A team should never complain about winning. Michigan football has nothing to apologize for in terms of its 24-10 win over Wisconsin.
A win is a win as they say. But if Michigan football wants to make the College Football Playoff and beat the best teams on the schedule, it will need to play better.
Beating the Badgers is nothing to scoff at. It was the second win in a row over Wisconsin, as well as the third win in a row overall. Here are five observations.
The offensive line needs to play better
The Wolverines ran for 175 yards against a team that was allowing 50 per game. There's something to be said for that, but the pass protection was a problem at times, too.
Michigan only gave up one sack. It had 445 yards of total offense. In hindsight, it feels nit-picky to be overly critical of the offensive line. However, Andrew Sprague was beaten one-on-one far too many times.
The reason Michigan was so conservative in the first half might have been due to a concern about pass protection. The offensive line helped create some big plays, but for the most part, it wasn't controlling the line of scrimmage the way it did against Nebraska.
Negative plays can kill a drive. Michigan had way too many of them simply because one or more offensive linemen were beaten badly on a block.
We thought Michigan took a step forward against Nebraska. Wisconsin is a different animal on the defensive line, so you have to adjust expectations some, but the offensive line needs to play better for Michigan to beat USC. Plain and simple.