Michigan Football: 5 things we learned from win over Wisconsin

What a difference a DC makes

Boy, John Harbaugh sure knew what he was doing when he recommended Mike Macdonald to his brother as Michigan football’s defensive coordinator.

Macdonald had never coordinated a defense, but he’s extremely bright and so far, the move has been spectacular and Saturday was probably the best performance yet.

The defense dominated in the trenches, sacking Wisconsin quarterbacks a total of six times and even knocking Graham Mertz out of the game. The Badgers had a measly 43 yards rushing and only one rush of more than 10 yards which came on an end-around.

Most importantly, the defense forced two huge turnovers in the fourth quarter which helped ice the game. David Objabo forced a fumble and Daxton Hill made his first interception of the season.

The Wolverines do bend a little, but they’ve got elite talent and an elite coordinator, which is one reason why the Wolverines haven’t allowed 20 points, and if it wasn’t for the garbage time touchdown allowed to Wisconsin, no team would have scored more than one TD on this defense in a game.

All around, it was just impressive and the best thing is, the scheme is taking advantage of the talent Michigan has, instead of trying to force it to be something it’s not.