Michigan Football: 3 things we learned from win over Maryland

The Michigan football team notched an impressive win over Maryland Saturday, here are three important things we learned in the win.

Following the loss to Notre Dame, people wondered whether this Michigan football team was really as good as it was advertised to be. Five weeks later, we still don’t have the answer to that but after the Wolverines dismantled Maryland 42-21 Saturday, we are getting close to finding out.

The win over Maryland improved Michigan football to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten Conference. Since losing to the Irish, all the Wolverines have done is win and the only close call came last week against Northwestern.

Playing at home yesterday, against a 3-1 team that owned a win over Texas, Michigan football dominated. Near the end of three quarters, the Terrapins had just 42 yards of total offense. A couple of late scores and drives changed that, yet outside of a special teams touchdown, the Terps got 14 points in garbage time, that’s it.

Offensively, Michigan started slowly. However, the power running game got things going and converted a number of third and shorts. Ben Mason powered his way into the end zone for the first score and Shea Patterson threw for three more, finding Ronnie Bell, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Jared Wangler for touchdowns.

It was exactly the kind of football Michigan wants to play. The Wolverines want to pound the rock, play great defense and let their quarterback make plays. The formula was perfect against Maryland and soon, we will find out if it will work against Wisconsin, Michigan State and Penn State.

But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s look back at three things we learned from the win over Maryland.