Michigan Wolverines Football: WMU Blindsided By U-M’s Attack On Both Sides

Western Michigan football coach Tim Lester admitted he really didn’t know what to expect going into his team’s game at Michigan Saturday. The Broncos watched Baltimore Ravens film to get an idea what the Wolverines might do defensively under new defensive coordinator (and former Ravens assistant) Mike Macdonald, but even that didn’t give them a really good idea what they’d see.

It showed. Though WMU had some early success, aided in part by Michigan mistakes, Macdonald’s crew only allowed 14 points, seven when it mattered on the first drive. The Broncos managed only 317 total yards, including 191 passing from the talented Kaleb Eleby, and punted seven times.

“They did a great job with their safeties, making us hand it off,” Lester said. “We have to do a better job when they give us six in the box and don’t run their safety down … we have to get more than we did. We can’t get three yards when it’s six-on-six in the box. We need 10. We had a couple of those runs, but not enough.”

Sophomore running back Sean Tyler managed 22 yards and 18 yards on his last two carries, both in the third quarter when the game was essentially out of hand.

Macdonald disguised his coverages well, Lester praised, and confused Eleby and Co. Their RPO (run/pass option) offense carved defenses up last year but stalled often Saturday.

“They did a good job of showing two-high [safeties], playing one-high, showing one-high, playing two-high," Lester continued. "The hard part is that you’re learning on the fly. It’s not like you’ve seen it on film and your quarterback’s ready.

"… They were rushing four, and [junior linebacker Aidan Hutchinson] was running by our guys. He did play in a different spot than we thought he would from watching Ravens film, so we had to make a lot of adjustments in the second quarter and really didn’t get them installed until the third as far as making sure we were getting help on him.”

They expected him on the ‘field’ [wide] side rather than the ‘boundary,’ he admitted, and it caught them off guard. As a result, Hutchinson notched a sack and was in the backfield much of the afternoon.

“That’s stuff you normally know,” Lester said. “That’s the hard part about playing a defense where no one knew what they’d do.”

On offense, Michigan started out with a heavy package that included both redshirt junior Chuck Filiaga and freshman Zak Zinter lined up on the right side. That was nearly 700 pounds of beef, and it helped wear down the Broncos’ smaller line.

Michigan finished with 334 yards rushing, including 111 from Blake Corum.

“They got big on us, which is difficult to stop,” he said. “It’s not something they had shown much of.”

But it worked. U-M started imposing its will in the second quarter, opened up a 27-7 halftime lead and never looked back.

“They got out ahead of us and buried us,” Lester lamented.

Getting the Wolverines' season off to a great start.

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