Michigan Football: 5 things we learned about Wolverines against Illinois

Michigan football knocked off Illinois 42-25 Saturday and while there were plenty of good things, there were some bad signs too. Here’s what we learned.

For nearly two quarters, Michigan football looked pretty dominant Saturday in Champaign as the Wolverines raced out to a 28-0 lead in their second Big Ten road game of the season.

But when, just when you thought it was going to be smooth sailing against a team that actually has a pulse, sorry Rutgers, the same-old mistakes emerged again.

Zach Charbonnet had an outstanding game, as did Hassan Haskins. As I predicted earlier this week, the running game exploded and racked up 295 yards, with both Charbonnet and Haskins eclipsing 100 yards. Tru Wilson also had 40 yards. Yet, he had a key fumble.

The Wilson fumble came after Illinois had scored 17 unanswered points, which followed a 28-0 start by the Wolverines. When the Fighting Illini cashed in and converted for two, it was 28-25 with nearly the entire fourth quarter to play.

As frustrating as it was, Michigan still had to produce in gut-check time. Thankfully, it did. Shea Patterson did.

Patterson’s performance was rocky but he came through when he needed to, converting a fourth down and finding Donovan Peoples-Jones for a touchdown.

Plenty of questions linger, but that response is encouraging. Each week is a lesson and yesterday, I learned that if Michigan football plays the way it did in the first and fourth quarters, it will have a shot at Penn State.

If it’s that other team, it could mirror the blowout we saw back in 2017. But back to Illinois, here are five things we learned.