The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
November 4, 2019 — 4B
Metellus at
the center
of shutdown
performance
COLLEGE PARK — After the ball
had found Josh Metellus and landed
in his hands like a soft pop-up, after
he had gotten up from the pile and
turned toward the sideline and after
Maryland’s hope of doing something
had been extinguished as much as
mathematically possible in the first
quarter of a football game, he let
everyone know it.
He hopped around, hands clapping
together, then one going to a money
sign. He high-fived Brad Hawkins,
then swaggered back to the bench
with a helmet-tap from Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh.
There was never much of a reason
for the Wolverines to be anything
but confident on Saturday. They
came into College Park to a stadium
filled with mostly their own fans and
whipped the Terrapins, 38-7. Their
defense was rarely tested, and that
has as much to do with the simple fact
that Maryland doesn’t have the talent
to compete with Michigan than it
does with anything else.
But as far as assessing that talent
— for the season at large, and for this
game — Metellus stands at the center
of it all.
The senior safety finished Saturday
with nine tackles, eight of them
solo and two of them for loss. The
Terrapins managed to string together
three drives with a chance of ending
in points all day, and one of them
ended in that Metellus interception.
“(Metellus) is one of the captains,”
said senior linebacker Josh Uche. “We
need that. We needed that out of him.
“It just gives the whole defense
confidence.”
In a Michigan football ecosystem
where
the
defense
is
rarely
questioned, and in a Don Brown
defense
where
pressure
is
the
lynchpin of everything, it’s easy to
forget the importance of a safety —
a position that often exists to be the
band-aid on everyone else’s mistakes.
On Saturday, it couldn’t have
been more evident. In the run game,
Metellus is often the “spill” player,
meaning his job is to cover the edge
as
Michigan’s
interior
defenders
force the running back that way. On a
quarterback run Saturday, Maryland
quarterback Lance Legendre was only
looking at defensive end Kwity Paye.
As he tried to get the edge, there was
Metellus with what Harbaugh called
“a statement kind of tackle.”
It wasn’t the only one of those
plays Metellus made in the run game.
Another came later in the third
quarter, after Anthony McFarland
hit a hole hard for a first down, with
what looked like space in front of him.
“And then Josh got from point A
to point B and made the tackle that,
it stopped (McFarland),” Harbaugh
said. “Turned him back to his goal
line. ... And to have a safety come
up and make that kind of play, that’s
a statement in the game. That was
really impressive.”
Metellus’ growth through four
seasons
is
well-chronicled.
He
stayed at Michigan for his senior
season when he could have gone pro
and likely been drafted, choosing to
instead improve his NFL draft stock
and finish out his college career as a
captain.
It would have been easy for him to
shut down after the Wolverines got
blasted in Wisconsin, and easier still
to do that after a second loss at Penn
State ended their College Football
Playoff hopes, and all but eliminated
them from Big Ten title contention.
Instead, there he was on Saturday,
flying around the field in a game that
was both meaningless and all but
predetermined.
“I feel like we’ve been showing
up every week since that Wisconsin
game,”
Metellus
said
afterward,
seated next to Harbaugh in a cramped
media room. “Everybody on this team
been doing what they’ve been trusted
to do. And I feel like the confidence
is real high, but I feel like we still got
that one play mentality to keep us
pushing throughout the rest of these
games.”
That mentality — and keeping it
through the season— has as much to
do with Metellus, the senior leader on
this defense, as anything else.
“That loss hurt,” Metellus said,
thinking back to the Wisconsin game.
“And we came in and next Monday,
we knew we had to get the job done.
“And we knew how.”
COLLEGE
PARK
—
Jim
Harbaugh is not one to disclose his
gameplan, even after a win.
But whatever he envisioned for
Saturday’s trip to 3-5 Maryland,
giving up a pair of six-minute
drives into the red zone before
halftime wasn’t it.
Neither ultimately ended with
points, thanks to a missed field goal
and a Josh Metellus interception,
but for 20 minutes, the Terrapins
drove
down
the
field
with
relative ease. It wasn’t the same
explosiveness that they showed
when they scored 142 points in
the first two games of the season,
but when you come in expecting a
blowout, two long drives is enough
to raise an eyebrow or two.
Michigan’s response? Two first
downs and 25 yards allowed on
the next six drives, buoyed by the
constant defensive pressure that
led the Wolverines to 38-7 win.
“The pressures, really (were the
difference),” Harbaugh said. “I
think that led to just about every
three-and-out that I can think of,
was we were making (Maryland
quarterback) Josh Jackson throw
it quick, throw it away or get a
sack and put him in a long yardage
situation.”
The pressure, though, didn’t
only come after the slow start.
It took all of three snaps for Josh
Uche to find himself in Maryland’s
backfield, swarming Jackson and
forcing a punt. Two drives later, his
second sack pushed the Terrapins
out of the red zone, precipitating
their missed field goal.
“(Defensive coordinator Don)
Brown’s just done a great job just
trying to get me in as much as
possible, utilize the things I’m
good at, and just try to build some
things around me, stuff like that,”
Uche said. “For the system I’m in,
he’s just trying to get me on the
field as much as possible.”
Added Harbaugh: “He’s on a
mission when he’s in pass rush,
you just see it. And that was — the
way our guys are getting to the
quarterback, that was big today.”
Those sacks, as well as Metellus’
interception
—
a
product
of
pressure from fifth-year senior
defensive end Michael Danna —
kept Maryland off the scoreboard
when at least three points felt like
an inevitability. In a heavily maize-
and-blue Maryland Stadium, they
kept fingernails out of mouths and
maintained the pervasive sense
that Saturday afternoon was a mere
stepping stone to more important
games.
