Media Roundup: What's Being Said About Michigan Football After Defeating Michigan State
Michigan continues to show its dominance after a 49-0 shutout against Michigan State on Saturday night in East Lansing. The Wolverines scored a touchdown on three straight drives and the Spartans struggled to gain a first down, let alone a score.
Michigan's schedule hasn't been very good to start the year, but the Wolverines have looked like a No. 1 team while dismantling the competition. Even after another NCAA investigation that came to light on Thursday, the Wolverines players looked unfazed and if anything -- they looked fired up.
The Wolverines are now 8-0 and are headed into a bye week. Here's what's being said about Michigan.
Bill Bender with Sporting News highlights J.J. McCarthy's monster day.
McCarthy hit 9 of 10 passes for 129 yards and two TDs in the first quarter, and the blowout was on against the rival Spartans. Michigan tight ends AJ Barner (8-99, TD) and Colston Loveland (4-79, 2 TDs) had huge games, and the defense limited Michigan State to 190 total yards. The Wolverines have a bye week before facing Purdue in Week 10, but the path to the Big Ten championship is there.
Chris Vannini with The Athletic moved Michigan up one spot to No. 6.
As a result, there is a shakeup in this week’s Athletic 133 and a new No. 1: Ohio State. The Buckeyes beat Penn State 20-12, holding the Nittany Lions to a 1-for-16 performance on third down. That gives Ohio State two wins over current top-15 teams, enough to catapult the Buckeyes to No. 1 this week.
Does this mean Ohio State will beat Michigan? I don’t know. The Wolverines have won the last two against Ohio State and have been a buzzsaw against weak competition this year. They look really, really good again. The escapes by other top-10 teams do help the case for Michigan, which hasn’t had such struggles. But as I get ahead of explaining each week, I can’t put a team whose current best win is Rutgers much higher yet. Once Michigan plays Penn State on Nov. 11, that’ll change. I actually have Michigan in my CFP predictions. But these rankings are not predictions. They’re an attempt to evaluate what you’ve done. Margin of victory matters, but who you’ve played weighs more.
Chris Vannini's Top 10
The Athletic
Bill Connelly with ESPN named his ugly wins, ugly losses, and Michigan made the 'Things got ugly.. in a good way' column
Michigan keeps playing mediocre teams and making them look like high schoolers. Per SP+, the Wolverines' strength of schedule to date ranks a ghastly 110th overall, but résumé SP+, which compares your scoring margin to what would be expected from a top-five team against your schedule, still ranks the Wolverines first overall because of how dominant they've been.
How will Saturday's top games affect the College Football Playoff chase? What are the current odds for the top four? The Allstate Playoff Predictor has the answers. Check back every week as the odds are updated following that week's games.
They have yet to score less than 30 points, and they haven't scored under 45 since Sept. 23. They have yet to allow more than 10 points, and they're first in points allowed per drive and third in points scored per drive. They're an absolute brick wall.
I always like to say it's how you play, not who you play, and even against a bottoming-out Michigan State team Saturday, it was easy to see how dominant Michigan is. The Spartans had averaged 4.6 yards per play against Iowa two weeks ago and 3.5 against Rutgers last week; they scored 40 combined points against those two strong defenses. Against Michigan, they averaged 3.1 yards per play (182 total yards) and scored nothing. They finished one drive inside the Michigan 40.
On the other side of the ball, it was the same story. While the Spartans got torched by a peaking Washington offense in Week 3 (41 points, 9.9 yards per play), they had allowed 4.6 yards per play since, albeit mostly against iffy offenses. Against Michigan, they allowed 6.9. Even filtering out garbage time, MSU's 14% success rate on offense was half of what Iowa allowed them (28%), and Michigan's 62% success rate was far more than MSU had allowed against anyone other than Washington (66%). Michigan has been No. 1 in SP+ for four games now and has exceeded projections by 19.3 points per game in that span -- SP+ knows the Wolverines are the best team in the country at the moment but hasn't caught up to how good they actually are yet. That's a scary thought.
ESPN kept Michigan at No. 2 in their power rankings behind Georgia
The Wolverines held Michigan State to 51 total yards in the first half, with just 10 rushing yards. Michigan's offense put up more than 300 yards in the first half in its 49-0 rout against the Spartans. Michigan has scored 30 or more points in 11 consecutive games now, which is the longest streak in program history. The Wolverines had some distractions this week with news breaking of an NCAA investigation regarding sign stealing, but it didn't impact the play on the field. Backup quarterback Jack Tuttle was put in the game with five minutes remaining in the third quarter after J.J. McCarthy had thrown for 287 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. It was a nearly flawless night for Michigan against in-state rival Michigan State. -- Tom VanHaaren
14 out of 15 ESPN members have Michigan in their CFP top four
Andrea Adelson: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Blake Baumgartner: 1. Georgia 2. Washington 3. Michigan 4. Ohio State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Washington 4. Florida State
Bill Connelly: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Washington
Heather Dinich: 1. Michigan 2. Washington 3. Ohio State 4. Georgia
David Hale: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Florida State 4. Washington
Chris Low: 1. Michigan 2. Ohio State 3. Georgia 4. Washington
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Washington 4. Ohio State
Ryan McGee: 1. Georgia 2. Washington 3. Ohio State 4. Florida State
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Ohio State 4. Washington
Alex Scarborough: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Washington 4. Ohio State
Mark Schlabach: 1. Georgia 2. Washington 3. Michigan 4. Florida State
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Washington 4. Ohio State
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Washington 4. Ohio State
Dave Wilson: 1. Michigan 2. Georgia 3. Washington 4. Ohio State
Barrett Sallee with CBS Sports once again gave Michigan an A+ grade
Michigan had a tumultuous week after it was learned that the program is under NCAA investigation for sign stealing, but it didn't look like it on the field. The Wolverines steamrolled rival Michigan State 49-0 in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated. Simply put, it was total domination for a Michigan team that has a strong case to be ranked No. 1.
