Michigan now leads NCAA in total passing defense by yards.

Submitted by corundum on

Previously Michigan was tied with Alabama with 1167 passing yards allowed. Following the Minnesota game, Michigan has given up 1314 yards through the air. Alabama has given up 262 so far to LSU with 6:44 remaining in the game, bringing their total to 1429. I'm damn proud of the defense this year, and having the top overall passing defense by yards going into week 11 is an astounding feat, especially with the loss of Blake Countess in week 1. Go Blue!

BlockM

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:36 PM ^

I'll take it, but let's keep in mind the quarterbacks/offenses we've played against this year. Proud of the guys not giving up many big plays, but lots of wide open guys have been missed.

lhglrkwg

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:36 PM ^

since I think the strength of the D is the run defense. I think much of it can be attributed to none to the fact that no QB's we've faced can hit their guys on those fly routes everyone seems to try on us

MichiganStudent

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:39 PM ^

Yeah, its a very misleading stat (played 1 less game than other teams too). That being said, I've been impressed with our overall defense and glad that the coaching has rubbed off so well on the young players. 

 

Do you think we would get shredded by an air raid offense, i.e. West Virginia, Texas Tech, Okie State?

yoyo

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:47 PM ^

Regardless of the competition, this is a huge feat considering the loss of most of our pass rushers and how bad our pass defense was only two years ago.  Props to Mattison.  I doubt we could have had a better defensive coordinator. 

Perkis-Size Me

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:52 PM ^

Regardless of the lack of quality passing teams in the B1G, did anyone imagine this happening as of two years ago? We should all be damn proud of how far this defense has come in such a short time. Give Mattison another few years, and imagine how much better they'll still be getting.

stephenrjking

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:54 PM ^

This is great. Not because we're as good as Bama, or even particularly sound against the pass; but because we used to be totally helpless.



That said, this is very much due to poor competition. Most games have seen open wide receivers streaking down the sideline that quality QBs would hit. However, that is not who is on the field. Even today, late in the game, Nelson had open men downfield (against Floyd) and was simply not accurate enough. Good QBs will exploit this.



Still, it's a great place to be.

WingsNWolverines

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:58 PM ^

"we're gonna kill Michigan" talk from? THEY HAVEN'T BEATEN ANYBODY DECENT. Nebraska is an exception cause it looks like they might finally have their heads together but seriously Ohio St's passing game is anemic and if Miller can't do anything they won't win. Shutting him down is basically shuting down their whole offense and the fact our secondary is currently leading the nation in pass against even with the loss of Countess has to be taken into consideration on their part. Then again their beliefs are so idiotic who knows what they think. In my view I can see our defense throwing around Miller and putting a complete halt on their rush attack in 3 weeks. I'm not anywhere sold on Ohio st despite the record they have.

the unsilent m…

November 3rd, 2012 at 11:59 PM ^

they've done it without arguably the most talented player in their secondary.  So, although the stats are decieving, they could be even better with Countess in the line-up.

That said, I too have been disturbed by the opposing recievers finding themselves WIDE OPEN as of late.  It reminds me of the Ohio game last year, and I hope they get it fixed... SOON

BlueinLansing

November 4th, 2012 at 12:03 AM ^

Its better, its improved but they really haven't been challenged much this year.

 

But considering this program was stareing at national defensive rankings in the triple digits just 2 years ago I think we can all be pleased at the turnaround in the overall D.

 

Michigan is now more than competent on defense and it just feels like its going to continue to get better over the next couple years.

Metzger

November 4th, 2012 at 1:56 PM ^

I agree-- they are decent, but not great.  SO much beter than recent memory...   But they haven't been challenged by an above average QB.  I have a feeling those QB's woud shred the Db's.  But given our curent opponents, we've done okay. 

Shakey Jake

November 4th, 2012 at 12:35 AM ^

But doesn't erase the 3 loses. And rushing D needs a lot of help at 50th in the nation.

Let's all hope Devin remains healthy and can improve at QB for the remaining games. AFter shaking off the dust, he looked quite good out there today. Made good decisions for the most part and showed some vision that I haven't seen with Denard this season.

snarling wolverine

November 4th, 2012 at 10:43 AM ^

Our rush defense numbers are inflated from playing Alabama and Air Force in weeks one and two.  Since then it's been fine.  

