Previously: Rutgers Offense

We're back for the defense half of FFFF, focusing on the side of the ball that our opponents for this weekend specialize in. Rutgers has started the season 3-0 largely on the back of its offense so it's time to ask: how scared should we be of Sir Henry's finest defenders this weekend? 

 

The Film: We're going with Virginia Tech again for reasons previously stated in the offense piece, recency and the likelihood that the Hokies are indeed better than Northwestern and Temple (not assured, but likely). 

Personnel: Don't get mad, Seth is testing the powers of the Michigan Cyan Circle Positive Jinx [click for big]: 

Rutgers' EDGEs are familiar to those who read this column last season, or Michigan recruiting news dating back four years. Old Friend Aaron Lewis is still around, his chops against the run still up for debate (they seemed fine in the game I charted) but his overall importance to this Rutgers defense is not. The one-time Michigan commit is currently off to a blazing start to the season, PFF's 3rd-highest graded EDGE player to play at least 50% of his team's snaps. He gets the star for it. 

The other EDGE is still Wesley Bailey, the one who gets to drop into coverage from time to time. He's fine, but not the impact piece of Lewis. Bailey is the spot on the line that rotates out more frequently, where you can see the likes of Kenny Fletcher and Jordan Thompson get involved. Sometimes you'll see Rutgers go 3-3-5 with their passrushing SLB coming on in Bailey's place, who I'll get to in a moment. 

DT in my estimation is still the biggest weakness on the Rutgers defense. Mayan Ahanotu is starting after being in the rotation a year ago, while Isaiah Iton, a journeyman transfer joins him in the lineup. Both of these players were liable to being shoved around, Iton especially, earning the diagram's lone starter cyan circle. As most teams do, Rutgers rotates their tackles pretty heavily, Rene Konga, Kyonte Hamilton, and Troy Rainey all in the mix and all of them unspectacular. There is no Dude at this position. 

There is at LB though, MLB Tyreem Powell. A real good player, Powell earns the Dangerman designation this week and is the 12th-highest graded ILB in PFF's grading among players at the position to play at least 50% of his team's snaps. WLB Deion Jennings isn't as good but is still a solid starter and then their third LB is the aforementioned SAM, Mohamed Toure. Though Toure's main skill is his pass-rush ability, he is plenty capable of performing ILB duties and did so in the place of one of the MIKE/WILL starters in the VT game from time to time. 

Rutgers typically goes with five DBs, though sometimes they're in a 4-3 with the SLB out there. The nickel who gets lifted when they shift is Desmond Igbinosun, who seemed decent to me. Like a lot of team's nickels, he has responsibility in the blitzing department. The outside corners are longtime Scarlet Knight Max Melton and Robert Longerbeam, both of whom are familiar with the program and these roles. They are decent B1G starters but showed vulnerability to vertical passing in the VT game. At safety, Minnesota transfer Flip Dixon has had a tremendous start to the season and just missed star status. Shaquan Loyal starts as a ho-hum safety next to him. Eric Rogers is the first corner off the bench, Joe Lusardi the first safety. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: clips]

 

Base set: Rutgers was again mostly running a 4-2-5 like last season: 

But they used 4-3 personnel with the SLB Toure in the game quite a bit more than last season. Most of the time when they bring him out, they line everybody up at the line and look like they'll go for it: 

Something to note I guess. 

Man or zone coverage: Rutgers is still running a base quarters, putting them in the zone category for the generic defense. Cover 1 shell appears to facilitate their blitz packages but at heart, this is a zone defense, as it always is under Schiano. 

Pressure: Not a ton has changed here, either Rutgers clocking in pretty high on the blitz-ball scale. This season they check in at 45.5% of snaps with greater than four rushers, a tick higher than last season's 39.6%. That 2022 number was the second highest number I charted last season behind only Indiana. Last season I attributed the blitziness to Rutgers' need to get to CJ Stroud (I charted OSU/Rutgers), whereas this year I think it's probably the result of facing a run-heavy offense that mobilizes the QB often, where you're not worrying about the pass as much. Unlike last year, they did rush fewer than four players on at least one play... two plays! As a percentage, that's 2.6% of the time. This isn't a "drop eight and make you pick us a part" defense. 

