Handing out game balls in Michigan’s win over Wisconsin

Michigan earned victory number-five yesterday in a 14-7 win over Wisconsin. It was the first truly tightly-contested game from start to finish of the season and it showed that the Wolverines have the firepower on both sides of the ball to pull it out in big games.

Here are the game balls:

Offense: Wilton Speight

Speight is far from perfect as a passer and has no shortage of things he has to work on, but his ability to escape pressure and make big time throws continues to impress. He threw his second interception of the season and had some erratic throws, but made the game-winning toss when it counted on a ball that could not have been thrown any better. Speight has showed in two years he can win big games even when he is not playing great. That is a great omen moving forward.

Defense: Channing Stribling

Jourdan Lewis will get all the accolades for his ridiculous interception — and rightfully so — but Stribling is starting to make teams pay for picking on him. Once upon a time, he was a player that teams would target and complete long passes against. Now, he is starting to make them pay by coming up with plays of his own. He really has emerged as an excellent number-two corner behind Lewis.

Special Teams: Kenny Allen

Yes, he missed two field goals and has not been great as a kicker, but as a punter he has been excellent and his efforts yesterday played a huge role in the field position battle. The Wolverines have to figure out their field goal problem, but they by no means have a punting problem.