Orange Bowl Snowflakes: The Defense

for Michigan. Dominated in both run and pass rush. Don't be surprised if he is the first Michigan player to get drafted (hearing it's top 15).

Could tell we missed Peppers.

Metellus will be a good one I feel. Gave up too many big plays obviously. I feel like we need more playmakers and get way better at creating turnovers.

deserved better

D and ST played great for the most part.  unfortunately 3-4 poor plays that really stand out altered the game - 3rd & 22 TD by cook, 90 yard TD reception, mccray vs cook on long pass, and that ridiculous kickoff return at the end.

evans, mccray, etc made big plays and speight finally completed a few decent balls to give michigan a shot - sadly just not enough.  this game further demonstrates the importance of finding players capable of truly changing and winning games by themselves.

its never as easy as saying so and so wins the game if this or that happens or if this or that play doesnt occur, and thats prob the case here.  the O did not deserve to win this game, yet still managed to do just enough (in concert with awesome D and ST play in 2nd half) to take the lead.  truly sucks the team couldnt pull this one out, especially since theyre a veteran squad with their best D in memory.

hopefully guys like lewis dont take it too hard or feel totally at fault and hopefully the younger cats learned plenty and will enjoy some down time before getting after it again this winter

This game showed the difference between having a month to prepare for Peppers not being available versus a day. It was also the difference between having busts against normal competition and busts against special competition. I've always felt Cook was better than Fournette, and Murray looks like a future first round pick. When you're playing against that level of talent, mistakes that cost you 25 yards all of a sudden cost you 80.

However, this moment was always going to come. No matter how great the defense was, and it was great, at some point, you're going to need to just outscore people. We weren't ever going to make it through a 13-15-week season holding every team to 15 points. This was a game the offense needed to come through with big plays to help out the defense. We had three trips inside the 10 that didn't net touchdowns, including one starting from the 1 that went backwards. We're a 10-win team instead of a playoff participant because the offense couldn't do enough in moments when the defense wasn't perfect.

The 2017 D will be nowhere as dynamic or deep as this year's unit but I a, not all that worries. Perhaps we slow it down a bit and are a bit more conservative. Looking at our schedule next year, we do t play a dynamic offense til November. We can be championship level good next year if we avoid major injuries on the D line

DE-Gary
DT-Mone
DT-Hurst
DE-Winovich
LB-McCray
LB-Bush
Hybrid-Metellus
CB-Clark/Watson
CB-Hill/Long
FS-Kinnel
SS-Hudson

were warriors again and again we lose a game because the other team only has to drive the ball 30 yards for the winning score.

 

We lost all 3 games because our offense and special teams put the defense in terrible positions late in all 3 losses.

 

Taco Charlton was a beast today and the defensive MVP's, I will miss that guy more than anyone off this defense.

There's a reason he's the best back in the country.

One thing that I think we've all sort of forgotten is that solving your problems with aggression (and Coach Brown practices what he preaches!) means that when a mistake is made, someone is going the wrong way at a high rate of speed, which does tend to lead to big plays.  Letting the QB loose on 3rd and long against OSU, and letting Cook loose on 3rd and 22 are two examples where it bit us.

That said, looking at the 8 sacks and general shutdown of OSU after a few years of getting utterly trucked, I think we'd all take that.

 

 

I thought stribling actually played well. Lewis seemed to be the one who got picked on.