Still,
it
wasn’t
what
the
Wolverines wanted, with every run
play seemingly going for four yards
and paving the way for a pair of
chunk passing plays off play action.
Led by Metellus’ two tackles
for losses, neither of those trends
lasted
long.
The
drive
after
Maryland’s missed field goal, he
burst into the backfield, forcing
running back Anthony McFarland
into a three-yard loss.
Two plays later, the Terrapins
punted for the first time in more
than a quarter.
“To have a safety come up and
make that kind of play, that’s a
statement in the game,” Harbaugh
said. “That was really impressive.”
For the rest of the game, that
ability to break into Maryland’s
backfield was the overwhelming
trend, whether it was Metellus,
sophomore
linebacker
Cam
McGrone or sophomore defensive
end Aidan Hutchinson doing it. As
a result, Jackson spent his return
from an ankle injury fleeing a
consistent slew of pass rushers,
unable to find any sort of groove
on a day where he finished 9-for-20
with 97 yards and an interception.
And at the end of the day,
Michigan had its second-straight
near-shutout,
with
Maryland’s
only points coming on a kick-return
touchdown.
Last week, against Notre Dame,
it came thanks to the Wolverines’
speed that prevented the Fighting
Irish from executing its gameplan.
This week? Just ask Harbaugh.
“The pressures were key all day.”
ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Editor
The pressures,
really (were the
difference). I
think that led to
just about every
three-and-out.
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Freshman wide receiver Giles Jackson returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to start the game against Maryland.
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Senior linebacker Josh Uche registered two sacks in Saturday’s dominant 38-7 win, part of the Wolverines’ dominant pass rush.
Special
teams lift
Wolverines
in win
COLLEGE PARK — Giles Jackson
had scored a touchdown before, back in
September. But that one didn’t feel right.
Jackson ran the wrong route then,
and though he caught the pass anyway
— in the fourth quarter of a 52-0 blowout
of Rutgers — the score was somewhat
meaningless.
On Saturday, Jackson scored his
second touchdown of the season in a 38-7
win over Maryland. This time, he did
everything right.
He fielded the opening kickoff, darting
around defenders, sprinting down the
sideline and coasting into the end zone.
His teammates egged him on along the
sideline, pointing and saying, “He about
to take it to the crib,” according to junior
wide receiver Nico Collins.
“I saw a little crease on the inside,”
Jackson said. “Then, I thought I was
getting close, I tried to go back out, then
(redshirt junior linebacker Devin Gil)
made the huge block and I cut back inside
and just started running. As soon as he
made that block, (I knew I was gonna
score), cause I wasn’t letting the kicker
tackle me. I would’ve been sick.”
Michigan has historically struggled
on the road, even against lackluster
opposition, even when the stadium is
half-empty and full of its own fans.
There’s only so much you can do to
prepare, but after the early-season
debacle at Wisconsin, the Wolverines
have especially emphasized one thing:
starting fast.
And nothing says a team that came
ready to play like putting up seven points
before a single second ran off the game
clock.
“That was a big emphasis coming
into this game on the road,” said senior
quarterback Shea Patterson. “... Kickoff
kinda set the tone for the game.”
Though Michigan went up 14-0 after
two offensive drives, it nearly fell victim
to its other constant road woe: fading
down the stretch and letting the other
team back in. The Wolverines went three-
and-out on their next two drives as the
Terrapins found the red zone each time
— and could have made it a close game if
not for an interception and a missed field
goal.
But just as it seemed the Wolverines
were about to have their third consecutive
drive without a first down, special teams
came through again.
Facing fourth-and-1 from its own 27,
Michigan brought out the punt team —
but instead of snapping the ball to redshirt
junior punter Will Hart, the Wolverines
instead gave it to redshirt freshman
Michael Barrett, who pushed for the first
down, then dragged his tacklers 13 more
yards.
On the next play, Patterson completed
a 51-yard bomb to Collins to set up first-
and-goal, a situation that easily led to
another touchdown.
“It was fourth-and-1,” Collins said.
“So it was kind of like a, ‘Hopefully they
fake it,’ and they did. When we all came
back on the field, Shea trusted us and the
playcall and took a shot and I came down
with it.”
The fake punt was a call Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh has been perfecting
for weeks. A good trick play requires three
things: versatile players, the right game
situation and an element of surprise.
Barrett, an athletic high school
quarterback turned linebacker turned
special teams fiend, was the perfect man
for the job, and he’d already converted
a fake punt this season against Army.
Harbaugh wanted to run the play on a
fourth-and-short in his own territory —
check. And of course, no one expects a
fake punt from a team up two scores in
the second quarter.
“We thought we could get it,”
Harbaugh said. “ … We took advantage of
the work that we put in and I thought it
was a good time to call it and it helped us
win this game. The look and the element
of surprise, and the way we practiced it
made us confident that we’d execute.”
The play injected a dose of confidence
into a team that seemed to be caught
snoozing.
The
Wovlerines
scored
a touchdown three plays later. The
Terrapins never threatened again.
Bad road team or not, Michigan was
clearly the better team, and it likely
would’ve won the game no matter what.
But with two early special teams plays,
the Wolverines left no doubt who owned
Maryland
Stadium.
Without
them,
an easy win would’ve looked a lot less
dominant.
“We needed that, that fake punt,” said
senior linebacker Josh Uche. “We needed
that pretty badly. That kinda killed their
momentum.”
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
Turtle snapped
Defensive pressure propels Michigan past Maryland