The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1029353
OCTOBER 2018 THE WOLVERINE 31 The second time the Irish touched the ball, a similar scenario played out, with even costlier consequences. Two downs, one yard, with a third-and- nine facing the Irish, inside their own 10-yard line. This time, Wimbush lobbed a jump ball down the right sideline between three defenders. Notre Dame tight end Alize Mack went up and pulled it down for a 26-yard gain, before get- ting hammered by junior safety Josh Metellus. Metellus not only drew a 15-yard flag for a personal foul, he got called for targeting and tossed from the game, just 9:06 into the rivalry show- down. Moments later, Wimbush went right after his replacement, sophomore safety Brad Hawkins, who put himself in perfect position to stop a 43-yard bomb. This time, Irish receiver Chris Finke soared above Hawkins from behind, reached over him and ripped the ball away for a touchdown. Two drives, 75 and 96 yards, nearly stopped before the chains moved even once. But nearly wasn't good enough and just 7:51 into the season, the Wol- verines trailed, 14-0. Those scores held up, supplemented by a third touchdown before the half, in a stunning opening 30 minutes of football. Michigan's defense has been reason- ably staunch ever since, allowing only three points in the second half at Notre Dame, and a combined 23 in the two games since. Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Two series, or even one half, does not a season make. Michigan defend- ers won't soon forget those early slips, but they're ready for a Big Ten sea- son of performing in a way that leaves the season opener disappearing in the rearview mirror. A MOVING-ON MINDSET One of the leaders of the defense, ju- nior defensive end Rashan Gary, let ev- eryone know the Wolverines weren't about to dwell on the loss. They'd take it and use it for both fuel and instruc- tion down the road, but not wallow in it. "We're good," he assured, days after the loss. "We're going to be in the film room this week, and we're going to practice extra hard, harder than we did last time, because last time obviously didn't give us the outcome we wanted. We've got to keep pushing." As for Notre Dame's ability to score more points in the first half than Michi- gan opponents have averaged under Don Brown's defenses in Ann Arbor, Gary put the onus on the Wolverines. "I feel like we hurt ourselves, more than they hurt us," Gary said. "That's with the penalties. As you could see in the second half, once we got settled and started rolling, it was the Michigan football that we needed. But it was too late by that time. "It's early in the season. We'd rather have this happen in week one than further down the line. We know what needs fixing, and it will be fixed." Junior viper Khaleke Hudson echoed those thoughts, in a cramped Notre Dame interview room "Self-inflicted wounds are the reason why we lost," Hudson said. "Penal- ties and doing stuff that we usually do right, wrong. We got pass interference calls, late-hit calls, things that hurt us in the long run. "We know what happened. We Since allowing touchdowns on the first two drives of the season, the Michigan defense has clamped down and allowed just 33 points in 11-plus quarters of action through the season's first three games. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN