Georgia Snowflakes: The Defense
December 31st, 2021 at 11:02 PM ^
There was defense ?
December 31st, 2021 at 11:05 PM ^
Yes, Georgia’s. Ours not so much.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:05 PM ^
Yes, Georgia’s. Ours not so much.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:05 PM ^
Outmanned.
Georgia deployed a number of excellent concepts early to move the ball down the field and score early, exactly what they needed. Attacking the LBs, keeping away from the DEs, doing enough on the ground.
Georgia is, by the stats, the second-best offense we've played by a healthy margin. We limited (but did not stop) Ohio State's offense. We did not have enough to stop Georgia's particularly with the offense incapable of producing long drives that netted touchdowns.
This is... still way better than what we expected pre-season. Tip a cap to Georgia, which was ready. Get the LBs better next year. Find a way to replace Hutch and Ojabo.
And keep rolling.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
This was still a great year and very enjoyable despite how this game turned out.
Great team!
December 31st, 2021 at 11:06 PM ^
Aidan cemented himself as one of my favorite UM players of all time this year - dude was all heart & effort every snap of this year. Even though tonight sucked, that's my defensive snowflake of the year. Looking forward to rooting for Hutch in the NFL wherever he lands!
December 31st, 2021 at 11:09 PM ^
I’ve become over the years a big believer in the David Hale school of Recruiting Matters. Yes there’s obviously exceptions but when you get in games against the UGAs Of the world, you can’t have any deficiencies (or be so good in one aspect, like scoring points, it doesn’t matter)
hale sent a tweet earlier in the game highlighting us missing out on DL and DB recruits that would have helped, and I agree fully. UGA is good enough to take a strength (our edge) and say “well we’ll just make their less good DTs make plays”
Lot of rambling here to say, if you don’t have a massive advantage on one entire side of the ball, you need to be solid in ALL position groups. This d was good enough to get where they got but got exposed in the back and up the gut. All this means, and I think we have some coming in, recruit better, develop better, etc. will Johnson and co come on down!
December 31st, 2021 at 11:16 PM ^
I'm generally a "recruiting matters" believer as well; some of my pessimism last year and this year was directly related to declines in recruiting.
Well, there have been a couple of changes: 1. Michigan has developed some legit stars from lower-ranked recruits; 2. Recruiting is starting to pick back up again and a great season this year helps enormously in coming years.
But we're still shorthanded in some spots, and that's a challenge. You have to build up to the level of elite personnel that Clemson/Bama/Georgia have put on the field. And we've shown that we're getting there, beating an extremely talented OSU team. But there's work to be done.
The staff has taken serious steps forward this year in recruiting, no question about it.
January 1st, 2022 at 7:35 AM ^
Short handed in some spots?
Other than Hutchinson and Ojabo (and given their defense probably not Ojabo) - I doubt a single Michigan player starts for Georgia.
Maybe Haskins.
January 1st, 2022 at 8:06 AM ^
Yeah, I kept thinking how nice it would be to have a Nakobe Dean at LB, but Michigan did—Devin Bush. Michigan has 1-2 of those outstanding players every year on defense (Hutchinson and maybe Hill this year). While Georgia makes the entire plane out of those dudes and has some blue chip recruits to back them up.
January 1st, 2022 at 8:34 AM ^
Dax could probably start on that defense.
But yeah your point I understand your point
December 31st, 2021 at 11:44 PM ^
Couldn’t agree more. For a few years we flat out missed at defensive tackle to such a degree that we had Ben Mason playing defensive tackle last year. We need breadth and depth across all positions. Hinton and Smith did a great job this year holding their own and allowing hutch and ojabo to shine. But we need more depth. Also our secondary exceeded expectation but with a team that neutralized our d line they got exposed. Same thing with our linebackers. I think Dax hill is excellent but can only do so much when the offense can just schem away from him. I’m sad he never got to be an absolute star at Michigan and will follow his nfl career closely.
January 1st, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
Mazi was a 4 star top 100 players and Hinton was a 5 star top 30 player.
The difference is Georgia is scattered with back up players with those rankings.
And a walk on QB.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:15 AM ^
Agree. Our coaches can scheme to create an advantage, but sizable talent differences negate the schemes or at least require prefect execution of a scheme. The O failed to execute so well that the talent difference was negated. Ass kicking ensued.
However, the real challenge with overall talent levels is multi-year commitment to top classes. Gathering some top talent like our frosh guys (JJ, Edwards, AA) is nice, but we need 2-3 years with lots of talent at all areas to create depth everywhere. OL, DL, LB, RB, DB - all areas need loads of 4 and some 5 *s. Ultimately need a full roster so opposing teams cannot scheme against gaps.
January 1st, 2022 at 6:22 PM ^
Recruiting depth can't ever be overstated.
