The 2 most annoying things to me in Saturday's game (both on defense)
2 Major:
Our DT's constantly getting pancaked. I haven't re-watched the game. I just can't yet. Maybe never will. I don't know if it was Dwumfour, the 5-star Solomon or both but holy hell i was getting so extremely frustrated. Fuck fall practice hype tidbits.
CB's (especially Hill) getting blocked constantly back into LB's and Safeties. Kudos to ND's line and their OL coach, they are good. But holy shit your quicker than these guys run by/past them, don't let them perfectly string you out on a play, and dont fucking engage a guy straight up who is 150 pounds heavier than you!!!
Minor:
Bush overrunning/stringing out sideline to sideline so aggressively, he creates cutback lanes that Jerome Bettis and Christian Okoye can see and run through. Extreme overpursuit.
DE's getting way the hell too far upfield creating running lanes also. I miss Chris Wormley and Lamar Woodley, who were always in control of his anchor position and not reckless.
Gary for Show, Winovich for Dough.
In conclusion, our offense sucked (especially the run game!!!) but we all thought it could happen. There is no excuse for this all-NFL defense.
I could be wrong on 1 or more above as i have not re-watched and a few plays just keep running through my head, but this was definitely the feelings i had while watching
September 5th, 2018 at 3:41 PM ^
You probably should review the game.
September 5th, 2018 at 3:45 PM ^
Most of these are bad takes. Re-watch the game. The DTs were trash though, no mistake there.
September 5th, 2018 at 3:49 PM ^
Can someone please start deleting all the shit threads already? This is getting ridiculous.
September 5th, 2018 at 4:03 PM ^
Just an impression, but it seems to me that at times, when Gary doesn't win quickly with his speed rush, he gears down and sometimes takes the rest of the play off.
Maybe this is in comparison to seeing Winovich the madman, who is all over the field; it's great to see, as long as he doesn't burn out early.
September 5th, 2018 at 4:21 PM ^
You are exactly right about Gary. I don't think of him as low motor though and i'd like to think Harbaugh wouldn't allow it. Who knows though. Maybe they told him not to get upfield and to contain the QB.
September 5th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
time to move on
September 5th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
I lost interest once the cursing began. This was more of a rant rather than a thoughtful perspective.
September 5th, 2018 at 5:22 PM ^
For fuck’s sake...move on, man. Just move on. We lost by 7 to a rival on the road at night in the first game. It’s a non-conference game. Not a big deal.
September 5th, 2018 at 8:21 PM ^
Hey mate. I've missed you on these boards since Saturday night.
September 5th, 2018 at 5:51 PM ^
The DE's did their job, it's the DT's job to at least push the pocket some and they didn't.
September 5th, 2018 at 6:37 PM ^
ND ran the ball 47 times for 132 yards. That is a 2.8 YPC. Whatever pancakes happened did not seem to have much effect.
September 5th, 2018 at 7:08 PM ^
The most annoying thing to me. We should NOT be having this conversation with the amount of $$$ these people are being paid for results.
September 5th, 2018 at 7:16 PM ^
The most annoying thing is that he is not putting our playmakers in positions to make big plays and score. WRs are not going to catch many TDs if all you run is 5-10 yard routes.
September 5th, 2018 at 7:47 PM ^
Osu vs Oregon state HOME
MSU vs Utah State HOME
PSU vs App st HOME
UM vs Notre Dame
only 1 gave up less than 30 and with an offense that couldnt finish drives no less. In this case perfect is the enemy of perfectly fine. Defense isnt the issue. And i keep seeing “and the defense put the offense in a hole going down 14-0” Good god people there was still 12 possessions left.
September 5th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
The only problem I see with the defense was the lack of discipline. Bad penalties and stupid mistakes gave up those TD's and allowed ND to sustain their drives.
Otherwise this loss falls solely on the OL.
September 6th, 2018 at 8:02 AM ^
However, there were still plays to be made. When a DB has a chance to make an INT (i.e., it hits him in the hands), make the play! Not ball hungry enough.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:01 PM ^
Another moral victory.
September 5th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^
Ohio State had like 8 freshman on their defense late in the second quarter when they went up 42-7 after Bosa's fumble recovery for a TD.
People who say "but look, OSU gave up 31 to Oregonian State" clearly didn't watch the game or know much about football in general.
September 7th, 2018 at 1:08 AM ^
The Chinaman is not the issue!
September 5th, 2018 at 10:25 PM ^
You have a very slanted opinion. You should watch it again or read more analysis. You will feel better. It wasn't that bad. I can't believe you are still alive after holding on to this for 4 days. I probably would be dead.
September 6th, 2018 at 10:49 AM ^
Don Brown's Record Against Good Teams
Don Brown has developed a reputation as a great defensive coach by racking-up impressive statistics against mediocre competition. When Don Brown's defense faces a good football team, more often than not, Michigan loses. Those impressive statistics for yards allowed, sacks, and negative yardage plays are fool's gold. The most important stats are points allowed and games won. This is the record:
2016:
Michigan 20 - OSU 30
Michigan 32 - Florida State 33
2017:
Michigan 10 - MSU 14
Michigan 13 - Penn State 42
Michigan 10 - Wisconsin 24
Michigan 20 - Ohio State 31
Michigan 19 - South Carolina 26
2018:
Michigan 17 - Notre Dame 24
Why does Don Brown's defense under-perform against good teams?
