Michigan Football: Highlights, instant impressions from Wolverines win

Michigan football was impressive against Western Michigan, dominating on both sides of the ball. Here are highlights and instant reactions.

Heading into the season opener, Michigan football‘s players and coaches said the Wolverines wanted to run the ball and on Saturday that rang true.

Cade McNamara was solid and with Michigan football leading 33-7, he gave way to J.J. McCarthy in the third quarter. Prior to that, he threw for 163 yards and two touchdowns including a bomb in the second quarter to Ronnie Bell which blew the game open at 17-7.

Blake Corum was also a revelation and he actually scored Michigan football’s first touchdown of the game on a short pass turned run, as well as setting up a field goal with a long kickoff return.

Hassan Haskins who churned out 70 yards on 13 carries also broke out for a touchdown run just before halftime as the Wolverines built a 27-7 lead at the break.

Ever since Josh Gattis has taken over as the offensive coordinator, we have heard about speed in space and on Saturday, we saw some of it, including this TD run by A.J. Henning.

https://twitter.com/BigTenNetwork/status/1434218963299278849

J.J. McCarthy was able to get some experience and had some learning moments such as a backward pass which was a big loss of yardage but was also spectacular.

The defense, after allowing a score on the opening drive, was dominant. It didn’t force any turnovers, but it was stingy, allowing just over 300 yards and only 14 points, which included a late touchdown for the Broncos.

Here are our instant impression from Michigan football’s win.

The running game delivered

Trevor Keegan talked about it this week and it’s been a theme all offseason: The running game needed to dominate for Michigan football and it did that Saturday.

The Wolverines, as they should, pushed around Western Michigan. Cade McNamara didn’t have to do much as Michigan racked up over 300 yards and three touchdowns runs that covered 22 yards, 74 yards, and 30 yards.

Simply put, Corum (111 rush yards) was special. That’s why you heard Harbaugh say he’s 1B compared to Haskins who is 1A. While that designation might turn into 1A and 1A, it’s an impressive duo.

And even without Zak Zinter playing the full game — he saw some time — the offensive line was stellar and that was a really good sign. It also led to more than 500 total yards.

Explosive plays everywhere

This offense needed to create more explosive plays and Saturday was a great start. There were three touchdowns that covered at least 69 yards and two of them were touchdowns passes.

One of those was a dazzling throw from five-star freshman J.J. McCarthy who avoided a sack, threw across his body and hit Daylen Baldwin for a 69-yard score.

It was the cherry on top of what was nearly a perfect day.

Everything we’ve heard is true…so far

Michigan football came into this game as a 17-point favorite. Phil Steele actually had Western Michigan ranked ahead of the Wolverines in his preseason rankings.

How did the Wolverines respond? Well, they certainly looked like a top-25 team and while I don’t care if they are ranked next week, they played up to their talent and utterly destroyed a pretty solid team expected to contend in the MAC.

The culture looked great. You could tell this team had chemistry and the new coaching staff made an impact. Mike Macdonald did a heck of a job on defense and loved the way he used Daxton Hill as a nickel defender.

Michigan wasn’t afraid to play some young players and there were a lot of positives. Now, that has to carry over to Washington, which is the real test next week.

The downer

Of course, the cloud hanging over the win was the injury to Ronnie Bell. It didn’t look good and while we don’t know the severity, you just feel awful for Bell.

In just a short time, he caught a 76-yard touchdown and also returned a kickoff across midfield, as well as the one-handed grab that was taken off the board due to a bogus penalty.

Losing him would really hurt this team and makes you ache for Bell, who seemed poised for a monster season judging by his fast start.