2012 Week 1

#8 Michigan, who plays a positively brutal schedule this year playing 4 teams ranked in the top 6, opened the 2012 season against #6 Texas. While the game looked good on paper, the Wolverines showed early who was the better team. SR QB Tate Forcier returned from his devastating injury last year to lead the offense and they played very well. The well balanced offense rushed for 249 yards while passing for 211. Michigan spread the carries around as they had 3 guys rush for at least 48 yards and had 3 guys rush for a TD. Forcier had a solid game, completing 61% of his passes for 185 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT. He also led Michigan in rushing with 85 yards on the ground and 1 TD.

With as impressive as the offense was, this game was all about Michigan's defense. The defense last year dominated opponents last year including 2 shutouts and 2 games where they only gave up 3 points. In this game, the defense picked up where they left off last year. They got after the QB all game and Texas' offense was ineffective throughout. They forced 4 fumbles, caused 2 turnovers, sacked the QB 4 times, held Texas to -3 yards on 17 carries, allowed 76 passing yards and 73 total yards. In addition to all of those impressive numbers, they allowed 0 points and didn't allow Texas to convert any of their 10 3rd or 4th down conversions.

After this impressive victory Michigan will rest a week as they prepare for #11 Cincinnati the following week.