Upon Further Review: Defense vs Iowa

Awesome phrase. This is why more football analysts should have engineering backgrounds.

I am not sure that you should ding the play call on the first Moeaki TD. It seems it was Williams' fault, and he should've watched his man disengage from "blocking" and then gone into coverage. If you say the call was just to watch the TE to see if he blocks initially, and blitz if so, then yeah, Robinson takes the hit. If Williams' assignment is to watch the TE to see if he blocks, and blitz if so, then it's Williams' overeagerness and forgetting that he still has the TE.

I was camping this weekend and thus unable to get a TV signal, though we were able to listen to the game on the radio. The UM announcing crew was equally mystified as to why Iowa would target Warren so frequently.

By the second half Brandstader had a theory. He watched Stanzi repeatedly throw poorly to his left but look reasonably accurate to his right. Warren was most often positioned on that right side. Therefore the theory was that Iowa frequently asked Stanzi to throw to his more comfortable side whether Warren was there or not. Given how erratic Stanzi looked, this might be correct.

NOTE #1 - Without watching the game I might have confused the left/right directions in the above comment, but the idea is the same.

NOTE #2 - Is Iowa really the best Big Ten team? Wow.....maybe all of those ESPN droids are correct that our conference sucks.

If/When Cissoko comes back, what is the feasibility of seeing him make a move to safety?

I always thought that Cissoko would be great in the nickel role that Brandon Harrison played well at for a couple of years. It would be sort of like a hybrid Safety/Corner position. But it doesn't seem like such a position exists anymore.

My theory on the defensive player depth chart is that you're seeing the coaches realize that intelligence (or instincts) is far more important than athletic ability. That's why you're seeing walk ons play and freshmen like Vlad or Big Will sit on the bench. I think they can obtain that intelligence in time, at least to some extent, but right now they aren't mentally prepared to be on the field.

JT Floyd seems to have the intelligence and make reasonable decisions out there, but he just lacks the physical tools to be effective (i.e. too slow). Cissoko seems to have some of the tools (speed, ball skills) but doesn't seem to know what he should be doing on a given play. You crave for a physical talent like Vlad at safety, Turner at corner, or Will in the middle but I think they're just not confident in what they are supposed to do. And when you don't know what you should be doing, it doesn't matter how strong or fast you are because you'll be victimized. Kovacs (and even Leach to a lesser extent) seem to know where they are supposed to be.

I think you can get away with raw ability somewhat on offense where a guy may need to only know his assignment but on defense you have to make decisions based on what you see in front of you. I don't think we can write off any of these young guys. In an ideal world you're not supposed to play true freshmen big minutes. But a look at the depth chart for safety reveals no one but Williams as an upper-classman.

Stanzi read Cover 3 and keyed the linebacker, who he thought would be the flat defender. The WR saw what it was, Cover 2, and settled down where he expected the gap in the zone to be. So when Stanzi threw, Warren was the only one in the flat. TD.

Everyone make sure to look at the play type description on Warren's INT. Made me LOL at my desk.

Although I think the formation is actually a Benny Hill 3-wide, which looks quite similar to Ace 3-wide. Other than that, good UFR.

is nothing new to Michigan football.

also.....I think UW beats Iowa this weekend.

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Nice work, as always. Thanks for repeating Competition Invariant for me. Like I said yesterday, fancy words I cant remember.

I like the way the D has come around. Four close games and each time the D stepped up late to get the ball back. We've has so much shuffling on the Back 4, that I feel once a cinsistent lineup can roll out there week after week, you will see those big plays further minmiized.

I think we beat Penn State. People seem to think it is a bad matchup, but I dont see that. They dont run the football as well as Iowa, dont have as strong an offensive line and Moeki, DJK and McNutt are a better set of catching threats than anything Penn State has. And, this D can force Clark into mistakes.

It was valuable to get him in there and get some game experience, however humbling it was. He knows very well now that size alone won't get it done. If nothing else, it ought to lead to increased focus during practice on technique and fundamentals.

And Brian, it was only a few weeks ago during one of your WTKA appearances that you expressed an interest in seeing Campbell line up next to Mike Martin, so I don't know why you're now so dismissive of those who have been curious about Campbell themselves. You got your answer as well as the rest of us.

