Michigan Football: Defense will be judge on Ohio State game

No matter how good the stats look, the Michigan football defense won’t be considered elite or historic if the Wolverines don’t beat Ohio State. 

The numbers are getting ridiculous for the Michigan football defense and after shutting out another opponent in the second half, the Wolverines have caught the attention of the college football world.

Blake Corum and his Heisman-Trophy campaign have gotten plenty of attention, but this defense has been special since the start of Big Ten play. The Maryland game wasn’t great, but since then, Michigan hasn’t allowed anyone over 20 points.

In conference play, Michigan football has allowed just two fourth-quarter touchdowns. The Wolverines haven’t allowed a point in the fourth quarter at all since the Iowa game.

Yes, that’s five straight fourth quarters without allowing a point. In the last four games, Michigan football has allowed just 34 first downs. They have allowed 44 points overall but 14 of those were non-offensive touchdowns, so it’s more like 30.

And if you didn’t see it, Michigan football leads college football in points allowed (11.2), yards allowed (232), and rushing yards allowed (72).

Before the season, Jim Harbaugh said this defense could be better than last season’s and he might be right. But there is still one big test it needs to pass — beating Ohio State.

The Buckeyes are the ultimate test

Mike Macdonald was brought to Michigan football to find a way to help the Wolverines beat Ohio State and his defense did it in 2021. You could see Jim Harbaugh head straight for him after that final defensive possession.

Josh Gattis won the Broyles Award but it should have been Macdonald. So we all wondered if the defense would fall off. Jesse Minter helped run the scheme in Baltimore, plus Steve Clinkscale, the co-DC never gets enough credit.

Together, they have formed a dominating defense, one that reminds me of some of the great Michigan football defenses, of which 2021 was one.

But to be remembered as better than last year’s defense, the 2022 version needs to take down Ohio State and C.J. Stroud. Many of these guys were part of it last season.

Yet, doing it again is the ultimate challenge, and as great as the stats look, if the defense has a bad day against the Buckeyes, it will be hard to call it better than the 2021 version that finally stopped the losing streak.