Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines win vs Washington

Michigan football rolled to a 31-10 victory over Washington Saturday night and here’s the report card for the Wolverines.

In its first real test of the 2021 season, Michigan football passed with flying colors beating one of the most talented teams in the country by three scores with 44 passing yards.

I wouldn’t have thought that was possible prior to Saturday. But I also didn’t expect Michigan to rush for over 300 yards for the second week in a row.

In two games, the defense has allowed 24 points, while Michigan football has put 78 points on the board. The Wolverines haven’t turned the ball over once in two games.

Obviously, some fans wanted to see more from quarterback Cade McNamara last night, but after last season’s disaster, Michigan fans should just be happy the Wolverines pounded a team ranked 17th in the 247 sports team talent rankings for 2021.

And on that note, here are the grades for Michigan’s 31-10 win.

Offense: A-

Washington has one of the best defenses in college football and it has for years. The Huskies have the longest streak of not allowing 35 points in the country and while Michigan didn’t reach that mark, the Wolverines got close with 31 points and 387 yards.

Yes, it would have been nice to see McNamara and the passing game do more. But Washington was giving up big chunks of rushing yards and the coaching staff was right to keep exploiting it.

I would like to see fewer bubble screens and things like that. They just weren’t working, so adjust and do something different.

McNamara and the offense will need to be better and it’s easy to forget U-M did waste a goal-to-go situation when Hassan Haskins was stopped on fourth down.

However, Haskins and Balke Corum each went over 150 yards and on three touchdown drives in the second half, Michigan only needed to complete one pass.

That’s stone-cold effective. But the Wolverines have to know it won’t work all season.