ECU Snowflakes: The Defense

Defense looks like it hasn't missed a step. Only real concern is the lack of pass rush imo.

Not much of a challenge, but D looks very sound, very aggressive.

Pass rush needs work - but probably kept some tricks in the hand.

Amazing play. by Wallace - super encouraging.  He may be the key to our season.

Sainristil is one of my all-time favorite Michigan players. 

This team is...good. Really good. Damn good.  Stay healthy and we're gonna be really tough to beat.

Go. Blue!

Hausmann and Goode looked impressive. If they can keep it up against better competition, that's go a long way toward quality depth. Thought secondary play was overall pretty encouraging considering who was out with injuries. 

Over all A-, but the pass rush looked as anemic as last year.

Tackling looked solid

linebackers should be a strength, Haussmann will get a lot of snaps
 

DB play was more than competent against what seemed a somewhat sophisticated pass offense and lots of backup DB’s doing good work

Run defense looked very good

pass rush looks to need some work, but tough against 240 lb mobile QBs who mostly got the ball off in 2 seconds

overall very solid 1st game. 
 

Minter should have put starters out last drive for the shutout

LBs and DTs looked good as a whole. I think Hausman is going to be hard to keep off the field. 
 

CBs and safeties were okay considering injuries. Sabb had some nice plays as did Wallace. Also some open guys. 
 

I am a bit worried by lack of edge pressure against a bad team but maybe the UFR will show ECU was scheming against allowing that with quick passes etc. 

Secondary seems awesome. 

Graham and Grant were getting great pressure and ripping through their line. 

The lack of pass rush and not getting sacks when they did get pressure is concerning. I should say specifically from the edges, since they seemed to get pressure through the interior a lot.

Hard to say because ECU offense is worse part of a bad team, but D looked fine. We were hoping to see pash rush, CB2 emerge, and LB strides and DB depth. Pass rush? Nope. CB2: maybe the old man from UMass is going to be more than “fine”. LBs: did well, I thought. DB depth: nope. Maybe Saab.

I know 30-0*, but I think outside of JJ clearly seeming to have made huge stride (from pretty damn good already), I don’t think we saw most of what we wanted to see today.

I guess that’s why you schedule these preseason warmups. So hard to tell against so poor an offense, but to my eye: they need this extra practice. Pass rush especially still looks anemic 

Essentially a shutout, with the most important thing being finding what seems to be a viable CB2. Coverage seemed fine, though opponent caveats apply. Linebacker play I'll leave to UFR. Run defense from the DL seemed fine, though I noticed a lack of pass rush. Did mess up setting the edge on at least one play. 

Overall, 95% positive, especially the play of Wallace. Individual pass rush hopefully will improve, though Minter can probably mitigate any issues with scheme. Other things will improve with reps.

Excellent overall performance.

Defense was really good overall - D-line completely took away their run game. Forced some turnovers, which was good to see. Would have liked if our edges could have generated some more pressures on the QB though. A good start to build on as the year moves forward  

The starters would have had a shutout! We need more pass rushing!

Worst ref call of the Michigan season thus far, the INT that was called not an INT.  Holy hell, does anyone know why that was not a pick?  The Peacock broadcast never talked about it.  That coverage was painful to watch and I hope they never broadcast another Michigan game.

Hoping we get a little more QB pressure next game, and even more the next game.  Pressure was decent but I was expecting to see more of it.

Sainristil was all over the place as usual.

On defense I noticed Grant, and Sabb, besides Sainristil of course. Sabb looks like a future stud.

Great intros by Sabb, Hausmann, Hill, Hillman, Jones. Defense will be loaded again next year.

Surprised about the lack of pressure, but ECU was very conservative with the passing game.

Tackling is a common week one issue and fully expect this group to clean up the misses by next week.

Excellent speed and overall talent. Go Blue.

People seem to be equating no sacks with no pressure.  We got plenty of pressure when ECU wasn't throwing quick outs.  Pressured Garcia and then the other dude into a lot of bad looks/passes.  I'm not saying there's no room for improvement but it feels like some just want gaudy stats and equate lack of them with poor play which just isn't the case.

Just before half time I looked up the stats to see how many sacks we had and it was ZERO.  We really didn't get a lot of pressure today.  When Will Johnson comes back we'll hopefully get some coverage sacks.  I was sort of drinking the Kool Aid that Braiden McGregor was going to bust out this year and/or one of the other edge players.  There is still time, but as others have pointed out that's really the only weak spot on our D right now.

ECU clearly schemed around the pass rush. We can likely count 1 hand the number of times they had 2+ seconds to throw anything but a slant/WR screen.

1. Held ECU to only 3 points

2. Gave the team a spark with interceptions

3. A lot of valuable playing time for back ups