Can I ask a question about our defensive philosophy?
November 19th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^
There's no question that he is an excellent defensive coordinator and he gives us a chance to win every game, but our defense is also loaded - it has been since DJ Durkin was here. Is there a reason why we have to bust spectacularly at least once a game and also have a drive where the opponent marches down the field with no resistance and it is chalked up to "Don Brown figuring them out". While the season ended on a horrible note and I would rather have DB than DJD, even if just for OSU/Spread, remember when we had a crazy scoreless streak against UNLV, ranked BYU, Maryland, and ranked Northwestern. Is there a reason why we need to give 14 points to Cincinnati and Rutgers, and 10 points to anyone else that shows up on our schedule? The talent this year is just as strong as 2015.
November 19th, 2017 at 7:13 PM ^
Durkin ran more of a control and contain type offense designed to keep everything in front of the defense. That allowed fewer busts which produced shut outs against inferior teams, but also led to getting picked apart by better offenses (e.g. OSU).
Don Brown's defense is more aggressive and creates more sacks and TFLs. Its designed to keep offenses off schedule and force more third and longs. Durkin's defense was designed to minimize defensive mistakes - Brown's defense is designed to force the opposing offense into making mistakes of their own.
But aggressive defenses always come at a price. Blitzing more guys leaves less defenders in coverage. Leaving corners on an island allows you to bring more pressure, but also means that one mistake can turn into a big play. Don Brown's defense is going to win most drives, but luck and statistics means that you are going to get RPSed for a few here and there. This seems to come at the rate of 1-2 drives by the opposing offense per game.
Even if it doesnt produces vanity metrics like shut outs, DBs defenses are capable of causing disruption and making plays on anybody - OSU, Alabama, anybody. It's a tradeoff that I'll take in a hearbeat.
November 19th, 2017 at 11:35 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 3:24 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
Yep the air went out when Peters went out, just like when they woke up when he came in to replace OKorn several weeks ago
November 19th, 2017 at 3:57 PM ^
TING!
They're human. They're kids.
They respond to the environment.
November 19th, 2017 at 3:24 PM ^
The identity of the defense is aggressive. It's a dick move to be hindsight guy. Hornibrook made three inch perfect passes yesterday, and even those wouldn't have happened without some inept officiating keeping their drives alive, which at this point is predictable. Could he have played basic zone on those third downs? Yeah, but if someone finds a hole in a defense we don't typically play, then everyone is bitching about why we didn't blitz. Unlike offense, defense is guessing more on the right call. Don Brown rightfully prefers to play aggressively which can burn you sometimes. He would also be the first to admit he probably should have made a different call on the third and longs. Oh well.
November 19th, 2017 at 4:31 PM ^
I'll give you one good pass the TD the other two were on target but were really good catches,one one handed by their receivers
November 19th, 2017 at 3:43 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 3:48 PM ^
They are human. When they keep seeing our offense go three and out with no hope of scoring, they understandably fade a little. I don't care who you are, it's hard to give supreme effort every play when you know deep inside that it does not matter.
If Peters was still healthy in the 4th quarter and hitting on some drives, I guarantee that the defense would have played much differently than it did.
November 19th, 2017 at 4:33 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 4:37 PM ^
Well said
November 19th, 2017 at 5:59 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 3:56 PM ^
Could argue Mettelus was slow to react to the TD but Hudson also gave the inside slant. Without knowing the actual assignment there it is hard to say
November 19th, 2017 at 4:03 PM ^
We make fun of Hornibrook for his derps, but I admire what he did in spite of them.
He stepped up and made winning plays in the fight for a championship. That's what makes you a championship team, making those hard, challenging plays under duress when it counts.
Players make plays.
I'd like to see our own guys start to hit some of those above-and-beyond plays.
November 19th, 2017 at 4:33 PM ^
And no Hill
November 19th, 2017 at 5:00 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 6:17 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
Paul Hornung was an excellent college football player and a huge blowhard but I'm not sure which game you are referring to because Notre Dame never played Michigan during his career. He played during the 1944-1977 period when the Irish ducked Michigan.
November 19th, 2017 at 4:28 PM ^
As others have pointed out, I think this has more to do with not being able to run the ball late the game and burn clock. Even then, it is exaggerated when the defense alread knows you can't pass well.
