{"id":3131,"date":"2025-10-12T12:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T12:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/12\/michigan-run-defense-no-match-for-depleted-usc-backfield\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T12:49:07","slug":"michigan-run-defense-no-match-for-depleted-usc-backfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/12\/michigan-run-defense-no-match-for-depleted-usc-backfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan run defense no match for depleted USC backfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 Thirty minutes after the No. 15 Michigan football team gave up 489 all-purpose yards to Southern California in a 31-13 loss, Rod Moore leaned back in his chair and fielded several questions with the same six words.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe gotta get better at tackling,\u201d the senior defensive back said over and over again.<\/p>\n<p>There wasn\u2019t much else to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For all of the pregame discussion of the Trojans\u2019 injured secondary, or their impressive passing game, or the Wolverines\u2019 ability to run the ball, Michigan\u2019s run defense was arguably the most condemning factor of Saturday\u2019s defeat. After holding opponents to 77 rushing yards per game, the Wolverines allowed USC to rack up 224 yards on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Coming into the contest, Michigan\u2019s defense was allowing 2.41 yards per carry, good for fourth in the country. By the time the dust settled in Los Angeles, the Trojans had rushed for 6.2 yards per carry throughout the game. But after the first half, the Trojans\u2019 running back room didn\u2019t seem positioned to perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>USC\u2019s 61 total rushing yards, albeit on pace to raise the Wolverines\u2019 defensive averages, didn\u2019t jump off the page. Both of the Trojans\u2019 touchdowns and all of their plays of 12 yards or more came through the air. Most notably, two USC running backs \u2014 Waymond Jordan and Eli Sanders \u2014 were carted off the field after sustaining injuries, leaving an already depleted room without its top duo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On paper, the Trojans were outmatched in the run game. On the field, you\u2019d never know.<\/p>\n<p>USC\u2019s dominance on the ground started in the third quarter, with a walk-on redshirt freshman running back who, before Saturday, had carried the football 11 times in his collegiate career. After Jordan and Sanders were ruled out, King Miller was the Trojans\u2019 only healthy running back.<\/p>\n<p>With roughly 12 minutes left in the third quarter, Miller broke through a gap at the line of scrimmage and slipped out of two separate tackles en route to a 49-yard gain. Two plays later, he darted past Michigan senior linebacker Jaishawn Barham and streaked down the seam to give the Trojans a two-score lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The next time the football was in Miller\u2019s hands, there were four Wolverines running to catch up behind him, again unable to stop a 47-yard run.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like if we played our game, then we were gonna be able to have some opportunities,\u201d Riley said. \u201cAnd against a group like that, you gotta take advantage of it. \u2026 It\u2019s not like it\u2019s easy, but our guys stood up to the challenge. Obviously being able to run it on them, not many people have been able to, and that was a huge step for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s missed tackles presented plenty of opportunities. On several plays, including a handful of third-and-longs, the Wolverines failed to bring down USC in the open field or at the line of scrimmage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeeping your leverage, that\u2019s really what it was,\u201d Rod Moore said. \u201cThere was a lot of instances where somebody didn\u2019t keep their leverage, didn\u2019t get off the block, (or) make the tackle. Me, myself, I missed a couple coming out of the post. That\u2019s usually not how I play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After nearly an entire game of fundamental defense against Wisconsin, Michigan\u2019s performance against USC signaled a regression. When all was said and done, the Wolverines had allowed the Trojans to run for 224 yards, nearly 100 more than any other opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Moore\u2019s final answer of the night, in response to a question of whether Michigan had practiced enough tackling throughout the week, was fitting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n<p>Practice was not the issue. In the Wolverines\u2019 loss against USC, they didn\u2019t execute \u2014 or tackle \u2014 when it mattered.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 Thirty minutes after the No. 15 Michigan football team gave up 489 all-purpose yards to Southern California in a 31-13 loss, Rod Moore leaned back in his chair and fielded several questions with the same six words. \u201cWe gotta get better at tackling,\u201d the senior defensive back said over and over again. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3233,1169,3232,3231,222,1301,3183],"class_list":{"0":"post-3131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-backfield","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-depleted","11":"tag-match","12":"tag-michigan","13":"tag-run","14":"tag-usc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3133,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3131\/revisions\/3133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}