Michigan Football: Grading Wolverines win vs Nebraska

Michigan football notched another win on the road this week against Nebraska and here are the grades for the 32-29 win.

It wasn’t always pretty and the Michigan football team will have plenty to focus on during the bye week, but the Wolverines are 6-0 and that’s something to celebrate.

The first half of the game was a fairly dominant effort for Michigan football and U-M led 13-0. The Wolverines allowed Nebraska to rally in the second half and fell behind for the first time all season.

At times, it looked like Michigan football was going to suffer its first loss. But it held on and here’s the report card for Nebraska.

Offense: B+

When you score over 30 points and gain more than 450 yards on the ground, that’s a pretty good day and this offense is pretty good.

It’s not incredibly explosive and there are plays left out on the field, particularly down the field in the passing game, but the offense is efficient and rarely makes mistakes. It also does make its fair share of explosive plays both in the running game and through the air.

Cade McNamara is who he is. He’s got an above-average arm and he’s a great leader. He doesn’t make mistakes and as he has proven the past two weeks, he’s more than capable as the starter.

His limitations are apparent though. He missed a couple of touchdowns down the field like on the completion to Mike Sainristil and he’ll never be a threat to run the ball.

But he’s calm, cool, and collected, and he’s now led Michigan football to come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter twice (Nebraska and Rutgers) and that counts for something.

The running game also broke out of its funk despite injuries at both guard spots, which shows you the willingness to run the football, as well as the ability of the running backs.

On the other hand, the red-zone offense is becoming an issue and if Michigan didn’t settle for so many field goals, the game would have been over earlier.