Roundup: What the national media is saying about Michigan football after Week 5
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Michigan football has been on upset alert heading into each of the last two weeks, and though the Wolverines have remained undefeated and keep winning convincingly, the national media doesn’t appear too impressed.
When it comes to the weekly columns that appear every Sunday, you’d think Michigan’s games haven’t been nationally televised, let alone the past two in Fox’s premier time slot. Entering Week 5, all the talk was about how the Wolverines haven’t won in Kinnick since 2005, and though they did this time, dominating the majority of the game, the national media comes away impressed, but not as much as say, Georgia, who had to survive at Missouri, looking pedestrian each of the past two weeks.
Here is what the national media is saying about Michigan football.
ESPN
David Hale didn’t have much to say, as he questioned who is legit behind Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State. He does seem to have Michigan in another tier, but he praised the job the Wolverines did in Iowa City.
Iowa‘s plan to lull Michigan to sleep by playing offense failed miserably, too. The Hawkeyes punted on each of their first five full drives, which is usually a winning formula, but not against Blake Corum, who carried 29 times for 133 yards and a touchdown in Michigan’s 27-14 win.
Tom VanHaaren also chimed in, basically recapping what happened in the game.
The Wolverines avoided the trap that is Kinnick Stadium and beat Iowa on the road, 27-14. Michigan scored on its opening drive with a 16-yard run from wide receiver Ronnie Bell. After running for 234 yards against Maryland, running back Blake Corum had 133 yards and a touchdown in this game for the Wolverines. The Michigan defense held Iowa scoreless until the fourth quarter, when the Hawkeyes were able to get two touchdowns. Despite those two scores, Michigan came away with a win and remains undefeated on the season.
Michigan also got one mention into a projected College Football Playoff. With Bill Connelly, the resident advanced analytics guru, though, that’s high praise.
Sporting News
Friend of the site, Bill Bender, has Michigan football as one of the four teams in the College Football Playoff in his overreactions article.
There were brief anxious moments in the fourth quarter, but Michigan won at Kinnick Stadium for the first time since 2005 in a 27-14 victory against Iowa. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy (18 of 23, 155 yards, TD) won his first road start, and Blake Corum (29 carries, 133 yards, TD) put the game away with a fourth-quarter TD run. The Wolverines’ pass rush helped seal the victory. Michigan passed a road test – and now it is about not looking past the Hoosiers before the Oct. 8 showdown with Penn State.
CBS Sports
Despite having won convincingly on the road at Iowa, CBS Sports dropped Michigan to No. 5 in its projected AP top 25.
The Wolverines refused to fall victim to the familiar storyline of a top-five team falling at Iowa, using an early lead to avoid any upset anxiety in a 27-14 win. Michigan set the tone, created a difficult situation for Iowa’s offense with a double-digit deficit and rode yet another 100-yard rushing performance from Blake Corum to the its road win of the season.
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated says that Michigan football’s defense is real, yet has the Wolverines at No. 6 overall in its top teams breakdown.
RB Blake Corum and QB J.J. McCarthy were responsible for 288 of Michigan’s 327 yards in what was a fairly ho hum outing against the hapless Hawkeyes and their dysfunctional offense. The Wolverines defense is real, real enough to have allowed more than two touchdowns just once in the first five games.
The Athletic
Nicole Auerbach from The Athletic remains high on Michigan, including the Wolverines at No. 4 in her overall top 10.
The task facing quarterback J.J. McCarthy has grown more difficult by the week, but Saturday’s 27-14 win against Iowa was the test I was most curious to see. McCarthy did well in easily the most challenging environment he’s played in, piloting an offense that consistently moved the ball against a defense that entered the weekend ranked in the top 10 in both total defense and rushing defense and No. 1 in the FBS in scoring defense. Michigan did struggle at times to finish drives, needing to kick field goals twice in the second quarter despite dominating the game at that point. But the Wolverines held the ball for two-thirds of the first half.
McCarthy finished 18 of 24 through the air, his 155 yards and a touchdown nicely balancing out a rushing attack that accounted for 172 yards. Blake Corum topped the 100-yard mark yet again, and Michigan did not turn the ball over once against a defense very good at forcing them. There were a couple of moments late in the game when it looked like the Hawkeyes might make things interesting, but Iowa’s offense is, well, Iowa’s offense.
It’s clear at this point that the Wolverines are at minimum the second-best team in the Big Ten. Which means they should stay in College Football Playoff contention deep into the season.
