Michigan football wakes up with a 49-3 defeat in West Michigan

A week after struggling to do anything offensive against a Notre Dame defense, the Wolverines found much more space against an over-matched Broncos team by accumulating 308 rushing yards among 451 total yards.

Michigan junior quarterback Shea Patterson was 12 of 17 for 125 yards and three touchdowns. His 44-yard pass to second-year sophomore Nico Collins was the first touchdown by a Michigan player in 364 days.

Windsor: Michigan beat WMU by six touchdowns. It means nothing

Your turn: Michigan performance in 49-3

Higdon finished with 156 rushing yards and a touchdown in 13 attempts, all in the first period. Chris Evans had 86 yards on 10 carries with two touchdowns.

Defensively, Michigan kept WMU only 161 yards from the total attack before turning into its reserves early in the fourth quarter. Rashan Gary made six tackles, including his first bag of the year. Linebacker Josh Ross had two tackles for the loss. Western Michigan avoided the shutout with a Josh Grant 35-yard placement with 2:34 left.

WMU quarterback Tim Wassink scored 16 of 34 on 85 yards. The Broncos finished with 208 yards in total.

The Wolverines (1-1) are back home next Saturday against SMU (15:30, BTN).

Things started a little shaky on the first outing, as the Wolverines needed to burn a timeout in the second play of the scrum before falling behind the chains with a false start – causing some rush into the Michigan Stadium crowd. .

But after the defense responded with a hat-trick, everything was easy for Jim Harbaugh and the company.

Higdon's 43-yard straight tackle triggered the first scoring attempt of the day, resulting in a 17-yard touchdown pass to Sean McKeon, Patterson's first pass to Michigan. Higdon was on his way again later, winning the first 67-yard slam for a score.

And after an interception of Noah Furbush, the Wolverines were in good position on the field, Chris Evans scored 21-0 with a 27-yarder, giving Michigan three touchdowns in less than seven minutes of play.

Evans added a 2-yard run against a blocked kick on the next takeover before Patterson beat Collins on a 44-yard play pass.

The Michigan receivers, who had only three touchdown passes last season, had not made a touchdown reception since Grant Perry won a Wilton Speight pass against Cincinnati on September 9, 2017.

Patterson's last goal of the day came in the middle of the third quarter, when he let through what appeared to be an open path to throwing a sideline into the arms of Donovan Peoples-Jones.

It was the first touchdown reception of the Peoples-Jones career and easily the best short-term Patterson throw with the program. Peoples-Jones finished with four receptions for 30 yards and one TD.

Michigan quarterback Dylan McCaffrey also had the first touchdown pass of his career, an 18-meter win over Jake McCurry in the fourth quarter.