ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After its first four offensive series Saturday, Michigan had minus-4 yards in total offense.

Since Illinois had waltzed into town on this glorious fall Saturday with a Heisman-hopeful quarterback and big-play offense, everyone expected this one to turn into a shootout. And here was Michigan trailing 3-0 and looking like the Michigan everyone around these parts had feared since Drew Henson became a full-time minor-league baseball player.

Backup quarterback Jermaine Gonzales goes 'Trans-Continental' -- a lateral and pass back.(AP)

In short, the most offensive thing this crew appeared capable of was using the wrong fork at a dinner party.

So Lloyd Carr got gutsy, dusting off some long-lost sandlot playbook and going with an aggressive play-calling scheme. Michigan ran something called the "Trans-Continental," which is a lateral and pass back to the quarterback that worked for 51 yards. Then there was a halfback option for a TD. Then an in-your-face 33-yard bomb for another score. Then a reverse for another.

Before Illinois figured out what in the WAC had gotten into the Wolverines, it was a 45-20 final, the Heisman dreams of Kurt Kittner were over and Michigan suddenly had the look of a team capable of winning this wide-open thing called the Big Ten.

"I haven't seen those plays before," said Michigan linebacking terror Larry Foote. "I don't know where they have been practicing them."

Apparently this full-throttle, razzle-dazzle offense has been in the playbook for years. It is just this is a school that has won more games than anyone largely by grinding out a running game behind a bunch of thick-necked lineman from Kalamazoo, or some such place.

And with the offense this year trying to replace its QB, tailback, best receiver and most of the line, who would have thought this was the year, or the game, Carr would go Spurrier on us?

"I think the first play (the Trans-Continental) is a gimmick play, but a well-designed gimmick play," said Carr, at least sounding more like the conservative Michigan coach we know. "But I think it really changed the momentum of the game."

And, perhaps, the season.

Suddenly here is Michigan hitting the offensive stride it has been looking for while demonstrating a physical, effective defense that held the high-octane Illini in check. The Wolverines are 3-1, facing an enviable slate of games in a weakened Big Ten and might just be cursing a blocked field goal at Washington for a long, long time.

It's not yet October, which makes slotting BCS bowls a dangerous proposition, but the Wolverines are almost certain to be favored in each of its next five games. In a Big Ten where Penn State can't win, Ohio State can't pass, Michigan State can't kick and Northwestern isn't even on the schedule, well, who knows where this little journey will end.

All you can say for sure is that if the potency of Michigan's offense was the preseason question, then how do like 33 points and 413 yards per game for an answer?

"We got better today and that's the objective," Carr said.

Someone needs to tell the coach that if he is going to play fast and loose with the offense, he at least needs to start talking like a gunslinger.

As important as all the trickery was, the big turn of events came in the second quarter, Michigan leading 14-10, when Illinois coach Ron Turner decided to get crazy himself and gambled on fourth-and-1 from his own 33. That's like betting the house on a pair of threes. Kittner tried the sneak and got stuffed by the Michigan team picture.

"It was dumb," admitted Turner.

On the next play Wolverine quarterback John Navarre aired it out and found Ron Bellamy in the end zone. And that was pretty much the ballgame.

"You want to sting a (team) when they are down," said Navarre, who went 13 of 26 for 187 yards and a TD. "The defense did that and our mentality is we are going to get after them. And we did."

This is probably too young of an offense to be considered a vintage Michigan team, but it might be a vintage Michigan defense. Anchored by a linebacking crops that has Foote, Eric Brackins and Victor Hobson going for it, the Wolverines play an aggressive, rough-and-tumble style of D that is allowing just 58.5 rushing yards a game. Illinois got only 25, which meant that as good as Kittner is -- and he can chuck it -- the Wolverines were able to keep the big plays to a minimum and Illinois receivers out of the end zone.

Kittner, who hit 51 of 71 passes for 632 yards and 6 TDs in two previous games against the Wolverines, went just 20 of 39 for 244 yards and no TDs. That isn't bad, but it wasn't nearly enough.

"We were pumped up for the game all week," said Foote, who had six tackles. "We read about them talking and that just put fuel in our tank. This team and this quarterback had hurt us both times we played them the last two years but this is a new year and a new team."

And one with a new offensive flair to it. Could a team that traditionally considers the play-action as shifting things up put the Trans-Continental in the regular game plan?

"I doubt we'll use that play for another 10 years," said Carr.

We'll see. In an unpredictable year in the Big Ten, maybe an unexpected twist is perfect for creating the most normal of realities ... once again Michigan looks like the team to beat.