Defense/Special Teams Notes: Michigan Shuts Out Rutgers
After the Michigan Wolverines' football team put on a dismal defensive showing last Saturday at Wisconsin (35 points and 487 yards allowed), it bounced back in a big way this weekend against Rutgers.
The Wolverines blanked the Scarlet Knights in a 52-0 shellacking, yielding just 152 yards to a Rutgers offense that had been averaging 353 entering the contest.
Michigan's defensive front seven and secondary each struggled mightily last week in Madison (359 rushing yards and 13 of 16 completions allowed), but both units were clicking this time around.
RELATED: Offense Notes: Patterson's arm, Feet Lead U-M to 52-0 Rout of Rutgers
RU only mustered 46 yards on the ground with a clip of 1.6 yards per rush, and just 106 through the air on 4.4 yards per pass attempt.
The Maize and Blue defense set the tone early on Rutgers' first two possessions of the day … albeit in two different ways.
It first made a statement by forcing the Scarlet Knights to go three-and-out on their initial series of the afternoon, before allowing them to drive all the way down to the U-M 5-yard line on their second possession.
Rutgers went for it on fourth-and-three, but sophomore defensive end Aidan Hutchinson banged RU sophomore quarterback Artur Sitkowski down with his shoulder when the young signal-caller tried to pick up the necessary yards with his feet.
The Scarlet Knights' next eight possessions were as follows: punt, punt, ran the clock out to end the half, punt, failed fourth-down attempt, punt, punt and punt.
Senior viper Khaleke Hudson led the team in tackles with seven, after averaging 11.3 entering the contest (ninth most in the nation).
Junior defensive end Kwity Paye had the best all-around performance, finishing the afternoon with 1.5 sacks and a career-best 3.5 tackles for loss.
"I went up to him in the second quarter and said, 'I don’t think they can block you with the way you’re playing right now,'" head coach Jim Harbaugh revealed after the win. "He had a great game."
An Unlikely Hero Makes A Key Special Teams Play
Though Michigan already led 24-0 to begin the second half, a crucial special teams play helped put the game away on the opening kickoff out of the break.
Redshirt junior safety Tre Avery fielded the kick for the Scarlet Knights, only to fumble at his own 15-yard line.
Michigan redshirt junior defensive back Tyler Cochran both forced the miscue and recovered it, marking the first time in his career he had accomplished either feat.
It then took the U-M offense just three plays to find the end zone to grab a 31-0 lead less than a minute into the second half.
Though he only punted twice on the day, redshirt junior Will Hart was also his usual dominant self, averaging 47.5 yards with a long of 54. Rutgers returned one of his kicks for zero yards (thanks to a bone-crushing hit from five-star freshman Daxton Hill).
The Wolverines, meanwhile, took an interesting approach with their punt return unit, placing both junior wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones and sophomore receiver Ronnie Bell back deep (the latter had been the lone returnee over the past two games).
Peoples-Jones returned three punts for 18 yards, Bell brought back one for 11 yards. Freshman wideout Mike Sainristil also tallied one return for no yards.
Sophomore kicker Jake Moody connected on his lone field goal attempt of the day (a 33-yarder in the second quarter), and has now converted all four of his tries on the year and is 14 of 15 in his career.
Miscellaneous Michigan Football Defense And Special Teams Notes
• The shutout was Michigan's first since it defeated Rutgers, 78-0, in 2016, and the fifth under Harbaugh. The other three occurred in consecutive weeks in 2015, when U-M blanked BYU 31-0, Maryland 28-0 and Northwestern 38-0.
• After allowing 28 first-half points to Wisconsin last week, the Wolverine defense has since yielded seven (a score to the Badgers in the third quarter last Saturday) over its last six quarters.
• Rutgers' 10 first downs were the fewest U-M's defense had surrendered since the Scarlet Knights racked up just nine in a 35-14 Michigan victory on Oct. 28, 2017.
• Paye's 1.5-sack, 3.5-tackle-for-loss effort on Saturday now gives him two quarterback takedowns (tied with fifth-year senior linebacker Jordan Glasgow for the team lead) and five stops behind the line of scrimmage (most on the club) on the year.
• Redshirt freshman linebacker Cameron McGrone made his first career start in place of injured junior linebacker Josh Ross. Although the youngster only tallied one tackle, he showed off his blazing speed on several blitzes.
• The Scarlet Knights compiled 46 rushing yards on Saturday, the fewest U-M's defense had allowed since Michigan State mustered just 15 last year on Oct. 20.
• Redshirt junior defensive tackle Michael Dwumfour returned from injury and played a significant role . The veteran had played only one snap this season, exiting the Aug. 31 Middle Tennessee State contest with an injury in the first half.
“Mike [Dwumfour] had a huge impact," Paye exclaimed afterward. "Mike is one of our best pass rushers. To have him in there on our stunts to be able to pressure the quarterback was huge.”
"Everybody likes Mike," Harbaugh added. "They like watching him play. He plays hard and he plays tough. That’s a position group that was really challenged during the week — the inside players, the nose and the three techniques. I thought that group really responded well."
• Saturday's victory was U-M's 10th straight triumph in Ann Arbor, with the last home loss occurring in a 31-20 setback to Ohio State on Nov. 25, 2017.
• The announced attendance of 110,662 was the 289th straight game at The Big House with a crowd of at least 100,000 people.
• U-M held Rutgers to 152 total yards, marking the first time it had kept an opponent under the 200-yard plateau since limiting Penn State to 186 last season in a 42-7 win. The Wolverines also limited the Scarlet Knights to just 2.9 yards per play, the lowest for any foe since Michigan State tallied 1.8 last year on Oct. 20.
• Michigan improved to 5-1 all time against Rutgers, with all six meetings occurring since 2014 (despite the fact that the Scarlet Knights are college football's oldest FBS program and U-M is tied as the third oldest). Since RU's win over the Maize and Blue in 2014, Michigan has outscored it 256-37.
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