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Finally, Michigan talked the talk and walked the walk like an actual contender
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Before Saturday’s game, Michigan linebacker Devin Bush stuck his foot into the heart of the Michigan State logo at Spartan Stadium. The All-American wasn’t shy about jawing with Michigan State players. It didn’t matter that MSU won last year’s game, or that the Spartans entered Saturday as winners of two of the last three meetings in the rivalry since the highly-anticipated arrival of Jim Harbaugh.
Never mind the fact that the Spartans had won 8 of the last 10 matchups since Mike Hart’s infamous “little brother” comment.
Bush wasn’t afraid to talk. Michigan wasn’t afraid to talk.
Only this time, the Wolverines walked the walk.
On Saturday, there was no denying who the better team was. You didn’t need the 2-touchdown Michigan victory on the scoreboard to tell you that.
That was a Michigan squad that went into East Lansing and finished with four times as many yards is its intrastate rival. The Wolverines carried better than a 2-1 advantage in terms of time of possession.
It was dominant. It was everything the Wolverines hyped themselves up to be. That is, an elite team capable of going on the road and beating a ranked team. Amazingly, that was Michigan’s first win against a top-25 squad on the road since 2006. That ended a streak of 16 straight matchups.
A long overdue big boy victory for Michigan, it was.
How fitting it was that after each of Michigan’s first two touchdowns, Shea Patterson held the “shush” sign with one finger to his mouth. Patterson’s play did plenty of talking on Saturday.
Patterson, as many have realized over the last few weeks, looked exactly like the difference-maker many talked him up to be in the offseason. It wasn’t just the 5-star arm that we saw. Just as he did against Wisconsin, Patterson’s ability to call his own number on the run-pass options proved to be a key extender of drives.
The Michigan quarterback was impressive, no doubt about it (the fact that the touchdown pass to Nico Collins was Michigan’s first against MSU in seven years was unbelievable).
But let’s not overlook how big of a difference-maker Michigan’s ground attack was. A team that has been horrendous running the ball against ranked foes in the Harbaugh era lit up the nation’s No. 1 run defense for a season-high 212 rushing yards. MSU came into Saturday allowing just 62 yards on the ground per contest.
Karan Higdon had a career-high 33 carries for 144 yards. He alone finished with 129 more rushing yards than the entire MSU offense.
We knew MSU’s offense was hanging on by a string. Despite last week’s upset win at Penn State, this was still a unit with injuries galore. It didn’t help that Felton Davis suffered a devastating torn Achilles injury on Saturday.
Would that game have gone any differently, though? Nope.
If there was ever a sign that this Michigan team was different, it was in the third quarter when the Spartans pulled off “Philly Special” to tie the game. After both teams traded fumbles, it was starting to feel a lot like one of those slop-fest games that MSU found a way to win. You know, like the Spartans did against Michigan last year.
Patterson promptly delivered his longest touchdown pass in a Michigan uniform to quiet the Spartan faithful.
D👏P👏J👏@dpeoplesjones got that burst, and @UMichFootball is back in the lead: pic.twitter.com/CmjFQ7yxFl
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 20, 2018
With all due respect to John O’Korn, Wilton Speight, Brandon Peters and Jake Rudock, they aren’t making that throw.
None of Harbaugh’s first three Michigan teams had the poise to hang tough in that spot. That includes the 2016 squad, which crumbled when it faced adversity late on the season.
You can’t overstate the importance of Saturday’s victory, and not just because it evened Harbaugh 2-2 with Mark Dantonio. Though it is worth noting that Harbaugh now has a rivalry win against a team that wasn’t 3-9. So there’s that.
Saturday was Michigan’s chance to look the part. As sloppy as it looked at times, Harbaugh’s team did just that.
If the Wolverines had lost that game, everyone would’ve looked back at Bush’s pregame gesture and said “why can’t Michigan just shut up and play?” It would’ve been a fair question to ask. The Wolverines would’ve had another blemish in a game that they were expected to win.
Instead, they ran off the field carrying The Paul Bunyan Trophy…and then proceeded to talk some more.
“We knew they couldn’t hang with us… Sometimes your little brother starts acting up, and you just gotta put them in place,” Michigan linebacker Chase Winovich said in the postgame interview.
Finally, it appears that Michigan is finding its place among the nation’s elite.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.