Our D lists two Rivals' Five Star(Warren, Graham)and six Four Star(Williams, Martin, van Bergen, Roh, Martin, Brown) players. I understand how Rivals' is a flawed system; a lot more goes into recruiting than this metric. Nonetheless, this group has been playing at a consistent level all season: they are bad. And they don't appear to be improving at all.

Wisconsin's D held tOSU's O to 184 yds, held Pryor to 5-13 for 84 yds, and gave up 10 points. Their offense surrendered two INTs for TDs, plus a kickoff return for a TD.

The Badgers D consists of Rivals three, two and NO star players. While they are not world beaters, this defense is at least respectable.

Is it our players? Our coaches? I cannot believe a school like Wisconsin can out-recruit and out-coach a school like M.

In high school at least, Cissoko was rated a pure corner with all the tools (speed, hips, confidence) except for height. If he comes back on the team, I don't see him being moved away from his natural position, especially when (1) Warren may not be here next year; and (2) even if Warren is back, both corners will be seniors.

I don't see our defensive issues as lack of talent issues - it is mental not physical - it comes down to knowing the situation and your assignment, and sticking w/ your assignment - the first Moleaki TD is the perfect example - if you are man to man on the TE, you simply cannot abandon the TE, even if the TE starts to block.

I'd like to believe that a majority of the Defense's mistakes are a function of the discontinuity on the D-coordinator side, and that they disappear over time. But I'm having a hard time convincing myself that's the case - it is simply inexplicable how a deep safety lets a receiver run by him on 3rd and 24 - why do you need top college coaching to avoid this type of mistake?

For a defense with so many young/inexperienced players, they are doing a wonderful job. Williams was definitely not good on Saturday, but he was also playing a new position for the first time and is only a sophomore.

This team was absolutely ravaged by defections/transfers and has only two senior players on the defensive side of the ball. Guys are not getting a chance to watch and learn, so mistakes have to be expected. We have a true freshman starting at DE/OLB, a RS freshman walk-on starting at strong safety, a true sophomore playing a new position at the free safety spot, a true sophomore DT, and another RS sophomore starting on the d-line. The backups are even younger and less experienced. No matter how much talent a kid has (star ratings and what have you), expecting him to contribute right away at the D-I level is ridiculous.

All that being said, they took State to overtime on the road in a game where the offense played horribly for 3.5 quarters and they lost by two at Iowa (a ranked, undefeated team) in a game where the offense turned it over 5 times.

This defense deserves a lot of credit for what they've accomplished and is only going to get better as they mature and add reinforcements in the next few recruiting classes.

Many people on the live blog heard my rant:

Get rid of the lazy term "pick 6". Replace any usage of "pick six" with Touchdown After INT (TAINT).

"TAINT" more negatively infers an offense's lapse. And it sounds cooler.

Originally created here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081010

I have a whole new appreciation for the need for technique on the defensive line. I could not believe how Campbell was manhandled every time he was out there. I realize he is young and inexperienced, but I thought his sheer talent would prevent him from being dominated like that. Wow.

It gives me even more appreciation for what Mike Martin did last year. Go Hulk!

Guys with wrestling backgrounds are ideal for the D-line (i.e. Rob Renes, Terrance Taylor).

how does he not get a -1 for breaking contain on stanzi's scramble that set up the over-the-top TD?

On Williams' seeming backstep, I think his problem boils down to, literally, his back-step.

i.e. his back-peddling.

The guy had an ankle injury, and that was keeping him out for large chunks of the early season, nay?

Is it possible that his problem in getting back into coverage on the third and twenty-thousand-million was simply an angry ankle? He was back-pedaling really slowly for a defensive back IIRC. I'm thinking perhaps that leg is just, you know, still smarting.

I'm re-watching the game and I think we had at least 3 almost-INT's. I mean where our DB's are just a few inches away from picking off the Hawkeyes. Just brining this up because I think Brian's comment is correct, this defense is pretty good, as long as they aren't making catastrophic mistakes.... sounds silly but it is true.

I have to believe these mistakes are due to relative inexperience on the D and as has been oft repeated, 3rd D coordinator in 3 years.

It also seems like our LB's and DB's were biting hard on play action, hopefully this won't be quite so bad in the coming games, it lead to some of Iowa's big gainers.

The D will be better next season. If we can pray to the Angry Michigan DB Hating God and have him keep Warren here for one more year, we'll be pretty good on D.

the Formation whose name you didnt know is just Empty. then the amount of WRs.