Defense/ST Notes: Michigan's ragtag group derails Boilermakers

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines leaned on their defense in Saturday’s 21-16 win over Purdue, needing a stout effort to secure victory and hold the Boilermakers down on a night where the offense did not put up a crooked number on the scoreboard.

Purdue had two long touchdown drives in the game, but almost nothing else to speak of outside of that. They were balanced with 276 total yards – 138 passing, 138 rushing – but a banged-up Michigan defense held them out when it counted.

The Wolverines were without linebackers Cole Sullivan and Jimmy Rolder and safety Rod Moore, then lost Jaishawn Barham on the first snap of the game. The group had to rally this week with plenty of young talent on the field and found a way to get it done.

“First of all, I start defensively, just running all over the place … physical,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said after the game. “[Ernest Hausmann] with 11 tackles, Rashaun Benny had 6 tackles. And you’re going to look at the film and there are things we’ve got to evaluate and see what we need to fit better and keep contained on things, but I thought they did a heck of a job all night for the plays that they had. 65 plays allowing 276 yards, and our standard is really high. Our standard is really high, so I know on defense we want to be better than that … and we will. 

“The thing I’m proud about on the defense is the number of guys that played, especially young guys. When you’ve got guys like Troy Bowles … not a young guy, but a new guy, but Chase Taylor, Nate Owusu at linebacker and Lugard [Edokpayi] playing … they understand that’s the standard, right? That’s what they’re in there for.”

Hausmann, a team captain, says that the orale is high even if Michigan did not win by as much as projected. They will celebrate it like all the others.

“After a game, there are always things you want to clean up, but at the end of the day, it’s a win,” Hausmann said. “And a win in this conference is not easy. We just played a great football team, a well-coached football team, great players — so you always take a win. You’re always thankful for a win, because a win in this league is not easy. We’re going to celebrate, enjoy the moment and get back to work on Monday.”

Barham the latest to go down

Barham’s injury was another tough blow for the Michigan defense. He returned to his old linebacker spot on Saturday night after spending most of the year as a pass rusher, and appeared to leave with an upper-body injury.

“Jaishawn’s a great player,” Moore said. “We know how good he is. But at the end of the day, everybody’s got to step up, whoever it is. They know their job; they know what the standard is of whoever we play on the defense is. They’ve got to play at a high level. Yeah, we didn’t have them in the game, but that didn’t mean that the standard changes.”

Hausmann said it was tough to see his teammate go down, but that Michigan’s leaders needed to step up and did.

“It’s always hard when you lose a player like Jaishawn Barham to see the likeability he has, the presence he has on the defense, the poise and obviously experience. So, losing a key player like that, it’s obviously always hard for defense, but we understand for us leaders, we want to get everybody up. That one of our goals, Rayshaun Benny, we talked about the defense unit early in the year. He said, ‘We won’t have the same 11 out there on the field. No matter who’s on the field, we want the same 11… like, the offense will know who’s out there on the field, no matter who’s out there.’

“That’s a goal we discussed early on, as a defense unit, as all players. We knew going into this game, right, we’re late in the season … we’re in November, and you know people are going to be banged up through this year. It’s hard. It’s a gruesome year. You play the Big Ten, it’s going to be tough like that, but we know that everybody has got to step up.

“We have discussed all the time as players … how everybody’s feeling? We know how
everybody’s feeling, so we kind of [trade] ideas so when things like that happen, it’s not
surprising because we communicate player-wise. We know kind of what’s going on. We know who’s next up, and they’re ready to go. I’m really proud of our guys who stepped up today. It’s huge. It’s confidence-building because as leaders, when you have guys on the field that can execute the defense out there and crucial moments like this, it just builds confidence for the units. So, I’m really proud of our guys.

Michigan defense/special teams miscellaneous notes

• Senior EDGE Derrick Moore forced his second fumble of the season on a first-quarter sack, recovered by defensive tackle Rayshaun Benny for the first of his career.

• Moore also added two sacks in the game, his third consecutive game with double-digit sacks. The last player to do that in Ann Arbor was LaMarr Woodley in 2006.

• Michigan has now created a turnover in every game this year and has 16 on the season.

• Junior linebacker Troy Bowles had a career-high six tackles on Saturday.

• Purdue tipped a Michigan punt in the third quarter, which was the first time a defender got a hand on a U-M punt since Week 9 of the 2022 season at Rutgers.