Michigan Football: Grading the Wolverines win over Rutgers

Handing out grades for the Wolverines following Michigan football’s win over Rutgers on Saturday. 

Michigan football struggled for a half against Rutgers but even when the Wolverines struggled, they were playing good football for the most part.

The Wolverines missed a couple of field goals. J.J. McCarthy missed a wide-open Andrel Anthony for what would have been a touchdown. 

Yet, the running game was working and it took a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, along with everything else, to allow Rutgers to take a 17-14 lead into the half.

It was the first time that Michigan football trailed at halftime of a game all season. But Michigan wouldn’t trail for long.

The Wolverines forced a three-and-out, then quickly scored after two elite throws from J.J. McCarthy to Donovan Edwards. Three interceptions and 21 points, as a result, had the lead up to 42-17 by the end of the third and suddenly, a tight game was a blowout.

Here’s the report card.

Offense: A-

Outside of a sluggish start from J.J. McCarthy and a lack of imaginative play-calling at times in the first half, it’s hard to say anything too negative about Michigan’s offense. The Wolverines got a defensive TD and a couple of turnovers but scored 52 points and had 433 yards of offense.

The running game produced 282 yards and two 100-yard rushers as Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards each went over 100 yards rushing for the second time in three weeks.

McCarthy missed Anthony in the first half and was a little shaky. But he was solid in the second half and threw two touchdowns. McCarthy completed fewer than 50 percent of his throws but the offense still didn’t have a turnover.

It also possessed the ball for 37 minutes and picked up 22 first downs.