No defense today across the board
Just look at some of these scores:
- Florida 38, Texas A&M 41
- Virginia Tech 45, UNC 56
- Missouri 45, LSU 41
- Texas 45, Oklahoma 53 (4 OT)
- Alabama 63, Ole Miss 48
Wow. Either nobody played defense today or the impact of covid is being felt more on defense than offense. I don't know how else to interpret so many ridiculously high scoring games than to attribute it to covid, between players out, missed practices, and practices hampered by social distance guidelines.
And with Big Ten beginning play in a couple more weeks, anything to take away and apply?
October 10th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
Need to score more points than your opponent to win.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:18 AM ^
The evolution of college football is to score points. When saban gives up 50 to Lane, your know defense is not going to win the day.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:41 PM ^
For years the SEC has been playing mostly body bag games early in the season. Guess this is what it looks like when they have to face real competition early in the season
October 10th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
This is why I’m less concerned about Michigan’s cornerback play than whether the offense is able to fully unleash their explosiveness at the skill positions. Let’s hope Joe Milton makes the ball go zoooom
October 11th, 2020 at 8:41 AM ^
We should get a legitimate indication this year whether Gattis is the real deal or not. He has had a year to adjust from having superior talent in hand to working with very good but not elite kids. Today, against well-designed, modern offenses, your offense is going to need to score on a high percentage of its possessions in order to win.
Lost in all the high octane hype is the importance of simply moving the chains. Clemson's offense is elite because Lawrence is incredibly good at everything but first and foremost he moves the chains. In this regards, Fields is likely going to approach Lawrence this year and despite OK's losses Rattler will soon figure this out as well. Personally, I believe both Milton and McNamara can ascend to be highly functional in this regard as well. If Milton is "reduced" to a one or two read QB and, if it is not there, avoid the loss and go get the 5+ yards the defense is giving you the Michigan offense could be quite the juggernaut. McNamara's HS tape shows that this is already who he is.
Otherwise, for me, the criticisms that the defenses are simply awful are unfair. Today, when offenses are clicking and with all the rules in their favor, defenses are at a huge disadvantage. When Mississippi puts up 48 against Alabama...be informed that every advantage in today's game goes to the offense. Harbaugh, Gattis....Michigan need to figure this out.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:50 AM ^
I don't think you can look at our offense this year and make that a judgment on if Gattis is the real deal or not. He will have a starting QB That has thrown the ball in an actual game a dozen or so times with a completion rate around 50% with 2 INT's and 1 TD. Gattis can only scheme, he can't execute...as we all saw last year with Shea missing wide open receivers 20+ yards down the field.
October 11th, 2020 at 2:39 PM ^
Kinda sorta... The whole 'real deal' thing includes teaching the players to execute. Don't know what Shea's deal was, but hopefully Milton will be more decisive - which is something you can't really teach. I mean, Riley has a true freshman (Rattler) playing pretty darn well. Swinney had Lawrence at a high level in his first game, too. Jake Fromm at Georgia a couple years ago... New QB's can play well enough - if the coaching staff puts them in position to do so.
October 11th, 2020 at 2:46 PM ^
Very well stated - much better than I've accomplished! What Michigan missed the last couple of years, other than in small windows, was Shea just picking up the yards given. More often than not, he made the wrong decision and got nothing. That kills drives, which in turn kills games. And with Michigan of late, when the offense stalls the rest of the team (ie: defense) gets down on itself, and more shit happens.
October 11th, 2020 at 10:52 AM ^
It's not about the offense being "unleashed" at the skill positions. It ultimately boils down to the fact that the head coach and defensive coordinator have expressed their desire to limit snaps. Unless they are willing to change their philosophy (which I personally doubt) you're still going to see a team that refuses to take free yards offered to them by using tempo and does not put up the big offensive numbers you're commonly seeing in this day and age of college football.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
Most of those teams have bad/rebuilding defenses (Bama the only real outlier there). All are going with relatively high-powered offenses. Points ensue.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:24 PM ^
I lost count the number of times Alabama DBs were out of position. I've never seen that before. I expected Kiffin to do well on offense against Saban but not like that.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:26 PM ^
Speaking of Bama, Kiffin’s Ole Miss just put up 48 against Bama and was in the game until a few minutes left in the 4th.
