Offensive production vis-a-vis our defense.
As I was tootling around the other day listening to sports talk, I had a small epiphany that many of you have probably already surmised. (If this point has already been addressed, forgive my old, feeble mind.)
Obviously the Iowa game was a big disappointment, heightened by the fact that we had over 500 yards of offense (with four turnovers no less) and still lost. Then I said to myself, "Self... just imagine if our defense could have forced even just two additional stops. Just two. That means our offense would have had the ball even longer, piled up more yards and would have had two more opportunities to score."
Given this scenario, 600 yards of total offense and 10 more points wouldn't have been far fetched . I mean, crap! That's fairly incredible. As Tim suggested in his excellent analysis, we should have won the Iowa game fairly comfortably.
I say all this to suggest that maybe we're closer to something really good happening than I've previously allowed myself to believe. If we had merely an average Big 10 defense (which suggests a below average Michigan defense) I'm convinced we'd be unbeaten right now.
A big question is, how long will it take to put a middle-of-the-road, ho-hum B10 type defense on the field?
An even bigger question is, can this year's defense be made to perform to average levels? Maybe, but my quarter says we'll probably have to wait until next year.
And now, a gratuitous picture of Michigan cheerleader to shamelessly capture your attention:
October 21st, 2010 at 7:31 AM ^
You're making the same mistake that a lot of others are making - looking at our offensive yardage production and coming to the conclusion that the losses are 100% our defense's fault.
Granted, it is mostly the defense's fault, but I am not convinced we would be undefeated right now if we had an average Big Ten defense.
In the Iowa game, over 300 of our 500 yards came after we were already down 21 points.
We had a stretch of 7 straight possessions with no points to show for it (Wisconsin meanwhile had 7 possessions total on the same day, not including the kneeldown at the end, and was able to hang 31 points on the then number 1 team in the country).
EDIT - Through 7 possessions on Saturday (no end of half drives included), M gave up 21 points, Wisc 18, and Ohio State 31. So, on that day, you could make a case that our defense was an average Big Ten defense - maybe a bit of a stretch, certainly cherry picking, but interesting.
October 21st, 2010 at 8:38 AM ^
somehow made your post more difficult to read.
October 21st, 2010 at 10:12 AM ^
As if FB's avatar was not shameful enough to capture our attention. 2011-just make it to 2011.
October 21st, 2010 at 8:42 AM ^
Realistically, next year is the year that we will have an average defense, IME. We will have the experience in the secondary that we did not have this year coming in. Our LBs will be a little inexperienced maybe but I don't think as bad as our DBs have been this year.
Agreeing with jshclhn from above, it is not all the defense's fault. It doesn't help when your offense turns the ball over 3-4 times per game. The penalties also killed us and any momentum we had going several times throughout the game.
Next year we will see everything come together with an even more improved Denard at QB (he is already pretty good, but makes mistakes as a first year starter) and a much improved defense. We will be looking pretty good next year.
October 21st, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^
Hagerup is already doing a great job punting, as a freshman. However, I hope there is a plan for how to improve both kickoffs and field goals, and I think we can also improve in both the return game and in coverage. A 10 yard improvement in field postion, per kickoff and punt, makes a huge difference over the course of a game.
October 21st, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
.......of our offense that has doomed the previous two weeks. Our defense has been bad, but has also been what it was in the previous 5 games. The points allowed were on par with MSU's and Iowa's average points gained per game this season. To me, that means that the defense didn't completely implode on itself. Now, if our offense hadn't made the mistakes it made, ones we didn't see during the first five games, then the games would have/could have been quite different, particularly as to the outcomes.
Even with our offense failing to play up to previous expectations, they still obliterated a stout Iowa defense, and gained more than MSU's defense gives up on average. All with making those unforced errors that ended up killing drives and turning the ball over. If our offense can stop those, I like our chances against any opponent we have left, and that includes OSU.