Another positive: defense improved again
While the deep middle of the field continues to be the valley of the shadow of death for us, mainly due to poor safety play (please God, what year can we finally stop saying that?) and miscommunication, I think for the second week in a row we saw good signs of improvement. I thought Ezeh and especially Mouton, showed improvement, we had more consistent pressure, the line played well, tackling was better, we made several big stops, and Woolfolk was a step up at CB. No SUGARCOAT. Negatives: its hard to see where the safety play can improve, especially if Woolfolk stays at CB, and TE's continue to kill us along with big plays. Good defense is partly about minimizing your weaknesses so its on GERG to do that. But we've seen progress for the second week in a row, which despite last night's bitterness, should be encouraging.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:41 AM ^
Maybe it's just me but I thought UM's ability to tackle did not improve, especially in the one on one's.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:54 AM ^
and there were some misses, but there will always be a missed tackle or two in any game.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:11 PM ^
We seemed to have a really tough time bringing down Adam Robinson. I don't know why Ferentz kept going back to Wegher.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:42 AM ^
Is Quarless still at PSU?
I know Wisconsin has a pretty good TE.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:54 PM ^
Yes he is still at PSU,and yeah Garrett Graham is pretty darn good.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:58 AM ^
I thought Ezeh played badly actually. UM will never have a great defense again until they get a great middle linebacker. I don't know if any of our recruits this year or last are true middle linebacker types. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Isaiah Bell, Mike Jones, Brandin Hawthorne are all projected as spinners, and I think same with Marvin Robinson. Lawrence Thomas needs to be a top priority recruit for the next class.
I was very pleasantly surprised with both lines again. We will beat PSU if they continue to play the way they did against Iowa (and if Molk is 100%).
October 11th, 2009 at 12:43 PM ^
it is so frustrating watching other middle linebackers meet the running back in the whole or at the edge of the line and stop them for no gain then watch Ezeh allow three yards or more everytime. It seems like he is never in the correct position to make a sound tackle, maybe bad pursuit angles, I don't know.
October 11th, 2009 at 1:56 PM ^
Spartan
October 11th, 2009 at 2:44 PM ^
Don't know if you have a Rivals account, but there was an article last week on his reaction to Michigan's offer, and he said Rodriguez told his coach he was going to start recruiting him hard, he grew up a Michigan fan, isn't leaning towards anyone in particular right now, and he's not making a decision until next year.
Besides, he's got offers from OSU, Penn State, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Alabama, among others. All the State talk about him is premature. I like Michigan's chances.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:58 PM ^
I was not aware he grew up a Michigan fan. I guess I'm just a pessimist on kids from that high school. I'd LOVE to nab him though!
October 11th, 2009 at 1:01 PM ^
Warren was fantastic. Woolfolk actually made some plays. Safety play went from bad to worse, but I felt that the upgrade at CB was bigger than the downgrade at safety.
October 11th, 2009 at 1:11 PM ^
Agreed. Woolfolk actually doesn't look overmatched at CB, and that's a positive step for the D.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:48 PM ^
We need to give the D Line a ton of credit. BG was the beast we all knew he is. Martin was solid. I didn't see or hear much about Roh. Mouton looked better, and Warren was the real deal except for one key play. We desperately need to figure out the safety position. How could they be that out of position on a 3rd and 24? Just unreal. Considering all the TO's though, the D played tough and I'm proud of their effort for all 4 quarters. Oh yeah, Stevie B was solid as well. Nice breakup on that 4th and goal.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:00 PM ^
While the middle of the defense with Ezeh, Williams and Kovacs (ugh) will continue to get shredded by opponents with good TEs, there were plenty of positive signs last night. First, for the second consecutive game, the D-Line was excellent in run defense. Especially Graham, the D-Line burst through the LOS to stop the RB. That is impressive against an Iowa team known for outstanding run blocking. Furthermore, Woolfolk more than held his own at the corner position. He's not fast, but I cannot see any opponent remaining on the schedule with two fast WRs, which means Warren can take the fastest player with Woolfolk on the slower receiver. So long as both stay healthy, the CB situation may have been solved last night. Another impressive performance came from Mouton, who is much better at rushing the passer than he is in coverage. Given the poor play of the middle anyways, I like GERG's aggressive approach in bringing Mouton in on blitzs. The pass rush was okay, which is better than terrible and that should improve as Roh improves his fundamentals.
With an improvement in the pass rush, the defense may actually be pretty good.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:38 PM ^
Woolfolk may be the fastest player on the team. The team thinks it's between him and DRob. He's plenty fast.
October 11th, 2009 at 4:34 PM ^
I agree, the defense looked like it improved. However, it was the play of the D-line that made those improvements apparent. They looked really good. Graham is a beast and LB's showed great support. Here's a crazy thought. Since the secondary is awful, and if the D-line starts to show improvement every week, wouldn't it be beneficial to move S. Brown back to the safety position? If the front seven are getting it done and the secondary continues to be the "achilles heal", doesn't it make sense to focus on them next?