Halftime Reaction: Michigan 17 - Illinois 0

The beginning of the game went just as planned as Michigan held Illinois from its side of the field then turned around and put together a long scoring strike to take a quick lead.

At one point Denard Robinson was 3/3 for 110 yards and a touchdown, including a nice throw to Roundtree to set Michigan up in the red zone. However, Robinson banged his hand leading to a pinky injury on his throwing hand and things stalled -- first with a field goal on that drive, then a three and out.

Robinson returned midway through the second and led the Wolverines on another long scoring drive to take a 17-0 lead into halftime.

Meanwhile, the defense has pretty much controlled every Illinois drive. The Illini have yet to seriously threaten to score, and quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase is also out of the game with an injury.

Bullets:

• Four different running backs have taken handoffs thus far. Surprisingly, one of them was not VIncent Smith. Both Dennis Norfleet and Justice Hayes have gotten chances. Toussaint has eight carries for 30 yards and has yet to really see a clean hole through which to run. Rawls hasn't done much either.
• There have been a couple key drops so far, but Michigan's passing game has kept pace with the run game (119 yards for both).
• Jake Ryan is all over the field. Kid is a beast.
• Illinois has just 25 yards passing, but that is probably equal parts Michigan being on its game and Illinois being awful.

If Robinson doesn't go down with the pinky injury, this one is probably much more out of hand. If Illinois can't find a way to score quick, this one should be wrapped up by the end of the next quarter.