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With cornerback Lavert Hill graduating, Michigan was expecting Ambry Thomas to step up as the top guy with Vincent Gray moving into the number two role. After the circus that was the Big Ten off-season, Thomas opted out to focus on the 2021 NFL Draft. Now, Gray would move up to the number one role, so who was next to him? German Green.
So Gray and Green would be the new starting duo at cornerback and their first test? The best wide receiver in the Big Ten and possibly in the country in Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman. Bateman was held to just nine catches for 101 yards. Now you might think, wow, letting a wide receiver get over 100 yards is ok? Not entirely, but they held Bateman out of the endzone and contained him not to be as big of a factor as he’d like to be for the offense.
For Gray, he finished the game with four tackles as he covered Bateman for most of the game, and his performance was great for the defense. He did let up a huge 38-yard catch and was interfering with Bateman as well on it, but that one mistake wasn’t game-changing.
For Green, he had two tackles, along with two pass break-ups. He was tested early on as Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan underthrew a 45-yard pass to wide receiver Chris Autman-Bell, and Autman-Bell was able to get Green off of him in coverage to stop and get the huge grab. Besides the big play, Green was impressive in the first start of his career.
Michigan’s secondary was asked to stop one of the best receivers with a quarterback who came off a strong sophomore season, and they answered the bell with a big win.
They held Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan to 197 yards as he was 18/31 with one touchdown and an interception. 197 passing yards with 101 of those yards coming from just one wide receiver was a huge confidence boost for a young secondary. This was also a big test for the inexperienced group of cornerbacks.
They were able to slow down Minnesota’s offense and make Bateman not as big as of a threat as they expected him to be. This secondary might not be as bad as everyone thought they would be. It certainly helps that the front seven were able to create pressure on Morgan, but when the secondary was tested for most of the night, they contained and slowed down the Golden Gophers offense, and that’s all they needed to do.
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