Michigan Football: 3 Takeaways from win over Middle Tennessee State

Game one is in the books and Michigan football did what all had anticipated by overpowering the Blue Raiders in the season opener.

It was quite an auspicious beginning for Michigan football last night. The Blue Raiders capitalized furiously after the first turnover just moments into the new campaign and silenced the maize and blue crowd.  After the initial punch in the mouth, Shea Patterson calmly led his squad down the field and helped ease the early concerns of what could have been a scary debacle.

Middle Tennessee had a hard time blocking the suffocating blitzes of Don Brown. That really slowed down the game for the Michigan defense for the most part. Time and time again the defense was living in the backfield making Asher O’Hara uncomfortable.

It forced the Blue Raiders into loads of pressure and costly turnovers. Ambry Thomas displayed his wealth of talents and turned in the defensive performance of the evening after what he went through. If it wasn’t for the giveaways, Michigan possibly may have opened up the floodgates.

Patterson quickly found his rhythm with his patented deep downfield shots. The Blue Raiders secondary got consistently torched while getting behind in coverage far too often. It also opened up some gaps for Dylan McCaffrey, Christian Turner and Zach Charbonnet, who spearheaded the rushing attack, but Patterson was the primary story of the night on offense with his effectiveness.

Michigan gave it away one too many times in the first half, keeping the Blue Raiders closer than many liked. In the second, Michigan football got stymied at first, but slowly dictated the line of scrimmage on the inferior opponent, while finally widening the lead on the scoreboard. Defensively, the maize and blue buckled down to put the pesky Blue Raiders offense into submission.