Michigan Football: Grading Wolverines win against Northern Illinois

Michigan football dominated Northern Illinois on Saturday and here are the grades from the Wolverines 63-10 win. 

You can feel the optimism surrounding the Michigan football program following a third consecutive win to open the season in dominating fashion.

The Wolverines have won two of three games against MAC teams, but overall, Michigan’s three wins have come by an average of 36 points. That’s an impressive margin of victory.

Michigan football is also leading the country in rushing and the execution of the offense has been something to see. It’s averaging 47 points a game which ranks third in the FBS, while the defense is allowing just 11 points per game which is 10th.

Michigan is now ranked 19th in the AP poll and all the analytics are looking really favorably upon the Wolverines’ 3-0 start. None of that stuff matters though. Just one win at a time.

Big Ten play starts next week and that will be a new challenge but here’s the report card for the win over Northern Illinois.

Offense: A+

You can hardly play any better than the Wolverines did on the offensive side of the ball Saturday.  Michigan football scored nine touchdowns on its first nine possessions. The Wolverines converted 8-of-14 third/fourth-down opportunities and scored every time in the red zone.

With 373 rushing yards and more than 600 total yards, as well as eight rushing touchdowns, and even 223 passing yards, including an 87-yard touchdown from Cade McNamara to Cornelius Johnson, the Wolverines dominated and were basically perfect.

Now, the offense just needs to keep playing at this level with Rutgers coming to town Saturday and many more challenges coming.