Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from a separating win over Rutgers

In less then three hours of real time Michigan football pulled away from Rutgers in the return of Jim Harbaugh for his 75th coaching win.

Just exactly one minute into the contest and on the third play from scrimmage, Rutgers took it to the house. Gavin Wimsatt hit Christian Dremel on a slant pattern that went the distance. Michigan football trailed for the first time all season. Not surprisingly though, Rutgers would never score again on Saturday.

Michigan’s offense unceremoniously went three and out, until they got the pigskin back. Blake Corum capped off a 94-yard drive for his first touchdown of the afternoon. Both kickers missed field goals on their next drives. However Michigan football got the rock one more time before the half and capitalized. J.J. McCarthy placed a pass to the outside shoulder of Semaj Morgan for his first career touchdown to give the Wolverines the halftime edge.

The maize and blue got the kick in the third and took eight minutes off the clock to only net three by James Turner. On the ensuing series Rutgers was driving and went for it on fourth down, but Mike Sainristil stepped in front of the receiver on a screen play and the rest is history. It was the play that ultimately changed the outcome of the game.

They added one more run for six for good measure by Corum in the fourth. He poured in 97 of the team’s 201 yards on the ground. It’s a season-high in yardage for the Wolverines. Perhaps the more important factor was that Michigan football didn’t turn it over once in the win, like they did too much of last week.

Here are the three takeaways.