The defense is surprisingly good
I must admit I have been critical of Mattison and what seems like really passive coverage schemes this season. After looking at some of the defensive statistics, I realize that although not my personal preference the schemes have been very effective. The numbers show Michigan is #13th nationally in total defense allowing 305 YPG. More surprisingly to me is that Michigan is #27th nationally in scoring defense at 19.4 YPG, which is nothing to be ashamed of but in actuality Michigan is even better than that. Because the NCAA includes all scoring against the defense, the 3 touchdowns allowed by the offense are dragging down the defensive numbers. If you remove those 3 touchdowns that were not scored against the defense, Michigan is only allowing 15.2 points a game, which would rank around #12th nationally. In addition, the defense has only allowed 7 touchdowns in 5 games! To put that in perspective consider that the muchly hyped (deservingly so) MSU defense has given up more touchdowns(8) than Michigan. Not too shabby for a defense playing without its best player.
October 6th, 2013 at 6:09 PM ^
No, I mean, what are our opponents averaging in ppg and ypg? How does that compare to what we surrendered to them?
October 6th, 2013 at 6:14 PM ^
I have the average yards we allowed per snap handy for our games:
Against CMU - 3.68 yards
Against ND - 5.69 yards
Against Akron - 5.29 yards
Against UConn - 3.61 yards
Against Minnesota - 4.53 yards
Here's the offensive side for each team:
| Yards Per Play (Offense) | Points | |
| CMU | 4.50 | 16.40 |
| Notre Dame | 5.80 | 27.30 |
| Akron | 4.60 | 15.60 |
| Uconn | 3.70 | 18.00 |
| Minnesota | 5.20 | 31.60 |
October 6th, 2013 at 8:46 PM ^
looms as a serious-a** breakdown there on D, but the rest. . . fairly in line with expectation(s)?
Looking at the offense, then, it might also be possible to conjecture that Borges and co. were determined to run, and remained determined to run even when the run wasn't working through the first part of those games, thus diluting our stats against Akron and UConn. . .
October 6th, 2013 at 9:21 PM ^
That's how I read it. Akron outperformed their season avg. against us, but everyone else was below average.
Plus the D generally plays a bend-don't-break style. They may give up some yards here and there but they've been very good at keeping people out of the endzone. They still haven't given up a rushing TD on the season, I don't know how many other teams can say that...
October 7th, 2013 at 1:34 AM ^
they hit two long passes, without those our D probably held them under their season avg.
October 6th, 2013 at 5:50 PM ^
If you think we roll out a 4-man rush with virtually no stunting for the rest of the year, you're insane. The coaches have called this type of game to keep the ball in front and not give up huge plays. Mattison is a smart guy. He'll shake things up.
October 6th, 2013 at 5:52 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 10:32 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 5:52 PM ^
I've noticed that we usually give up a drive early on...very often the opponent's FIRST drive goes for at least a FG. We usually adjust and are stingier after that.
Also (obvious), the D tightens up pretty well in the red zone. Mattison seems bent on no big plays, hence dropping into coverage and allowing short completions vs. big plays. Tighter coverage and blitzing when the opponent gets in the RZ. Working okay so far but NERVE racking for us fans.
October 6th, 2013 at 8:48 PM ^
the first few series, work hard to surprise, etcetera. . . A lot of college football games start with the underdog scoring.
October 6th, 2013 at 5:52 PM ^
haven't given up a rushing TD this year! Even with terrible opponents....that's a pretty good stat.
October 6th, 2013 at 5:55 PM ^
my only gripe with the defense is there arent enough negative plays. I much prefer an aggresive attacking style defense..college teams struggle with it.
October 6th, 2013 at 5:57 PM ^
Blake the snake leads the nation in int's and int return yards.
October 6th, 2013 at 9:54 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:15 PM ^
Why is everyone acting like we are the only team in America who has played lesser opponents in the first 5 games? Mostly all of the big schools have played one decent team and a few scrubs. So why should our stats not count for anything?
