Grading Michigan Wolverines Football In A 47-14 Win Over Western Michigan

Grading Michigan football in every phase of a 47-14 blowout of Western Michigan.

The Wolverines came out heavy, putting three linemen right of sixth-year center Andrew Vastardis, including 320-pound guard Zak Zinter outside the tackle, on the first play.

It was clear then that head coach Jim Harbaugh wanted to establish a running game, and it succeeded. They rushed 11 times for 62 yards on first down in the first half alone, ripped off big plays of 74, 43, 30 and 22 yards (two for scores, one on a reverse to freshman receiver A.J. Henning) and finished with 334 yards rushing on 7.8 yards per carry.

It wasn’t perfect — nine carries in the first half alone went for three yards or less — but the line wore the Broncos down.

Redshirt freshman Cade McNamara threw only as much as he had to, and he moved the chains effectively in his two-plus quarters. He finished 9-of-11 passing for 136 yards and two scores, and the only two passes he missed were tipped at the line of scrimmage.

He had two perfectly thrown long balls, one called back (a 34-yarder to junior Ronnie Bell on a questionable offensive pass interference call) and a 76-yarder to Bell in which he hit him in stride.

Freshman J.J. McCarthy was 4-of-6 passing and threw a 69-yard, improvised touchdown pass to transfer Daylen Baldwin.

The line allowed only one sack.

Western Michigan seemed to abandon the run a bit early and had most of its ground success in the second half when the game was all but out of hand. They picked up 55 yards in the third quarter, averaging 7.0 yards per carry on five first-down runs — while there was some push, they never established a consistent running attack.

The Broncos finished with 126 yards on 32 carries, or 3.9 per carry.

Western Michigan quarterback Kaleb Eleby was the nation’s top-rated returning quarterback, but Michigan’s defense confused him. He completed 20 of 37 passes for 191 yards and averaged 9.6 yards per completion, including four gains of 20-plus yards, but he didn’t get the game-breaking plays he became accustomed to a year ago.

The Broncos did manage four receptions for 75 yards on third downs through three quarters when the Wolverines could have gotten them off the field.

For the game, they finished 8 for 17 on third down. That’s an area that needs to be shored up by U-

Freshman tailback Blake Corum was one of the stars here, ripping off a 79-yard kick return, while Bell broke a 31-yard punt return (on which he was injured).

Redshirt junior Brad Robbins averaged 43.5 yards on two punts, redshirt junior kicker Jake Moody made both of his field goals (37 and 20 yards) and the coverage teams were outstanding. The Broncos returned only two of Moody’s kicks, for 20 yards.

Punt returner Caden Kolesar took over for Bell but let two kicks land behind him. He’ll need to be more aggressive.

The Wolverines also blocked a 40-yard field goal in the third quarter, credit went to junior defensive end/outside linebacker Aidan Hutchinson.

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