Rutgers Snowflakes: The Defense
September 25th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
We celebrate all wins!
September 25th, 2021 at 7:23 PM ^
Seems like enlightened policy, especially today.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
Less than shit. I give them a pass versus the offense and whatever this coaching staff is all about. The bended and broke a couple times but it shouldn't have been on them. If the offense could do anything worthy of claiming they're an offense in 2021 the defense did their job.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
Won the game.
I mean it wasn't pretty at times, but they made just enough plays when they needed to. And did so without Ross. I'm going to stay positive on them.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
There's 4 good players on this defense. 4
September 25th, 2021 at 9:38 PM ^
Hutch, Hill, Hawkins, Ross?
September 25th, 2021 at 9:52 PM ^
The freshman linebacker
September 26th, 2021 at 3:11 PM ^
No, definitely not the freshman linebacker. Maybe someday, but not now.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:01 PM ^
They bent like a sapling, repeatedly, but in the end stood strong like General Sherman.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:14 PM ^
Sherman burnt everything down.
More like Patton against the Panzers.
September 25th, 2021 at 8:05 PM ^
I had in mind the tree not the man.
September 25th, 2021 at 8:27 PM ^
No, Sherman didn't burn everything down, though that is the common conception. He burnt everything down that could be used against him and his army, in accord with the military wisdom of centuries.
https://pando.com/2014/11/20/the-war-nerd-why-sherman-was-right-to-burn-atlanta/
September 26th, 2021 at 9:17 AM ^
Not a balanced writer. Mostly propaganda to justify atrocities.
September 26th, 2021 at 9:35 PM ^
Sherman didn't burn Atlanta. It was on fire before the Union occupied it. Sherman didn't develop his total war concepts until the March to the Sea.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:01 PM ^
Hello BPONE, get tf off my shoulder.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
Saved us at the end .
September 25th, 2021 at 7:20 PM ^
The offense couldn’t put together a drive and give the D a breather.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:02 PM ^
2nd half was a yikes...
September 25th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^
It was a yikes. But, in the end, from the defensive perspective, even though they gave up a lot of yards, they only gave up 10 points in the second half, 13 points total. I'll take that anytime, any game.
And I know that Rutgers is no juggernaut. But it's tough on any defense when your offense repeatedly goes 3-and-out and puts you back on the field series after series.
The defense was not the big problem today.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
I know our offense doesn't actually use reads, but maybe someone should tell McDonald other teams do. It's like they've never seen a zone read before. Say what you want about Don Brown, but man knew how to blow up a mesh point.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^
Yeah, for a guy who coached against Lamar Jackson in practice for a couple of years, Macdonald sure looked lost against QB reads. Vedral deserves a little credit for some very good pulls (and he threw for 600+ in two games against us as well), but that was alarming.
September 26th, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
Ya know, the first guy through to the read, that guy will regularly have to make a decision.
And you can see it, somtimes they are wrong, sometimes they stutter and struggle to make the right choice and get burnt, sometimes they just make the wrong choice.
I felt like they just made the wrong choice all game, I dont think I've seen a D tackle the guy without the ball so many times in a game before.
Gotta be something they are coached to do.
September 26th, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
That's the point of the post-snap read - to make the defender who is being optioned wrong no matter which way they choose.
Good defenses have a plan to deal with that, either by trying to screw with the QBs reads, or by trading defender responsbilites (e.g. scrape exchange), or something.
I'm not sure if that was a wrinkle that Rutgers had never showed on film? It seems like they saved it for the second half so there would be no time to make adjustments. But we clearly didnt have a gameplan prepared to stop that.
September 26th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
Every dc is different. I prefer the defender to take the QB first and force the handoff. You know where the ball is, who it’s going to and if the QB pulls you get a hit on the QB. JMO on defending read option. I also liked how Dean Pees would have the DE put his face mask on the QB hands as the aiming point, turn to the QB if he pulls and chase the RB if he gives.
September 26th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
Every dc is different. I prefer the defender to take the QB first and force the handoff. You know where the ball is, who it’s going to and if the QB pulls you get a hit on the QB. JMO on defending read option. I also liked how Dean Pees would have the DE put his face mask on the QB hands as the aiming point, turn to the QB if he pulls and chase the RB if he gives.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
They came through when it mattered but against better offenses this could get ugly.
