We provide an in depth analysis of Saturday's Michigan/Northwestern game, explaining which program has the upper hand in every phase.
Our assessments and final verdicts are below:
Michigan's Rush Offense vs. Northwestern's Rush Defense
The story here surrounds Michigan senior running back Karan Higdon. He had a solid year last season (994 yards), and is once again on fire to kick off the 2018 campaign.
Higdon has run for 156 and 136 yards in his last two games against Western Michigan and Nebraska, respectively, (he missed the SMU contest with injury), and now has 364 yards on the year, which is the fourth most in the Big Ten.
His 7.9 yards per carry is the second highest mark in the league, while his 121.3 yards per game are third.
Junior running back Chris Evans (172 yards, two scores) missed last Saturday's game with injury, and is questionable once again heading into tomorrow's affair. Head coach Jim Harbaugh said on Monday night he hopes to have Evans back either this week or next.
Junior Tru Wilson has also emerged as a more than capable back, averaging 6.5 yards per carry on 23 touches this season.
Freshman Christian Turner finally made his Wolverine debut last week after missing the team's first three games with injury, and ran for 55 yards on 10 carries.
Sophomore fullback Ben Mason has even emerged as a threat on the ground this year — Harbaugh lined him up as a running back last week against the 'Huskers, and he carried six times and scored touchdowns on half of those carries.
"That's what we've been looking for," former Michigan defensive lineman Ryan Van Bergen said on John Borton's Sunday podcast. "That's old school Michigan football and vintage Harbaugh — running it where you want and when you want. They were doing it on third and seven because they could.
"They moved bodies — good luck with Ben Mason and not letting him fall forward. It's what you want to see and it's encouraging. It's what we expected when Harbaugh was brought on — control tempo and grind teams out. They could've ran the ball every play and have been fine."
After racking up 285 yards on the ground against Nebraska, Michigan now ranks 36th nationally with 212 yards per game.
That is a number Harbaugh would undoubtedly like to be better, but it all comes down to offensive line.
They've pass protected better than they've run blocked this season, and need to show they're capable of creating holes against solid defenses.
"There's improvement with that group," longtime Michigan assistant coach Jerry Hanlon said on Borton's Thursday podcast. "As I study the tapes, I see Michigan is walling off defenders, which means they're on the right people and not leaving guys unblocked. I'd still like them to knock people off the ball, and once they do that, they'll be able to run the ball against any kind of defense."
Northwestern's rush defense hasn't been great this year, but sits at a respectable 42nd nationally.
Purdue gashed them for 202 yards in the season opener, while Duke and Akron were both held below 100 yards (though they each torched the Wildcats through the air) against them.
Redshirt junior Joe Gaziano and sophomore Samdup Miller will start at defensive end, while senior Jordan Thompson and junior Alex Miller will occupy the tackle spots.
Northwestern will rotate plenty of bodies on the defensive line, including fifth-year seniors Ben Oxley and Fred Wyatt, redshirt junior Trent Goens, sophomore Earnest Brown, redshirt freshman Trevor Kent and freshman Devin O'Rourke.
The starting linebackers will be redshirt sophomore Paddy Fisher, sophomore Blake Gallagher and fifth-year senior Nate Hall, with little to no rotation among the group.
Fisher's 9.3 tackles per game pace the bunch, while Gallagher checks in right behind him at 8.6 per game.
The front seven as a whole is only averaging six tackles for loss per outing, which is 68th nationally.
An ever-improving Michigan rushing attack has the advantage here against a Northwestern front seven that probably isn't as good as the numbers would indicate.
Advantage: Michigan
