Where Michigan Ranks on Team O and D
Below is a summation of team offense and defensive ranking stats (based on 120 FBS teams):
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/ncaa-m-footbl-stats-index.html
Rushing Offense 3
Passing Offense 38
Total Offense 2
Scoring Offense 9
Rushing Defense 37
Passing Defense 120
Total Defense 102
Scoring Defense 73
October 4th, 2010 at 7:46 AM ^
rating looks good but I wonder how much that is inflated due to how bad the pass defense is. Teams may be choosing to just throw instead of even try to run.
October 4th, 2010 at 7:53 AM ^
Indiana actually ran it more than I expected based on what I knew about them. I think our rushing D could actually be a top 5 with some of the play makers we've got on the line if we didn't have to commit more guys to pass D just to prevent huge gains every down. I think other teams know that and are happy to test our Rush D.
October 4th, 2010 at 7:58 AM ^
Very valid point actually.. our Rush D is being tested, they are actually half decent, but still we have to find a way to commit one more guy to the line, our line is getting close to the QB every time but falls a second short, one more guy might be the difference against both the run and pass!!!
October 4th, 2010 at 8:27 AM ^
our line is getting close to the QB every time but falls a second short, one more guy might be the difference against both the run and pass!!!
I disagree. This, to me, speaks volumes about our coverage.
(one could say it's very telling)
October 4th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^
it'll be telling when....
October 4th, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^
You have got to give that extra second to the D-Line for them to be able to get home on a rush. The secondary almost never forces the QB to his 3rd read he is looking to his first or second and the ball is out. If they could provide some sort of coverage for an extra second the sack numbers will go up. The problem is that there just isn't enough talent in that secondary
October 4th, 2010 at 7:57 AM ^
NEEDS UPDATE
October 4th, 2010 at 7:59 AM ^
Interesting to see how bad Oklahoma (96th), Oklahoma State (110th), and Auburn (89th) (all undefeated) pass defenses are. Everyone is hot for these teams right now, and of course SEC FOOTBAW DEFENSE SPEED is amazing, but if these teams can make it in their respective leagues with a poor pass defense, can't we?
October 4th, 2010 at 8:05 AM ^
Those teams can make it in their leagues, but what's gonna happen to Auburn when they get up against Mallett and his FOOTBALL CANNON? I think they're gonna get toasted. Likewise, we are going to have SERIOUS problems against the Tolziens and Stanzis of the Big 10. So far, the best QB we've faced is Chappell, and he nearly destroyed us. For almost every team out there, it only gets tougher from here.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:21 AM ^
If you mean Arkansas will toast Auburn offensively, you're right. However, if you're talking about both sides of the ball, Arkansas won't have any better luck stopping Cam Newton than Auburn will have with Mallett. Will be a Michigan type score, one team wins many to a few less.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:12 AM ^
October 4th, 2010 at 9:21 AM ^
I think Chappell is one of the best passers we'll see this year. The whole game they were talking about what the NFL scouts will look for, and Chappell then checked the box off. The difference will be some of the other teams we face will have better O-lines.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^
I am less concerned about Tolzien and Stanzi than I was with Chappell. Not because I think those games will be easier, but Chappell is accurate (we knew that), and his receivers as a group are top-notch. I don't think the same is true for the other two. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see any other team in the Big Ten hitting us with passing numbers like Chappell did.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:19 AM ^
i think Chappell is really one of the best 2-3 traditional passing QB's in the Big Ten. Stanzi I'm worried about b/c he seems to have the poise that Chappell does, but I think we can get to Tolzien. Even with the huge amount of yards Chappell put up against us, Martin and the occasional Black blitz was putting Chappell on his back... I less poised QB i think panicks and either chucks a duck or starts moving and pocket breakdown. From what I saw of Tolzien this weekend against State, I'm actually feeling OK about him... It's the relentless running game I'm worried about.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:23 AM ^
with teams like MSU and Wisconsin is they play much more like Umass. Umass ran for 217 yards against Michigan due to keeping the D off balance.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:20 AM ^
Although this defense is not a NC winning D or even a B10 championship D, despite the numbers it IS a better D than 2009. If you can win running the ball you run, it's safer and allows for better game control. This D is no longer big play by Brandon Graham followed by 75 yd TD play, you now have to for the most part earn your scores against this D. Lastly, a stat not mentioned above is INT through 5 games M has 7 INTs, compared to 11 for all of 2009. This to me means guys are around the ball and starting to get how things work, next comes the confidence to be more aggressive and get more PBUs and INTs. It's a helluva thing to go from being the best athlete in your world to being in the Big House on national TV there are freshman all over and M is one of a handful of teams with an undefeated teams. I think we ought to give the coaches a little more than 5 weeks and Mr. Barwis a little time with them before we have a meltdown. Remember this is only the 7th time M has started 5-0 since 1980, it aint that easy to do apparently.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:25 AM ^
that this defense HAS improved. It has a big weakness, certainly, but it also has strengths, big time. The last couple of years, we have only had weaknesses, really. (BG excepted).
October 4th, 2010 at 8:33 AM ^
next few games will tell us all we need to know. Indiana and Chappel were overrated based on their level of competition. MSU is more of a balanced offense, and will be a better indicator of how our D is compared to last year.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:58 AM ^
are? And how you believe the defense is improved since last year. Our pass defense, terrible last year, is WORSE this year. Not only are we #120, dead last, in pass defense, we are giving up almost FIFTY YARDS per game more than #119. The pass rush is worse. We are demonstrably, statistically, a worse defense than last year.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:18 AM ^
Haven't you noticed Gerg's hair? How can you not count those perfectly coifed locks as a big time strength? No other defensive coordinator looks so good on the sidelines. If he was in the booth then you'd be hard pressed to find a strength at this point. He even had Pam Ward speechless last weekend!
