Our defense held Illinois scoreless on half of their possessions*.
*counting their missed FG as the defense holding them.
Yeah, we gave up a lot of points to Illinois. But our defense stepped up more times than the score would indicate to someone just glancing at it. We turned the ball over 5 times and still won.
Illinois had 16 drives.
They had 1 turnover.
They had 1 missed field goal.
They had 3 made field goals.
They had 5 touchdowns.
They had 6 punts.
Side note, only one team this year has made Illinois punt more than 6 times, and that was Purdue (obviously though they didn't have as many possessions in any other of their games).
Oh, and we held Illinois scoreless during the third quarter, too.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
wheeee count me in
November 6th, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
You managed to make the whole "65 points given up" thing sound semi-good. That's impressive.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^
Can we all please agree that giving up 20 points in OT is not the same as giving up 20 points in regulation?
November 6th, 2010 at 10:26 PM ^
Plus, you know, Illinois only needed one first down to get into field goal range half of the time in the first half.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:59 PM ^
Good point, a good kicker would be worth his weight in gold..
November 7th, 2010 at 2:35 PM ^
Which means Garrett Rivas was worth about 250 lbs of gold.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^
Second half:
7 Illinois possessions, 4 three-and-outs, 1 other punt, and two touchdowns (one of which was set-up by the Forcier fumble.)
November 6th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
Not a great defensive game, no, but not quite as bad as the final score makes it seem.
November 7th, 2010 at 12:14 AM ^
My dog who hid UNDER the floor and my neighbors who put up the "for sale" sign take solace in your assessment.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^
at the end of the first quarter that this might be the first time all year that we forced 2 punts AND made a field goal in one quarter.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
It's awesome to win despite this, but man. We need to be more careful with the ball. Or force more on the D side of the ball.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:33 PM ^
November 6th, 2010 at 10:44 PM ^
And the "Made FG" drives for ILL consisted of 40 yards, 7 yards, and 39 yards. Not terrible.
By my Yahoo! data, ILL had 17 drives in regulation, and averaged 27 yards per drive.
On their 5 TD drives, they averaged 51.8 yards per drive.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:37 PM ^
It is definitely weird to say after giving up 65 points, yeah, that may have been as good as a defensive showing as we've had this year, but I would say that was the case. We got burned a couple of times-- but they played really well at times too. Hope it carries through for a strong showing against Purdue.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:38 PM ^
Our 5 turnovers might have contributed a tad to the high scoring Illinois offense.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:43 PM ^
18 points of it.
<br>
<br>Not to mention the points we would have scored that it cost us.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:38 PM ^
I noticed that as well. And for all the "argh, 65 points" by the defense, Illinois's defenses, which averaged about 12 a game, gave up 67, and 45 in regulation. So yeah, not a great defensive day across the board, but certainly not limited to UM.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:42 PM ^
you guys think any of RR defensive coaches will stay on board next season?
November 6th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
NFW, NFW, NFW!!!
November 6th, 2010 at 10:43 PM ^
ok, this makes me feel better. i couldn't help but feeling that our defense kinda sorta played a decent game. but seeing 65 points on the board made me question my sanity. so either i'm not insane, or there is a large group of people who have lost their mind with me.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:47 PM ^
The 3rd quarter was the most surprising. The D didn't give up any points. When was the last time we went a whole quarter without giving up any points?
Illinois started a drive at our 37 yard line once during the third quarter as well and came away with no points. That was probably the most shocking thing that happened all day.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:58 PM ^
When was the last time we went a whole quarter without giving up any points?
1st Quarter MSU 2010
November 6th, 2010 at 10:49 PM ^
I thought heard the announcers say Illini starting field position was from their own 48. Tough to keep points off the board when you give them half a field to work with ... on average.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:50 PM ^
I would go so far as to say the defense had a much better day than they did last week. Considering the field position Illinois routinely had to work with, not bad. Illinois scored five regulation touchdowns and the average drive start was at midfield on those five. Both early FG drives started in Michigan territory - those six points not being 14 is just huge.
And the defense made key plays when they had to. If Vinopal doesn't make that tackle on 3rd down to force a punt, game over. I think they got the job done today, however ugly it looked.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:44 PM ^
Makes you wonder where we would be if Vinopal & Demens had been in some earlier games. Giving the coaches the benefit fo the doubt, they probably needed the time until now to get to where they needed to be. That, or RR is starting to get more involved on defense. Based on him hollering at Greg Robinson a few weeks ago when he pulled Demens for Ezeh, last week when he got into the defensive huddle, and the recent shuffling of players from O to D, I'm leaning toward the theory RR is getting involved with the D. He was a linebacker in college, right?
