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“The team has been very locked in. Daily, weekly,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “I think I’ve really continued to be pleased with how they attack every single day.” | Rebecca S. Gratz/AP

The Wolverines host the Wildcats on Saturday, a week before their rivalry game against the Spartans.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A.J. Henning isn’t worried about his Michigan teammates getting ahead of themselves.

The undefeated Wolverines have one piece of unfinished business before what could be one of the biggest showdowns in college football this season. No. 6 Michigan hosts Northwestern on Saturday (11 a.m., Fox-32, 720-AM) prior to its annual game against in-state rival Michigan State.

“We’re not overlooking them at all,” said Henning, a wide receiver and punt returner. “They’re going to come in here and give us their best shot, so we’re going to take the necessary preparations to try to have a successful outcome.”

This year’s matchup with the Spartans could be extra special, since both squads will be undefeated if Michigan (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) holds up its end of the bargain this weekend.

Coach Jim Harbaugh hasn’t detected any signs that his team has its sights set on next weekend’s visit to East Lansing. The Wolverines had a bye week after squeaking out a 32-29 win at Nebraska on Oct. 9.

“The team has been very locked in. Daily, weekly,” he said. “I think I’ve really continued to be pleased with how they attack every single day.”

Their last outing was a little more exciting than Harbaugh would care to see. The Wolverines trailed entering the fourth quarter and needed two Jake Moody field goals in the last three minutes to keep their record unblemished.

Northwestern (3-3, 1-2) responded from a 56-7 thumping at Nebraska on Oct. 2 with a 21-7 triumph over Rutgers. The Wildcats held the Scarlet Knights to 222 total yards.

“We were flying around, making plays and having fun,” linebacker Bryce Gallagher said.

The Wildcats will be seeking their first road win this season and their first win over the Wolverines since 2008.

“We have to play cleaner than we have on the road this year,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We have not played very well on the road. This is by far probably the best team we’ve played all year to this point. It’s not even close, in my opinion, watching everybody on tape that we’ve prepared for. So this is going to be a huge challenge.”

NEW TROPHY

The teams will compete for the newly-created George Jewett Trophy. He was the first Black football player at each school. Jewett played for Michigan during the 1890 and 1892 seasons, then left Michigan for Northwestern in 1893 to finish his medical degree. He played two seasons for the Wildcats.

DOWN TO THE WIRE

The Wolverines have won their last six matchups with the Wildcats and 11 of the last 12 but they were far from dominant in recent meetings. In four of the last five games, the margin of victory has been eight or fewer points, and two of those games were decided in overtime.

The last time the teams met was 2018, when Michigan rallied from a 10-point deficit to pull out a 20-17 victory.

WALL OF PROTECTION

The Wolverines’ offensive line has consistently opened holes for the running backs and kept the quarterbacks clean. It ranks No. 1 in the FBS by allowing just 13 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. They have only given up two sacks in the team’s six games, ranking second nationally.

Strong line play has allowed Michigan to average 38.5 points.

FINDING A RHYTHM

Northwestern quarterback Ryan Hilinski appears to be settling in after opening the season in a backup role.

The South Carolina transfer went from throwing for 88 yards in a win over Ohio to 256 in a blowout loss at Nebraska to 267 against Rutgers in his three starts. He also matched a career high with two touchdown passes last week, including a 64-yard touchdown to Malik Washington

“I just think he’s grown every day and every rep,” Fitzgerald said. “I thought he played pretty clean. He got away with a couple throws that he won’t be able to get away with this week against the Wolverines’ defense.”

LOCKING DOWN

Northwestern’s defense made a huge jump last week.

The Wildcats went from getting steamrolled by Nebraska for 657 yards to holding Rutgers to 222. The 657 yards by the Cornhuskers were the most against Northwestern since the 2005 team gave up a program-record 773 to Arizona State.

Fitzgerald credited improved play by the defensive line as well as better tackling by the linebackers.

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The Buccaneers block outside linebacker Khalil Mack in last year’s matchup. | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

The Sun-Times’ experts offer their picks for the Bears’ game in Tampa on Sunday:

The Sun-Times’ experts offer their picks for the Bears’ game Sunday in Tampa:

Rick Morrissey

Buccaneers 31-16

The Bears finally figured out that running the ball keeps them in games. Tampa Bay has allowed the fewest rushing yards so far this season. Uh-oh. It means Bears quarterback Justin Fields needs to have a big game, which means his O-line has to have a big game. Uh-oh again. Season: 4-2.

Rick Telander

Buccaneers 31-18

When I was 44 years and three months old — as Tom Brady will be Sunday–I felt like a beaten old man. Playing football? Throwing passes? Leading the way? Ha! Sometimes it hurt just clicking the channel changer. Brady’s old enough to be Fields’ dad. Old enough to “own”‘ the Bears. Season: 4-2.

