Michigan Football: 5 things we learned from win over Rutgers

The health of a few key players is much improved

Whether we like it or not, injuries made an impact on the effectiveness of the offense early in the season and Saturday, with guys like Donovan Peoples-Jones and Jon Runyan Jr. healthy, as well as Shea Patterson, it made a difference.

Patterson seemed confident in his decisions and was much more willing to run. That opened up some nice things throwing the football for him and led to three rushing touchdowns.

Peoples-Jones also seemed 100 percent that’s a gamechanger for the offense. He caught four passes for 62 yards but he looked like the DPJ of old, the one that can do things in the open field.

The pass protection was also much better with the caveat that again, it was Rutgers. However, Patterson was only sacked once and he had a lot more time to throw. Just like other groups, the offensive line needs confidence and yesterday had to help, even though Jalen Mayfield did get beat really bad on at least one dropback.

Runyan was better though and Tru Wilson also came back, which I guarantee will help the pass protection next week vs Iowa. Injuries are a bad excuse, but that doesn’t mean getting key guys healthy isn’t important.