PFF Compares Mich and OSU Position Groups

Submitted by sundaybluedysunday on

An excellent article over at Pro Football Focus today where they compare Michigan and Ohio State by position group. Michigan gets the edge in offensive skill talent, defensive line, linebackers, and the secondary, while Ohio State takes it at quarterback and offensive line.

My favorite stat from the whole thing: Ben Gedeon is their second ranked linebacker against the run in the entire country.

 

Link: https://www.profootballfocus.com/college-football-ohio-state-vs-michigan-how-wolverines-hold-edge/?utm_content=buffer3357b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=college

MGoBoard
Football
football
Pro Football Focus

OC Alum91

October 18th, 2016 at 1:07 PM ^

Excellent article. Love the breakdowns of deep balls,completions under pressure, missed tackles caused, passes completed vs. targets, etc. Great data you don't see anywhere else. Every other analysis by comparison seems like fluff. Only area not covered, which is an area of concern, is special teams. Considering the question marks going into the season, we should be satisfied with the QB, O-line play and pleasantly surprised by RB and LB units. Based on what we've seen so far, at least The Game will likely be competitive. Slight advantage of our defensive unit maybe balanced by the OSU home field advantage.

Joined: 02/05/2015

MGoPoints: 1528

Hab

October 18th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^

Same article was posted by a UM regular over on 11W.  It got nuked pretty quick.  The primary complaint was that the author was a UM alum.

Joined: 01/02/2015

MGoPoints: 39676

maize-blue

October 18th, 2016 at 1:27 PM ^

Stop or limit Barret = win the game. 

I don't think he can tear up a team throwing, he'll connect from time to time on a deep ball, but UM has NFL guys at every position on the D Line, NFL CB's and Peppers. McCray and Gedeon are solid and the Safeties aren't bad either. I expect them to know how much OSU's offense revolves around Barret and put the clamps on him. 

Joined: 01/10/2013

MGoPoints: 44662

Perkis-Size Me

October 18th, 2016 at 1:39 PM ^

It absolutely killed me watching Wisconsin's defensive line continuously get so close to bringing Barrett down, but for as well-coached as those guys are, they just didn't have the athletes to contain him on a consistent basis. He continuously just slipped out of containment and picked up first downs. I'm hoping that won't be the case against us. 

Wisconsin has a great overall defense, but we've got arguably the best DL in the nation, two corners who are going to be playing on Sundays next year. One of whom is a bona fide All American. We have Jabrill Peppers, Destroyer of Worlds and Consumer of Souls, roaming the middle of the field. Assuming everyone stays healthy, we have the horses to slow Barrett down. Not stop him completely, but slow him down enough to give our offense a chance. 

OSU will get their yards that day. Little way around that. But the defense has the power to slow it down enough to win the game. 

Joined: 11/30/2011

MGoPoints: 105868

SCarolinaMaize

October 18th, 2016 at 3:23 PM ^

Seemed like once the first guy missed, there were some holds that made it hard to chase.  Just the few times I flipped over to see what was going on, I saw uncalled holding.  I know Watt had just missed him, tried to turn and was held, while Barret rolled out and threw that 3rd and 15 completion down the sideline.  It was wierd, like once the first guy missed, the OL could do whatever, like it was a tipped ball or something, maybe I saw it wrong.

But it seemed only one guy was making it through and he could get away.  I think MI will have more dudes in the backfield, giving him less room to get out.

Joined: 06/17/2010

MGoPoints: 7173

gkgarg20

October 18th, 2016 at 2:22 PM ^

It would be interesting to assign weights to the different position groups based on that groups impact on the game and then make a prediction for who would win. Also, happy to join the community!

Joined: 10/18/2016

MGoPoints: 3

UM Fan from Sydney

October 18th, 2016 at 3:11 PM ^

So basically, they have the better offense and we have the better defense. What's that old saying?

"Defense wins championships."

Ah yes, that one.

Joined: 09/17/2015

MGoPoints: 58076