Oct 1, 20232 min read

Game Review: Michigan Wolverines travel to the plains and flatten the Nebraska Cornhuskers

Memorial Stadium January 12, 2006 — Memorial Stadium Photo Credit: Asten via Flickr

Michigan Wolverines go into Lincoln and hammers Nebraska 45-7 and it wasn’t even that close.

Game Summary:

The University of Michigan traveled to Lincoln and showed the Cornhuskers why they are the number two team in the country. Michigan lost the opening coin toss and Nebraska deferred to take the ball in the second half. Michigan took the ball and on their first drive, 75 yards on 11 plays for the Roman Wilson opening touchdown.

On Nebraska's first possession and only the second play Haarberg had a pass tipped, defensive tackle Kenneth Grant was able to come down with it giving the ball right back to the Wolverines. Just 3 plays later Michigan was in the endzone this time on a 20-yard run by Kalel Mullings, and Michigan was off to their hottest offensive start of the season.

The second quarter was no better for the Cornhuskers, J.J McCarthy found the endzone from 21 yards after Nebraska left the middle of the field wide open. Then with just 23 seconds left J.J. scrambled again, but this time was able to find Roman in the back of the endzone to go up 28-0, seemingly ending the game before the half.

Michigan was able to put points on the board 3 more times in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Blake Corum ran in from the 1-yard line to go up 35-0, then Turner kicked his only field goal to go up 38, finally O’Leary caught a TD pass to extend the lead to 45. Nebraska was finally able to break the shutout with 4:17 left in the 4th on a 74-yard run by Joshua Fleeks, this came with most of the starters out for Michigan

	Michigan	Nebraska
First downs	26	10
Rushes-Yards-Average	51-249-4.9	21-106-3.7
Passing yards	187	199
Field Goals	1-1	0-1
Time of possession	38.01	21:50
Sacks	4	0

Turning point/play of the game:

On just the second play of the game Nebraska QB Heinrich Haarberg, dropped back to pass on a 2&9 from his own 26-yard line. Michigan’s Braid McGregor was able to tip the pass up in the air, and defensive tackle Kenneth Grant was able to catch the tipped ball for his first interception. Michigan would score just 3 plays later to go up 14-0 and the Wolverines never looked back after that.

Michigan Wolverine MVP

The offensive line takes home the game ball this week for the Wolverines. Coming into the game the biggest question was if Michigan would be able to run the ball vs. the top-ranked Nebraska run defense. Michigan's offensive line finally looked the way fans have come to expect, opening holes all afternoon for the Michigan running backs and giving JJ time to find his open receivers. Michigan was able to run for 249 yards on 51 carries averaging 4.9 yards per, this came against Nebraska's top-ranked Big 10 run defense that was only allowing 46.3 yards a game and 1.8 per carry.

Nebraska Cornhusker MVP

Joshua Fleeks gets Nebraska's game ball for being able to break the shutout on his 74-yard run with 4:17 left in the game. This would be the only points Nebraska would be able to put up.