November 19th, 2017 at 4:53 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 5:46 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 6:03 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 5:10 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 6:25 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 5:24 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 6:10 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 6:18 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 11:41 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
November 19th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^
they coughed up only 17 offensive points and you think that the defense is the problem? wow...
November 19th, 2017 at 7:23 PM ^
"I fully expected the Wisconsin defense to wear down in the second half"
but you're surprised ours apparently did. So you expect our superhuman mutant defenders to never tire but it's fully expected the other team does. OK.
"frequent late game collapses" please provide acutal data to back this up.
November 19th, 2017 at 7:33 PM ^
The TD drive that made it 14-10 was painful - two long 3rd down conversions - not sure we "screwed up" that bad on either play.
I really think Peters leaving and the way he did deflated the entire sideline. We're dealing with 18-22 year old guys. Last time I was their age, Harbaugh was our QB.
This defense would be lights out a Stanford power offense. Have to see more games where our TOP is 35 minutes or more because I conclude we wilted.
The real problem on this defense is our safeties don't seem to be much of anything special (missed tackles, bad angles, beat in coverage, etc.) - they should be getting more chances to pick passes when the QB is under pressure. I think Don has us playing aggressive because I don't think he feels we could cover zone with the safeties we have. Too bad we don't have Kovacs and Gordon with the front 7.
November 19th, 2017 at 8:09 PM ^
The two long 3rd down conversions happened because the pass rush was weak and didn't force the QB to throw. The coverage was good throughout the game and Hornibrook made great throws. Sometimes good things happen for the other team. With a better offense we would've stuck with Wisconsin and probably won that game. We need both units to function well, not just the D.
November 19th, 2017 at 8:00 PM ^
You actually bring up a good point. I logged on just to give you some support and tell you that you are not unreasonable for simply asking this question.
Yes, our defense does tend to collapse late in the game- this was very noticable in last year's OSU game- we were completely gassed by overtime.
Could it be the fault of our offense not staying on the field? Those who make this argument may be right- but they don't seem to connect the dots. If we have a weak offense that is off the field quickly- then it makes sense for us to conserve energy on defense b/c its going to be out there a while no mattter what style of play it engages in.
Being on the field a lot + blitzing = fatigue
Hope you got a chance to read this
November 19th, 2017 at 8:15 PM ^
It's partly the fault of the ineffective offense. But it's also the downside of the hyper-agressive philosophy and style of play. Motors inevitably wear down.
Good OCs figure out during the course of the game how to shore up protections, and which formations will get them the matchups they need. They look for ways to use Michigan's aggression against them. They also learn what the officials are letting them get away with.
That, and yes, defensive players do get tired, not to mention wounded. Later in the game, it looked to me as though later on Bush, and others, started playing a little higher, reaching a little more with their hands, moving less (or with less control) with their feet.
November 19th, 2017 at 10:24 PM ^
when they were up 14-10 is what ended this game, lol. You try to stop this play. Def was still playing very good and this just ended it. This play is Glorious!!! Look at the oline. They ran this last week for a TD vs Iowa and when i was watching the clips of it prior to the game, I was thinking please don't pull this out again. I mean you can't run it two weeks in a row, can you lol. Amazing thing is Bush almost stops this play. He had the angle and would have stopped the ball carrier i believe for a short gain, def not a TD. But the design to have the RT climb and then peel back on the Mike is such an amazing play design. Most people wouldn't think that far, they would just bet on the ball carrier beating the Mike. But this is by design because the RT did the same thing vs Iowa last week, even though the Iowa Mike had no shot at the ball carrier. The fact that Bush could read the false key but instead of flying out the box, keep reading and wait for the counter and then attack shows how truly special that kid is. He just couldn't beat that peel back block to make the play in time.
https://twitter.com/SpreadOffense/status/931971969419038720
November 20th, 2017 at 7:57 AM ^
No, you cannot ask a question here. Fancy stats says Don Brown has never done wrong
November 20th, 2017 at 8:08 AM ^
I agree there are some really tough 3rd and long conversions that have occured but no defense is perfect. This defense gave up 17 points to the #5 team on the road. That shit has to be enough.
I'm not saying we can analyze and be critical but for all the great stuff the defense does there is going to be some bad...every defense has a weakness that will be expoited at times.