The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - September 15, 1997 - 5B More aggressive defense dominates, stuffs Buffs GAME STATISTICS PASSING Player Hessler1 Bledsoe Totals RUSHING Player A TroutmanI Hessler Bledsoe M. Barnes Totals C-A 15-40 4-8 1"948 Yds 141 34 175 TD 0 0 0 By John Leroi Daily Sports Editor If Marcus Ray could have had it his way, the Wolverines would have shut out Colorado on Saturday. Instead, he had to settle for a 27-3 Michigan vic- tory that wasn't even that close. Michigan dominated the Buffaloes on both sides of the ball, but most impressive was the Wolverines' stingy defense. And Ray was so pleased with Michigan's defensive output, he couldn't help but get mushy after the game. "There is something real special about this team," the senior strong safety said. "I can't tell what it is just yet, and I don't want to make some- thing up, so I'll tell you in a couple of games when I figure it out. "But this defense has a real gift, I can smell it, I can feel it." Whatever Ray felt was nothing compared to how Colorado's John Hessler felt. The Buffalo quarterback spent a large portion of the day staring at the sky. The Wolverines sacked Hessler just three times, but knocked him down at least a dozen more. Colorado could get nothing going offensively. Hessler completed just 15 of 40 passes for a paltry 141 yards and four interceptions. Meanwhile, the Buffaloes could muster only 49 yards on the ground. The Buffaloes were so inept on offense that their only score, a late- game field goal, came courtesy of two Michigan personal fouls. Not counting the Buffaloes' meaningless final drive, the Wolverines held Colorado to less than 200 yards of total offense. "There's no question that was a spirited effort," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "To take a good offensive football team like Colorado and hold them to three points, you're ecstatic. "You have to give a lot of credit to (defensive coordinator) Jim Herrmann and the defensive coaches." Under Herrmann, who took over for Greg Mattison before the Outback Bowl, the Wolverines seem a little more aggressive. Michigan blitzed far more than any Michigan team has in recent memory. The Wolverines got to Hessler early and often, mixing defenses and win- ning the battle in the trenches. If a cornerback wasn't blitzing, then it was a safety, or a linebacker. Herrmann even sent All-America cornerback Charles Woodson, one of the best cover corners in the nation, on a couple of blitzes. Six Michigan defenders had five tackles or more, and every time a Buffalo got a hold of the ball, it seemed like three or four Wolverines were there. After seeing how successful Michigan was playing with such aban- don, it makes you wonder why fans haven't seen that sort of aggression in the past. "That's how I was raised to play defense," Herrmann said. "Playing hard, playing together and playing aggressively. That was Michigan defense." Carr was especially appreciative of Herrmann's efforts. He said he saw a dramatic difference over last year's defense in just one game. "All of the experts said we have always had a great defense," Carr said. "We didn't have a great defense a year ago. We didn't cause any turnovers, we didn't force enough negative plays. Today we did all of those things." Not only did Michigan sack Hessler thrice, but the Wolverines threw Colorado running backs for losses five other times. Senior defensive end Glen Steele had four tackles-for-loss- es alone, including two sacks. "Michigan came after me about after every snap," a flustered Hessler said after the game. "I had to make decisions fast, and if I didn't make them, I was running. "It was just one of those days. It was horrible." At 15 -8 1 3 27 RECEIVING Player No. Anderson 6 Savoy 5 Stiggers 2 M. Barnes 1 Heffner 1 Chiaverini 1 Troutman 