Yes! No. Maybe? Week 9 sees Western Michigan get bowl eligible, Michigan survive Rutgers

It’s a somewhat abbreviated version of Yes! No. Maybe? this morning, as there are just two games to be writing off of: Western Michigan’s 23-10 win over Bowling Green and Michigan’s 28-21 survival act at Rutgers. 

Eastern Michigan hosts Central Michigan on Wednesday night at Ford Field, as MACtion has begun, but first the trios of good, bad, and curiosities/questions, respectively, from WMU and UM getting it done on Saturday. 

And while it’s not written about in any length below, Western Michigan got bowl eligible with the win, the first team in state to do so. It’s the third-straight year WMU is bowl eligible under Lance Taylor, who is in his fourth season leading the Broncos. 

Let’s dig in. 

Yes!

WMU RB Cole Cabana: it was a career day for Cabana, and probably a welcome payoff as the fourth-year running back has battled injuries and packed tailback depth charts throughout his career. But with Lolo Mataele out, Cabana got to be the counterpunch for Jalen Buckley on Saturday vs. Bowling Green and delivered, carrying seven times for 110 yards and a touchdown. It’s just the second touchdown of his career, the first coming against Boise State earlier this season, and it’s Cabana’s first-ever 100 yard game. Most of the production came on an 82-yard touchdown run to tie the game, 7-7, early on, but he popped in another chunk run later on. After spending two quiet seasons at Michigan and now 2025 and 2026 at WMU, Cabana is finally getting some payoff — and helped WMU put together a rather uneventful conference win vs. BGSU. 

Western Michigan’s havoc defense: The Broncos tallied four more sacks as part of nine tackles for loss against Bowling Green on Saturday, continuing a torrid pace of havoc plays through MAC play. WMU has 20 sacks in five conference games as part of 33 tackles for loss in as many games. The Broncos have also forced fumbles in every conference game, including two each the past two games, though has somehow only recovered one of them. Interceptions have gone differently, with six across the last four games and three against BGSU, highlighted by Justyce Betts’ highlight one-handed pick (more on that later). WMU’s defense has a few ways it can be poked and prodded, like a rush defense that’s good but not ideally stout, but more than makes up for it with the way the Broncos blow up drives with sacks, tackles for loss and turnovers. 

UM QB Tommy Carr, all things considered: There are plenty of aspects of his performance that can be nitpicked or improved, but he mostly kept the Wolverines from self destructing, produced enough in the passing game and came up incredibly clutch with a pair of rushing touchdowns to help Michigan cash in two second half touchdowns to avoid an upset on the road. Carr finished 22-of-27 with a touchdown and 266 yards passing. That aerial score came on the first series and Carr left some throws out there as the game went on, namely some underthrown deep balls, but he didn’t make a catastrophic decision like his INT vs. Indiana. Carr’s pocket presence is raw but he did extend plays to find throws vs. Rutgers, helping keep the Michigan offense on the field in some key spots. His play didn’t jump off the screen, one way or another, which is probably fine, and he kept Michigan’s offense on the rails in an eventual win. Pretty, pretty good for a true freshman in his second start, who was also reportedly dealing with the flu. 

No. 

UM K Trey Butkowski: This isn’t to be throwing dirt, but more to highlight how a kicker losing his way can hamstring the operation. Michigan obviously left six points on the field with a pair of missed Butkowski field goals vs. Rutgers, and the Wolverines were seemingly going to need to decide on a kick-go call on 4th down in the low red zone before Carr scrambled for a TD late to give Michigan the decisive lead. What’s troubling about Butkowski’s recent stretch is that he was perfect prior to the last two games — 4-of-4 on field goals and 16-of-16 on PATs. He went 2-for-4 against Indiana and 0-for-2 vs. Rutgers on field goals. And all four of the missed field goals were very make-able distances. Those misses become makes vs. Indiana and it might’ve been enough to get Michigan a win and two makes vs. Rutgers makes for a slightly more comfortable margin. It’s not really clear what’s troubling Butkowski, but he’s clearly not right and Michigan needs him to find his way again. 