Michigan scored 16 against Bama in the bowl game last year.
Jim Harbaugh year 5, Lane Kiffin year 1.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:38 PM ^
The excuses, sorry reasons are:
- Bowl games are meaningless - to our players
- Shea something, something, something
- 1st year for new offense
- Bama should have been a better bowl game
- Bama defense lost players to NFL
October 11th, 2020 at 12:09 AM ^
Just for kicks, Michigan’s points scored against the best teams played in 2019.
14 @ Wisconsin
10 vs Iowa
21 @ Penn State
45(!) vs Notre Dame
27 vs Ohio State
16 vs Alabama
Their offense was made up of a Senior QB, 4(!) OL drafted, 1 WR drafted.
October 11th, 2020 at 8:43 AM ^
That’s a kick all right, right in the pills.
damn- that’s ugly
October 11th, 2020 at 9:49 AM ^
Saban is claiming Ole Miss may have known Bama's defensive signals. So, as usual, it's Saban himself making the excuses.
October 11th, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
Hasn't changed them since Kiffin was there years ago?
I have the feeling Charlie Strong is his DC before the season is up. People are talking about how many points were scored, but Saban has to be looking at 640+ yards allowed as a better indicator of their ineptitude.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:45 PM ^
You took the words right out of my mouth.
October 11th, 2020 at 12:47 AM ^
Clemson scored 25 against LSU in their playoff game last year. Mizzou scored 45 today.
Eliah Drinkwitz year 1, Dabo Swinney year 11.
Definitely apples to apples there.
October 11th, 2020 at 8:11 AM ^
There is still a big difference between 16 and 25. 25 may still win you the game. 16 will not.
We have been making offense look so damn hard since 2017.
If our offense stinks again in this defensively challenged season/era people are going to lose their minds, and rightfully so.
October 11th, 2020 at 12:59 AM ^
Tempo.
Tempo.
Tempo.
If an offense is executing, there's very little any defense can do.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:04 PM ^
I would love to see, yearn to see, Michigan run a two-minute drill with tight execution under Harbaugh. Hopefully to end the first half as every game is a blowout in Michigan's favor.
The losses against FSU, USC, Florida included minutes where the offense was embarrassingly confused at times where basic tempo offense were needed. Delay of game penalties occur at the very worst times. I thought every week included a practice session of the two-minute drill.
October 11th, 2020 at 8:58 AM ^
By this same logic, Michigan gave up the fewest points Alabama scored last year, so Don Brown 1, the rest of the SEC 0.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:33 AM ^
I don’t think Michigan’s issue is with their defense.
In fact, if Michigan had a better offense, the defensive stats would look even more impressive.
Being ranked 14th last year while being saddled with an ineffective offense in half of their games last season is great.
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa/fei/overalldef/2019
October 11th, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^
Ohio state would agree that their is nothing wrong with our defense, they give it 2 thumbs up and hopes we stay consistent.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:17 AM ^
I know you guys are going to say it’s just an excuse but Gattis was in his first year as a play caller and Lane is in year 15+. Kiffin has always been an elite play caller, so it’s no surprise his offense could muster up some creative, good plays against his biggest opponent. I get that both teams were in their first year of offensive coordinators. The biggest difference is Gattis was a first year play caller and moving the offense from something completely different. Kiffin was running a similar offense to what Ole Miss is used to, offense hasn’t been the problem at Ole Miss, and Kiffin has many years as an elite play caller.
Let’s see what Gattis does this year.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:26 AM ^
Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator was hired from UCF Dec 12, 2019.
I don’t understand why Jim is not held to a higher standard by this fan base. He came in known as a QB guru and in his 5th year here finished 6th in the B1G in offensive efficiency, despite half of the offense being drafted. If looking at the above offensive outputs in big games doesn’t bother you, I don’t know what to tell you.
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaa/fei/overalloff/2019
October 11th, 2020 at 9:19 AM ^
The same Lane that was onsides kicking because his defense didn't have a prayer of stopping anyone on D?
October 11th, 2020 at 1:36 PM ^
They were calling a great game until then. I thought that was a bad call. Gave Alabama the short field.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:23 PM ^
Tackling is a lost art.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:31 PM ^
If I were a WR I would cough any time I got near a defender.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:53 PM ^
Saw so many targeting ejections today. Tennessee LB, Bama safety, Miami LB just off the top of my head.