2 Green 1 Totals 19 PUNTING Player 1 Pietsch Yds Avg Lg 41 2.7 10 4 0.5 18 2 2.0 2 2 0.7 7 49 1.8 18 Yds Avg Lg 60 10.0 17 50 10.0 15 23 11.5 16 21 21.0 21 10 10.0 10 5 5.0 5 3 1.5 2 3 3.0 3 175 9.2 21 No. Yds Avg 9 313 34.8 Int 4 TD 0' 0 0 0 0 TD 0, 0 0' 0 0 0 0 , Lg 43 TD 0' 0 KICKOFF RETURNS Player I M. Barnes Total No. 3 3 MARGARET MYERS/Daily jsEven when he got the bail away, Wolverines like Juaquin Feazell made him pay. "I Michigan St. annihilates Memphis; Boilermakers take down Notre Dame DEFENSE Player Sutter Navies' Phillips Kelly Olson Gregorak R. Barnes Cade Washington Ziegler Merkerson Maumau McDonnell Loper Marshall Davis Thomas Wheeler Peters McCarty Black Yds 70 70 Solo 11 10 7 6 5 5 5 3 3 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 Asst 2 . 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 2 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Tot 13 11 8 7 5 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Avg 23.3 23.3 Lg 27 27 EAST LANSING (AP) - Michigan State is 2-0 for the first time since 1983. But in whacking weaker opponents by 62 points, the Spartans still haven't put their starters through a full game. Now comes a trip to Notre Dame - "'the test of a lifetime, coach Nick Saban said. Michigan State's 51-21 victory over Memphis moved the Spartans from No. 21 to No. 17 in the new AP poll announced yesterday The Spartans caged the Tigers (1-2) early Saturday, building a 28-0 lead in the first quarter and adding two touchdowns before halftime. With the huge margin, the first-string punched out early and the reserves got some playing time, just like a week ago against Western Michigan. Quarterback Todd Schultz completed 18 of 22 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns. Tailbacks Sedrick Irvin and Leroy McFadden each scored twice, McFadden was Michigan State's leading rusher with 95 yards. PURDUE 28, No. 12 NOTRE DAME 17 Purdue outplayed No. 12 Notre Dame in every way possible Saturday, beating the Irish 28-17 in Joe Tiller's first game at Ross-Ade Stadium. Billy Dicken was 26- of-39 for 352 yards for Purdue (1-1). Edwin Watson rushed for 34 yards and two touchdowns, and safety Adrian Beasley returned a fumble for a touch- down to seal the victory. No. 1 PENN STATE 52, TEMPLE 10 Chafie Fields ran for 90 yards and two touchdowns on reverses as No. 1 Penn State beat Temple 52-10. Penn State (2- 0) took a 14-7 lead with 8:27 left in the first half on a 43-yard reverse by Fields. Cordell Mitchell extended the lead to 21-7 on a 38-yard run for his first career TD. Mike McQueary hit Joe Nastasi from 25 yards out to end the scoring for the half. Curtis Enis had 81 yards on 16 carries and one touchdown, increasing his career total to 2,059, 11th on the Nittany Lions' career list. No.9 OH10 ST. 44, BOWLING GREEN 13 Michael Wiley scored two touch- downs, including a 100-yard kickoff return, as No. 9 Ohio State overcame a sloppy first half to beat Bowling Green 44-13. The victory was Ohio State's 17th in a row over an in-state college, dating to a 7-6 loss to Oberlin in 1921. The Buckeyes lost four fumbles in the first half and Gary Berry's interception was disallowed by a roughing penalty. NORTHWESTERN 24, DUKE 20 Brian Musso caught a 74-yard touch- down pass and later set up the winning score with a clutch fourth-down recep- tion as Northwestern rallied twice and beat Duke 24-20. After Musso's 32-yard catch on a pass from Tim Hughes went to the Duke 1, Adrian Autry carried for the touchdown with 3:43 left, putting Northwestern ahead and sending the Blue Devils to their 15th straight loss-the longest skid in Division I-A. No.18 IowA 54, TULsA 16 Tavian Banks set an Iowa single-game rushing mark with 314 yards to pace No. 18 Iowa to a 54-16 victory over Tulsa. Banks, who ran for a career-best 203 yards last week in, also had