Patrick Finley

Buccaneers 28-9

We’ve seen this movie before. This season, the Bucs have whupped the two flawed teams they faced at home: the Dolphins by 23 and the Falcons by 28. The Bears lost to the two good teams they’ve played on the road — the Rams and Browns — by 20 apiece. Season: 5-1.

Jason Lieser

Buccaneers 27-16

The Bears played two teams on the Bucs’ level — the Rams and Packers — and lost by a total of 30 points. The last time they beat a good team was their win over the Bucs about a year ago, but that was a case of catching them at the right time. The defending champs will roll. Season: 5-1.

Mark Potash

Buccaneers 30-17

The Buccaneers were on a short rest/travel week last year — and Tom Brady was still getting acclimated — when they lost to the Bears at Soldier Field. Now they’re on long rest, at home, and Brady is much more comfortable. Season: 5-1.

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The Chicago Bulls had a really close win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night. It was an awesome way to start the 2021-22 season off. Some people were concerned about them because the Pistons aren’t very good and the Bulls struggled to lead at times. However, this is the first time the Bulls won […] Chicago Bulls: New players make an impact in first win of 2021-22 – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Old West outlaw Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) wants to take down the notorious killer who murdered his parents in “The Harder They Fall.” | Netflix

Jonathan Majors and Idris Elba lead the all-star cast in a dusty 19th century gangland where men brawl and women do, too.

What a ride.

Sergio Leone meets Quentin Tarantino at the drive-in with the darkly funny, cartoonishly violent and greatly entertaining “The Harder They Fall,” a Black Western with an amazingly talented cast, some wonderfully anachronistic dialogue and music — and an abundance of badass fistfights, shootouts, robberies, tavern sequences and showdowns on Main Street.

Not only that, but Idris Elba sheds ALL THE TEARS in a Shakespearean twist of a scene late in the film, and oh by the way: The female characters in director/co-writer/producer Jeymes Samuel’s radical, transformative, jazzy take on the Old West are so much more than mere window dressing who fret about their men’s dangerous ways and hide behind locked doors when the bullets start flying. They’re right there in the middle of the mix, throwing haymakers and cocking rifles and getting knee-deep in the muck and the grime and the blood. (And, just like the male characters, they have fantastic hats. This is one of the better Hat Movies in recent memory.)

“The Harder They Fall” is filled with characters whose names reflect real-life 19th century Black figures, including Rufus Buck, Nat Love, Cherokee Bill and Stagecoach Mary, but the story is 100% fictional. After a harrowing and tense prologue in which we see Idris Elba’s Rufus Buck gun down a preacher and his wife in cold blood and then use a switchblade to carve a cross into the forehead of their 10-year-old son, we fast forward about 25 years, when that boy has grown up to become the outlaw Nat Love (Jonathan Majors, fresh off his triumphant work in “Lovecraft Country”), who has spent much of his adult life robbing other outlaws and hunting down the gang members who were present when his parents were killed, much to the frustration of his on-and-off love interest, the saloon owner Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz). She’s had it with him and she’ll smack him in the face to prove it, but then they’ll start making out again, because love. (Sidebar: “The Harder They Fall” is filled with religious imagery, with crosses appearing in scene after scene.)

Netflix
Rufus Buck (Idris Elba, center) escapes custody on a train with the help of his gang associates Treacherous Trudy (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield) in “The Harder They Fall.”

In a tightly constructed, expertly rendered and eventually carnage-filled sequence aboard a locomotive, the notorious Rufus Buck, who has been behind bars for years, is liberated by his loyal and lethal gang, including the coldly efficient killer Treacherous Trudy (Regina King), who clearly loves Rufus, and the sharpshooter Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield), who is said to be the fastest gun in all the West. When Nat gets word of Rufus Buck’s escape, he assembles a posse of his own to hunt down Rufus, with the gender-fluid Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler), the cocky and flashy gunman James Beckwourth (RJ Cyler), the rifleman Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and the federal marshal Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo) joining him and Stagecoach Mary.

“The Harder They Fall” devotes equal time to the machinations and adventures of both gangs, adding to the layered complexity of the story and raising the stakes for the inevitable violent confrontation ahead. To be sure, Rufus and his gang are the villains — but it’s not as if Nat and his associates are as pure as the driven snow. Everybody in this story has a past; everybody has blood on their hands.

“The Harder They Fall” is filled with bold and cool creative choices, as when we’re told a neighboring town is “all white” and when Nat and his gang arrive at the town to rob the local bank, it’s literally white — not just the residents, but the buildings, the interiors, you name it … everything is rendered in shades of white. It’s ridiculous and great. Then there’s the soundtrack of the year, which features everything from a remix of Barrington Levy’s seminal reggae tune “Here I Come” to “Let’s Start” by Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti (with Ginger Baker) to a new tune called “Guns Go Bang” from Jay-Z (who is also a producer on the film) and Kid Cudi. This is also a beautifully shot film, with the Cerro Pelon Movie Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., serving as a primary location. For all of the 21st century, profanity-laced dialogue and the modern music, “The Harder They Fall” still has that wide-open-skies look of a classic Western.

