Ty Isaac ran for a career-high 133 yards and Wilton Speight threw two touchdowns to help No. 8 Michigan pull away and beat Cincinnati 36-14 on Saturday.
The Wolverines (2-0) led by just three points early in the second half before scoring 19 unanswered points to turn a closely contested game into a lopsided one.
The Bearcats (1-1) failed to take advantage of Michigan's many mistakes and made some miscues of their own to spoil an upset bid.
Cincinnati's Hayden Moore was 15 of 40 for 132 yards with a TD pass to Kahlil Lewis that cut Michigan's lead to 17-14 in the third quarter. Moore had some passes dropped and had some errant throws, two of which were intercepted and returned for scores by Tyree Kinnel in the first quarter and Lavert Hill late in the fourth.
Speight completed 17 of 29 passes for 221 yards. He had TD passes to Kekoa Crawford early in the game and to Grant Perry in the third that gave Michigan a 10-point cushion. The quarterback avoided throwing an interception a week after throwing two against Florida, but the Wolverines turned the ball over twice and had seven penalties for 68 yards.
Michigan's defense didn't appear to be as dominant as it was against the Gators, but did limit the Bearcats to an average of 2.3 yards per carry, forcing them to throw a lot more than Moore appeared to be capable of doing successfully. Isaac started a week after backing up Chris Evans and took advantage, following up his 114-yard performance with another impressive showing that pushed Evans to the sideline for much of the afternoon.
THE TAKEAWAY:
CINCINNATI: The Bearcats should come away encouraged that they had a chance they had to pull off an upset, but will lament missed opportunities.
MICHIGAN: The Wolverines were humbled a week after an impressive victory over then-No. 17 Florida.
UP NEXT:
CINCINNATI: The Bearcats stay on the road to face Miami of Ohio on Saturday night.
MICHIGAN: The Wolverines will get a chance to work on many problems in practice before hosting Air Force on Saturday afternoon.
