The Michigan Wolverines defense kept the Rocky Lombardi-led Northern Illinois offense in check the entire afternoon this past Saturday en route to the dominating 63-10 victory. The Huskies barely eclipsed 200 yards, aided by a late touchdown drive while Michigan was rewarding the walk-ons with some playing time in the 4th quarter. Rocky Lombardi couldn’t replicate his performance from last year as a Spartan, only putting up 46 yards on 9/17 through the air, with the aforementioned late touchdown and an interception to go with it. He did pick up the longest play from scrimmage for the Huskies on the ground with a 45 yard scamper, but that’s about as far as the highlights go for Northern Illinois on the day.
The best individual defensive performers for the Wolverines are hard to pick out. Josh Rosh led the scoresheet with 6 tackles, but safeties RJ Moten & Dax Hill flashed plays. Alongside Ross, fellow linebackers Nikhai Hill-Green and Junior Colson looked solid, proving my preseason prediction, that the linebacker position was the weakest on the team, may have been a bad one. With lots of defensive plays to go through, here, let’s check who did well, who could’ve done a bit better, and everything in between.
As always, leave a comment below with any questions or additional notes you have that I may have missed in one of these plays.