Michigan Football: 5 Things we learned from wild win at Rutgers

Michigan football rallied from 17 points down to knock off Rutgers Saturday, but a win is a win and here’s what we learned from it.

If there is one person that Michigan football fans can be thankful for this week, it’s Cade McNamara, because without him, the Wolverines would be 1-4.

Instead, in his first experience in a truly competitive game, McNamara pulled a Scott Dreisbach (almost) and engineered one of the largest comebacks in Michigan football history as the Wolverines rallied from 17-0 down to win 48-42 in overtime.

And the redshirt freshman quarterback was simply outstanding. He completed 27 of 36 passes for 260 yards and threw four touchdowns. He added a rushing touchdown in overtime for good measure on what ended up being the winning score.

It held up when Daxton Hill made his biggest play as a Wolverine, capturing the game-winning interception that allowed U-M to escape by the skin of its teeth.

The fact that the defense squandered a 35-27 lead with an 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter was a tough pill to swallow. As was the first overtime sequence when Michigan ran McNamara on third and three, then missed a field goal on fourth down.

If Rutgers hadn’t gotten so conservative on its next drive, the Scarlet Knights probably would have won the game. But they did and the Wolverines did just enough and grabbed some much-needed momentum with Penn State and Maryland coming to Ann Arbor the next two weeks.

We’ll break everything down, but first, let’s start with the most important thing we learned, which is that Michigan football has a new starting quarterback:

Cade McNamara is the new starting quarterback

Jim Harbaugh can say whatever he wants and he didn’t say who would be the starting quarterback, but if he doesn’t start McNamara, he will have truly lost it.

Just like the Wisconsin game, things changed the second McNamara went into the game, which begged the question, what took so long? If he had played against Michigan State, there’s a good chance this team would be 3-2.

At any rate, the 2020 Rutgers game turned out somewhat like the 2017 game, in that the Wolverines made a quarterback switch in that game and didn’t go back. Brandon Peters took over for John O’Korn and rallied U-M for a win. McNamara did the same, only in more dramatic fashion.

But it’s amazing how much better the offense looks. Cornelius Johnson had a breakout game with four receptions for 87 yards and two touchdowns. But seven, yes seven receivers caught four passes or more and it was a thing of beauty.

Before we crown McNamara the next best thing, let’s remember it was Rutgers. But still, it was a memorable performance and like Dreisbach, who engineered a 19-point come-from-behind win over Virginia, he will always have his place in Michigan lore.