September 25th, 2021 at 9:24 PM ^
Luckily, I don't see many offenses better than this in the Big 10 this year
Oddly, Nebraska's offense will put up yards and maybe points against this defense
September 26th, 2021 at 1:40 AM ^
Rutger might be the worst offense in the B1G East when you get down to it. Maryland is moving the ball consistently. OSU is still relevant with defense being their big problem. PSU is still doing things over the top. Indiana goes where Penix takes them. Sparty looks decent at times outside of their second half today.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:05 PM ^
Proud of them for holding on late despite being on the field the entire second half.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:06 PM ^
Maybe a hot take but I thought the defense played really well. They held a somewhat competent Rutgers offense to 13 points and made the stops exactly when they needed to. Pretty good considering how much they were on the field in the second half.
September 27th, 2021 at 2:11 AM ^
Where are these takes coming from that Rutgers offense is competent? Did any of you read the previews leading up to the game breaking down Rutgers? Their yards per carry and pass per attempt numbers were god awful. Their whole passing offense against Syracuse was dink and dunk and their oline couldn't pass block competently on top of it. I'm honestly not sure a single guy on Rutgers offense would start on UM's offense. Their offense was a very bad unit entering this game by any metric.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:07 PM ^
The secondary sans Hill is pure shit.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:35 PM ^
Brad Hawkins has been pretty good. VG was fine.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:49 PM ^
LOL.
I hope you remember your post after next week's final score. Especially for all the people dunking on Mertz now when he has a career day next weekend.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:07 PM ^
The defense saved the day. They made plays in the 4th quarter that mattered. It bodes well and something to build on. I expected the defense to give up 17 points to Rutgers so with the win and making plays late, they get a B+. Yes, our guys were gashed in the 3rd quarter and wasn't a good look.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:08 PM ^
Josh Ross is the whole fucking defense!!
September 25th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^
... and Hutch and Hill... but yeah, there's like 4 players on defense that can play.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:08 PM ^
In defense of MacDonald, they never practice vs the QB read, and didn't play it well. But they got better, and won.
But one thing concerns me... Ojabo makes the key play of game, and after nobody swarms him. Instead they all do this individual look at me shit. They did this after the fourth down stop too. I'm not confident these guys will handle real adversity, just from seeing this.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:13 PM ^
We run the QB read, Cade just doesn’t know when to keep the ball.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:39 PM ^
Ding Ding Ding
September 25th, 2021 at 7:41 PM ^
Agree, Old School. Also alarming: defense appeared to be taking a selfie on the sidelines right after that play. Could’ve been posing for ABC cameras, but either way with 1:30 still to go, I didn’t like it.
September 25th, 2021 at 9:29 PM ^
The Michigan Difference
September 25th, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^
Maybe they didn't want to get a taunting penalty do they waited til the sidelines
September 26th, 2021 at 8:40 AM ^
They practice the entire week against whatever the opponent runs, leading up to the game. The scout team runs the opponent's plays repeatedly.
??♂️
September 26th, 2021 at 12:31 PM ^
Old School perspective indeed
September 25th, 2021 at 7:09 PM ^
They recovered a fumble, and I only bring that up because of the fact that opponents NEVER lose fumbles against us. That was like seeing a unicorn because it does NOT happen. And with our luck, it will be a long time before we see it happen again.
I predict this place is going to be mighty miserable this week.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:30 PM ^
The other unicorn in this game was Rutgers losing #50. I don't recall calls like that going Michigan's way. Even when the call is bullshit to begin with. Wasn't targeting.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:09 PM ^
Finally have a defense that doesn’t suck in the red zone. Last two trips, 2 forced FG attempts. I think they forced 2 red zone FG attempts in 6 games last year.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:09 PM ^
I will write up a lot of this one up to their field General, Ross being out the second half. Something tells me #20 (name?) wasn’t up to the challenge of making the defensive calls against a team who was running option much of the second half.
the offense did them no favors either.
September 25th, 2021 at 7:44 PM ^
You’re referring to Kalel Mullings, who’s a RS FR LB. No surprise he wasn’t great against a good read option team.