Michigan football went on the road and got an important 30-27 road win over Nebraska on Saturday. It was the second win without head coach Sherrone Moore this season.
It's hard to know what Nebraska is at this point. The Wolverines should have won the game by two or three scores. The Huskers battled, but either way, winning in that environment wasn't easy.
Nebraska pulled out all the stops to make that place as crazed as possible. After just one road win last season, over Ohio State, this victory was one Michigan needed. There are six road games on the schedule. Michigan has four left. It needs to win three, so the win on Saturday was massive.
Looking back here are five key observations.
Greg Crippen had a whale of a game
The Michigan football center said after the Oklahoma loss that the offensive line was going to figure it out. In the past two games, he has led the charge in the effort to do just that.
On both long touchdown runs by the running backs, he blocked multiple defenders after executing a perfect combo block then getting to the second level.
Crippen looked like an All-Big Ten center on Saturday. He's allowing the Wolverines to run outside zone, something they haven't done effectively, and Crippen is a huge reason why.
There are still some offensive line concerns, but at least Crippen appears to have taken a big step forward over the past two weeks.
Jordan Marshall looked like Jordan Marshall
You knew Marshall was going to get going at some point. The blocking was better this week and in the third quarter, the sophomore scored on a 54-yard touchdown run.
That wasn't the only good run of the day for Marshall, though. The former top-50 overall recruit had six attempts for 80 yards or 26 yards on his other five attempts, including a game-clinching run on the last drive.
Justice Haynes has been the best running back in the Big Ten so far this season, but if Marshall can be a legit 1B to his 1A, this running game could be really scary, like it was Saturday.
Wide receivers have to get better
Bryce Underwood wasn't the reason Michigan won on Saturday, although his 38-yard rushing touchdown certainly helped. But he wasn't the reason the Wolverines lost either.
The freshman did have one turnover, with the ball getting knocked out once. Yet, in four games, he's got two turnovers -- that's all you can ask of a freshman.
Underwood's numbers would be better if he were getting help from his wide receivers, who dropped 15 percent of the passes thrown by Underwood against the Huskers. That's brutal. Channing Goodwin dropped a touchdown. Other plays needed to be made and need to be made going forward.
Jaishawn Barham needs to stay at EDGE
It felt like Jaishawn Barham lived in the backfield against Nebraska. Matt Rhule said he looked like a top-10 pick on Monday.
The 6-foot-3, 243-pound defender has made a huge impact since moving to EDGE. He had two sacks against Central Michigan and had another sack against Nebraska, too.
With Barham and Derrick Moore, the Wolverines have two elite pass rushers. Cole Sullivan, who had an interception on Saturday, has played well enough at linebacker that Barham can make the move full-time, which he should for the rest of the season.
The game-management has to be studied
Whether it was Sherrone Moore making some mistakes with timeouts, this season and last season, punting against Oklahoma instead of kicking a field goal, it's clear that game management has been an issue for the Wolverines.
It's a self-inflicted one. Biff Poggi should have never allowed Nebraska to run the clock down and try a risk-free Hail Mary after the defense forced a fourth down.
Credit to the players for rallying to win. They had Poggi's back like they had Sherrone's and Jim Harbaugh's back in the day.
Managing the clock correctly isn't hard, though. Michigan football has to get better at it. That decision would have loomed even larger had Nebraska got the ball back one more time.