November 7th, 2010 at 7:54 AM ^
November 6th, 2010 at 10:51 PM ^
First half was brutal watching the D lose contain time and time again. In the 2nd half they finally figured out how to contain, especially on the option pitches. Losing contain has been a big theme so far this year, and especially against MSU. If we could fix that, this defense would be much improved.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:51 PM ^
Illini score 25 in the 2nd quarter and 20 in OT, if my math is correct, that leaves 20 points over the other 3 quarters.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
I sincerely hope we have reason to retain GERG by season's end. That would mean that they ended their season on a hell of a streak.
The reason he probably won't be around, though, is that the D will perform below expectations next week. And perhaps the next two weeks after that. That's just the way this year has been.
If they were consistently good, bad, or mediocre, you could surmise that he was having an impression on them. But they are wildly inconsistent.
November 6th, 2010 at 10:57 PM ^
500 Yards and 45 Points! Before OT!
And someone thinks the D doesn't suck?
Where can I get some of those herbs???
November 6th, 2010 at 11:03 PM ^
Why don't you tune in to PBS and watch Lawerence Welk, people just want to enjoy the victory this evening, we can fire everyone tomorrow.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^
I find it ironic that your user name is "Enjoy Life"....
November 6th, 2010 at 11:00 PM ^
If UM could trade their shitty defense for a crappy defense, this team could be playing for the Big Ten or NC game.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:05 PM ^
halftime adjustments it is undeniable that we outcoached em in the 3rd quarter. It doesn't mean the entire performance was good but I like looking at bright spots.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:31 PM ^
It sucks to give up 45 but how much of that was attributable to the remarkably bad special teams and the multitude of turnovers? I'll happily pin 27 points on the defense but god damn do we need to recruit a competent kicker. Also, the hiring of a quality special teams coach would be nice.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:35 PM ^
Outcoaching Ron Zook isn't exactly a big accomplishment, imo.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:12 PM ^
I feel like this was Michigan's best defensive performance, even though they gave up 65 points total, 45 in regulation. I like the 4 down linemen and the aggressive defense. If you're gonna get beat, get beat throwing everything at the QB.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:47 PM ^
Can I get an Amen!?!?!?
I have been yelling at the TV that we need 4 linemen since the ND game.
Even though it was brutal at times, there was a lot to enjoy in this game. When this D grows up, we are going to have us some FUN Saturdays.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:24 PM ^
other than the conversion stop in 3OT of course, was that Zook punted late in the 4th quarter on the 4th and 1 from their own 42. Obviously he had just enough respect for them that it wasn't an automatic go for it call. He goes there and gets it, it's either at least 2 more minutes off the clock or burned Michigan TOs.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:51 PM ^
That game was absolutely nuts. Nothing at all about it was normal.
November 6th, 2010 at 11:56 PM ^
It sure takes a whole lot of spin to make that defensive effort look to be anything less than bad. First, I only see 44 points on your slate of stats. That's 21 short of what really happened. Second, wasn't this the most points we've ever given up? And we're celebrating?
I'm very happy that we won today, but it's depressing to see just how low the bar has been set for "success".
November 7th, 2010 at 1:09 AM ^
I'm just saying that if you just look and see 65 points, it looks much worse than it actually was.
And 45 points were accounted for in my stats, since they went for two after one of their drives.
Including OT would make no sense since there isn't any punting and you have really good starting field position.
November 7th, 2010 at 4:54 PM ^
Yet if we stopped them in the first OT, they would have had 45. I think it's fair to be amazed by the points put up by the offense and happy with the win...but 65 points (or even 45) is terrible. That's well below "not amazing".
November 6th, 2010 at 11:56 PM ^
Let's also not forget that Illinois' average offensive starting position was somewhere around midfield. Our defense was better than people think - definitely FAR from good, but better than the score indicates.
November 7th, 2010 at 7:46 AM ^
So what does this tell us about the defense? Clearly some players (e.g., Roh) stepped up last week and said "guys, this ain't working" - so who on the coaching staff bent over and coughed?
Did GERG change it up, or has RR told his boys to bow down to the allmighty Silver Fox?
I don't know. I'm still going to advocate that we get our D coordinator and his assistants on the same page in the offseason, with little interference from Rich.