October 4th, 2010 at 9:14 AM ^
was the way we kept missing the Kill Shot. In the second half the D put up back to back stops and gave the Denard show excellent starting field position to take it down, go up by 2 scores, and put this thing to bed.
Yes, the defense is the achilles heel, but we knew that coming in. EVERYONE knew that coming in, especially the offense. And if our offense is the Enola Gay of college football that we claim it to be, they've got to execute when the defense does their part. And that has plenty to do with playcalling as well (although I'd still say that if that was Roundtree, Odoms or even Grady rather than Terence Robinson, we'd have scored on that crucial 3rd down pass). That game could have easily been over with ten minutes left in the game, regardless of how much the D gave up.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:25 AM ^
Chappell played one of the best games of his career, and still came up short.
The numbers are the numbers. I would point out the Pass Efficiency D is like 74rth or something, which sucks but its pretty much middle of the pack. So, its not a total disaster. They got another big turnover. Held IU to six less yards than Michigan had despite running 53 more plays.
The numbers look terrible, but the D had to lot to say about the win on Saturday
October 4th, 2010 at 9:17 AM ^
Thanks, I needed to hear that number.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:39 AM ^
the most of any team in FBS. Not that that is a good thing but it will inflate the total pass defense number. THe efficiency number is probably a more realistic number at this point.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:28 AM ^
120th against the pass?!?!?!?!?!!
Perfect! We got State right where we want them.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:49 AM ^
Worst ever in the history of the program.
Courtesy of the official site:
• Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell threw for the most passing yards ever by an opponent against the Wolverines. His 480 passing yards surpassed the 436 yards by Northwestern's Sandy Schwab on Oct. 23, 1982.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
Ya know, I was saying during the game, "this guy is like Sandy Schwab reincarnated!"
October 4th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^
There's a certain level of moral victory knowing that the record holder is now named Ben instead of Sandy.*
*Naturally, all apologies to all the guys named Sandy out there. Not for what I said, but for being named Sandy.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:58 AM ^
Everybody knew this before the season started.
I think RR and GERG know what they are doing, and are stretching their limited resources to bend, but not break.
Overall, the D is better than last year.
Sure, they need to rush more than 3 or 4 guys at the passer.
But the bottom line is they need to recruit more talented defensive backs & linebackers
This will free up guys to rush the passer.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:20 AM ^
This year's defense is NOT better than last year's! Holy crap, how can anyone even think that after these first five games?!?!?!
October 4th, 2010 at 9:33 AM ^
otherwise why would he have taken such a chance on Dorsey. Didn't make sense before but it does now. He KNEW just how bad our D would be and he took a chance on an instant impact player.
I think Denard's rise to Heisman-esque will end up saving him and giving him the time he needs to rebuild the defense.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:23 AM ^
You would call 35 points from Indiana bending but not breaking and being better than last year? Not sure about that.
My concern, widely shared around here, is that against some of the better D's, we simply won't have the offensive output we have seen so far, yet opposing offenses will be at least as good or better than those we have played. Guess next week will tell just how bad, or good, we can expect to be the rest of the way.
I know the reasons why, but I just can't get myself to accept that it is merely bad luck that we have the worst passing defense in the FBS. It is not only recruiting more talented D-backs, it is recruiting kids that will stay with the program, assuming they can make it through the door in the first place.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:13 AM ^
MSU's offense is pretty balanced. We'll see if they throw it 50-60 times like Indiana, or if they mostly try to wear our defense down with their stable of RBs. If we can stop them a few times, giving our offense a chance to win, I think it will be viewed as a successful day on defense.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:15 AM ^
Hey, it's just about the same defensive stats Greggers had at Syracuse! But hey, it's totally not the same when he's just defensive coordinator versus when he's head coach and defensive coordinator.
October 4th, 2010 at 11:02 AM ^
Yes we are inexperienced in the secondary, but we have to be better than last in FBS in passing D.
Now I know if we're up a few TDs like we have been, teams are going to throw, but this needs to improve real quickly.
I just don't understand when we rush 3 we get no pressure and teams have been beating our 8 in coverage. It is the most frustrating thing ever to see 3rd and longs routinely picked up by our competition.
October 4th, 2010 at 11:04 AM ^
at the individual stats here. Our run D is overrated and our pass D is underrated. It all depends on who you face. Team X could go up against teams like TTU and Indiana and give up a reasonable 350 yards passing to each team and look like garbage in the pass D stats simply because TTU and Indiana don't run the ball. After these two games, Team X would also have a superb run D number because they only gave up ~ 50 yards of rushing to each of Indiana and TTU. This wouldn't tell the whole story--Team X likely has a pretty average pass D and an unknown run D--only one area has really been tested.
The moral of the story - don't look at one stat in isolation; look at the total D, run D, pass D and scoring D as a whole. Our run D is probably worse than it seems and our pass D is probably a bit better than it appears. This is not to say that our D is good (it's not, at all)--just that there's hope that we can stop some teams. Individual matchups matter much more than these stats.
October 4th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
Why has almost every coment in this thread focussed on the D? The OP contained 2 sets of numbers, defense and offense. Rather than bemoan our terrible defense (yes, it is terrible), let's talk about the offense. #2 in rushing offense?! Without a real threat at RB?! With a soph QB?! I am impressed.