Michigan shows what poor clock management looks like against Indiana

No. 4 Michigan had a chance to take a halftime lead over Indiana but was doomed by some miserable clock management.

Michigan burned its final timeout with 24 seconds to go after a Chris Evans run to the IU 7-yard line. Evans run set up a third-and-2 play, and a handoff to fullback Ben Mason picked up the first down fairly easily.

The clock stopped to adjust the chains with 19 seconds left, and Michigan snapped its next play from the 3-yard line with 13 seconds left. Michigan seemingly had plenty of time to take two or even three shots into the end zone.

Instead, Michigan did what it absolutely could not do: Throw short of the goal line and away from the sidelines.

Shea Patterson hit Sean McKeon, but he was tackled inbounds at the 2-yard line. From there, UM went into panic mode and scrambled to get another play snapped as the clock ticked toward halftime. But it was to no avail.

Sure, Michigan didn’t get much help from the umpire in charge of spotting the ball, but UM wasn’t set properly anyway as time in the half expired. That’s just inexcusable.

Indiana coach Tom Allen was thrilled with the stop from his defense and took a 17-15 lead into the locker room.

On the other side, Jim Harbaugh, whose play-calling put his players in that situation, was incredulous and looked to the officials for an explanation.

While it was bad at the time, the terrible end of the half did not prove to be costly.

Despite the halftime deficit, Michigan came back and won, 31-20, to improve to 10-1 on the year. The win sets up an enormous matchup with rival Ohio State in Columbus next week. Because OSU survived Maryland in overtime, the UM-OSU game will decide the Big Ten East. On top of that, the loser will be eliminated from College Football Playoff contention.

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