Maize&BlueReview – 3 takeaways from Michigan’s 31-24 win against Maryland

Michigan football improved to 11-0 and recorded its 1,000th win as a program after traveling to College Park and coming away with a tight victory over Maryland.

Here are three takeaways from the Wolverines’ victory.

Coming into this game, there was concern about Maryland’s wide receivers and it being the best group of playmakers Michigan has seen this season, to go along with an experienced, playmaking quarterback in Taulia Tagovailoa.

That combination proved to cause the Wolverines’ defense some major issues, with the senior QB finding his receivers down the field on several occasions.

This was especially the case in the third quarter, when Tagovailoa found Kaden Prather down the sideline for a 34-yard pass that led to a score to make it 29-24 as the Wolverines allowed 14 points in the quarter to the Terrapins after Michigan hadn’t allowed a single point in third quarters all season.

Still, when it counted, the defense stepped up to the challenge and the takeaways were a big part of the Wolverines being able to come away with the win.

Linebacker Michael Barret forced a fumble in the first quarter on a third-and-long play that ended in a Derrick Moore scoop and score to make it 14-3 Wolverines early, as Michigan ended up with five sacks on the day.

Then, in the second half, Mike Sainristill came up with two interceptions late in the game to help Michigan seal the victory when the offense sputtered in the final 30 minutes.

In an overall up-and-down performance, Jesse Minter’s unit made timely plays when it counted and allowed just 15 yards on the ground.

In the first half against the Terrapins, J.J. McCarthy and the Wolverines’ offense seemed to be establishing a decent rhythm, and was on its way to getting a score before the half to stretch Michigan’s led.

However, after driving it inside the Maryland 10 in a two-minute drill, McCarthy forced the ball and threw a pick to linebacker Jaishawn Burnham near the goal line. From that point, the offense never seemed to get back into rhythm while sputtering on several occasions despite good field position in the second half.

The Wolverines did run the ball for 150 yards on the day, but it was tough sledding against a Maryland defense that was flying around and playing with high energy all day.

Sherrone Moore’s group will need to regroup on offense against a very good Ohio State defense, and that will start with the play of McCarthy.

Everyone played a hand in some of the drives stalling, including some pass protection breakdowns and missed opportunties in the run game. But in the fourth, McCarthy missed Cornelius Johnson after Johnson ran a great route on a post that would have been a touchdown if not for a poor throw, that likely would have put the game away.

Those are the chances the Wolverines can’t afford to miss next week. With that being said, this had all the makings for a “trap game” coming off an emotional win last week, the off-field distractions and the OSU game being next week.

This is a Maryland team with good players on both sides of the ball and Michigan was almost caught in the perfect storm. But they survived the storm, and that’s essentially all that matters.

After remaining incredibly healthy virtually all season long, the Wolverines were hit with a bit of the injury bug in this one.

Coming into the game, LaDarius Henderson was ruled out at left tackle and the transfer Myles Hinton was called into action to take his place.

But late in the game, Hinton got rolled up on and got his leg bent backwards in what looked to be an obvious lower body injury.

Karsen Barnhardt was then moved from right tackle to left tackle and Trente Jones was inserted at right tackle. When that happened, Barnhardt struggled in pass protection and was beat several times off the edge after struggling against Penn State in that regard last week.

Also on offense, top receiver Roman Wilson went out in the first quarter after taking a hit to the head after catching a pass over the middle. He was quite clearly in concussion protocol, but the FOX broadcast did report he was being held out for more precautionary reasons. In any case, the Wolverines will hope to get him back next week as his presence will be needed.

On defense, Barret went to the medical tent at one point in the game, but returned later in the game, which was a good sign for the Wolverines to get one of their leaders back.

All hands on deck will be needed for The Game, and Michigan will hope it can get as healthy as possible within the next seven days.