What can UM's staff do to make linebackers better in a hurry?
For the second year in a row UM's linebacking core appears to be the weak link on defense late in the season. This is troubling, but can it be fixed...and quickly? Last year Ryan Glasgow's injury was a huge loss but we can't blame line injuries now. What can UM's staff do to help improve the play of say Mike McCray? Is the answer simply playing a more athletic Devin Bush Jr.? I'm not football smart enough to know but it sure seems ineffective linebacker play is UM's Achilles' heel versus the run and intermediate passes on an otherwise elite defense.
If the mods feel this has already been hashed out let's move on but I'm still unsure as to the answer.
Go Blue! A big Thank You to all student athletes for working your *sses off this season!
November 16th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
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November 16th, 2016 at 5:47 PM ^
#TheMichiganSTATEdifference
November 16th, 2016 at 5:52 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
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November 16th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 12:13 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 2:03 PM ^
How come we never see you and WD in the same room at the same time?
November 16th, 2016 at 2:29 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 5:13 PM ^
I'm closer than you think. Boo!
November 17th, 2016 at 8:59 AM ^
Garth, Cassandra and I have been in the same room at the same time.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^
if you want them to get to Carnegie Hall, maybe.
November 16th, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
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November 16th, 2016 at 11:28 AM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 12:15 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^
thank god we're getting it sorted.
November 16th, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^
Brilliant show! I know of almost no one else who has ever heard of it. This is my favorite "god" clip from them:
November 21st, 2016 at 9:36 AM ^
hoping to post the banana dance clip after we beat ohio state.
the 'old sherlock holmes' sketch is one of the loveliest things i've ever seen, too. just a great show.
November 16th, 2016 at 2:28 PM ^
The game is getting closer. We in this thread need to figure out how to get these Linebackers playing better immediately.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 1:17 PM ^
Because Penn State played OSU at home in a night game, with a raucous crowd, a white out. Just like we lost at Iowa.
Home field advantage is a thing in college football. OSU would beat Penn State handily in Columbus, just like we would beat Iowa handily in Ann Arbor.
November 16th, 2016 at 5:55 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 11:47 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 10:43 AM ^
Is there really that much of a problem? We've given up 15 total points on defense over the last two games. Iowa got 230 yards. Every linebacker is going to struggle when singled up on a running back in coverage. The offense has to give up other things to get that matchup.
Y'all need to relax.
November 16th, 2016 at 11:00 AM ^
All of my thoughts exactly. Akrum Wadley is good and broke/evaded some tackles. He still only hit 115 yards on 23 carries, a solid performance but not a dominating one. It's crazy to expect the defense to have an absolutely perfect game every week. If they only give up 12 offensive points, it's pretty fucking reasonable to expect a competent offense to win the game comfortably.
That didn't happen. The Speight injury situation confounds things, but we'll have to see if this was a one game blip or the start of a disappointing trend.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:28 PM ^
...reasonable to expect a competent offense to win the game and a average special teams to not lose it.
FTFY
November 16th, 2016 at 11:43 AM ^
And if you have a linebacker who doesn't struggle in coverage, some pulling guard is going to put them on skates and deposit them 20 yards downfield
November 16th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^
This defense is built to stop spread-to-run teams.. It will have problems with Pro-style offenses like Wisconson, MSU and Iowa. Peppers is a line backer because he can cover the wide runs. The defensive line is a penetrating one, but not great on power plays between the tackles on standard downs. One on one corners, and safeties if it comes to that, so that the front seven can concentrate on the gaps and wide.
I'm not worried about them for the next two weeks, but WI in the championship game will be toughr on them.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 4:25 PM ^
7 points, off of a turnover.
November 16th, 2016 at 10:22 PM ^
Tough crowd, here
November 16th, 2016 at 12:17 PM ^
Make it MSU and Iowa. The defense pretty much shut Wisconsin down, holding Wiscy to 8 first downs and 159 total yards.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:36 PM ^
UW had a true freshman QB starting his second game at the Big House on national television. I suspect they've improved somewhat since then... They won't be as easily contained as they were that first meeting. But I do expect the M defense to larely shut them down.
November 16th, 2016 at 6:00 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 2:16 PM ^
Against those teams we gave up 42 points for a 14 ppg avg. A massive chunk of those points came from MSU garbage time and Iowa's short fields resulting from turnovers which are not the defenses fault. Against the rest of the schedule we gave up 8.4 ppts per game mostly on some early season busts. The defense is still a top defensive unit. Few LB's aren't liabilities in deep coverage. They need to clean up tackling and setting the edge and Brown's need to adjust how we align to support that but we are still real good. I'd be shocked if the game is a shootout. I expect the offense's performance will be the deciding factor, more so now that OKorn is running the offense.
November 16th, 2016 at 11:53 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 11:46 AM ^
Let's focus on the fact that OUR STARTING QB IS CHANGING, and not that the otherwordly defense didn't win a game on its own.
November 16th, 2016 at 6:02 PM ^
November 16th, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^
Right, but if the linebacker corps struggled with Wadley, imagine how they're going to do when they're faced with Curtis Samuel and Mike Weber. The buckeyes also have a much more potent run-game in general and a significantly more competent OC who you can bet will know how exploit any deficienies in our run-D.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:04 PM ^
True. Those guys are really good. You're not going to shut them down completely. I think the reasonable hope is to give up somewhere between 10 and 20ish points and expect that your offense can put more than that up.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:44 PM ^
Niether of them can do what Wadley did - those friggen jump cuts. Dude went from full speed straight on to jumping 90° either direction - it was not right! Samuel is good in space, dangerous, but they usually try to get him the ball outside or over the middle (against a Mike - D'oh!!). Weber is more of a straight ahead power runner. Yeah, he can cut, but he's no Wadley, Evans, or even Higdon in that department. I expect our DL to contain him relatively well (along with Barrett when he tries to come through the line).
Samuel worries me. But if its one player that worries you, the defense will win. Samuel will gets his yards, but one player isn't going to beat UM if M's offense is hitting on 7 of its 8 cylinders. I think it was banging around on 2 or 3 cylinders against Iowa...
November 16th, 2016 at 12:01 PM ^
Our defense continues to play very well, including the linebackers. By this point in the season teams have studied each other and try to exploit certain situations. We lost at Iowa because we didn't put points on the board, simple as that.
November 16th, 2016 at 12:11 PM ^
Bingo!!! The issue last week is the offense couldn't sustain drives and Speight over threw his receivers 3-4 times (a couple were on the receivers slowing down on their routes) 3-4 throws that if on target went for Touchdowns. Defense held their part for that game.
November 16th, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
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November 16th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
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November 16th, 2016 at 2:17 PM ^
Cut Peppers then!
November 16th, 2016 at 8:17 PM ^
Need to cut the PepperCrap from the offense. The defense would look immensley better if the offense wasn't so offensive looking.
November 16th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
A winning formula as seen nearby.
November 16th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^