This is the Depth Dossier: the Michigan Wolverines, Week 8.

Michigan's defense was good enough to beat a top-six team, and the offense gave it nothing to work with.

The Wolverines lost 13 to 6 in overtime to Indiana despite actually outgaining the Hoosiers for the day. They got four trips to the red zone and scored zero touchdowns. That's the whole story right there.

Here's the quick version. Indiana came in averaging 449 yards a game, and Michigan held them to 212, with no regulation touchdown at all. Freshman quarterback Tommy Carr made his first career start and threw for 167 yards, but he also lost a fumble and threw an interception that set up Indiana field goals. The run game managed just 57 yards on 42 carries. Kicker Trey Butkowski hit two field goals, including a 26-yarder as time expired to force overtime, but Indiana scored in two plays in the extra period, and Carr's fourth-down pass on Michigan's possession fell incomplete.

Let's dig into how a team outguns a top-six opponent and still loses. Michigan finished with 224 yards and 16 first downs to Indiana's 212 and 11. Normally that kind of edge shows up on the scoreboard. Instead, it's a lesson in finishing drives.

The game actually turned early in the third quarter, first and goal from the Indiana one-yard line. Offensive coordinator Jason Beck called a play-action rollout instead of just running it in. Indiana's Tobi Osunsanmi read it immediately and sacked Carr for a 13-yard loss, and Butkowski missed the following field goal attempt. Head coach Kyle Whittingham admitted afterward that it wasn't a good call. That one sequence turned a near-certain touchdown into zero points, in a game Michigan lost by seven.

Butkowski's day was a mixed bag. He missed from 53 and 32 yards, but made the 26-yarder at the buzzer that forced overtime. So he kept Michigan alive, while also costing them chances to not need overtime in the first place.

The defense was genuinely the best story here. Cornerback Zeke Berry picked off quarterback Josh Hoover in the third quarter, Indiana's first interception thrown all season, and it set up Michigan's first points. Safety Chris Bracy racked up a career-high 13 tackles. Indiana converted just four of 14 third downs and never got into the end zone in regulation. It was a defensive effort that deserved a win it didn't get.

And both of Indiana's scoring drives in regulation traced right back to Michigan turnovers. Carr fumbled an option pitch in the first quarter that set up one Indiana field goal, and his deflected interception set up another. Those weren't long sustained Indiana drives. They were gifts.

No injuries were reported, so this is purely about performance, not availability.

Carr's first start didn't settle Michigan's quarterback situation, it complicated it. He moved the ball well at times, going 20 of 32 for 167 yards and leading a seven-and-a-half-minute drive to tie the game, capped by a 24-yard completion to wide receiver Channing Goodwin. But he also turned the ball over twice in costly spots and took four sacks behind an offensive line that averaged just 1.4 yards per carry. Whittingham cautioned against judging Carr off one start, which suggests this job isn't closing anytime soon.

The bigger issue looks structural. With the run game stuck under 60 yards, the protection breaking down repeatedly, and a goal-line call that backfired, this looks less like a quarterback problem and more like an everything-but-defense problem. That puts real pressure on Beck's play-calling and the offensive line to improve before the staff even considers another change at quarterback.

On defense, Berry and Bracy both strengthened their standing. Berry's interception was the first thrown by Hoover all year, and Bracy's 13 tackles came on the heels of being named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week against Penn State. Neither job was really in question, but it's going to be even harder to take snaps from either of them now.

Butkowski remains the guy who can make the clutch kick and also miss the makable one, worth watching if Michigan lands in another one-score game. The next opponent hasn't been specified yet, but the standing question going forward is simple: can Beck and the offensive line give Carr, or whoever starts, actual room to operate?

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