ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The highlight-reel play came on defense, of course.
And even if the proper play was to not make it, Jourdan Lewis’ floating-through-air, one-handed game-clinching interception somehow felt right, no matter that just batting it away and taking over on downs would have saved Michigan 40-some odd yards. The Wolverines won anyway, 14-7 over Wisconsin, in a battle of top-10 teams and muscle-on-Midwestern-muscle.
“I was thinking, ‘It’s fourth down, it probably would have been better had he not intercepted it,’” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “But I’m really glad he did. It was a spectacular, spectacular football play and athletic play. It was really unbelievable.”
It’s been said that defense is dead in college football and the spinning scoreboards across America put up little argument.
This year alone we’ve had 68-55 games and 55-53 games and other scores out of March Madness. Notre Dame and Syracuse on Saturday combined for 36 points in the first 4:54 of the game. At that point they were on pace for about 430 points (it finished with 83, with the Irish winning 50-33).
Here at Michigan, in particular, and in a larger sense the Big Ten, defense still rules. Not just in brute force or throwback toughness, but in pride and personality and resources spent. It features the most exciting players. It delivers the most exciting plays.
The Badgers and Wolverines went old school here and to take nothing away from spread offenses or high-scoring affairs (they can be fun too), there was plenty to marvel at even if the action could have been broadcast in black and white, with Keith Jackson at the mic.
No yards came easy (349 for Michigan, 159 for UW). No gaping holes were run through (neither team averaged more than 3.0 yards per rush). There were a combined six sacks and four turnovers and 16 punts. And yet, it was tough and tense and a rather entertaining sight to see, and not merely because you felt like this was something unearthed from a time capsule Bo Schembechler buried beneath Michigan Stadium, three yards and a cloud of field turf.
“It’s a good style of football,” Harbaugh said. “It was a good football game.”
Defense wins championships, right?
“I’ve heard that too,” he said.
Michigan is ranked No. 4 with five victories and zero losses. It’s giving up just 12.4 points a game. The game ball for beating No. 8 Wisconsin went to Don Brown, the defensive coordinator, which the players cheered.
Harbaugh may have played quarterback here, and later for 15 years in the NFL, but he’s the oldest of souls. He recently told ESPN Radio his favorite song to dance to was “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, a sad, sorry ballad from the 1970s by Gordon Lightfoot. It tells the tale of a Great Lakes iron-ore freighter that sank in a vicious, Lake Superior storm when the gales of November came early. The entire crew of 29 perished. How you dance to it is anyone’s guess, but it’s about as honorably Industrial Midwestern as a song can get.
“It’s got grit,” Harbaugh said.
So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise this is what he’s put together in a season-plus here in Ann Arbor. The star quarterback recruits seeking his NFL experience are developing or coming, but in the meantime, this is a team known for its grind, for its defense.
Its Heisman Trophy contender Jabrill Peppers plays safety, cornerback, returns kicks and when he’s not busy shows up on offense. Peppers is an incredible talent, yet it was lanky defensive back Channing Stribling who led the team with two interceptions – “he’s going to be the best corner in the country,” Lewis said.
And then it was Lewis who stole the show with his absurd pick. Throw on these guys at your own peril.
“I jumped too early,” Lewis acknowledged. “I couldn’t get two arms up, so I reached up with one. My feet were up there for awhile.”
“I’ve seen Odell Beckham Jr. do that,” Harbaugh said.
“Yes,” Lewis said of the comparison to the New York Giants receiver, who made one-handed grabs fashionable (or even possible), “But I’m not thinking about that in the moment. It’s, ‘I need to make a play for my team.’”
Wisconsin’s defense nearly matched the Wolverines’ level, which served as a bit of appreciated motivation for Michigan. Sure, they’d like to win 222-0, but the offense couldn’t break free and the kicking game couldn’t hit a field goal. So what? The three-and-outs on the other side just raised the stakes. Besides, this is the Big Ten. This was a gray, cloudy day after half a week of rain. This is supposed to be nasty.
“We love it when it’s low scoring, tied up, going into the fourth,” Stribling said.
“We don’t ever want the other offense to get a yard,” defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow said. He’d just recorded five tackles and a share of a sack, which helped explain his smile, even if it came hockey-style, minus a front tooth.
Everywhere else it’s about spreading them out and throwing it around and turning the sport into a bigger version of 7-on-7 ball. The action is on offense. That’s fine and if he could, maybe Harbaugh would (or will) do the same.
For now though, for this knock-’em around Saturday afternoon, for this re-established playoff contender, it was something completely opposite – a focus on old-school defense production only with new-school, OBJ-inspired, one-handed pyrotechnics, an appreciated exclamation point whether it was needed or not.
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