J.J. McCarthy may not have filled up the stat sheet on Saturday or had to come up with a big play late, but the Michigan quarterback turned in the kind of performance many inside the program were hoping for.
He bounced back from an ugly three-interception game a week earlier against Bowling Green, throwing for 214 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 51 yards in a 31-7 win over Rutgers, the Wolverines’ Big Ten opener.
And, perhaps most importantly, he did it without making a major mistake. No turnovers, no mental errors.
“I’m a perfectionist,” McCarthy, who completed 15 of his 21 throws against Rutgers, said. “I try to go out there and throw more touchdowns than incompletions, and sometimes it doesn’t work out like that.”
McCarthy blamed an inordinate amount of pressure he placed on himself in that game against Bowling Green, a Mid-American Conference team that entered as 40-point underdogs according to oddsmakers. His first interception came in the first quarter with Michigan leading 7-0, and his second pick coming early in the second with the Wolverines clinging to a 7-6 advantage.
The third turnover, when McCarthy inadvertently lobbed the ball up over the field of play instead of throwing it away, came late in the third with Michigan holding a comfortable lead.
