Michigan vs. Rutgers: Five takeaways after a Michigan victory
Rutgers has played Michigan tough the past two seasons. Even though the Wolverines entered the game as the No. 5 team and the Scarlet Knights had a pedestrian 4-4 record, it was no different on Saturday night.
The maize and blue looked like an average football team in the first half on Saturday. Michigan made plenty of uncharacteristic mistakes early on. The Wolverines had three penalties, lackluster defensive coverage, the deep ball couldn’t connect on offense, Brad Robbins had a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown, and Jake Moody missed two field goal attempts.
With so many miscues, Michigan entered halftime trailing for the first time all season. The Scarlet Knights led the Wolverines, 17-14.
But as has been the case all season, Michigan came out a different team in the second half. The Wolverines outscored Rutgers, 28-0, in the third quarter. Michigan has outscored its opponents in the third quarter, 84-6, this season.
Michigan intercepted Gavin Wimsatt three times, and one was returned for a touchdown by Michael Barrett.
The Wolverines cruised to a 52-17 victory and moved to 9-0 on the year. Here are our five takeaways from Michigan’s win against the Scarlet Knights.
Michigan scored touchdowns in the red zone
Photo by: Isaiah Hole
We all know that Michigan has struggled to score touchdowns when it gets into the red zone. Entering the game against Rutgers, the Wolverines had scored 28 touchdowns on 44 red zone possessions.
But the Wolverines had a much better showing Saturday evening against the Scarlet Knights.
The Wolverines went entered the red zone seven times against Rutgers and six times Michigan scored touchdowns.
Not all six times were pretty though. Twice the Wolverines had the ball inside the five-yard line and it took Michigan all four downs to punch the ball into the end zone.
The Wolverines still have predictable playcalling when they get close to the goal line, but Saturday was a great stepping stone to fixing the red zone woes that haunt Michigan.
Defense got the job done without key players
Photo by: Isaiah Hole
Michigan was without several defensive players against Rutgers: Jaylen Harrell, Makari Paige and Kalel Mullings. Gemon Green suited up but he wasn’t out there very much.
But the Michigan defense continued to look dominant.
The Wolverines produced solid pressure against Gavin Wimsatt and sacked him three times. Michigan forced three interceptions. Two of those were by Michael Barrett — one being a pick six — and freshman Will Johnson recorded his first-career interception during his first start at Michigan.
Rutgers entered the game ranked 121st in total offense, so it’s not like Michigan beat up a good offense. But the Wolverines did exactly what they needed to do.
The maize and blue allowed Rutgers to catch a couple of 50/50 balls. DJ Turner allowed a touchdown on one, but the secondary was vastly improved in the second half.
After the third quarter, Rutgers had three rushing yards.
Donovan Edwards and the youth shined
Photo by: Isaiah Hole
Blake Corum did Blake Corum things once again. He carried the ball 20 times for 109 yards and scored two touchdowns.
The Wolverines not only kept Corum in the Heisman race, but Michigan allowed its youth to shine. That meant Donovan Edwards had a big game. Edwards had 109 yards on 15 carries. The sophomore back clicked with McCarthy in the passing game catching three balls for 52 yards and a score.
The maize and blue were without Roman Wilson on Saturday and we saw Amorion Walker and Tyler Morris see some action early against Rutgers. Walker didn’t record a catch but he was targeted and Morris caught one ball and it was a big-time catch. It was on third down and it allowed the chains to move which later resulted in Edwards’ touchdown.
Even on defense, Will Johnson played a great game during his first start and Mason Graham had a couple of big stops up the middle.
First-half play-calling and second-half dominance
Photo by: Isaiah Hole
Michigan has been a team of two halves all year. The Wolverines looked extremely vanilla in the first half. The maize and blue called a few deep shots for J.J. McCarthy, but outside of the very first play to Ronnie Bell, he was unable to hit the deep ball. His receivers dropping the ball played a part of that.
So Michigan resorted back to runs up the middle to try and keep the offense rolling. The Wolverines called two runs on third-and-5, and both were stuffed. There seemed to be no creativity in the first half, especially when Michigan entered the red zone, and that appeared to hinder the offense.
But the Wolverines came out of the locker room a new team. The entire team looked better and played with more confidence. Michigan incorporated some throws to the end zone when it reached the red zone, and the Wolverines scored two touchdowns when doing so. The maize and blue involved Donovan Edwards and Blake Corum using the zone runs instead of running behind the center.
It would be great to see the second-half Wolverines — the same ones we see weekly — in the first half from here on out. Play-calling has been more aggressive in the second half and the players appear to respond better because of it.
Special Teams had its worst game
Photo by: Isaiah Hole
Michigan’s special teams have been excellent the entire season, and it’s one of the strong points of the team.
Everyone has bad games, and the entire unit had a bad game against Rutgers.
It started when Brad Robbins’ punt was blocked and returned for a touchdown to give Rutgers its first touchdown of the game. Max Melton had a free rush — nobody picked him up — and got to Robbins easily.
Jake Moody missed two field goals in the first half. Both were from 50 yards. Those are never guaranteed makes, but Moody has been clutch all season and for him to miss two of them was unexpected.
The Wolverines also had a couple of penalties during special teams. Obviously, it didn’t come back to bite Michigan in the end, but it was noteworthy that the entire unit struggled — especially in the first half.
