated season as a first-time starter, but his coaches and teammates said he had gotten even better.
Clearly, that wasn’t just offseason blather. McCarthy looked every bit a first-round draft pick the first two games, and there’s plenty of reason to believe he’ll bounce back from Saturday’s performance.
But that game did serve as a reminder for Michigan fans that their quarterback isn’t perfect. In 2022, he went 13 games with just three interceptions before throwing a pair of costly pick-sixes in the playoff game against TCU.
His throws against Bowling Green were just as baffling. The first two picks were under-thrown, and on the third, he should have just tossed the ball out of bounds.
These types of games happen, and if McCarthy got it out of his system against Bowling Green, in a game Michigan still won by 25, that’s probably best-case scenario.
Jim Harbaugh is returning to the sidelines for the start of Big Ten play, and it should help the offense to have its coaching staff fully back in place. Rutgers is a much better team than those Michigan has faced so far, but McCarthy is always up for a challenge. Don’t be surprised if he’s right back in top form.