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LINCOLN, Neb. — You almost certainly couldn’t blame Michigan football had it lost to unranked Nebraska. After all, the Huskers had taken Oklahoma and Michigan State to the brink, having lost both those games by slim margins on the road. However, this was a different animal, entirely.
It was a home game, under the lights, the premier matchup in ABC’s evening slot. Michigan’s defense had performed well to date, but it had been untested compared to what Adrian Martinez and the Nebraska offense had in store.
The defense started strong, but the 376th-consecutive sell-out crowd at Memorial Stadium was unrelenting, even after Nebraska failed to score in the first half. Early in the third quarter, the momentum shifted, and every time that the Michigan offense would drive the field and take back the lead, momentum would shift again.
That is, until Brad Hawkins said, ‘Enough!’
Michigan and Nebraska were knotted at 29-all, and the Huskers were seemingly unstoppable on offense, and they had the ball in their hands. With 1:45 remaining on third-and-1, Adrian Martinez found a gap, keeping the ball and bursting through the hole. However, the ran into fifth-year safety Brad Hawkins, who, like a wily veteran, stripped the ball and recovered the fumble. The Huskers had been playing close to mistake-free football, unlike in previous games — though Martinez had something of a freak interception due to an incredible play by Daxton Hill — and Hawkins was determined to make Nebraska give up its customary blunder of the game.
For Hawkins, making such a play was routine, it had become rote. It was something that he had worked on in practice, so when the time came to make a stand, all that was left was to execute.
“Just practicing how you play,” Hawkins said. “Practice all week, every single day. Then we practice punching at the ball, stripping the ball, taking the ball out. In that moment, punching the ball out, stripping the ball out and it came free. Just practicing how you play. And it came through for us.”
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As far as the defense as a whole is concerned, it didn’t just bend as we saw in previous weeks — it full-on broke at times. This was expected to some degree, and the coaching staff was quick to tell the media all week that Nebraska would be able to move the ball with Martinez under center.
The most important thing against a potent offense isn’t to necessarily stop it entirely as much as it is to come up with the big plays when needed. That’s precisely what Michigan did, both on Hawkins’ play as well as the ensuing drive when it forced Nebraska to turn the ball over on downs, down 3, in the waning seconds of the game. The Wolverines stole the momentum and the game back to win, 32-29.
For Hawkins and the defense, there was never a moment of doubt that the Wolverines would emerge victorious.
“Yeah, we didn’t flinch,” Hawkins said. “We came out there composed, we stayed composed the whole game. We knew adversity was gonna hit, it hit, and we didn’t flinch. I love this team, I love this defense. And I know that we’re fighters. And we went out there and fought today. We didn’t flinch, like I said.
“This is a great team, and we’re just gonna keep getting better, every single day.”
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