October 11th, 2020 at 2:48 AM ^
Completely agree! Defenders now want the ESPN moment with the big hit. Very rarely will you see a defender (defensive back in particular) actually wrap up and tackle. Watch BIG 12 and SEC defenses play for numerous examples.
October 11th, 2020 at 8:36 AM ^
Was driving me crazy during the Texas - OU game! For the entire first half it appeared that the players - particularly on Texas - were more concerned with hitting the ball-carrier than wrapping up!!!
I also saw a lot of “give up” once the play was away or past defenders. I know it was hot in TX yesterday but a lot of that seems to be effort and attitude related.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^
Watch Mack Browns defense at UNC. They will try to lay a huge hit on people. If that doesn’t work then they are not interested in tackling at all.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:24 PM ^
The defense is not there this season. College football is close to making defense almost irrelevant. You need sacks, turnovers, mistakes from the offense, or TFLs to get off the field.
I Hope Gattis can get our offense fully weaponized with Milton. That’s the only way to win big games these days.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:32 PM ^
I'm old enough to remember when your best athletes went to play defense. Shutting down the other team was important. This isn't basketball.
October 11th, 2020 at 12:59 AM ^
It is now.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:07 AM ^
(1) Basketball has a whole component of it centered on defense, gives out awards for it, and typically the best teams in the league have very good defenses.
(2) College defenses are full of elite athletes, but the rules have absolutely shifted in such a way that defenders are more affected and limited in what they can do. I'm old enough to remember multiple times during last year's PSU game where Michigan defenders were run over by PSU receivers and either no penalty was called or UM defenders were called for PI. Guys are getting ejected for targeting based on what side of some undefined physics equation related momentum they fall on. And offenses have also innovated to such a degree that multiple bad QBs who bust out of the NFL (if they even get there) can put up 40+ points against defenses full of first-rounders.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:45 AM ^
This. Rule changes, evolving athletes, QBs that can run and pass, RPOs, Read Options, Air raid concepts, pick routes...all of this stuff has arrived (en masse) I’m the last 20 years or so. Defenses have not and may not catch up for awhile or longer.
October 11th, 2020 at 9:50 AM ^
The thing is a lot of these innovations came about as a response to the Cover 2/Tampa 2 defenses we saw sprout up which wrecked havoc with offenses. Teams are always innovating, and my guess is defenses will find new ways to compensate going forward.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:25 PM ^
Takeaway I have is not to expect much. These games and ours will look very sloppy.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:27 PM ^
Yep.
I had 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, 0 pass break-ups, 0 sacks, 0 hurries, absolutely no defense by this board member.
Without a doubt, though, I've got a future as a Detroit Lions linebacker.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:29 PM ^
LSU’s defense against winless Missouri today was right out of the RichRod playbook. The secondary was nowhere near the Missouri receivers over and over and over.
But even more surprising was Ole Miss moving down the field with relative ease against Bama both through the air and on the ground for 650 something yards.
October 11th, 2020 at 11:56 AM ^
Kiffin is an elite play caller, no doubt.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:31 PM ^
I am highly entertained by the all points and chaos SEC.
October 10th, 2020 at 11:35 PM ^
It's the age of offense. Low scoring defense fest isn't gonna win you anything. High octane offense is a must. That's my takeaway.
Re: Michigan, I am glad Gattis is here to 'modernize' michigan. Thank goodness.
October 11th, 2020 at 12:36 AM ^
I hope so, showed a lot a promise through the season. If we had a better QB we could have kept up with OSU scoring. May be this year might be one of those 65 to 63 type games.
October 11th, 2020 at 12:54 AM ^
Remember when RichRod was going to modernize the offense?
How about Nuss?
October 11th, 2020 at 2:11 AM ^
RR did. The defense was the problem, along with the lack of overall talent. No offense to Roundtree but that's not a guy who should be your #1 receiver if you wanna win P5 conference championships.
I don't remember Nuss as a guy who was supposed to modernize the offense. He had been at Bama, which was still stodgy at the time. He was just supposed to be good, not especially innovative.