It really wasn’t much of a decision.

With Michigan leading by a touchdown at the end of the first half against Rutgers, Jim Harbaugh was surrounded by two quarterbacks on the edge of the sideline. With their helmets on, Brandon Peters and John O’Korn listened to their coach as he relayed the first play of Michigan’s drive. For a brief second, it wasn’t clear who was about to enter the game. Both quarterbacks were ready to go.

But then Harbaugh pointed to Peters and that was all she wrote. Of course Harbaugh went with Peters. After all, the redshirt freshman led the Wolverines on a touchdown drive on the previous series.

Prior to that point, O’Korn struggled to do much of anything with the Michigan offense. The Wolverines were tied with the same Rutgers team they beat 78-0 in New Jersey last year. O’Korn hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass since the Purdue game when he took over for the injured Wilton Speight.

Harbaugh’s decision was easy. Peters promptly rewarded his coach’s no-brainer call by throwing his first career touchdown pass. It ended Michigan’s drought of 251 minutes without a score through the air.

During that stretch, Michigan lost two games with O’Korn under center and essentially ended its bid for a B1G East title and a College Football Playoff spot.

In those moments, it was easy to fault Harbaugh and the Michigan coaching staff for not engineering a more productive offense. Many called for a quarterback change when O’Korn threw three interceptions in a monsoon against MSU. At the very least, they questioned what Harbaugh was doing.

After seeing Peters finally step in and deliver a convincing victory on Saturday, it’s easy to question why Harbaugh waited so long.

Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Before anyone likens Peters to Tom Brady, it’s worth noting that it was Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are an improved team, but Michigan was still a 24-point favorite at home.

Still, it didn’t look like it when O’Korn was in the game.

Just as they did for the last month of Michigan’s frustrating 2017 season, the Wolverines looked like an extremely mediocre team. With Peters, Michigan looked like the team we expected to see in 2017.

He led the Wolverines to three straight touchdown drives. The game plan was simple — roll outs and high-percentage throws were staples — but effective. It was the same game plan that O’Korn failed to execute.

So why was Harbaugh so hesitant to try that out even sooner? Why was he so insistent on letting O’Korn try and figure it out while Michigan’s B1G title hopes evaporated?

Don’t forget that throughout spring, we kept hearing how Peters and Speight were on the same level. It was Harbaugh who wouldn’t declare a starter all offseason. If Peters was anywhere near the level Harbaugh suggested he was at, why couldn’t he get a shot sooner than Week 9?

It shouldn’t have mattered that Peters was a redshirt freshman. Jalen Hurts was one incomplete pass away from leading Alabama to a national title as a true freshman last year. True freshman Jake Fromm led No. 3 Georgia to its best start in 12 years. Like Peters, both earned their keep by executing simple, high-percentage throws and not making costly mistakes.

Above all else, Peters injected life into a lifeless offense.

When Speight went down and O’Korn filled in admirably against Purdue, it obviously bought him a lot of time. What else could explain the fact that he started the next four games? Entering Saturday, only Army and Georgia Southern had fewer touchdown passes than Michigan.

For what it’s worth, both of them run the triple option.

Michigan’s pass defense was a train wreck the last month. And while part of that was on the unproven group of pass-catchers, a lot of that was on O’Korn. It didn’t matter that he was a fifth-year senior.

Peters did things on Saturday that the veteran O’Korn couldn’t do the last month. Whether it was evading pressure or picking up big third downs, the redshirt freshman just moved the offense.

No one really knew for sure how good the offense would look with Peters under center. It wasn’t like he was going to be asked to throw the ball 50 yards downfield and make NFL throws. But it was hard to imagine that he would struggle as much as O’Korn.

For whatever reason, Harbaugh finally realized that on Saturday. That was why he decided to give Peters a shot. Whether he admits it or not, Saturday showed us something that became obvious in hindsight.

Peters came in a few weeks too late.