Western Michigan’s slow starts, giveaways: The Broncos got into a 17-0 hole vs. Toledo last week and gave the ball away three times. WMU got into a 7-0 hole vs. BGSU and gave the ball away twice. But the difference is Toledo is quite good and Bowling Green is more feisty than actually good, so the Broncos managed to win the latter matchup. But it’s not a trend that WMU will want to see continue as MACtion begins for the Broncos on Nov. 10. WMU has a bit more pop in the passing game but is generally still a team that wants to get ahead, lean on the defense, and shrink the game behind a rushing attack that can whittle the game away. It managed to do that over the course of the game vs. BGSU, but won’t always be so lucky. And more pointedly, Broc Lowry has three turnovers (two interceptions, fumble lost) the last two weeks after two in the first seven games. WMU can’t afford to keep playing risky games with deficits and giveaways.

Michigan’s big play defense: Michigan only defended 38 plays, but gave up 249 yards (6.6 yards per play). And a lot of the damage came on two plays: The 80-yard touchdown catch by Jourdin Houston (who ran right past a flat-footed Smith Snowden, who then fell down, on 3rd and 15) and a 54-yard run by Antwan Raymond where Michigan missed a gap and he creased them to set up a Rutgers touchdown and two point conversion to tie it. That’s 134 yards on two plays. Rutgers also had a 32-yard pass to Raymond and additional runs of 12 and 20 yards. So without the two massive explosives, Michigan gave up 115 yards on 36 plays (3.2 ypp), and without those five chunks Rutgers ran 33 plays for 51 yards. Five plays went for 198 of Rutgers’ yards; those yards (and subsequent points) count. Michigan’s defense might’ve smothered the Scarlet Knights otherwise, but it almost didn’t matter because of the lack of containing the big play. 

Maybe? 

Carr keeps dialing in as a passer: Pretty simply, Carr was not great passing vs. Indiana. He had a few moments but, unsurprisingly, struggled to impact the game dropping back against what is a very good Indiana defense. He looked better vs. Rutgers, admittedly a much worse team. Michigan State’s defense is injured beyond belief and not especially talented, but Joe Rossi has coached that group up well week to week. It’ll be an interesting venue to see if Carr can take another step as a passer after a solid outing vs. Rutgers. He didn’t light it up vs. the Scarlet Knights and left a few throws out there, but he made good decisions with the football and seems like he’s a few accuracy improvements on high throws over the middle and misplaced shot plays away from giving the Wolverines a bit more out of the passing game. Saturday's overall performance is a good place to try and build from.

That was Michigan’s dud on defense this year: The Wolverines did give up those chunk plays, yes. And the tackling in moments, like on Thevenin’s 20-yard run, was shambolic. But Michigan had five bad plays to turn a 1.5 yards per play performance from Rutgers (51 yards on 33 plays) into a 6.6 yards per play day (249 on 38). If Snowden doesn’t fall down on the long TD pass or a few more tackles get made, this is closer to another stalwart outing for Michigan’s defense. But Snowden did fall down and those lapses did happen. Part of it might be that Rutgers spread Michigan out and let some talented wideouts go for high-variance plays that hit, a strategy borne from having nothing to lose with a backup QB starting. Michigan also didn’t have starting edges Dom Nichols and John Henry Daley playing, not appearing after being game time decisions. Those big plays happened and count, but there’s a lot of context pointing to the idea that Michigan’s defense had a bad day at the office in some hyper-specific ways, and not that there’s somehow A Problem. 

Justyce Betts had the best interception anyone will see all season: Before getting to Betts, add this as another data point to this publication’s theory that the Philly Special needs to be laid to rest. It’s nearly a decade old, teams are looking out for it, and it’s now led in recent memory to more catastrophic failures for offenses than scoring plays. That takes us to Saturday at Waldo Stadium, with BGSU wideout Brennan Ridley throwing to a covered target in quarterback Jay Kastantin. Already, not great. But the primary defender covering, Betts, was at least a linebacker. But no one told Betts that, as he navigated the space around the sideline perfectly, boxed out Kastantin, and leapt up to corral the ball with one hand for a highlight-reel interception. There are probably not going to be five better individual plays for an interception in college football this season. Take a bow, Mr. Betts.