Michigan State Snowflakes: The Defense

We're going to get mauled the rest of the way.

This was the most embarrassing loss in the Harbaugh era.  Don Brown should be fired after this game, but I am sure we will get to see something similar from the defense as the year progresses.  With that being said, Brown should be fired after the OSU game at the end of the year.

Not nearly enough QB pressure.  And our CBs are demonstrably not good at defending the forward pass.  The "not enough" QB pressure could be partly attributed to Lombardi just lofting rainbows up maybe 1/2 second before the play called for it.  The MSU WRs were beating the CBs all game and running under the ball with our CBs 1 to 2 steps behind.  We had some QB pressure but it never materialized into a QB hit or sack.

Move Dax to CB and play a lot more zone coverage moving forward.

It's taken all damn day just to calm down and be able to post something that won't get me thrown in jail.  What happened in the game was criminal.  How do you get past the 3rd deep pass - knowing you have exposed, vulnerable corners - and not switch to zone?! 

I posted this back 1/14/2020 & like many here, still wondering why we're still seeing the same things happening with Don Brown's defense.

"Don Brown is a good DC, but my problem with him is the fact that his defenses get burned by the same type of plays game to game (see Indiana/Ohio State 2018), and year in year out (see Penn State/Ohio State/Wisconsin).  Also, the consistent lack of discipline his players have shown over the past two years, committing drive extending penalties and/or breakdowns in called defenses has put the team behind the eight-ball too many times.  Something is off when a coach can't get his players to buy in to disciplined football and when the coach is too stubborn to make adjustments for his defenses weaknesses."

One sliver of sunshine: it seemed to me that Michigan's D was not "losing the edge" at least not nearly as much as last week or in the past.

I get why Michigan went to more "handsy coverage" in recent years -  before that Ohio State and MSU were doing it all the time and getting away with it: B1G officials rarely called it. But it seems that nowadays Michigan's DBs have relied too much on this at the expense of all other technique and athletecism, to the point they have developed notoriety for it which is going to get them called for it.

Defense didn't look dominant in this one. Largely that is on the Corners and the secondary, which everyone in the BigTen knew coming into this season. Those early (I'll generously call them iffy) PI calls Cowed our already overmatched corners (Grey looks like our number 2 at best on a roster filled with freshman). Credit to Rocky, some of those throws were just dimes that would have taken perfect coverage to breakup, but there were several Picks lofted up there too. Corners are just out of their depth here. BUT, the defense gave up less than a touchdown a quarter, which in this day and age has to be enough for your team to get a win. 

I agree Don Brown is stubborn, that Man press isn't going to cut it most years and definitely not this year, that Paye and Hutch need to log at least a couple sacks against that oline, that Hill should be able to offset some of those deep balls, etc. etc. But 27 points should be a very beatable number. Hard for me to place too much blame for this loss on the defense. 

Neither Green or Gray looked for the ball on the long  throws. Seems like a basic technique that someone should have taught them.  
 

I just looked at the boxscore. Combined, MSU had 13 tackles for loss and pass break ups. Against their cyan-full offensive line and our press-man coverage, we had 4 combined defensive plays. 2 TFLs and 2 BrUps. The defense didn’t show up.