Dangerman: Last year's Dangerman, S Avery Young, has departed the Rutgers program so this year the designation goes to MLB Tyreem Powell. Powell has been a Swiss Army Knife piece for Schiano's defense this season, with the ability to do so many different things. He can slice into the backfield and help stuff a run: 

On a team that I did think had some tackling problems in the VT game, Powell was sure-handed and cleaned plays up, sideline-to-sideline: 

He is Rutgers' highest graded tackling defender this season in PFF's data and the nation's second-best tackling ILB by grade behind Alabama's Deontae Lawson. Another nice tackle: 

Rutgers also blitzes him plenty, much more so than their other standard ILB Deion Jennings. I didn't have any particularly great clips of his blitzes in this game, but you will see it in the background of other clips I show. Be it in his nose for run defense, surehanded tackling, ability to drop into coverage or blitz, Powell is a stand-out middle linebacker for this Rutgers team and a pretty good testament to Schiano's ability to coach linebackers. 

 

Overview 

Like with the offense, let's look over the performances of the Rutgers defense holistically to start this section off: 

• Northwestern: 201 total yards, 3.2 YPP; 24/41, 3.3 Y/A, 1 TD, 2 INT; 22 rushes, 12 yards, 0.5 YPC
• Temple: 310 total yards, 4.4 YPP; 20/48, 4.8 Y/A, 1 TD, 2 INT; 24 rushes, 84 yards, 3.5 YPC 
• Virginia Tech: 319 yards, 4.5 YPP; 19/32, 5.9 Y/A, 1 TD, 1 INT; 39 rushes, 129 yards, 3.3 YPC 

From a thousand-foot view, pretty good! Rutgers has muzzled the opposing passing games and has intercepted more passes than passing touchdowns allowed. No one has rushed for more than 3.5 YPC against Rutgers, including sacks. There aren't a ton of holes to poke in this performance. Unfortunately, the teams that they played are uniformly terrible and it's tough to do any fair comparison between those teams and what Michigan boasts on offense. 

An easier way to do this analysis is to compare Rutgers to their defense from a year ago. A lot of pieces have changed but some remain from a unit that finished 57th in SP+ a year ago. 

So how do you feel about Rutgers 2023 on D vs. Rutgers 2022? 

Mostly the same? I think the some of the returning pieces, like the linebackers and the EDGE guys, are better than last season. Their safeties, particularly Flip Dixon, seem to have replaced the impact safeties they had last year surprisingly well. But I still have a negative feeling on the defensive tackles, which was a weak spot last season, and their corners are merely "decent"- not star players. This is a sturdy, well-coached defense that Greg Schiano should be proud of given the talent level on the roster. That doesn't mean they have the chops to be able to bottle up the Michigan offense when it's on its game. There are enough vulnerabilities for the Wolverines to exploit. 

But let's start with the good stuff. Erstwhile Michigan commit Aaron Lewis has continued to improve at EDGE and popped frequently in the VT game tape. He got a sack, but that was more a highlight for a different player. I'll show it to you later. What I liked the most about Lewis was his ability to get off his block and chase the QB around in space. Against a mobile QB like Virginia Tech's Kyron Drones, this was essential to stop plays like this 2 point try: 

He had some good rush moments too, including this one where he and the blitzing LB Deion Jennings force Drones to get the ball out and he throws to a guy who isn't open: 

I'm not going to comment on Aaron Lewis' run defense because I didn't see enough instances to really assess. He got drilled by doubles a few times but that's expected when you're a 260 lb. EDGE. The bigger concern for Rutgers EDGEs and the run was the inability to defend the zone read effectively. I know we're not big on the "run JJ against Rutgers" thing but if you have a chance to read Wesley Bailey, go for it. Pull the football and he will crash down hard every time: 

They don't get the first down here because it was 3rd & 11, but this sort of thing was going on all day. And against Northwestern: 

Bailey isn't a bad player, it's just a weak spot. VT also had success reading Kenny Fletcher as well, while Lewis did the most against it. I'd pepper a few in just to exploit this exposed underbelly and pick up some free yards. 

