Michigan needed a gem from its defense like mountain climbers in Iowa need an airplane ticket to somewhere else. The Wolverines got it, summited with a 10-3 Homecoming win and dodged Big Ten disaster.
Defensive coordinator Don Brown’s crew took a team that scored 134 points in its first four games and stingily slipped it a field goal. The Wolverines took a senior quarterback in Nate Stanley and pulverized his pristine numbers.
Eight touchdown passes? A grand total of zero interceptions through four games? Stanley went for eight sacks and zero TDs in this one, besieged on all sides and abandoned by a rushing attack that entered ranked 29th nationally (217.5 yards per game) but netted just one yard in 60 minutes.
The Wolverines picked him off three times, rising to and exceeding a challenge tossed at them by The Don.
“We were just being aggressive today, doing everything we were preparing for in practice,” senior viper Khaleke Hudson assured. “Coach Brown challenged us early in the week. He told us the quarterback had eight touchdowns and zero interceptions.
“He challenged us to get two interceptions. … We got three.”
