Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from beat down of Michigan State

Michigan football is a legitimate contender in the Big Ten and for the playoffs

Michigan football achieved a lot on Saturday. It was the Wolverines first win over a ranked team on the road since 2006. It was also the first really big rivalry game victory and also the first really big road win of the Jim Harbaugh era.

All that stuff really matters, but more than anything, it was a win over Michigan State. This was also a win that Michigan wouldn’t have gotten last season or maybe even in 2016. The Wolverines were incredible on defense and the offense was solid too, outside of two really bad fumbles.

Those two plays and a missed field goal by Nordin kept the Spartans in the game. After the second fumble by Higdon, when Michigan was driving for the lead, you felt like things might fall apart again.

Nope, not this time.

Michigan got a stop and on the next play, Patterson threw the touchdown to Peoples-Jones. Then Michigan’s defense sealed the deal. With a quarterback, a pretty effective running game, an emboldened Harbaugh and maybe the best defense in the country, this team is good enough to run the table and that includes Ohio State.