Defense/Special Teams Notes: U-M's Secondary Struggles Yet Again
Michigan Wolverines football's defense has struggled immensely this year (they were allowing 425.8 yards per game entering Saturday, which ranked 77th in the country), and that trend continued Saturday at Rutgers.
The Maize and Blue yielded 486 total yards to the Scarlet Knights, the most RU had compiled in a game since registering 559 in a season-opening win over Massachusetts last year.
RELATED: Wolverine Watch: Someday is now for McNamara
U-M's defensive front seven held its own, however, limiting Rutgers to 105 yards on the ground and just 2.6 yards per rush. Michigan's secondary didn't have any answers for the Scarlet Knights' passing attack, though, allowing redshirt junior quarterback Noah Vedral to throw for 381 yards and three touchdowns on 29-of-43 passing (67.4 percent).
Entering Saturday, Vedral had never thrown for more than 256 yards in a game. Granted, U-M was without two starters due to injury in senior defensive end Kwity Paye and junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, and their absences were felt. Michigan posted only three tackles for loss and two sacks.
The Wolverines lost two more key defensive cogs during the game, with redshirt sophomore linebacker Cameron McGrone and senior safety Brad Hawkins each departing with injury.
Redshirt junior linebacker Adam Shibley and redshirt junior safety Hunter Reynolds — a pair of former walk-ons — filled in in their absences, racking up five (including one for loss) and three tackles, respectively.
"No update right now [on McGrone]," head coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game. "We’ll have to wait for that. We’ll have to do an MRI."
Rutgers' offense, meanwhile, posted 24 first downs and averaged 5.7 yards per play, scoring touchdowns during all four of its trips to the red zone. Though the Wolverine secondary was consistently burned throughout the evening, sophomore safety Daxton Hill sealed the win when he picked off a Vedral pass in the end zone on the final play of the game.
“This win means a lot," sophomore defensive tackle Christopher Hinton exclaimed afterward. "It’s a step to getting back on track and finishing the season strong. We didn’t quit or keep our heads down — we kept swinging.
"Our coaches were proud of this group of guys and how we didn’t quit.”
Giles Jackson's Kick Return Sparks Michigan
Sophomore receiver Giles Jackson began the second half with a bang, returning the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to give U-M a much-needed spark. The Wolverines trailed 17-7 at halftime, but Jackson's return trimmed the Scarlet Knights' lead to just 17-14.
"Yeah, that was big," Harbaugh admitted after the win. "To start the third quarter, that was a huge start to the second half. We got the momentum back with it, though they scored on their next possession and the momentum was changing pretty fast and furious the whole night."
The score was the second kick return for a touchdown of the youngster's career. The other occurred from 97 yards out in a 38-7 win at Maryland last year Nov. 2.
Redshirt junior punter Brad Robbins also continued his successful play, averaging 45.7 yards on three attempts, including one he booted 50 yards. Robbins' 47.1-yard average entering the weekend stood as the best mark in the Big Ten and the sixth-best average nationally.
One negative special teams aspect, however, involved fifth-year senior kicker Quinn Nordin, who missed all three of his field goal attempts on the evening. Two were quite long (from 49 and 53 yards out), but his final try was from 35 yards out in the first overtime session.
Miscellaneous Michigan Football Defense Notes
• Freshman cornerback Andre Seldon played special teams and became the 22nd Wolverine to make his career debut this season.
• U-M tallied two sacks at Rutgers, after having registered just one quarterback takedown over its last three games.
• Hill's game-ending interception in the end zone was his first of the season and the second of his career. His lone other occurred in a 39-14 win at Indiana last year Nov. 23.
• Redshirt junior linebacker Josh Ross led the U-M defense with 11 tackles. He also recorded his second career sack in the fourth quarter.
• Saturday was the Wolverines' first overtime game since they took down Army, 24-21, in double-overtime Sept. 7 last year. The Maize and Blue also improved to 13-3 all time in overtime contests.
• Hinton recorded a sack of Vedral in the first quarter, marking the first quarterback takedown of his career.
• The win was U-M's sixth straight against Rutgers, with its last loss occurring in 2014. Michigan is now 6-1 all time against the Scarlet Knights.
• The Maize and Blue improved to 2-1 in night games this year, and have now won five of their last seven primetime showdowns.
• Saturday was the first time U-M gave up at least 42 points in a game and still won since a 63-47 shootout victory over Indiana in 2013.
• The Wolverines' 17-point comeback tied their second-biggest come-from-behind victory ever on the road, with U-M also coming back from a 17-point deficit to grab a 20-17 victory at Northwestern Sept. 29, 2018. The largest deficit Michigan has ever overcome on the road was at Minnesota in 2003, when it dug itself out of a 28-7 hole to win 38-35.
The win over Rutgers is tied for the program's third-biggest comeback victory ever overall.
• Nordin's stretch of 12 consecutive successful field goals came to an end, a streak that dated back to the win at Illinois last year Oct. 12. He made all six of his extra points though to give him 246 points in his career, which is 10th on the school's all-time list.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Listen and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine, Clayton Sayfie and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook