The situation for Michigan football is clear. Win and the Wolverines are probably in the College Football Playoff.
A single loss along the way will end that hope for Michigan. Ohio State is the game everyone is thinking about, at least from a Michigan perspective, but there are two difficult games looming before that.
Fans might be scoffing at the idea of Northwestern and Maryland being difficult games. Yet, just this week, we saw second-ranked Indiana need a last-minute touchdown to survive against winless-in-the-Big-Ten Penn State.
Winning the next two games on the road might be as difficult a beating the Buckeyes. That's just the reality of the Big Ten with a freshman quarterback. Usually, only the better teams in the conference have winning records on the road.
Michigan is 2-1 right now, with wins at Nebraska and Michigan State. A 4-1 road record would be impressive, regardless of the opponent. Ohio State is another animal. Yet, it's one that the Wolverines are programmed to beat.
This program has been built to beat the Buckeyes. It feels like Ohio State has adjusted. We'll see what that looks like three weeks from now.
Keeping all that in mind, here are three things Michigan has to do to run the table.
Get more production out of Bryce Underwood
The Wolverines have been really conservative with Bryce Underwood on the road. Michigan barely threw the ball in the second half of the Michigan State game. It didn't need to. But it didn't feel like there was a ton of confidence in Bryce to see the field.
Last week, Bryce saw the field. He just missed his targets. Upon review, it felt like the Purdue game was closer to a good game than we realized, or at least not as disastrous.
Underwood was seeing the field much better. That's a good sign. After a bye week, if his physical execution can match the mental side of things, outside of the one interception, which was a bad decision, too, he should be fine.
There is a lot of talk about the "freshman wall." Quarterback development is just this way. It's up and down and Underwood was forced to play to early, which hasn't helped.
The hope has to be that he looks less like a freshman after the bye week. It's not unreasonable, but with two games on the road, it's hard to predict how he will play. If Michigan football wants to finish 3-0, they need more production, especially in the passing game from Bryce Underwood.