Bryce Underwood led Michigan Football to a big win in East Lansing against Michigan State, 31 to 20. Michigan controlled the game, and it never felt as close as the score suggests, but some things can be cleaned up offensively.
While the Michigan defense looked unstoppable, the offense was one-dimensional, relying heavily on the run game to carry them through this game. Justice Haynes ran for 152 yards and two touchdowns, while Jordan Marshall also ran for 110 yards and a touchdown.
Bryce Underwood even got into the end zone on a quarterback keeper for a 13-yard touchdown to get the scoring going. Underwood did not throw a lot in this game, and this is something we thought we would see a lot more especially going against a struggling secondary like Michigan State's.
Underwood only completed 8 of 17 passes for 86 yards. He finished the game with a total of 112 yards in the game and was carried by the rushing attack.
Underwood was pressured a lot in this game, and it made him look uncomfortable as he was not picking up delayed blitzes and was hurrying throws because he didn't have time to make the plays. It was also said that he was given 16 RPO (run, pass, option) calls, and he only decided to throw once on these calls.
The Michigan State defense had a good game plan around Bryce Underwood but not for the biggest identity of Michigan Football, which is the run game.
Grading Bryce Underwood against Michigan State
For this game, I am giving Bryce Underwood a D+ rating. He played the type of game we saw from Michigan quarterbacks last year, which is to control the game and not make mistakes to lose games. A formula like that will only help you against lesser opponents in the Big Ten, but they need to re-evaluate their game plans moving forward to get Underwood in a rhythm for the biggest game of the year.
Michigan football comes back home Saturday night at 7:30 against Purdue. I hope to see more big plays out of Underwood in this game, as he can do so against a struggling Purdue team.