Well, that was a lot closer than everyone expected.
Michigan moves on to 11-0 ahead of the Big Game against Ohio State where a place in the Big Ten Championship will be on the line between a pair of undefeated rivals. The future is now a lot murkier for an Illini team suddenly on a three loss skid, leading to a truly wide open race for the West Division crown.
While still undefeated, it was not the best performance at all for the Wolverines, certainly not one befitting of the third ranked team in the country. Sure, Illinois has one of the stingiest defenses in the nation, they’ve played everyone tight this season. The Michigan offense just looked lost outside of Blake Corum though, something that has been a bit of a worry this season. We know they can run the ball, there is a reason he’s a Heisman Trophy candidate, can they pass the ball when they need to though?
The verdict after this game? I’m not so sure.
If the Illinois offense could pass the ball themselves, they most likely would’ve ran away with this game. They faced a pretty similar problem to the Wolverines. They couldn’t really do anything outside of runs by Chase Brown. This has been a problem all season for the Illini, and it has held them back in recent weeks despite looking like the team to beat in the West.
It was a classic late-season Big Ten showdown with a lot of rushing and good defenses to go with the extremely cold weather. All eyes were on this game with massive implications, and here are the best social media reactions.