Michigan4Life

October 4th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^

with his post.  The defense has to be just good enough to make a couple of stops to give Michigan offense a chance to widen the margin or win the game.  Michigan defense did a solid job in the 2nd half against Indiana considering the circumstances and they got a few stops out of it.

GratefulBlue

October 4th, 2010 at 7:04 PM ^

I think expetations play a big role here. If you expect the D to resemble anything like M defenses of yore, you're going to be disappointed. But if you've accepted that the defense is bad and you just want them to do enough to get us a W, then they achieved that against IU.  In fact, the defense did more than enough to allow us to win the game. Watching on Saturday, I was a lot more frustrated when our offense continued to go three and out every time our D got a stop in the second half. We couldn't even manage to give them a decent breather. It seemed like we should have won that game 63 to 35, but for whatever reason the offense went into fail mode unless the score was tied. Not sure how to explain that.

Meeechigan3

October 4th, 2010 at 3:20 PM ^

nobody is expecting this defense to be great.

It doesn't have to be great.

It just has to be mediocre, and it's not even that. The "defense", is fucking pathetic.

Trying to force your best pass rusher (Craig Roh) into playing LB'er and dropping in zones is beyond retarded. Let him do what he does best...get after the QB. They are badly mis-using him, the guy cannot cover, he's not a 'backer, he's a weak-side defensive end who can get after the QB, so let him do that. Period. End of discussion.

I am not convinced that Kovacs or Rogers are the best we have. Avery and Talbott have shown more than Rogers at CB through the same number of games that Rogers has played...FIVE. That's all Rogers has to his resume at CB...5 games...and he's been out-performed BADLY by a pair of freshman. You can either cover or you can't...it's pretty simple...and James can't cover.

Last but not least Kovacs is great in run support. He's our surest tackler. But he's a MAJOR LIABILITY in pass coverage. If it's 3rd or 4th and long, he needs to be off  the field and we need another CB on the field. That move alone will help us mask some warts on defense.

This defense doesn't have to be great, nobody is expecting that.

What they have to do is be MEDIOCRE, and they aren't even that...and it's fucking pathetic.

myrtlebeachmai…

October 4th, 2010 at 4:07 PM ^

The guy has been as good, if not better than could've been expected thus far.  Every time I see a CB overrun, have to turn around and chase, etc it's proved to be one of the young guys.  He and Floyd have been the best thing he can, consistent, which at least allows us to plan around them, instead of hoping and praying not knowing if we're gambling or not.

bryemye

October 4th, 2010 at 3:18 PM ^

That's sugarcoating it a bit. It's not that his defense isn't the 97 or 06 defense. It's just how awful it is.

But right now, I would like to commend WLA for the most sanity I have seen on the subject as of this moment.

wolverine1987

October 4th, 2010 at 6:45 PM ^

of Indiana or ND or UMASS. Reasonable people are not calling for GERG's head, Reasonable people IME are worrying out loud because of what the performances so far mean for MSU/WISC/OSU. They think that there is no way to win those games because of the vast talent gap that exists between Indiana and those teams. Yes, inherent in that concern is that I do not buy the analysis that all of a sudden Doss, their other WR's and Chappell are top notch B10 talents. The Top four teams in the league (MSU/OSU/IOWA/WISC) IME have much better talent than Indiana on offense, along with better coaching and better defense. That is the concern. 

Blue_Sox

October 4th, 2010 at 8:51 PM ^

I don't know if you can doubt the talent Chappell and Doss really have. Did you see the 20-yard out pass on 3rd and 17? That was an NFL throw that not many people can make. An absolute strike. I know we all think Indiana is crap because, well, they're Indiana. But at least on one side of the ball they do have some big time talent.

James Burrill Angell

October 4th, 2010 at 3:20 PM ^

I was listening to a college radio show this weekend and not even sure who the commentators were but they said something to the effect of the fact that whether its lack of talent due to age or just lack of talent, the D just doesn't have the horses right now but they may not need more than a couple of stops a game.

To this commentators point, he argued that very few of the current guys on defense would play at all much less start for a Michigan team of the Lloyd Carr era. I believe he broke it down as: (1) Martin is a star, PERIOD (2) Van Bergen and maybe Roh would see significant time (3) Mouton would be a good situational linebacker for 1st and 2nd downs (4) JT Floyd might be a fifth or sixth d-back. Other than that, none of these guys would have been good enough to see the field.

OregonWolverine

October 4th, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^

I made almost the exact same points in a thread yesterday that got deleted. I guess the mods were just tired of the repetition of the same fundamental point about the talent pool.

A smart post by the WLA. One thing I wonder about: Yes, as they said, this isn't the '97 defense. But how good would that '97 defense be in today's much more diverse world of mobile QBs, spreads, pistols, etc? Pretty good still, is my guess, but not 114-points-for-the-season good.

Foote Fetish

October 4th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

...is why GERG doesn't dip into our pool of 5* senior cornerbacks and safeties that we obviously must have somewhere yet inexplicably refuse to use! UNACEPTABRRRRAAARGGHH!!!

Rashman

October 4th, 2010 at 3:48 PM ^

I usually give up reading something if there's a blatant typo in the first couple of sentences.

Directing a defense that watched it’s top four potential cornerbacks for this season...

I know these guys are liked and/or active here, so I'll go ahead and read the rest.

EDIT:  Finished the post and I appreciate the sentiment.  I'm an unabashed homer and like to see the best in my team as well.  Hopefully the defense continues to step up when we need them most.

greenphoenix

October 4th, 2010 at 4:26 PM ^

They produce about two amazing articles a week, but they don't have the community that mgoblog has. But I always read their post-game writeup, which often looks like this one. You want to read a great one, check out the writeup they did after last year's UM-MSU game.

StephenRKass

October 4th, 2010 at 5:27 PM ^

I loved this article. I actually really like our defense. They know they're sub-standard, but they are fighting and doing the best they can. I really want Gerg and the defense to be given a chance. I am so glad that RR and DB are not hasty and foolish . . . we absolutely need to hang on to Gerg, and to give him a real chance to succeed.

MMB 82

October 4th, 2010 at 7:49 PM ^

YES

.

 

[quote]It’s time to accept them for what they are – a flawed unit that doesn’t understand the meaning of fatigue, one good enough to spend a third of the game picking up a struggling offense, and one good enough to keep a respectable Big 10 offense off the scoreboard on more than half their possessions. And comrades – if they can continue to do that, the defense may not make the top of the leader-boards, other than, simply, the top of the W-L column.[/quote]