How did the Big Ten do in Week 1?

As a conference, the B1G finished 12-2. The two losses came at Nevada and at Stanford, to the demise of Purdue and Northwestern, respectfully. Both losses weren’t bad, so as a whole, the conference fared just fine.

Michigan defeated Middle Tennessee 40-21, but many thought the Wolverines would win by at least 30 — according to Vegas. They didn’t, though. The defense wasn’t as dominant and even the offense, despite scoring 40, didn’t look particularly smooth.

RELATED: Grading the Wolverines after defeating Middle Tennessee

Following the 19-point win, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum talked about the Wolverines on ESPN’s First Take and how they “really struggled.”

“I was a little concerned about Michigan,” Finebaum said. “I’ve been high on Jim Harbaugh but they really struggled. They were barely leading the game at halftime. I know we can overreact. Of course we can overreact, this is First Take. … They should have looked better. I think they will be better but they had a rough first week out.”

Finebaum wasn’t the only one feeling this way about Michigan. ESPN’s Marcus Spears said that the Wolverines have to make strides.

“I was really concerned with how Michigan looked,” Spears said. “I actually picked Michigan to win the Big Ten. Then looking at what Justin Fields was able to do, that line got a little closer. With that being said, with Gattis over there with Shea Patterson, as the season progressively continues, Michigan will get a lot better. You’ve got to remember that Michigan lost a lot of key players last year on the defensive side of the ball. They have to make strides there.”

Michigan is scheduled to take on Army at noon ET on Saturday, Sept. 7 in Ann Arbor. The game will be televised on FOX.