Michigan will not be playing for a Big Ten title or national championship, but the Wolverines will be playing in the postseason. As for Northwestern, the Wildcats will not be able to reach a bowl game the traditional 6-win avenue.

On Saturday afternoon, the Wolverines came out on fire off a bye week while playing in front of a Senior Day crowd at the Big House. It led to the most complete performance of the season for Sherrone Moore’s squad in every facet of the game.

Here are the key takeaways from Michigan’s 50-6 win and 6th win of the season:

Offense delivers best outing of the season off the bye

Previously, the idea of Michigan’s offense struggling to score points seemed like insanity. The Wolverines averaged 35.9 points per game a season ago, a top-20 mark in the country.

Fast forward to this season, and Michigan entered Week 13 without a single game north of 30 points. The best output of the season came with 30 points scored in the season opener vs. Fresno State, and the Wolverines had not scored more than 27 points in a Big Ten game.

That changed in a big way vs. Northwestern.

The Wolverines scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game, and the rout was on from there.

Michigan would score on 3 of its 5 first-half drives, and things really began to open up after the break. The offense rattled off 3 straight touchdown drives coming out of the break to eclipse 31 points while stifling the Wildcats.

It goes down as Michigan’s first game with more than 49 points since scoring 49 in a blowout of rival Michigan State last October.

Kalel Mullings delivers career-high game in blowout

Kalel Mullings began this season with a bang, but it has been mostly tough sledding for the Wolverines since the start of October. With the passing attack lagging behind, teams have been stacking the box to great success against Mullings.

Since the start of October, Mullings had not eclipsed 100 yards on the ground and had just 2 total rushing touchdowns. He turned things around with 92 rushing yards and 3 total touchdowns.

That goes down as Mullings’ first career hat trick, and it had to feel especially sweet considering the circumstances. His previous best game in the past month and a half was 87 rushing yards and a single touchdown vs. Illinois, and he was held to 30 yards and a touchdown vs. Indiana.

Defense heats up with shutdown performance

Entering Week 13, Michigan did not have much to play for on the surface. The national title aspirations are long gone while clinging to a .500 record, but clearly no one told the Wolverines to just pack it in.

Michigan absolutely shut Northwestern down from the very beginning and held the Wildcats to less than 150 total yards of offense for the game. In fact, it’s hard to find a single area that Northwestern looked very effective in.

The Wolverines absolutely stifled the ground game and held the Wildcats to 10 total rushing yards. Northwestern finished the game with 8 total first downs and was just 5-for-14 on 3rd-down conversions.

Josaiah Stewart led the pressure up front with 2 sacks as Michigan finished with 6 sacks and 8 TFLs in the blowout. That pressure also helped lead to 2 interceptions as the Wolverines won the turnover battle.