touchdown runs of 71, 14, 14 and 23 yards as the Hawkeyes (2-0) avenged last year's 27- 20 loss to Tulsa (0-2) LOUISVILLE 26, ILLINOJS 14 Chris Redman completed touchdown passes of 63, 28 and 20 yards to Ibn Green, sparking Louisville to a 26-14 victory over Illinois (0-2). Redman's 20-yard strike to Green proved to be the game-winner, capping a 12-play, 98-yard drive that gave Louisville (1-2) a 20-14 lead with 3:57 remaining. PASS DEFENSE Player Int Yds Washington 1 0 Lng Brk-up 0 0 TD 0 COLORADO SCHEDULE Sept. 6 COLORADO ST. W 31-21 Sept. 13 Michigan. L 3-27 Sept. 27 WYOMING Oct. 4 TEXAS A&M Oct. 11 Oklahoma St. Oct. 25 KANSAS Nov. 1 MISSOURI Nov. 8 Iowa St. Nov. 15 Kansas St. Nov. 28 NEBRASKA HOME GAMES IN CAPS SARA STILLMAN/Daily Thris Howard, who scored a touchdown off a four-yard pass from Brian Griese, tries to find his way around the Colqrado lefense. Howard, just one of four Wolverines with eight carries or more, rushed 12 times for 40 yards. Upnext Who: Baylor (0-0 Big 12, 1-1 overall) BLJq re: Michigan Stadium When: Saturday, 12:30 p.m. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN. Series: Tied 0-0-1. The Bears and Wolverines last met in 1975. Baylor will have the advantage of an extra week of preparation before facing the Wolverines on Saturday. The Bears were pummeled by Miami (Fla.) in their seasonopener and squeaked by Fresno State last week, 37-35. Baylor has been unimpressive so far this season but gets linebackers McKinley Bowie and Eric Clay back from school suspension this week. liird quarter. On third-and-goal at the Colorado five-yard line, he was under ressure and no one was open, so he hrew it away in the end zone. But he hrew it in the direction of a player or two o he wasn't flagged for intentional rounding. That takes some thinking, not Oways an easy thing to do when there is ibig, bad defensive lineman trying to nake you eat grass. guess what happened on the next >lay, on third down? Griese hit Chris Howard at the goal ine for a touchdown reception. The Molverines went up, 17-0, after the point ier attempt was good. a'I was anxious to start the game'" iriese said. "I was nervous to an extent. times to tight end Jerame Tuman was a perfect example. That play opened up the scoring in the first quarter. Tuman came off the left side of the line and dashed across the field to the right side. Colorado's safeties dropped down on the receivers and backs, leaving Tuman wide open. Griese rolled right and hit Tuman for a 53-yard reception down to the one-yard line. "We run that play a lot in practice" Griese said. "I think any one of you guys (in the media) could have thrown that pass. (Tuman) made a good play." The play set up fullback Chris Floyd's one-yard run that put Michigan ahead, 6- 0, before Kraig Baker's extra-point attempt. Arizona St., UCLA score upset win AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The fans were streaming out by halftime. John Mackovic had to stay to the bitter end. Not since 1904, in only its seventh sea- son of football, had Texas been humiliat- ed as it was in a 66-3 thrashing by UCLA on Saturday. "The guys are going to be embar- rassed," Mackovic said. "What do you say to friends and family who see this score? If you're saying what went wrong, I don't know. Everything went wrong." The final score was staggering not just because UCLA was 0-2 and an under- dog, but because it was on the home field of the defending Big 12 champion. Cade McNown threw a school-record five touchdown passes and Skip Hicks scored three times as UCLA (1-2) enjoyed its biggest victory since the 1954 season. Texas (1-1) absorbed its worst defeat since a 68-0 loss to Chicago 93 years ago. "I'm shocked," backup Texas quar- terback Richard Walton said. "I'm embarrassed to be a part of this loss." A1A y~ CTA'FV71 Ntl 1IA Muii IT12 I 1: ;.