UM Total Defense ranks 16th
In 2010, Michigan finished the season ranked 110th in total Defense giving up 450.8 yards per game. (includes the bowl game).
In 2011, Michigan ranks 16th in Total Defense giving up 317.6 yards per game. That's an improvement of 94 spots and 133.2 yards per gamer less this year than last with virtually the same players.
Greg Mattison deserves Asst. Coach of the Year and Brady Hoke deserves Coach of the Year, it's no-brainer.
THought this was interesting.
Stats are from cfbstats.com
November 27th, 2011 at 10:50 PM ^
November 27th, 2011 at 10:58 PM ^
... blow it? That's scandelous.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:34 PM ^
November 27th, 2011 at 11:24 PM ^
November 27th, 2011 at 10:56 PM ^
Some hoe would blow me too.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:08 PM ^
What are your fantasies for the rakes and the shovels?
November 27th, 2011 at 11:00 PM ^
Don't forget the #9 in scoring defense giving up 17.17 points per game. Top ten in scoring defense. That's up 99 spots from 108 last year with 35.23 points per game in 2010. Ridiculous after the last three years and the preceived huge talent deficet.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:00 PM ^
16th place. And to think I was hoping before the season for a jump to 60th in total defense.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:03 PM ^
....that, at the very least, Greg Mattison should be awarded somehow for th phenomenal turnaround, but I very much doubt that the program would look happily on some hoe blowing it. I think they would want a more appropriate award.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:07 PM ^
People need to realize something about their performance this saturday.
First of all, Michigan's defense this year was predicated on attacking the quarterback and forcing him to use his intelligence to pick up blitz packages. We don't have super athletes in our secondary, but the reason why our pass defense was so good is that we didn't play teams that passed a bunch and because once our team was ahead by a lot, forcing the other team to throw, we played smart in the secondary and got lots of pressure on the quarterback.
Ohio State was the perfect storm for many reasons:
A.) This is The Game. This is their season. One game for them to try as hard as they can and bring all of their fight. They did that. They played a perfect game besides a few Miller overthrows/underthrows and the INT at the end.
B.) They have 2 All-Americans on their offensive line and considering how it is an elite institution, they have pretty good other guys on the O-Line. A far cry from Nebraska's walk-on O-line and Illinois' shambled unit.
C.) Posey is a beast. He was the Big 10's 3rd receiver in total yardage last year, if I'm not mistaken, and if he was given a full year this year, he might have been in contention to be the best receiver in the Big 10 (being the only viable target for Miller).
D.) Miller is so extremely dangerous on a Denard level. You can't blitz him with anybody of lesser athleticism because he will make you pay. At the same time, he is a natural thrower, unlike Martinez, so you have to get to him, but not too quickly or he'll run away for a big gain.
-As for A, our defense stepped up to the plate, I thought, and when Miller wasn't given a million years to throw, he was limited.
-For B, it was a really fun battle to watch between our strong D-Line and their strong O-Line. We were able to stuff their run game, but they killed us on the designed draws by using our aggresiveness against us. The fact that our D-Line couldn't get to Miller without opening lanes led to him often having days to find a target, which will always work when you only have 5 in coverage. Their O-Line picked up our blitzes like cake.
-Posey was easily outrunning everybody in our secondary and I was surprised by the fact that we weren't respecting him with bracket coverage like we did against McNutt and Cunningham. (Jenkins was on an island against Floyd, like Posey, but Floyd was a little bit more physically comparable to Jenkins than Posey).
-As for the effectiveness of the blitzes... they were ineffective. I don't know who decided that a Miller QB run was the answer to the blitzes, but they worked. RPS -3 on all of them. Ohio was never in a position where they had to pass only, so those pass rushing blitzes didn't work. Only on the last drive were they effective because Miller was in a 2-minute pass-only situation. Also, you can't blitz a guy like Miller without being perfect and expect to squeak out clean. He punished us for that.
Overall, I was a little disappointed with the outcome of the game in terms of our defense, but at the same time, they came to play and they played nearly perfectly. Our blitzing defense (our strength) was stymied by their great offensive line and dangerous running quarterback. (Sounds like our team). So, 16th overall sounds fair, and don't forget we are 9th in scoring defense, which is pretty good, even in the offensively-deficient Big 10.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:24 PM ^
You know, those are all excellent reasons why Ohio's offense worked against our defense, but why didn't their offense work against other defenses? Like Purdue, in particular? Or Illinois? Or Penn State? If Ohio State had a great offensive line, a good running back, a Denard-dangerous quarterback who is a natural thrower, why was their offense so ineffective (118th in passing etc.)? Is it just because of Posey coming back?
November 27th, 2011 at 11:37 PM ^
It's The Game. Things happen. Plus, you never get the same team two weeks in a row. Why did Clemson only score 7 points on NC State last week? Why did Iowa lose to Minnesota? Things happen. I think we were a little unprepared for them to call such an aggresive game. Plus having Posey be able to attract attention and stretch the field, and a more seasoned Miller did help as well.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:38 PM ^
We did shut down Herron, so there's that. Overall though, I was kind of left with the impression that the play calling was decidedly un-Bollman.
November 28th, 2011 at 12:10 AM ^
I hope Brian chooses to UFR this game. I'm not sure why he wouldn't. We did hold Herron to only 37 yards, which is impressive, and although Miller picked up a frustrating number of yards and first downs, it never felt like he got out of control. I think that Mattison said about how his game plan was to "first, stop the run" and with the exception of some Miller scrambles, the defense did a decent job with that. The deep coverage and field position were problems, which is surprising because they hadn't been all year. I can remember three big plays that the defense gave up all year before this. Once against Purdue, once against Nebraska, and at the end of the game against Notre Dame. This game, there were at least three breakdowns; one of them was saved by Tacopants in a Buckeye jersey, and two of them went for touchdowns.
