The Michigan football team survived against Northwestern on Saturday against Wrigley Field. The Wolverines made the plays they needed to make, which includes Bryce Underwood.
At one point, the freshman looked more like a true freshman than he ever has, with three turnovers on consecutive possessions.
However, with the game on the line, he drove Michigan football down the field, throwing a 21-yard pass to Andrew Marsh on third-and-10, before picking up another first down with his legs, before Dominic Zvada knocked home the game-winner.
Bryson Kuzdal played a key role, too, rushing for two first downs on the drive. He had 53 yards on 15 attempts, which was a good sign if Jordan Marshall is out this week.
The Marshall injury is an obvious concern going into the Maryland and Ohio State. The bigger issue is Michigan's inability to put teams away, which has been on display three weeks in a row.
Michigan's biggest concern coming out of Week 12
U-M allowed Michigan State, Northwestern, and Purdue to have a ton of success in the fourth quarter on offense. The Michigan offense, on the other hand, isn't finishing drives.
Michigan has seven turnovers in the past two games. Bryce Underwood is responsible for five of those. That's a huge concern going forward, and if Michigan loses the turnover battle against Ohio State, it will lose "The Game."
Michigan has to play clean. Doing it against Maryland would be a good place to start. Beyond that, the Wolverines need to start converting yards into points.
This is the second week in a row that Michigan has had more than 400 yards of total offense, but in those two games, it scored an average of 22.5 points. Two missed field goals were part of it, so were four turnovers inside the opponent's 30-yard line.
On the opening drive, a touchdown was taken away because of a hold. It didn't look like a hold, but Andrew Sprague drove his defender into the ground, which often gets called, even though it used to be a pancake.
The issue is that Sprague could have probably let the Northwestern defender go, and Jordan Marshall probably still gets the edge and scores a touchdown. Instead, Michigan wasted a great drive with zero points.
That's how the Wolverines are ranked 20th in yards per play, but 60th in scoring offense. The point total needs to start matching the production in yardage.
Frankly, with Ohio State looming, it's now or never.