Michigan 35, Maryland 10

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: November 18, 2017

This got out of hand early. Michigan was dominant in all three phases. It was 28-0 at the half. Then the farting around commenced, Maryland started getting yards, and there were many complaints from the fan base. It seemed pretty clear to me that the goal at that point was to just get out of there as healthy as possible and with as little on film as possible. That was a perfectly acceptable strategy, as D.J. Durkin had waved the white flag. I didn’t even grade the second half of the game. There was no point. There was nothing to learn from that. Here’s what I’ve got for the first half:

Player Grades

The grading scale goes from -3 to +3 for each play. Penalties are counted in whatever phase they were committed. “Short” throws are 10 yards or less, “Medium” is 10-20, “Deep” is over 20. Everything else (scrambles, throwaways, etc.) is under “Miscellaneous.”

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So what happened?

I have a hunch that this would have been like 49-0 if Harbaugh had cared to continue to actually play. On both sides of the ball, it looked like they were just doing basic stuff so as to not tip their hand for the much better opponents they’ll see these next two weeks. I mean, at least in theory, Wisconsin’s good. Badgers ain’t played nobody, though. They’re still probably good, though. At least good enough to merit saving the good plays for. Anyway, they farted around pretty much the whole second half and Maryland gained some yards and got some points as a result. Stop worrying about that. The only thing of any actual concern that happened in the second half was Chase Winovich biffing a few runs. He has been excellent all year. A nickel says this was just a blip.