Position by position report card in the Washington vs. Michigan game

Quarterbacks: A-

Bryce Underwood had a really nice bounce back game against Washington. After really struggling last week on the road at USC, he played his best conference game to date at home yesterday against the Washington Huskies. He completed 21/27 passes for 230 yards and 2 TD's while adding 7 carries for 25 yards rushing. He made several high-level throws in this game and continues to improve nearly every week. He set a career high in completion percentage by far and he still had a couple drops from Michigan pass-catchers that could've made his day even more impressive on the stat sheet. Very encouraging performance out of the young quarterback for Michigan in this game.

Running Backs: A-

Jordan Marshall really stepped up big in this game for Michigan. Justice Haynes wasn't healthy enough to play here, and it largely didn't matter as Jordan Marshall toted the rock 25 times for 133 yards and 1 TD while also adding 3 receptions for 20 yards. He runs so hard and always falls forward for extra yards on almost every snap. It's such a luxury to have this type of running back be your #2 in the backfield as he is clearly good enough to lead a running back room, but just hasn't had a ton of opportunities to do that so far because Justice Haynes has been so good. I'd look for a more balanced split for these two backs the rest of the season as Jordan Marshall showed he deserves more touches and it will also help keep Haynes healthy and fresh down the stretch of the season.

Wide Receivers and Tight Ends: B

This group played fairly well overall but still continues to struggle with drops. Semaj Morgan has another drop in this game, as did Deakon Tonielli at tight end. Other than the drops, this group played well but it's really frustrating when multiple times in every game there's a big drop from this unit that leads to either a punt or a turnover on downs. The coaching staff really needs to start benching guys who have shown they can't catch the football consistently.

As for the positive side of this position group, Andrew Marsh continued his breakout as he once again led the wide receivers with 5 catches for 49 yards and 1 TD. Marsh is becoming a true star for this offense and it's been really fun to watch him perform these last few weeks. Donaven McCulley played well again, he just didn't have a ton of chances to make plays in this game but he hasn't had the drop issues that other wide receivers have had so far either. The real breakout performance of this position group though was from Zach Marshall who had 5 catches for 72 yards and 1 TD. With Marlin Klein and Hogan Hanses still banged up and out for this game, Zach Marshall really stepped up and played well at tight end. He led all pass catchers in receiving yards in this game and proved to be a reliable target for Bryce Underwood underneath.

Offensive Line: B+

This group played poorly last week on the road at USC but boy did they respond in this game. They played so much better as a unit and Washington's defense is no slouch either. This has to have been their best performance all-around as they consistently churned out yards on the ground and also kept Bryce Underwood in a clean pocket the majority of the time. There are still some lapses in pass pro, and that's the only reason this grade of B+ isn't higher. The run blocking was really good in this game and they even lost the starting left tackle Evan Link due to injury. His replacement Blake Frazier came in and played quite well for Michigan and with Link's injury looking fairly serious, you'd think it'll be Frazier there at left tackle the rest of the year. Based on how he played in this game, it's not too big of a concern though.

Defensive Line: B

Derrick Moore was phenomenal once again, and the group itself was good as a whole. The DT's got pushed around a little bit more than you'd like to see, but it was much better than how they played last week. I'd also like to see someone other than Derrick Moore win a 1 on 1 pass rush rep in a big time spot so that opponents can't just key in on Moore on passing downs. After all, Derrick Moore did have the only 2 sacks in the game and Washington dropped back to pass more than 35 times, so more pressure as a unit from this DL would do wonders for the overall performance of the Michigan defense.

Linebackers: A

Following what was their worst performance of the season as a group last week, they played possibly their best game of the season this week. All three linebackers finished in the top 5 defenders on Michigan's defense according to PFF. Jimmy Rolder and Cole Sullivan each had an INT and Ernest Hausman made multiple nice tackles. This group showed out in this game and it was badly needed following their performance last week at USC. Hopefully they can keep this momentum going and continue to play this well.

Secondary: B

A bit of a mixed grade here. The cornerbacks were quite good, especially considering they were matched up against a good wide receiver core for Washington led by an All-Big Ten type player in Denzel Boston. Both Zeke Berry and Jyaire Hill made plays in this game, as both of them covered and tackled well.

The safeties however were another story, and not in a good way. Three different safeties were beat in coverage to give up chunk yardage as Mason Curtis, Jordan Young, and Jaden Mangham were all preyed upon in coverage. Part of this could be because Rod Moore and Brandyn Hillman didn't play in this game, but the safety group needs to play better than this. The unit did tackle well though so it wasn't a horrible day or anything but it was a real weakness of the defense for them in coverage.

Special Teams: C

The special teams continues to struggle. Hudson Hollenbeck had another rough outing at punter. He had one punt for 35 yards in the first half that is just really poor for a Big Ten level player. His 55 yard punt later on in the game looks good on paper but largely because it had so little hang time that the Washington punt returner couldn't get to it in time and had to watch it bounce and it took a nice Michigan sided roll to make the punt look much better on paper. Hollenbeck has not had a good year at punter and Michigan should address this position next off-season.

Dominic Zvada also continued with his struggles, as he went 1/2 in field goals. He missed from 48 yards out and hit a chip shot from 26 yards out. I don't see anything wrong with his kicks or his leg, so it has to be a mental thing at this point. Hopefully Michigan can get him right in practice to try and build up his confidence again. He has the talent to be the best kicker in the country and the struggles he's had are uncharacteristic of a kicker with his kind of talent and makes me believe he'll get it figured out at some point.

Coaching: A-

I was hard on the coaches last week with what they had the team doing out at USC, so it's only right I praise them this week. I liked Sherrone Moore's 4th down decisions much more in this game, even though they didn't really go his way as they were stopped twice on 4th down. He made the correct decision though on both, based on the analytics, so the overall process has improved from him even if the results didn't necessarily show up for him in this game. Both sides of the football had much better plans for this Washington team and both sides of the ball also executed the plans far better as well which speaks to the better job coaching as a whole this week.

I still would like Chip Lindsey to run the ball more early to set up the pass for later but it's hard to argue with the results in this game. He's dealing with a lot of youth on the offensive side of the ball and the last few games he's done a better job of creating opportunities for his playmakers to go out and make plays. He's increased Andrew Marsh's snaps and targets and rightly so, and he's done a pretty good job of getting Bryce Underwood into a rhythm in most games this season.

Wink Martindale also responded from a poor game plan last week with a really nice one this week against an almost equally as talented offense for Washington. He still gets too blitz happy for my liking but that's kind of just who he is and it doesn't appear to be changing at all. The defense just plays better when he lets his front four rush the passer and drops everybody else into coverage which is what he did more of in the second half. I wish it wouldn't take him a full half to figure that out though, so hopefully the more he sees it working the more he'll start to lean into that style of defense.

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