If you missed it yesterday, our discussion of the offense is here.

The prompt:

HOW HAVE YOUR PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS CHANGED SINCE THE MINNESOTA GAME

Brian: We've touched on two of the three things I bulleted but haven't talked about Gemon Green yet. That guy wasn't more than three inches from his guy when called upon except on the back shoulder/OPI event.

Ace: Which: fair enough, Chris Autman-Bell.

Brian: Crafty play, doesn't get called anywhere near enough, doesn't really change my opinion of Green's performance.

BiSB: They largely let the corners deal with Bateman and Bell one-on-one, and it didn't go apocalyptically.

Ace: Green looked like he belonged and has a lot of upside. That he was pretty steady definitely ticks my expectations up. He had good coverage on back to back slot fades to Bateman, even if Bateman slipped on the second.

Seth: Neither corner was allowed to get anywhere near the run game. It's a small data point for this idea that the offseason doom talk was about these guys' tackling deficiencies.

Brian: How often do corners in man coverage get involved on duo?

Ace: When you have Michael Barrett, Dax Hill, and Brad Hawkins, you have a lot of guys who get to the edge, too.

BiSB: Related: I know you've got Rashod Bateman, PJ, but back-to-back end zone fades on 3rd and goal & 4th and goal seems dubious. 

[Hit THE JUMP for... a pretty dang good defensive line, perhaps?]

Seth: What's he going to do, test the edges again? Did you see Barrett fly up from depth?

Ace: Well, testing the interior wasn’t that great, because the tackles at least made it so Mo Ibrahim had to work hard for his interior yards. The plays Ibrahim broke tended to be when defensive backs lost contain, and that tended to be when Hill was out and a true freshman took on the biggest role in the defense.

What I’m saying is: Carlo Kemp!

Seth: Or when Michigan got twisted the wrong way and left their linebackers at the POA. There was a lot of that stuff.

Brian: What are you saying about Carlo Kemp?

Ace:

I was trying to nudge the conversation in the direction of the defensive tackles looking generally fine and Kemp looking good. I didn’t see guys getting blasted off the ball, Jeter had a couple plays, Juice Welschof beat blocks.

Seth: I'm anxious to see the UFR on the defense. Michigan played a lot of games to get different players in weird gaps.

Ace: That’s Don Brown, though.

Brian: My initial impression is that the DTs weren't making a whole lot of plays other than that one. They felt about like they expected: better, just okay. We'll see how that bears out.

Ace: Yeah, not saying they were game-wreckers, but it was also nice that they weren’t a clear sore spot.

BiSB: A lot of Ibrahim's bigger runs came on the back side of they play, so at least SOMETHING happened on the front side other than insta-pancakes. 

Ace: Welschof flashed some upside and he could be a guy who gets a lot better over the course of a season. Hinton too. The others will probably stay level. Michigan also seemingly wanted Minnesota to plunge into the tackles on every RPO, so they were trusted to hold up to a certain level, and it was more than enough to keep the Gophers from holding pace.

Seth: They're still a group that Don Brown doesn't really trust to play it straight all the time, and when you stunt on standard downs you're going to get got eventually.

Ace: It’s college football in 2020. You’re going to get got on occasion if you do anything interesting. Playing it straight up is death unless you want to win 62-58.

Seth: Side note since we're talking pleasant surprises: Taylor Upshaw tracking that down from the backside.

Ace: I thought the gameplan was perfect for modern college football, the game where even Saban is throwing his hands up and saying bombs away. Everything stayed in front of the safeties. The plays the defense encouraged were the most low-upside in football: early-down runs up the gut. It’s not always fun to sit through but it’s effective.

Brian: I think they're still a little unhappy with how those runs went overall but the flipside was almost entirely deleting Minnesota's RPOs.

Ace: I’m sure Don Brown hates it with his entire being. But he adjusted. I’ll take that tradeoff even if Michigan isn’t a killer run defense. Make them beat you with death by a million tiny cuts.

Seth: They got a couple of their standard slants in a couple of times when Josh Ross didn't get depth, but he was out there doing the right thing, and when Minnesota tried it late it led to the interception. Minnesota also forced Barrett and Ross to flip jobs a lot, and both LBs hung in well. That stood out to me because it's been a way Wisconsin/MSU traditionally attacked Don Brown, and between Peppers and Hudson we never had a Viper who could really be a passable ILB.

Ace: Michigan held Minnesota to a lower yards per play than they had in any single game last year. A full yard better than Wisconsin. I was not expecting that and I thought Minnesota was overrated. Enough to say so in the preview!

Seth: Was that before or after OH NO YOU UNLEASHED SUPER SAIYAN KWITY PAYE? 

Ace: I was looking at the live stats all night and they were hanging around 5.0 before sackapalooza. This was a dominant all-around performance with great gameplans on both sides of the ball. I’m pretty pumped!

Brian: I don't know how seriously to take Paye grabbing the power mushroom late and doing all the stuff I said he was unlikely to do in the season preview. I want to take it seriously.

Ace:

That’s a mean-ass move to pull and he turns the corner at eight yards.

Seth: I thought after ten times Aidan Hutchinson ruined the edge protection that I had an idea how quickly an elite DE can redirect, and then Kwity changed that.

Ace: The inside move he had on the literal play before that was also nice.

Brian: The only thing that gives pause is that's the right side of the OL, which was replaced/out of position, and Minnesota's non-RPO passing game had horrible protection last year. Paye did do this kind of stuff against Indiana last year.

Ace: We know he’s a technician, so my main question would normally be about athleticism translating against better opponents, but… (motions towards Bruce Feldman)

Brian: The weird thing is that all the Paye takes from the offseason were about how he's this super athlete with no pass rush technique.

Ace: He destroyed the whole line. The inside move was on Minnesota’s left side.

And by god, this:

I think the ends are both very good.

Seth: I'm sorry I was still watching #65 two gifs ago, were you saying something?

Brian: That's not in question, the only question is whether either is an AA

Ace: Okay, cool, we’re on the same page. I was a relative skeptic about Paye and now I think both of them have a decent shot, though people tend to overrate these things just because there are a lot of good players out there that we don’t watch in nearly this detail.

Seth: Shh shh stop now so the sack doesn't get off the page.

Ace: (whispers) milton go vroom