Defense Appreciation Thread

Greg Mattison's balls are so big that maybe he should cut them in half so Al can have a pair for himself.

We should have another year of:

H/T Ace.

So we should all be excited. I know Hoke is:

We do not go 11-2 or 8-4 this year without the defense being as good as they are. Mattison was a terrific and necessary hire

The defense did keep this game within reach, I agree, and in situations where the Buckeye could have put it away earlier perhaps, they stepped up and it was great to see that. For me, that's a positive takeaway from this game. 

Another kudos to Greg Mattison for, to date, yet another Top 20 defense. Including today's game, we yield an average of 155 yards in the air and 157 yards on the ground, which right now for total defense would still be good for something in the mid-teens in the way of ranking  nationally (won't know until the official NCAA stats update completely). 

Feels good to be back to Michigan football where the D is our strength.  One of the things about Rich Rod that never felt like a fit

Mattison is a God among men.  Unfortunately, Borges is not.

I'm very proud of the whole team. We lost by 5 with our back up qb and rb. The defense is who i expected to fall today but they were great. This game could have been a blow out at one point but the defense rose up everytime. Great job by the whole team(minus Hoke and Borges).

Our defense was so good that I predict more "hello posts" to come.

Frank Clark's hit was badass

Thank you for posting this.

Victory has many fathers and defeat is an orphan - to paraphrase JFK (could be wrong and if so I'm sure someone here will identify the proper source).

When Brady Hoke took over the HC duties he faced many challenges. Beating the traditional rival OSU, restoring the dominance of UM in the Big House, and squashing the up and coming teams (like MSU, Illinois, NW). He's largely done that and he led the UM to a bowl game.

I'm not overlooking the dismay many have had over issues with the offense this year which are real but we should look ahead with confidence - a realistic confidence and not the usual "wait till next year." Greg Mattison has re-established Michigan as a defensive power in the Big Ten and nationally. OSU only scored 6 second half points - six on two field goals.

The defense will only get better. Why? Look at some of the better academic institutions which also play good college football - namely, Stanford, Northwestern and even Notre Dame. They show that there is a pool of players who can qualify here and really play. Michigan is and will be in the near future a top school so we can hope to draw on that same pool.

We may not have a once in a generation player like Denard Robinson (the best running QB ever at the UM, eclipsing Steve Smith) next year but the team will be strong and a contender.

Now UM needs it on O. Why should UM settle for anything less? UM ha the money, go get an elite O coach to go with Mattison.

Finally, a thread I can appreciate without wanting to light my hair on fire (ok, maybe not, because I'm still bitter). GMAT is the man as usual. I hate that this effort by the defense was wasted. It was painful to watch them make play after play limiting Ohio to fgs only to be let down. What Mattison has done these two years simply proves the value of coaching. Perhaps the same applies to Borges, just in an opposite manner (shit, it was too hard to resist that).

Really excited about the future of our Defense! If our LB's continue to get better, we may be very difficult to run on for years to come.

I love Brady Hoke. I love Greg Mattison. I think he does things the right way and is in this for the right reasons. He is in the 99th percentile for hatred of losing to ohio. I can't imagine that he was too happy with the play calling on offense and I'm sure he wasn't happy with the turnovers. However the attention to detail on defense and hiring of Mattison has won us many games in two years that we surely would have lost in the previous era.



My big concern going forward is the offense. I understand that Borges needs his time and his players for us to properly see what he is capable of. However what concerns me is his lack of risk taking and his predictability.



Greg mattison is the opposite of Borges. He never shows his cards and takes risks when he finds it necessary. Most successful people will tell you that without taking risks you can never be highly successful. Sure there will be exceptions but that statement is generally true.



Thank you defense for never giving up and for always keeping us in games.

Our defense is getting better every year, and gets better as the season goes along. I genuinely believe that within a year or two, we will have the best defense in the conference year in and out, as long as Mattison is at the helm. Especially with the studs we're bringing in. I can't wait to see the continued improvements in speed, size, and especially the physicality that Hoke and Mattison will bring.

The defense played their hearts out today and gave us a chance to win.   For that matter, the players all played their hearts out.  They didn't have their best outing, but they left it on the field.  Disappointed with the loss (though I'm sure not nearly as much as the players and coaches), but still very proud to call Michigan my team.

... and Van Bergen, then Countess in the opening game.  He leaned heavily on Kovacs and Ryan and was generally rewarded (although Nebraska exploited Ryan, OSU and Miller did not) and generally managed to compensate for a weaker D-line.

At the beginning of the year I feared we'd see a steady diet of power running designed to exploit our O-line and avoid our solid-to-good secondary.  Mattison managed to scheme and coach to prevent that and I am very pleased to be wrong about that.

" Even today they did everything they could the second half to keep the game within reach."

Agree on their valiant performance in the second half.  However, I thought the defense was pretty bad in the first half.  OSU had 20 points and something like 225 yards of offense in the first half.