It was clear early Rocky Lombardi wasn’t going to go 2-0 against Michigan in two appearances. The quarterback helped lead Michigan State to an upset victory last year but threw for only 46 in Northern Illinois’ 63-10 loss at U-M Saturday, crediting the Wolverines’ new defensive scheme for his lack of success.
Lombardi had one big run late in the game, after which he celebrated by taunting the Michigan fans — and that was when he was down 63-3. Still, he had nothing but positive things to say about the Michigan defense after the game.
“They run a completely different scheme,” Lombardi said. “They looked better on film than they did last year. The scheme helps them out. They’re much softer now in coverage. They don’t like to give up many deep shots. They were giving us a zero box, so we should be able to run the ball … and we did sometimes.”
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They averaged 4.5 yards per carry, but 45 of their yards came on Lombardi’s late carry, inflating the total.
“They do a lot better job this year of disguising things, for sure,” Lombardi said. “They’re not a very blitz-heavy team. When they do disguise, I think they do a good job because they play base so well.”
Head coach Thomas Hammock, who worked with Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald at Baltimore in the NFL, was also impressed with the Wolverines. He saved much of his praise for junior end Aidan Hutchinson, who notched two tackles.
“Mike is obviously going to mix things up week to week,” Hammock said. “They tried to play [Hutchinson] opposite the tight end, which was different this game. They were trying to prepare for the open side run game. They had a couple blitzes or blitz patterns that they didn’t show on tape.
“They’ve [also] got corners that can play man coverage and stop you at the line of scrimmage. That’s the bottom line. I spent seven years in the Big Ten and have a pretty good gauge of the level of competition and talent in that conference, and when I looked at the tape, this is a very good football team.”
Michigan gained 373 of their 606 yards on the ground.
“I spent seven years in the Big Ten and have a pretty good gauge of the level of competition and talent in that conference,” Hammock said. “And when I looked at the tape … this is a very good football team. They beat us soundly in all three phases.
“That was just a better football team. That is a better football team than us, and that’s the bottom line. If they stay committed to the style that they play, they’re going to win a lot of football games … I think they built their team to beat Ohio State.”
There’s a lot of football to be played before U-M plays the Buckeyes in November, and a lot of improving still to do before they meet. But they’ve played well in the non-conference and seem well prepared for Saturday’s Big Ten opener against Rutgers.
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