The Michigan Wolverines put forth another dominating performance on Saturday, blowing out Maryland from the the opening kick on their way to a 59-3 win. While Maryland wasn't expected to really challenge the Wolverines, Michigan was very impressive in almost every area of the game. Here are three things we learned about Michigan from the game:
3) The offense is incredibly efficient
We've been seeing this for the past few weeks now, but Michigan's performance against Maryland was about as efficient as it gets. Of their 10 drives, eight went for touchdowns (including all five in the first half), one went for a field goal, and the other was a turnover on down in field goal range. Every time this group gets the ball, they not only expect to score, they know how to score and get it done every single time. At this point, we don't even know if the Wolverines have a punter on their roster.
Oh yeah, they also ended up with 660 total yards. Pretty good day.
2) De'Veon Smith wants you to know it's his backfield
The last few weeks, pretty much every running back on the roster had gotten a good number of carries as Jim Harbaugh went a little bit more to the running-back-by-committee approach. Smith was still the lead back, but they definitely split carries.
This week? Smith took control of the position, running for 114 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries - no one else had more than five carries.
1) Wilton Speight is one of the best quarterbacks in the country
Remember the beginning of the season when quarterback was huge question mark for this team and we didn't know who was going to start? That seems like such a long time ago. Speight has gotten better each and every week, and is now playing as well as any quarterback in the country not named Lamar Jackson. On several occasions, Speight avoided the rush and made plays with his feet, then resetting and throwing absolute bombs down the field:
TRICK PLAY ALERT! Speight to Peppers, Peppers back to Speight, who throws a BOMB to Chesson!! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/SuQQcVL88r
— Michigan Football (@ChatWolverines) November 5, 2016
Wilton Speight avoids the rush and hits Jehu Chesson in the end zone right before half! #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/zff2JbZGGJ
— Michigan Football (@ChatWolverines) November 5, 2016
Those are extremely high level plays he made look easy thanks to incredible arm strength and accuracy. If he keeps playing like this, Michigan is going to be nearly impossible to stop.
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