Defensive Improvement Expectations

i think we need more of these topics.

With each passing week, opposing offensive coordinators get more and more information to determine how to successfully attack the other team's defense.

The Ball State game in 2006 was disastrous because it exposed Michigan's weak nickel package.  OSU and USC torched Michigan by forcing us to play our weakest defensive package. 

By the latter part of the season teams will know right where to go to exploit our weakest defensive links.

hmmmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Let go and learn to love it--life will be easier this way:  But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Michigan's Defense.

I took a look at how often teams with terrible defenses early in the season improve to be somewhat better than terrible.  It was easiest to compare Aug/Sept rankings to final rankings, so I looked at how many teams ranked 90th or below in total defense at the end of Sept improved to be at least 70th or above by the end of the year.  Michigan was 92nd at the end of Sept (and is currently 102).

2004: 14%

2005: 23%

2006: 20%

2007: 17%

2008: 13%

2009: 16%

If instead you look at how many of the teams 90th and below after September improve at least 15 ranks by the end of the year, you get the following:

2004: 34%

2005: 44%

2006: 23%

2007: 30%

2008: 26%

2009: 32%

So, there's a small chance we can get "slightly below average" or better, and a reasonable chance we can improve somewhat.

Sure thing OCs will study tapes of the first 5 games to find ways to expolit our struggling defense.  However, I'm sure RR and GERG are aware of this and will plan to tweak the defense accordingly.  Let's not assume our defense has been cast in concrete for the remaining 7 or 8 games - and no changes are forthcoming.  I can see us going to a different formation (as has happened) on some plays or maybe even using variations of our staple formation as needed.  Maybe, just maybe, our coaches have been experimenting with personnel given our inexperienced bodies on defense.  Let's see...there's an old adage about pounding square pegs that might apply here.   Who's to say a Bill Campbell won't wake up and jump into the lineup and make a significant difference before very long - I sure have my fingers crossed!

The other variables in to degree of improvement would be talent and coaching.  It will be interesting on how this defense will develop. Hopefully at the end of the season or next  year we could be an average b10 defense. In the future years with better recruits this defense may become top notch!

Its gonna be hard putting pressure on the QB when you only rush 3 people.  I put the blame on the Defensive schemes.  Why are the cushons for CB so deep? its not the player deciding the cushons its the coaching and the play calling.  The players are doing what they are told to do.  The zone coverage is no different than last year.  You have this umbrella zone coverage where the WR is in front of the zone and it just gets picked apart.  How many times have you seen a wide open WR with 3 or 4 people circled around him? or where you have the safety 12 yards off of the inside WR and he just runs to the flat wide open? or how many times did we see that RB flare play from indiana where no one was even covering the RB because the LB has that assignment but he is way out of position to make a play.  The player just lines up where he is told to.  You think the players are just lining up where ever they want? I doubt that... I would really like to see a little man mixed in with some pressure from the LBs.

How many times are we gonna see the WR flare screen this saturday? that play killed us last year.  But you will still see the safety playing 12 yards off that inside WR...and by the time the safety gets to the WR its already an 8-10 yard gain. 

Do you see any defensive adjustments going on during the gm? i really dont.

I mentioned this in one of the diaries the other day, but as a witness to a few practices in the spring as I was, this whole rush 3 drop 8 stuff was not the intended plan of attack as far as I can tell. They were practicing in a lot of different fronts, but in the spring when they were in a 3-3-5 type set, they were very aggressive out of it, and came with a lot of different blitzes, and showed a lot of different looks out of it. They were not solely in a 3 man front the entire practice. They would run a ton of 4 man stuff as well.

In my opinion based on what I saw in practice, and what I see they are running in the game, is that they were hoping Will Campbell to be further along in his development at this point, and have a better grasp of proper technique,and of course they didn't plan on Troy not being available to them.

From some of the things that I saw that they would like to run, they need to get a corner developed not named James Rogers ( God bless the kid, he is doing is best in a shitty situation) as well as get Ash or Campbell ASAP. Taking that into account, I think we are forced to watch them patchwork something together with what they have, and try to get to next year.

Also, Mike Jones and Brandon Herron being hurt really hindered some of the flexibility that they wanted to have with Roh. With Herron coming back, hopefully we can see a little more of that flixibility.

They have other stuff in the arsenal though, this whole rush 3, drop 8 stuff, wasn't the intended the plan to me anyway.

and OC's are there to maximaize (typo - but I liked it !) their teams chances to score.  Just because our pass defense is ..er... poor - doesn't directly relate to what plays our opponents will run.  Would Air Force totally change if they played us ???  No way - they run, that's what they do.

The comparison to Ball State ... wha .... Nate Davis (QB) was Ball State - period. He's in the NFL now ... so what's the point - that was eons ago.

Point is - MSU is run oriented first and then uses play action.  If the Maize and Blue starts fast  - say gets a 14 - 17 point lead - then MSU will be forced to change their game plan and become a passing team  -  which is not their strength.  Plus if we do start fast this also means that MSU has NO answer to our offense  -  at which point I will become giddy !!

Go Blue !

All the effort everyone has put into researching past teams (not sarcastic) but I think given the fact that last year we all said it couldn't get worse than ND since we would gain experience and ND had a pro qb, 2 pro WRS, and a huge o-line and then it got worse or at least stayed bad i am just taking a wait and see approach and not assuming we are going to see much improvement.

Unless we start rushing 4 more consistently and try tighter coverage umass has already shown that teams can consistently hit 6 yard passes and move the sticks on us. I'm not saying those changes will do anything, I'm sure the reason we drop 3 and rush 8 is the fact that the coaches are terrified of the huge plays that wil be given up otherwise, but at a certain point you have to make the other team hit one or two over the top with increased pressure on the qb as opposed to running the same thing and expecting different results.

Praying for michigan to upset sparty saturday (don't care what the line is msu is a more complete team), then take care of business against ill and pu and have a shot at 1 out of iowa, wisc, and psu, and then get to next year with a stacked offense and hopefully more bodies on defense.

go blue

But I also think our offense will improve. Against Indiana, we left 21 points on the field (fumble and two overthrown passes.) If we score on half of those, another 10 points, it makes a huge difference for our defense. If we are up 3 scores, we can afford to be more aggressive on defense.

Regarding improvement on the defense, I believe that we will improve more than many teams, because of the high number of freshmen we have.

With no improvement on either side, I believe we still end up 8 - 4. With improvement of offense, 9 - 3. With improvement of offense AND defense, 10 - 2.

I also believe that our conditioning under Barwis will pay moe dividends come November.