23 thoughts on Michigan's 23rd straight regular season win, a 49-point drubbing of rival Michigan State
This post is locked and can be read by premium subscribers only.
I was confident heading into Saturday night’s Michigan-Michigan State game. I even (correctly) said you could take the 24-point spread, swap the 2 and the 4 around and I’d still be comfortable taking the 42-point spread in my preview of the weekend’s games.
But even with that level of confidence heading into a game, there’s still a major difference between expecting a beatdown and witnessing one. And Saturday night’s latest installment of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry was exactly that — a full-on beatdown. Luckily for all parties, this year’s beatdown was confined to the field. But wow, was it ever a beatdown.
In fact, Michigan’s 49-0 win over Michigan State now stands as the rivalry’s biggest blowout in more than 75 years. That’s impressive without any context. But when you consider the Wolverines did that with their Heisman Trophy candidate QB J.J. McCarthy attempting just one pass in the second half and their national leader in rushing TDs Blake Corum only having two second-half carries, it’s even more impressive.
There are many, many things to take away from such an impressive performance. I suppose it would be accurate to say Michigan had “a vast network of contributors” on the field Saturday night in East Lansing. Too soon? Probably too soon.
Anyway, with so many noteworthy happenings Saturday night in East Lansing (as well as in Columbus with Ohio State taking on Penn State in one of the biggest games of the season not involving the Wolverines), I figured I’d tackle my analysis of this game — Michigan’s 23rd consecutive regular season win, the third longest streak in the history of the Big Ten — by sharing 23 different takeaways from Saturday’s action.
Let’s get to it.
