Michigan hammered Rutgers the way the Wolverines were supposed to, taking a 24-0 lead at the half on the way to a dominant, 52-0 victory.
As for what we learned Saturday …
Not a whole lot, other than the team did what it should against an overmatched opponent.
The Scarlet Knights are the worst team in the Big Ten, even worse when second-string quarterback Artur Sitkowski is playing (and he started Saturday). The U-M offense controlled the ball for 17:05 and limited Rutgers’ possessions, and while neither line dominated in the first half, they were good enough against bad competition.
Good enough, however, isn’t going to be good enough against the tougher teams on the schedule, starting next week with Iowa. And while there was improvement … well, there should have been. Not only is Rutgers bad, they’re banged up.
But … you can only play who’s in front of you, and head coach Jim Harbaugh liked a lot of what he saw — not just Saturday, but all week after challenging his team following a 35-14 loss at Wisconsin.
“It should be encouragement to them. When you’re down, your back is against the wall, you’ve got to come out and fight,” Harbaugh said. “You’ve got to sustain; you’ve got to work harder. You’ve got to work smarter, got to be tougher, mentally and physically.
“That’s the only way to do it in our opinion. They really set themselves to doing that, so that’s one week. Now you go about doing it another week.”
Every week, in fact, if you want to be a factor in the Big Ten race.
