Defense/Special Teams Notes: U-M Struggles Mightily To Stop Michigan State

The Michigan Wolverines' football team was thought to have a huge defensive advantage against an MSU offense that only posted 369 yards last week on Rutgers, but it didn't play out that way Saturday in Ann Arbor.

The Maize and Blue defense yielded 449 yards (including 323 through the air) and 27 points to the Spartans, consistently failing to cause havoc in the MSU backfield. U-M finished with no sacks and just two tackles for loss on the day.

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Allowing big plays was a significant issue for coordinator Don Brown's crew, with the Wolverines surrendering six plays of 28 yards or longer. Five of those six were through the air, including two of which that went for 50 yards.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh called big plays "a huge difference in the game," and noted his team was beaten by MSU's double moves multiple times.

U-M's cornerbacks, in particular, struggled immensely, with redshirt sophomores Gemon Green and Vincent Gray failing to adequately cover their opposing wideouts. Explosive plays were the name of the game for the Spartan air attack, which averaged a staggering 19.0 yards per completion. Michigan State also tallied 6.4 yards per play as a whole.

U-M's defensive unit had one final chance to redeem itself on a fourth-and-two on MSU's final series of the game, but failed to stop the Spartans from converting. Michigan was trailing by three at that juncture and would have gotten the ball back with a stop, but wasn't able to make the play.

"The game plan was that Michigan State’s kind of a run team, so we definitely wanted to stop the run game," sophomore safety Daxton Hill revealed in the postgame. "They have a few receivers we were honed in on, so they had their shots early in the game."

"I thought they protected well and made the downfield throws and catches," Harbaugh added. "They were able to finish drives just a little bit better than we did."

Another aspect that heavily hindered Michigan's defense was penalties. The unit was penalized eight times (U-M had 10 total for the game), with four thrown against the Wolverines' secondary.

"When you look at the statistics, there was quite a difference in the penalties," Harbaugh noted. "That played a big factor, and we have been emphasizing it. With the DPIs [defensive pass interferences], we had some defensive holdings, an offensive holding, an offsides, a delay of game on our defense — that was an unusual call.

"We have to play smart, penalty-free football. We didn’t have the personal fouls — there was that difference — but too many penalties that resulted in extending their drives."

Junior kicker Jake Moody struggled mightily at Minnesota when he missed three field goals, while fifth-year senior kicker Quinn Nordin was "working through something," according to Harbaugh.

Nordin reclaimed the kicking duties on Saturday, however, handling all three of the team's extra points and making his lone field goal of the day — a 23-yarder with 2:49 remaining in the second quarter.

The punting responsibilities, meanwhile, were split with fifth-year senior Will Hart and redshirt junior Brad Robbins each booting four balls. Hart, though, averaging just 37.8 yards per punt and dropping one of his four inside Michigan State's 20-yard line.

Robbins registered a much more respectable 42.0 yards per boot, landing three of his four attempts inside MSU's 20-yard line.

Sophomore wideout Giles Jackson was Michigan's primary return man on both kickoffs and punts. He averaged 15.5 yards on his two punt returns and 25.0 yards on his three kicks brought back.

The highlight of Jackson's afternoon occurred when he reeled off a nifty 38-yard runback on a kickoff in the first quarter. He also averted disaster on a punt return and wound up gaining 32 yards on the runback.

• Four Wolverines made their collegiate debuts on Saturday — freshman defensive end Jaylen Harrell, freshman linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green, redshirt freshman cornerback Jalen Perry and redshirt sophomore linebacker Edward Warinner.

• MSU turned the ball over seven times against Rutgers, but Michigan did not force any takeaways on Saturday. It took the ball away twice last week in its 49-24 win at Minnesota.

• The official attendance at The Big House was listed as 615. It was the smallest crowd in Michigan Stadium history.

• This weekend was the first time U-M lost a home opener since a 25-23 setback to Utah in 2008.

• Redshirt junior linebacker Adam Shibley filled in for redshirt sophomore Cam McGrone after he exited with an injury. Shibley registered a career-high seven tackles after having just one stop on his résumé stop entering the game.

"Cam couldn’t finish the second half," Harbaugh revealed after the contest. "He wanted to, but the doctors kept him out the second half."

• Senior safety Brad Hawkins and redshirt junior linebacker Josh Ross each racked up eight tackles, which led U-M's defense. Ross paced Michigan's defense last week as well, with nine stops.

• Saturday's setback was Michigan's first to an unranked foe since a 14-10 loss to Michigan State on Oct. 7, 2017.

• Shibley finished the day with one tackle for loss, which led the Wolverine defense. Michigan only had two as a team, with the other split by Ross and viper Michael Barrett.

• Robbins debuted his new No. 91 jersey on Saturday, after previously wearing No. 3.

• Nordin's 23-yard field goal was the 41st of his career, which places him fifth on the school's all-time list. He is four shy of the No. 4 slot, which is held by Brendan Gibbons (made 45 during his tenure from 2009-13).

• Michigan fell to 71-37-5 in the all-time series against MSU, and 38-28-2 since the two clubs began battling for the Paul Bunyan Trophy in 1953. U-M's record in home openers, meanwhile, dropped to 117-19-3.

• Michigan gave up six plays of at least 20 yards on Saturday, and four last week at Minnesota. Having already yielded 10 plays of 20 yards or more, U-M is on pace to surrender 40 for the eight-game regular-season (5.0 per game). In comparison, the Wolverines yielded 50 through 13 outings last season (3.8 per contest), 53 in 2018 (4.0), 62 in 2017 (4.7) and 43 in 2016 (3.3).

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