Michigan Football: 5 things we learned from win over Indiana

Looking back at Michigan football and its win over Indiana, here are five things we learned about the Wolverines in their latest win. 

The win over Indiana isn’t one to write home about. It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t pretty but it was a victory and it was the eighth of the 2021 season for Michigan football.

At the start of the season, many fans would have been happy with eight wins. Most prognosticators projected Michigan football to win 7-8 games and who could blame them after a terrible 2-4 campaign in 2020.

But through nine games, the Wolverines and head coach Jim Harbaugh have proven that was a fluke. It doesn’t mean this program has taken the next step — it still hasn’t as last Saturday showed but it hasn’t fallen off from its regular winning ways under Harbaugh either.

And with ranked teams (seven total) losing to unranked teams all across the country, Michigan football will take a 22-point win and be happy, especially with Purdue helping out the Wolverines and possibly getting them back in the Big Ten East race.

Michigan still needs Ohio State to beat MSU and then the Wolverines need to win out. But if the Buckeyes beat the Spartans, Michigan will control its own destiny and in terms of the College Football Playoff, it might already, regardless of what happens.

But before looking too far down the road, let’s look back at Indiana and five things we learned.

Ho-hum can still be impressive

It was a ho-hum performance for Michigan football but the fact that the Wolverines racked up over 400 yards of offense, held Indiana to under 200, and won by 22 in what is considered just a normal day at the office says something about this team.

The expectations are high and they should be. And while the offense wasn’t super sharp in this one, the defensive line was and that’s where Michigan football won the game.

And even though Harbaugh hasn’t won as many big games as we all want him to, the Wolverines don’t lose games they shouldn’t, at least not very often and Saturday was a reminder of that.