Michigan Football: 5 things we learned in domination of Northern Illinois

Don’t forget about the defense

It’s hard not to talk about an offense that scored 63 points and is averaging 47 points per game (3rd in the FBS) but Michigan football has been outstanding on defense too.

None of its three opponents scored more than 14 points and Northern Illinois didn’t even reach 50 yards passing. Lombardi threw all over the Wolverines last year with Michigan State, which obviously has a different talent level, but still, it was a solid showing.

Harrison Waylee of NIU came in averaging 160 yards per game on the ground. Saturday? He managed 34 yards on 12 carries and if it wasn’t for Lombardi’s 46-yard run against the backups, the Huskies would have been held under four yards per carry.

Michigan hasn’t forced many turnovers (2) but its 10th nationally in scoring defense (11 per game) and it doesn’t feel like a fluke. Western Michigan scored 44 points in a win over Pitt Saturday. Washington is no slouch and Northern Illinois did beat a Georgia Tech team, which lost to Clemson 14-8.

The point being, Michigan has faced some decent offenses. Hell, I expected Northern Illinois to reach 300 yards and hit 20 points — my worst prediction — and U-M stonewalled them, forcing five three-and-outs at one point.

Jim Herrmann, the old defensive coordinator at Michigan, used to talk about how a three-and-out was like a turnover and the Wolverines have been getting those in bunches.

Through three games, teams are completing just 53 percent of pass attempts against Michigan and averaging 176 yards per game through the air, as well as 287 total and 3.3 per carry.

Mike Macdonald has been using his front to get pressure and you can see that the defense is more confident. Aidan Hutchinson is being talked about as a top-5 pick, so there is talent too, and gone it seems, are the boom-and-bust days of Don Brown when it was all…or nothing.