Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from narrow road victory at Illinois

Illinois threatened a comeback, and Michigan football barely won the Big Ten battle. Here are three things we learned about the Wolverines in victory.

It was a tale of two halves in some ways for Michigan. After jumping out to a 28-0 lead in the first half, the Wolverines allowed a late Illinois score right before halftime. Jim Harbaugh’s crew  still went into the locker room with a three-touchdown lead, and in the end they needed the buffer as things tightened up in the second half after the break.

Illinois did their best to mount a comeback in front of the home crowd at Memorial Stadium in Champaign. Early in the fourth quarter, the home side drew within three as they scored a touchdown and converted a two-point conversion to pull the score to 28-25.

But in the end it was too little, too late as the Fighting Illini tumbled to 0-3 in conference play after dropping the 42-25 result against their visitors from Ann Arbor. With the win, Michigan moved to 5-1 at the midpoint of the 2019 season for both teams.

What looked like it was going to be a massive blowout by the Wolverines ended up developing into a tense interdivisional affair that nearly blew up in Michigan’s face. Here are three things we learned from this narrow Michigan victory on the road in Illinois on Saturday afternoon to kick-start Week 7 action among Top 25 programs.