As we noted earlier, Rutgers is very blitzy. A lot of the clips I show you will have blitzes in them, sometimes from the LB level, sometimes from the corners. They also still throw in some stunts from their old stunt 4-3 playbook and bring SLB Mohamed Toure on to rush the passer. He does most of the heavy lifting here to flush the QB right into Aaron Lewis: 

A problem that popped up for the Scarlet Knights was when they dialed up the blitz and it didn't get home. The natural result of blitzing is you are forced to man up your corners to facilitate the extra bodies you're throwing at the QB and the corners got toasted a few too many times for my liking. Here's one: 

That's NB Desmond Igbinosun who gets cooked, with S Flip Dixon coming over to help and triggering the DPI flag. On this one, it's outside CB Max Melton who is tossed in the toaster: 

Virginia Tech didn't throw down the field a ton early in the game, but once they did, they started being able to get some huge gains against the Rutgers' corners. The big passing TD they got was another blitz that didn't get home but in this case it was a zone coverage that has a giant hole ripped open in it: 

I didn't see many zone coverage busts so I think that one was a one off. They're generally well-drilled in their base defense. But I had to include it because it was a big play in this game. These bad clips I showed you are not an indictment of the whole secondary of Rutgers, instead it's just an indicator that they are vulnerable down the field. For the most part, they're still pretty good though. I showed you the one pressure clip where Igbinosun covered the fade very well and the ball landed out of bounds. Flip Dixon's interception was a highlight-reel play: 

Unfortunately, a handful of the five interceptions Rutgers have forced this season are clearly the result of terrible throws by terrible QBs: 

They're a respectable pass defense, not a great one. To this point they've faced pass offenses that look more like Bowling Green with their walk-on third string QB than pass offenses that look like Michigan's. 

As for the rushing game, I continue to see vulnerabilities with their defensive tackles. This was a problem last year during my evaluation of Rutgers and it hasn't gone away in my view. Rutgers has had success stopping the run this season because their LBs are pretty good and they blitz a lot, which has given them extra numbers in the box. Also, their opponents aren't any good. But the defensive tackles have mostly been riding in the sidecar and been at fault for some issues in short yardage. The two starters, Isaiah Iton and Mayan Ahanotu were shoved around when VT wanted to: 

And another a few plays later: 

The PANCAKING that Iton receives there was one of the plays that earned him the cyan circle. Their run stuffs as a team in short yardage looked like this, great plays from the EDGEs/LBs/DBs helping out while the tackles are still being moved: 

That's the starting duo again. None of the backups showed me any indication that they will be better. I know Michigan doesn't have Olu at center anymore but the guards are the same and so I think they should be able to have some success against those tackles, and force Rutgers to commit resources to stopping the run between the tackles which will leave them weaker elsewhere on defense. 

 

What does this mean for Michigan? 

This is the best defense the Wolverines will have faced this season without question, but they ain't exactly the 1985 Bears, like I've seen some try to say. Rutgers is an okay team; they aren't the Chris Ash Cable Subscribers anymore. They're not a good team and we need to remember that. In terms of Michigan's offense vs. Rutgers' defense, the Wolverines should have a clear advantage in the IOL vs. DT matchup and I love the possibility of what Roman Wilson could do against this defense when Rutgers blitzes and he gets opportunities to go one-on-one with a corner. That should be JJ's first read in those situations. Otherwise, give JJ a few reads to attack the EDGEs on the ground, roll him out a little bit, and then take what the zone gives you elsewhere. Play sound offense, don't turn it over, and you'll be fine in this game.