Turning Point of the Game: Colorado State

The No. 8 Michigan Wolverines throttled the Colorado State Rams 51-7 in their home opener to kick off the 2022 season. With an impressive showing on offense and defense, it didn’t look like the defending Big Ten champs went anywhere in the offseason, despite notable changes.

Though this is only the first game of the season, it’s understandably hard to justify after one game that the Wolverines look like they haven’t faltered since last year. At the same time, it was hard to deny the defense’s tenacity to get to the quarterback, the offensive line forcing gaps for Michigan’s backfield and Jake Moody ensuring that Michigan scores points on drives that don’t work out looked really familiar.

The Wolverines went out and manhandled the Rams, which was as to be expected given the odds before the game started. At no point was there indication Colorado State could hang around with Michigan, and again that was due to a high effort from the defense and an offense that strongly resembles last year’s. Michigan worked its ground attack offense, cranking out 234 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. Michigan did, however, go for a more balanced offense with 206 passing yards in the game.

While it was nice to get a little bit of something from everyone in this game, someone still solidified themselves as the turning point of the game. For this week, that honor goes out to Blake Corum.

Michigan was already leading 13-0 by the time it was moving back through CSU territory. The Rams had just punted on the previous drive, setting up the Wolverines well at the CSU 48. They, in all seven plays of this scoring drive, rushed in each of them. When it was 2nd and Goal at the CSU 7, Corum rushed in for the touchdown, putting the Wolverines up 20-0.

This touchdown was like a domino effect for the rest of the game. CSU on the next drive finally crossed into Michigan territory for the first time all game, before the eventual scoring drive in the fourth. The Rams went for it on 4th down at the Michigan 47, but quarterback Clay Millen was sacked for the third time that game, this time by R.J. Moten.

Michigan really got to roll against a weaker team, but there was a lot of promise coming from both sides of the ball. This game provided the foundation for the season for the Wolverines and it loudly said they haven’t fallen from where they were a year ago. The Maize and Blue had a lot of spectacular moments in their home opener, but this is only the beginning.