Michigan Football: 3 things we learned in win over Northwestern

It wasn’t pretty but Michigan football rallied to beat Northwestern 20-17 on the road Saturday. Here are three things we learned from the win.

Winning away from home in the Big Ten Conference is never easy and the Michigan football team learned that Saturday against the Northwestern Wildcats.

Northwestern came into the game against Michigan football with a record of 1-2, but a team that is much better than that and early on, the Wildcats looked like the team that won 10 games a year ago.

Michigan started the game with two three-and-outs and suddenly, it was 10-0 Northwestern. After the Wolverines missed a fourth-down attempt in the second quarter, the Wildcats made it 17-0 and things were looking bleak.

Shea Patterson and the offense finally got going on the next drive and two long completions, one of 21 yards to Nick Eubanks and 26 yards to Nico Collins set the stage for a Karan Higdon touchdown, making the Northwestern lead 17-7 at the half.

In the third quarter, while the Michigan defense dominated, the offense scored two field goals, following a pair of 11-play drives. Yet, Northwestern still led in the fourth quarter, before another 11-play drive, one that featured some third-down heroics from Patterson, ended with a touchdown, Higdon’s second of the game.

That came with just a few minutes left. The Wolverines defense held and Michigan football left Evanston with a 4-1 record. More importantly, the Wolverines are 2-0 in the Big Ten and when it was all said and done, here are three things we learned from the win.