Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from a persevering win over Illinois

3. Michigan won’t be as lucky if they play like that at Ohio State

Illinois is a quality football team. They played their hearts out and came up just short. Michigan, on the other hand, hadn’t been in this spot all year long and they were due for some major adversity. With that being said it is better to get it out of the way now than it suddenly happens in that environment that they are going to face two days after Thanksgiving.

Michigan’s offense was lethargic. Without Corum and Edwards Michigan is vulnerable. Add in your starting left guard Trevor Keegan, Luke Schoonmaker, and Erick All and that’s bound to catch up with you. That’s exactly what happened in this narrow victory that could have been catastrophic for the maize and blue.

Michigan will have to let it all loose next Saturday if they want to beat the Buckeyes. End-arounds, running back passes, flea flickers, and more will be needed to disrupt Jim Knowles and his defense. The most important factor will probably rest on the arm of McCarthy and whether or not he can accurately find his receivers to take the pressure off the running game.