October 6th, 2013 at 6:25 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:15 PM ^
Cannot wait to see JMFR back and more blitzes.
Also teams are still taking advantage of the middle of the field with slant routes.
October 6th, 2013 at 6:17 PM ^
Mattison knows how to make a defense effective, even if it's not pretty.
He has the intelligence and experience to create a game plan around his defenseive personnel's strengths and weaknesses that works.
I'm confident that he'll know when it's OK to dial things up, but right now I believe that his main priority is to put his players in a position to learn the basics as they play, hence the vanilla calls.
It's all a balancing act at this point.
October 6th, 2013 at 6:23 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:37 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:42 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:43 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^
Statistics before the end of the season are not meaningful for us, since out good competition is in November.
Next we have PSU and Indiana. Don't tell me either of those teams are any good.
October 6th, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:48 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:52 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:08 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 9:24 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:17 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:26 PM ^
Outside of Georgia, Bama,and Notre Dame, few top 20 teams have played multiple top 20 opponents.
Michigan is 5-0. Yes, two of those games were ugly. No doubt about that. But as Lewan said, no one has to apologize for being 5-0.
October 6th, 2013 at 11:47 PM ^
multiple Top 20 opponents but Akron, UConn and CMU are awful. Minnesota isn't that good either. There's a good amount of teams that maybe haven't played multiple Top 20 opponents but haven't played the majority of games against god awful teams.
October 7th, 2013 at 1:33 AM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:47 PM ^
was good in 2011, was good in 2012, and will (continue to) be good in 2013. Why anyone would be surprised by this is the mystery to me.
October 6th, 2013 at 6:48 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 6:57 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:11 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:33 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:12 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:18 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:37 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 8:17 PM ^
Although I hate allowing a freebie pass completion just for the sake of not getting beat deep, I have a feeling that as two things happen we will appear more aggressive without actually changing our defensive style/schems. One, when we get/develop good pass rushers whether that be Ryan back from injury, a guy like Wormley, Ojemudua, or Pipkins develop, or a guy like Mone, Hand, or Charlton gets in/here. There's a lot of potential there. Two, we get more talented/aggressive DBs like Peppers. My hunch is Peppers won't let people burn him deep or short because his talent level, speed, and ability will just be that much greater than the reciever he covers. So, once you combine some guys on the d-line that can get to the QB and DBs on the back end that can match up better in coverage we will stop giving up so many short passes in an effort to keep from getting beat deep. We should be able to do both at the same time as the talent level increases...or at least that's my hope.
October 6th, 2013 at 7:27 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 7:34 PM ^
but it is obvious that Mattison knows he does not have the experiencd athletes along the front and CB's to be Sir Blitz-a-Lot. This year is a learning year for many of UM's defenders.
October 6th, 2013 at 8:18 PM ^
Isn't it funny that our d-line looked so good in spring and summer camp and now it appears to be our weakness.
October 6th, 2013 at 7:53 PM ^
October 6th, 2013 at 8:16 PM ^
I believe Brian mentioned in a mailbag recently - or maybe some other column - that the defense is unimpeachable. He's right. This bellyaching about a 5-0 defense with excellent stats (except for 3rd down conversion percentage) is silly. They're good, they're relatively young and inexperienced, they're well-coached, the results are not surprising.
I also hate the idea that 'we don't know anything about a team' until it's November, or until it plays Team X, or until it gets player Y back, or until its conference season, or until the opponents stop being spread teams, or whatever. We've played five freaking games already. We know that they're good. We know that they can beat decent football teams. We know that they can struggle against bad football teams. We know that they've gone through growing pains and that they've had to work very hard to limit turnovers, especially from the QB. We know that their ground game is anemic, at least compared to where they want it to be. We know that line play on both sides of the ball is often questionable. We know a lot.
October 6th, 2013 at 8:04 PM ^
Lots of petulant demeanor, even following a turnover-free 29 point win. I'm not sure if we'll ever get over Akron or UConn, at least not this year, we'll always come back to it.
October 6th, 2013 at 8:12 PM ^
Relax.