Even with all the shootouts and robberies and action sequences, this is also a wonderful showcase for screen-stealing acting, with virtually everyone in the all-star cast getting some center stage moments and knocking it out of the park. This is one of those movies where we sense the cast had just as much making it as we have watching it.

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Barbara Kruger: THINKING OF YOU. I MEAN ME. I MEAN YOU., Chicago International Film Festival, Songs for Nobodies, Unbound Sound, and moreRead More

Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls took the floor for the first time in the 2021-2022 regular season. Billy Donovan’s crew battled through a hard-fought game that didn’t feature much offense aside from Zach LaVine’s 34-point explosion to beat the Detroit Pistons 94-88. LaVine got extra hot in the third quarter where he scored 15 points, […] Chicago Bulls: Don’t be too worried about the new bench mob – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Glenbard West quarterback Korey Tai (7) is driven out of bounds by York’s Matt Sutter (35). | Kevin Tanaka/For the Sun-Times

A look at this week’s five best games.

No. 4 Brother Rice at No. 12 Marist, 6 p.m. Friday

This game, known locally as the Pulaski Road Super Bowl, is one of the state’s classic rivalries. The schools are barely two miles apart and usually closely matched — Rice leads the series 22-18 and the last five games have been decided by a total of 31 points. The Crusaders (6-2, 1-1 CCL/ESCC Blue) have a Player of the Year candidate in senior quarterback Jack Lausch, heading to Notre Dame as a preferred walk-on for football and baseball. Running back Aaron Vaughn and defensive lineman Roderick Pierce, who has Illinois and Kentucky offers, also are impact players. Marist (6-2, 0-2) also has a premier quarterback in Coastal Carolina recruit Dontrell Jackson Jr.

No. 1 Loyola at No. 11 Mount Carmel, 7:30 p.m. Friday

Can anyone or anything stop Loyola? The Ramblers graduated a deep, talented senior class from the state’s top-ranked team in the pandemic spring season. And they retooled their offense around senior running back Marco Maldonado (763 total yards, 14 TDs) and junior quarterback Jake Stearney (1,391 passing yards, 13 TDs). Maldonado broke his collarbone late in an epic 46-43 win over Brother Rice in Week 4, but Loyola (8-0, 2-0) just keeps rolling along, Mount Carmel (6-2, 1-1) also has a number of new faces after some significant graduation losses. Junior Damarion Arrington, who has lined up at quarterback and running back, has helped keep the Caravan offense rolling.

No. 23 Fenwick at No. 10 St. Ignatius, 7:30 p.m. Friday

Though the Blue gets most of the attention in the CCL/ESCC superconference, these White division teams have turned some heads this season. St. Ignatius (8-0, 2-0) sprung arguably the upset of the season, beating Mount Carrnel 27-0 in Week 5 for its first win in the series since 1928 (the Wolfpack didn’t have a team between 1964 and 2005). Vinny Rugai, whose dad Rob quarterbacked Mount Carmel in the 1980s, was the star of that game as a running back and linebacker. Fenwick (6-2, 2-0), which pushed Loyola to the limit before losing 27-24 on a late field goal, is loaded with Division I talent: quarterback Kaden Cobb (Ball State), receivers Eian Pugh (Illinois) and Max Reese (Eastern Michigan), and center Jimmy Liston (Purdue).

No. 16 Hinsdale Central at No. 24 Glenbard West, 1 p.m. Saturday

Hinsdale Central (7-1, 5-0) has a 12-game winning streak in the West Suburban Silver and is looking to win the conference outright for the second time this calendar year. The Red Devils came from 16 down in the fourth quarter to beat York, the other team still mathematically alive in the conference race. Watch Thomas Skokna, who returned kickoffs for touchdowns against Proviso East and Lyons. Glenbard West (7-1, 4-1), which lost 12-10 to York, has a typically stingy defense with three shutouts and just 65 points allowed all season.

Crete-Monee at Kankakee, 7 p.m. Friday

The de facto Southland championship game matches two of the top Class 6A teams in the state in third-ranked Kankakee (8-0, 4-0) and sixth-ranked Crete-Monee (6-2, 5-0). The Kays have a prolific pass-catch duo in quarterback Tomele Staples and receiver Pierre Allen along with multi-talented junior Jyaire Hill, who has seven Power Five offers. Crete quarterback Joshua Franklin, a state track medalist in the triple jump, had an eight-touchdown game against Thornwood earlier this season.

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