UW-Michigan box score thoughts

Had a few minutes to look over the detailed box score of the win over Michigan, and here's what stood out:

-Scott Tolzien averaged 15 yards per completion, vs. 9.2 yards for Michigan's QBs. Our passing game isn't just dinking and dunking and tossing it to the backs in the flat, it's picking up big chunks of yardage at a time.

-Our time of possession edge was 35:49 to 24:11. In the fourth quarter it was 12:02 to 2:58. For the year our averaged is 33:15 to 26:45. I love that.

-Piggybacking on that, John Clay went over 1,000 yards Saturday, which makes five straight seasons we've had a 1,000-yard rusher. This following two non-1,000-yard years after a 10-year run. Don't know why, but that streak was always really important to me, it epitomized what Wisconsin football was all about under Barry Alvarez and how it should always be. A streak like that is dependent upon featured backs staying healthy -- if Anthony Davis had stayed healthy this streak would be at 17 straight years -- but it shows that we value the run and always have good lines who can lead the way for our backs.

-I know it was just one run, but let me say again that Zach Brown looked very good on his one carry, for 12 yards. Is Montee Ball really that much better than him right now? Between the tackles, maybe, but Brown can get around the corner. Was his concussion fairly serious, or has the staff just not gotten over his fumbling?

-Nick Toon is averaging 15.1 yards per catch right now, that's pretty darn good.

-Thought Isaac Anderson looked pretty good on kickoff returns, better than David Gilreath has looked this year, although he still did a little too much stutter stepping.

-Chris Borland led us with 11 tackles, had 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack, forced a fumble and had a QB hurry. And his performance didn't stick out one bit. Has he already gotten so good and so consistent that we're taking him for granted?

-Blake Sorensen was second in tackles with seven. His play has been quietly solid this year, much better than I expected.

-O'Brien Schofield with seven tackles, two hurries, a TFL and half a sack. Great way to cap his home career. Same for Jae McFadden, with six tackles and 2.5 TFLs.

-And let's hear it once again for Jeff Stehle, who had two TFLs and a sack in his last home game. He, Dan Moore and Patrick Butrym have really been decent at a position I figured would be a major weakness for us this year.

This Badger team won't go down in history as one of the best ever, but every week it's fun to look at these box scores and see different guys stepping in and contributing.