There are several reasons.
First, Don Brown's approach is an all-or-nothing, feast-or-famine, one-size-fits-all scheme, but the problem with such a scheme is that an all-out pass rush is not the best defensive scheme in every situation. Don Brown should tailor the defensive line play to the game situation, but Don Brown has shown that he is not good at tailoring the defensive scheme to the game situation or the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent's offense.
Second, Don Brown's defenses do not defend mobile QBs well.
OSU's running QBs beat Michigan's defense last November, and ND's running QB beat Michigan's defense last Saturday.
When you rush your defensive lineman on every play, your defense is predictable, and opposing offensive coordinators can game-plan to use your over-aggressiveness against you by, for example, letting your defensive ends rush up field past the QB, then having the QB run for easy yards, as OSU did last season and as ND did repeatedly.
Furthermore, when your DL is making an all-out rush on every down, the DL does not set the edge or maintain gap discipline, so it becomes vulnerable to allowing the QB to break contain around end or slip through gaps in the line right up the middle, as mobile QB's have been doing to Don Brown's defense these past few seasons.
When Michigan's defense faces a mobile QB, the defensive scheme should account for the quarterback ON EVERY PLAY!
Third, Don Brown's defenses are vulnerable to big plays.
Consider the following:
In the Orange Bowl against Florida State, December 31, 2016:
3rd & 22 at FSU 13
(14:00 - 4th) Dalvin Cook run for 71 yds to the Mich 16 for a 1ST down
In the Outback Bowl against South Carolina, January 1, 2017:
3rd & 18 at SC 12
(12:56 - 4th) Jake Bentley pass complete to Hayden Hurst for 23 yds to the SCaro 35 for a 1ST down
Against Notre Dame, September 1, 2018:
3rd & 18 at ND 20
(6:53 - 3rd) Brandon Wimbush run for 22 yds to the NDame 42 for a 1ST down
In a 3rd and long situation, Michigan's defense does not need a sack. It needs to hold the offense to no more than a modest gain less than the line to gain. That means playing zone, setting the edge, maintaining gap discipline, containing the QB in the pocket, keeping the play in front of you, and holding the offense to a modest gain to prevent a first down. After Michigan's defense has given up so many very damaging, embarrassing big plays on 3rd and long, why does Don Brown appear not understand these fundamentals of defensive football?
Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches in pro football history, says that if you don't set the edge, you don't have anything.
Rob Ninkovich, multiple Super Bowl champion OLB/DE for the New England Patriots, says that the worst place for a DE to be is behind the QB.
In Don Brown's defenses, the DEs frequently fail to set the edge because they are in an all-out pass rush.
In Don Brown's defenses, pass-rushing DEs frequently over-run the QB, so that they end up behind the QB, thereby taking themselves out of the play.
Who knows more about defensive football, Bill Belichick or Don Brown? Bill Belichick.
The honeymoon is over. Don Brown's defenses are chasing the fool's gold of statistics that don't matter instead of the only two statistics that really matter, points allowed and wins.
For all of these reasons, Don Brown's record against good teams is a record of failure.
Don Brown needs to change his approach.
September 6th, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^
The reason good teams are good is that their offenses are able to move the ball and score against good defenses. Whilst I think some of your criticisms of Brown's defensive style are valid, his D comes with some trade-offs - the aggression results in a lot of sacks, QB hurries and TFL's.
Bottom line is ALL teams, over the course of a season, play some weak opponents which results in stats being padded. Michigan is not unique in this regard. A more meaningful comparison would be how did PSU's D or MSU's D fare against OSU last year? Iowa killed them but gave up some points and a lot of yards (TO's killed OSU in that game).
September 7th, 2018 at 1:18 AM ^
I would argue that Taco and Wormley did an outstanding job of setting he edge in ‘16 (Don Brown’s first season as DC). There’s no question the overpursuit by Winovich and Gary in the first half was a problem. This appear to be addressed at the half. What bugs the shit out of me is that we never have a spy on the mobile quarterback. It may have been Doug Flutie or Mike Tirico who mentioned it before the game, but I thought, “we never have a spy on the QB.” Sure as shit, we didn’t. WHY? Even with losing the edge and giving up run lanes, if Devin Bush’s sole responsibility was to make sure Wimbush can’t run, we’re good. He’s the fasted LB in the Country. Just stop the mobile QB from running for more than 4-5 yards and we win. Our DBs are so good in one on one coverage, I can’t see the issue here. Don Brown never does it. Don’t understand why.
September 7th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
Good point about using a spy.
I agree that Don Brown should use a spy when Michigan faces a mobile QB. I am baffled that Michigan does not use a spy, especially given that mobile QBs have hurt Michigan when Michigan has not used a spy during Don Brown's tenure.
September 6th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
Lots of talent on defense... but poorly coached. That's why they came out flat in the first have and then after adjustments, clamped down on ND. Staff should have coached them up before hand and during the first possessions.