Position by position report card from Michigan's last-second win over Northwestern

Michigan was able to pull out a nail biter against Northwestern by a score of 24 to 22. Dominic Zvada was only 1/3 on field goal attempts in the game but he did hit the game winner on the last play of the game. Michigan overcame a ghastly 5 turnovers to win this game and even though it wasn't pretty, a win is a win. Let's dig into some grades for every position group from this game.

Quarterback: C

Bryce Underwood had a very up-and-down game against this Northwestern defense. He was largely great in the first half as he was making good decisions and delivering his passes with precision and then it all came crashing down for him in the 4th quarter. He threw two crucial interceptions that helped keep the Wildcats in the game and even allowed them to come back and take a late lead before Michigan was able to drive down the field and win it in the end.

Overall he completed 21/32 passes for 280 yards and 2 INT's while also adding 9 carries for 30 yards and 1 rushing touchdown. Outside of the two bad interceptions, he was honestly great, but you can't just ignore his two worst plays. All in all I think it was a building block game for him as he did have a lot of success both through the air and in big moments made some plays with his feet as well. Hopefully he can learn from the interceptions and eliminate those types of plays moving forward.

Running Backs: A

Both Jordan Marshall and Bryson Kuzdzal played really well in this game as the run game was effective against a good Northwestern defense. Jordan Marshall carried the ball 19 times for 142 rushing yards and 2 TD's and Kuzdzal chipped in 15 carries for 53 yards. Overall they ran for 216 yards and averaged 4.8 yards per carry as a team and both of the guys who saw the majority of the rushes played well. Jordan Marshall did appear to get hurt in this game late and we'll have to hope it wasn't as bad as it looked as they'll need him to be healthy if they want to take down the Buckeyes in a couple weeks.

Wide Receivers and Tight Ends: B+

This was a much better game from Michigan's pass-catchers compared to their recent games. Andrew Marsh was spectacular as he finished with 12 catches for 179 yards. Donaven McCulley played better as well as he wound up with 4 catches for 59 yards. Their top three tight ends also each had 1 catch to round out the day for this group as they were all able to get open against a pretty good Northwestern defense. It was a very encouraging performance from this group to be able to get open and catch the ball to help out their young quarterback. They'll need to keep it up the rest of the way for this offense to continue to get better.

Offensive Line: B-

I wish I could split up the grade for this group because on the ground, they blocked really well and it led to 216 rushing yards for this offense. The pass protection on the other hand was quite bad yet again. Northwestern had 3 sacks and pressured Bryce Underwood multiple other times as well, as Michigan struggled to stay in front of this Northwestern defensive front. At this point in the season, this offensive line just is what it is and that is a very good run blocking unit but a below average pass blocking unit. It doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon so let's hope Michigan's coaches can work around the pass blocking issues and keep this offense on schedule to avoid the obvious passing situations.

Defensive Line: B+

The defensive line was good in this game overall, despite what the box score might say. They only had 2 tackles for loss as a team but the defensive line did their job for sure. Northwestern was only able to muster 61 rushing yards at a 2.3 yards per carry clip. The defensive line also got involved in the pass game by batting down multiple Preston Stone passes at the line of scrimmage. This group was good in this game and it was more of what I was expecting from them coming into this season so let's hope they can keep it rolling as they finish out the season.

Linebackers: A-

The linebackers for Michigan have been playing really well as of late. Ernest Hausmann was his usual great self in this game. Jimmy Rolder returned from his injury and was solid in this game as well. Troy Bowles even came in and made a nice play on a screen pass from Northwestern to stop the play in its tracks. This group has been really good as of late and its really helped shore up Michigan's defense as a whole. Outside of running back, this might be the best position group on the team and they've been playing like it in these last few games for Michigan.

Secondary: B-

Overall this group wasn't bad, but they also were in position to make several more plays on the ball and for whatever reason just failed to do so. They really struggle with ball skills as Michigan secondary defenders were in position to knock passes down multiple times in this game but just couldn't locate the ball and make the play. Northwestern's wide receivers made so many contested catches against this unit and it's slightly worrisome as you think about what Ohio State's wide receivers might be able to do against this position group down the road. Jordan Young did come in and make a great play on the ball late in this game and Jyaire Hill was hardly targeted through the air either so he obviously covered his assignments quite well. With only two more games on the schedule, it's tough to envision this group figuring out the ball skill issues and it's one of the major concerns from this unit for the rest of the year.

Special Teams: F

This was a truly terrible special teams game from Michigan, pretty much across the board. Semaj Morgan fumbled another punt return and it's just coaching negligence that he was even in there this late into the season despite very clearly struggling to field punts all year. Dominic Zvada was only 1/3 on field goal attempts in this game and yes he did make the game winner but he also missed a chip shot in the first quarter that would've completely changed the game had he made that. Joe Taylor also made a bad decision on his kickoff return to try and run it out of the end zone only to get stopped at the 20-yard line coming out. He shouldn't have even attempted that return given where he caught it and you have to wonder what is Michigan even coaching on special teams this year. It's been a horrible unit for the Wolverines all season long and special teams coach J.B. Brown should be on the hot seat for how bad this unit had been this year.

Coaching: B

I thought Sherrone Moore did a nice job of managing the clock in this game. He didn't make any obvious blunders with timeouts or end of half situations, which is a good thing, and despite it not working, I liked his decision to go for it on fourth down late in the game. It does seem like he's been getting better at this later on this season and that's been a welcome change to the first year and a half of his tenure and how he used to handle these types of situations.

Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey called a great game in my opinion minus the reverse call that ended up being a fumble by Andrew Marsh. On that drive they were moving the ball with ease so I just don't like turning to the razzle dazzle there to try and make a splash play. Other than that, I thought he did a great job mixing run and pass and the offense was able to move the ball up and down the field all game long. It's not his fault Bryce Underwood made two bad decisions/passes or the team in general fumbled it 3 times as well to make the performance look worse than it really was on offense. They had almost 500 yards of total offense and were fairly balanced doing so, so it was a nice job by Lindsey in this game in my opinion.

Wink Martindale was great in this game. He mixed in the blitz and did a nice job of putting his players in good positions to make plays. Michigan was a hair or two away from making more plays on the ball but that's not on Wink as he had the guys in the right spots all game for the most part. At some point the players just need to make the plays and by and large this defense was great in this game. They only gave up 22 points despite being hung out to dry by the offensive turnovers all game long. Big props to Wink Martindale and his defensive unit in this game as they wouldn't have won it had the defense not played as well as it did.