Good 40, Evil 34

From Bad to Ill

The sun disappeared behind the closed end of Memorial Stadium, sending an explosion of color into the darkening Champaign sky, it seemed to take the the recent perception of Michigan football with it. Each week the Wolverine offense grows more confident, more lethal. Each game the defense has grown more durable, more resilient. And the results are becoming more evident, at the very point in the season where the wheels have come off the other three teams of the post=Lloyd Carr era.

On this evening Michigan took care of business, defeating Illinois by a very football-like 31-14 score. Whereas last season's 67-65 double-overtime victory required Yost-like point-a-minute proficiency to overcome an equally porous point-a-minute defense, this win featured smothering defense, plain and simple. On the scoreboard alone, it translates into a one-season, 51-point improvement.

That alone is cause for a spit take.

The Wolverine defense, ranked in the triple digits overall just a year ago, is now ranked in the top ten nationally in scoring and rushing yards per game. Aside from a garbage-time touchdown in the final minutes, this suddenly savage and swarming machine commandeered by former Florida Gator and Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison had shutdown mode fully engaged, surrendering a mere seven points. On the road.

I must say, this game was a treat for me to attend. First, because it allowed me to cross off yet another Big 10 stadium from my bucket list. I've now seen Michigan visit every conference opponent except Penn State, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska; I've been inside every stadium except those at Penn State, Indiana and Nebraska; and I've visited every campus except Bloomington and Lincoln.

But mostly because, if all goes according to coach Brady Hoke's plan, if this team goes on to finish the season on a high note and maybe even win a New Year's Day bowl game, if next year's team takes it up a notch and not too far down the road, and if the University of Michigan once again restores a century-long tradition as a perennial national power, we could look back to this game as the point where it all began.

And when the question arises in some midwestern sports bar, or some spectator in the row in front of you asks, "Remember the point where it all began? Where our defense flat out shut down the mighty Illini" You can proudly say, "That was ILL!"