I would say our defense has trouble handling elite receivers, but neither McNutt nor Jenkins caused that much trouble if I recall correctly. I'm not sure what it was.
Hard to be worried about the future of the defense, though, when they've improved more than anyone could have expected.
November 28th, 2011 at 1:44 AM ^
For what this is worth, I watched the game with my brothers, both Ohio alums, and they were saying the exact same thing. They think that knowing he was getting fired Fickell for the first time all year told Bollman to attack and be aggressive, and the offense did.
The working against the defense's aggressiveness worked on the d-backs as well. I agree with an original post that Floyd's tackle on Miller might have saved the game, but Ohio was using Floyd's new ability to jump routes to bait him all game. I give credit to Ohio for finding how to attack the Michigan d, but it also shows just how far the defense has come that teams actually have to game plan for it.
November 28th, 2011 at 1:54 AM ^
Having a threat like Posey, combined with the power run and an athletic QB makes for a dangerous combo.
Take away the deep ball threat and you can focus on crushing the run.
Also I'm certain tsio had some new stuff put in for the game.
November 28th, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
using the formula you described gives us Denard, Fitz, and Stonum... sounds pretty dangerous to me if Denard gets a good handle on the deep ball.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:24 PM ^
we gifted them 10 points because of turnovers, and 2 of their TD's were long plays. Ohio had one sustained drive and it contained a couple of big plays. Otherwise ohio did not sustain a drive all day vs Michigan and resorted to throwing the ball more than they had all season.
It's The Game its not supposed to the status quo.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:43 PM ^
I think Mattison has a little "unleash the dragon" in him on the defensive side of the ball. It burned us against ND and OSU, and it has also burned him in the past (SEE 2000 against MSU). On the flip side though, it did create 4 sacks and was probably a big factor in shutting down Herron so completely.
Hopefully a team that returns just about everybody in the back seven next year should be a little better at picking up the slack if/when we turn it loose like that, and the big plays won't be so common against quality opponents.
November 28th, 2011 at 12:37 AM ^
I love GMat and what he's done with the defense this year. What reasonable M fan wouldn't? He deserves full credit, along with the rest of the coaching staff, for completely turning around the wretched unit we called a defense last year, with largely the same talent. I call him The Pimp now whenever I mention his name.
But I felt like his play calling was a bit odd against Ohio's offense, Miller in particular. The reason we were having so much trouble was because Miller and the Ohio's aggressive play calling kept us completely off balance. The DLine, normally our strength, was unsure of how to play it for much of the game. I thought GMat would adjust to this and bring more straightline pressure instead of using the Okie package that confuses other QBs and OLines. Everyone reading MGo knows that preparing for Miller is difficult because it seems like he just does whatever the hell he wants.
And for the final drive, I just thought it was a brainfart and GMat thought this was the Ravens defense again. To leave Posey 1 on 1 against JT, after what had transpired throughout the game, and use of the okie package made no sense to me whatsoever.
Whatever, The Team The Team The Team got it done and BEAT OHIO. But it was confusing.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
actual defensive coaches are better at coaching defense than stuffed beavers? wow! who knew?
November 27th, 2011 at 11:28 PM ^
Wow, I remember reading on here over the summer that a jump up to about the 60th ranked defense was the most reasonable thing we could hope for. Great job by the coaching staff and an awesome year for our guys on D.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:30 PM ^
I was hoping for a defense approaching average. To have the defense improve as much as it did is nucking futs. I mean TREMENDOUS.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:32 PM ^
And to think I told a coworker at the start of the year if Michigan ranked 50th in total defense I would consider the defensive staff miracle workers. BTW, I know we all give props to Hoke and Mattison for the turnaround, but let us not forget Jerry Montgomery D-line coach, Mark Smith LB coach (he did alot with alot true freshmen), and Curt Mallory secondary coach (yeah we still need some work, but the future looks bright)
November 28th, 2011 at 1:16 AM ^
16th in defense, 16th in the BCS standings. Here's to continuing to move on up.
November 28th, 2011 at 3:34 AM ^
It will be interesting to see how Michigan's defense does in a bowl game. People have said all year that the Big Ten is down offensively, which is hard to argue. If Michigan can shut down the high powered Houston offense in the Sugar Bowl or an SEC offense in the Capital One bowl it would go a long way in legitimizing the defense. Of course, performing poorly would give more ammunition to those citing bad Big Ten offenses as the reason for such a jump. I am interested to see what Mattison can do when given a month to prepare.
November 28th, 2011 at 5:05 AM ^
wasn't this the same defense that even Vince Lombardi couldn't fix?
November 28th, 2011 at 6:26 AM ^
Yes, one year older. Can we all just let it go?
November 28th, 2011 at 7:54 AM ^
November 28th, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^
But it's the defense that gives us that TOP. (I know a slowed down offense contributes, too, but the defense did not allow Nebraska to keep possession on most drives.)
November 28th, 2011 at 8:10 AM ^
Great job by the coaches but our defensive ranking is a perfect storm of Mattison's scheme, great coaching and teaching of technique, players being more experienced, avoiding the bowling ball Montee Ball, and the B1G being down offensively this year
November 28th, 2011 at 8:52 AM ^
"Greg Mattison deserves Asst. Coach of the Year and Brady Hoke deserves Coach of the Year, it's no-brainer."
If they don't then there is something massively wrong with the system.
November 28th, 2011 at 11:16 AM ^
November 28th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^
What a shame Mattison was not a finalist. There was drastic improvement in the defense compared to last year.