As almost any coach would say, the good teams are the ones that learn from their mistakes.
With a 28-10 halftime lead over Purdue, Michigan looked like it was in prime position four weeks ago to take control of the Big Ten.
But in reality, all that Michigan was primed for was one big 30-minute mistake the second half.
The Wolverines defense gave up 22 points in the last two quarters, allowing Montrell Lowe to run wild and Drew Brees to throw the ball all over the field. When the Wolverines had lost, 32-31, they were left with no control of their own bowl destiny and one heartbreaking loss.
“The main thing was we couldn’t force (Purdue) to become a one-dimensional team,” defensive linemen Dan Rumishek said. “We were trying to just basically contain them instead of trying to shut down the run. And that ended up hurting us because we didn’t know what to expect. We were getting third-and-two, third-and-three, third-and-one and they could pretty much run whatever offensive play they wanted when it comes down to those down-and-distances.”
The Wolverines spent much of that game trying to limit Brees and Purdue’s vaunted passing game, and came in largely unprepared for Lowe, who ran for 126 yards. Plus Brees had 80 rushing yards himself.
After the game, the Wolverines said they had made a big mistake in letting Purdue’s ground game get the best of them.
“It was something that (defensive coordinator Jim) Herrmann talked about, that he’ll never let that happen again, to not practice against stopping the run,” Rumishek said. “Because in the Big Ten, that’s the first thing you have to do stop the run if you ever want to defeat a team.”
So the next week in practice, head coach Lloyd Carr and his coaching staff made sure their team would be prepared to face a running attack. And in the two games since, the results, to say the least, have been astounding.
Michigan 58, Indiana 0.
Michigan 14, Michigan State 0.
Neither the Hoosiers nor the Spartans managed to crack the Michigan defense for a score. And almost as importantly, the Wolverines defense stonewalled the teams’ attempts to gain ground via the run.
For the year, Michigan has allowed only five rushing touchdowns and 3.3 yards per carry, but its last two games have been particularly impressive.
Indiana and its option attack totaled only 89 yards roughly a third of its season average and Michigan State was limited to 63 yards on 44 carries, a mere 1.4 yards per carry.
“We just focused on being aggressive week-in and week-out and playing with intensity,” said middle linebacker Eric Brackens, who registered seven tackles and a sack against the Spartans. “I think that helped us the past few weeks and we tried to keep working in practice really hard in the tackling drills to finish the tackles and wrap up.”
The Wolverines demonstrated against Indiana that pushing an opponent back allows their defense to gain the upper hand.
“That’s our main emphasis. We have to stop the run,” said Rumishek, who has made a career-high 17 tackles this the year. “We have to force them to throw the ball every down. I think if we do that, that gives us a very good chance to win because they become a one-dimensional team.
“We did that pretty well against Indiana. We forced them into long situations, third-and-10, third-and-15, and then it became a passing down and we knew how to play defense against that. So that was the main key against Indiana and the rest of the way.”
Michigan doesn’t necessarily expect to keep Northwestern entirely off the scoreboard, though it knows that stopping the run will take them a long way to being in the proper position to do so.
“I don’t think you shut a team like Northwestern out,” Carr said. “It’s like a guy that gets to bat 1,000 times is going to get more hits than a player who gets to hit 100 times. They are going to get their hits and points. That doesn’t mean you can’t give up points and still play good defensively if you tackle well and have players in the right position to make plays.”
Still, seeing that they have climbed into third place in the Big Ten in rushing defense, allowing only 126.9 yards per game, the Wolverines have plenty of confidence.
“I think we’ve played better defensively because we’ve tackled better, we’ve played with more intensity, and we’ve had people in position to make plays and we’ve made them,” Carr said. “That’s how you play team defense.”