Overall, we are seventh in the country in total defense (288.7 ypg) and 13th in scoring defense (16.8 ppg).  That's pretty impressive.  Does it erase the losses?  No, but the D was hardly at fault in two of the three.

AMazinBlue

November 4th, 2012 at 12:46 AM ^

I applaud the defense for their effort and success thus far.

That being said, we are playing in the big 10 where offenses in general are fairly bad and the QBs can barely hit water falling out of a boat.  Today alone Minnesota had at least three long balls where the all the QB had to do was get the ball close and it was a catch.

I think the numbers are misleading, but they are still there.  Either way, Bama would still beat us by three touchdowns.

I was rooting for LSU because I really want to see Oregon DESTROY ND in the title game.  The score would be so embarrasing, Brian Kelly's head would assplode.

blueheron

November 4th, 2012 at 6:24 AM ^

"I really want to see Alabama DESTROY ND in the title game."

FTFY

Think about this carefully. What is ND's relative strength? Defense, right? What is Oregon's strength? Offense.

Much better match-up for ND, one they can at least *hope* to win. (I'd still expect Oregon to win easily.)

Alabama, though? ND would be lucky to get a field goal against them on offense, and the Tide's line would be able to punch at least a few holes in ND's front seven.

allintime23

November 4th, 2012 at 1:09 AM ^

But we don't really and we surely don't deserve to be ranked so high in basketball. I hate the mediocrity that we've adopted through the last five years yet any time that I can go against what I truly want and enjoy I will. Go blue. I am post rich rod wolverine.-

Papochronopolis

November 4th, 2012 at 1:33 AM ^

Our defense has played great this year, especially considering the talent we have to work with.  That said the criticisms about our competition are too true.  Thank you BIG TEHNNN

If anyone truly thinks that we could have done anything against either of the offense lines we saw in the Bama-LSU game today, they're joking themselves.  There is no way that we could stop the best offenses in the country, a team like Oregon would shred us.

Give it 2-3 years.  When we have the best passing defense then, you'll truly feel we deserve it...

KickRocksKid

November 4th, 2012 at 1:33 AM ^

     is the average starting field position. It seems like its never in michigans favor anymore. Not that it matters to me because the defence is playing lights out, but maybe the numbers are skewed because of it.kewedposition positioposition 

Magnus

November 4th, 2012 at 6:07 AM ^

If pass interference penalties were averaged into passing yards allowed, we might not be #1.  How many times was Michigan called for PI yesterday?  It was at least four times, I believe (JT Floyd twice, Raymon Taylor once, Jake Ryan once).

Magnus

November 4th, 2012 at 1:27 PM ^

The only PI call yesterday that was questionable was the second Floyd PI call, when he had his hand on the shoulder of the receiver.  He was definitely touching the receiver with the ball in the air, although it probably didn't impede the WR from catching the ball.

LSAClassOf2000

November 4th, 2012 at 6:26 AM ^

As far as passing defense goes, the improvement in average yards given up in the air  from last year to this year is worth noting. Last year, we gave up an average of 190 yards per game passing, good for 16th in the nation. To date this year, it is 145 yards per game, which is a 23.7%  improvement. 

We are third in the conference for pass efficiency defense, behind only Nebraska and Michigan State with an average of 5.72 yards per attempt. Overall, the entire defense is giving up about 10.5% less yards overall than last year. which is significant improvement (averaging 288 yards per game total this year, down from 322 yards last year average). 

 

Sten Carlson

November 4th, 2012 at 8:40 AM ^

All the issues about competition are valid, but to even be among the best, statistically, when only a few short years ago the defense was among the worst is quite an accomplishment. Brady Hoke hit a home run when he convinced Mattison to come back to Michigan, and it might turn into a grand slam if, as he's intimated, Mattison will retire from Michigan.

Defense wins championships, and Michigan's defense has just begun its development under Mattison. I cannot wait to see the squad in action in a few years! It's hard to beat a team if you cannot score on them.

Keep up the hard work boys!

Go Blue!

Don

November 4th, 2012 at 11:37 AM ^

that another team playing in Tucson has a defense that's ranked 110th in the country and just gave up 66 pts and 611 yards to their opponent.