I remember really being thrilled during Hoke's first 2 recruiting years (2012, 2013) bringing in the #6 and #4 nationally ranked class, because it meant so much for the future going forwards (unfortunately his coaching/coach-management--and maybe even mentorship-ability for a talent-level-attractor like Michigan--was found to be his fatal flaw).
Harbaugh's 2016 team's depth was off the back of those recruits (Srs, Jrs + top-but-young recruits like Rashan Gary, Peppers @r.s. So). And that team was loaded, especially on defense.
So, it takes time to truly accrue that depth.
The upside is we're trending in the right direction. And that pays dividends 2-3 years out (and for top-prospects, immediately!)
Yesterday was disappointing, but I love our program and it's direction.
January 2nd, 2022 at 10:33 AM ^
Success breeds success. Given a choice, the best players will generally play wherever they have the best chance of winning.
I can only hope that our national exposure over the past three games (and ESPECIALLY winning the first two) will be a draw for the best recruits. That includes transfers
But we can't stand still. We are still on the way up and a bad class or an unbalanced class can set us back quick.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:44 AM ^
Agree. Also we can’t underestimate how much an elite quarterback can change a game. Look at what McCarthy accomplished on his drives by using his feet and big arm. McCarthy was able to avoid getting sacked multiple times. Cade is a great game manager, but sometimes your quarterback needs to go and win the game with a big play when things aren’t working. Almost all of the National Champions in recent years had elite quarterbacks that created big plays when the defense disrupted the scripted play. Having a quarterback that improvises is riskier, but Harbaugh may have to get comfortable with bearing that risk if this team is going to win a NC.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:58 AM ^
Some of JJ's risks had me scared for his long term health.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:49 PM ^
Cade took a couple of brutal hits as well...
January 1st, 2022 at 1:42 PM ^
I like JJ, and I thought he did as well as could be expected, but he managed one score (as did Cade in the first half), and that was in garbage time. It's not like he dominated, so looking at "what he accomplished" is not, to me, as clear as it may be to you.
I'm not being critical. JJ gave us a lot more options, and his feet certainly kept plays alive longer. But I don't think we need to be overly critical of Cade here either. The offense actually moved ok with him, and he did hit that long ball down the sideline.
That Georgia defense just ... was so much better than anything we've seen this year that Seth and Craig's repeated suggestions that the Bulldogs compared to Wisconsin turned out to be woefully incorrect.
January 1st, 2022 at 2:01 PM ^
He also drove to the 5 yard line and they turned it over on downs because of game situation. But that was more successful than Cade's FG drive. That said, it was garbage time, UGA wasn't played the way they were in the first half by that point.
But yeah, JJ was 7/17. Not exactly great. I also don't put blame on Cade for his two INTs. The first was clearly just a horribly missed PI and the second was on Baldwin for cutting off the route. When Cade threw it, I was like, yes good throw it up and let your WR make a play (instead of taking a sack or throwing it away) and then...where was the WR?
That said, JJ clearly has higher upside. I feel good about him going forward.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:09 PM ^
Too slow to adjust to Georgia getting passes to the edge in the first half.
Poor angles all night. Poor tackling all night. Gray just stopping. Almost every guy played poorly.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:10 PM ^
Parting gifts from 2021.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:12 PM ^
It's been masked well all season by good coaching, but damn was it apparent in this game that our defense isn't that talented. They're a solid unit, but we've had much better individual talent in other years. Pretty much anyone outside of Hutchinson, Dax, and Ojabo are talented, but they're just dudes. Not a ton of a playmakers otherwise
Not sure Macdonald could've drawn up anything to beat that if Stetson was just gonna be immaculate all night
January 1st, 2022 at 1:46 PM ^
Gray is the only M defensive starter that has clearly mediocre talent. The rest of them have good to great talent.
The guy that killed us by far the most last night was Colson. He's supremely talented but a true freshman that was pretty clueless all year. I don't understand how the coaches thought his upside outweighed the massive downsides.
If there was a UFR on this game, it wouldn't be pretty (as it usually was for him). Almost every big play was on him:
The first TD was his responsibility to have Bowers, almost every big run was on him hitting the wrong hole, both big Cook receptions (the deep pass wasn't a mental mistake, per se, so that's just a tough assignment but the TD was bruuutal the way he ran up and just let Cook run by him).
January 1st, 2022 at 4:43 PM ^
Yes! Colson was victimized on two TDs, and Gray inexplicably stopped running with the WR whom he had covered well and gave up the long TD before the half. Georgia knew where the weak spots were, and went right at them whenever an opportunity presented itself.
January 1st, 2022 at 4:55 PM ^
The long TD on Gray... I don't know if he just lost it in the lights, but to me it looked like the receiver also got away with a push off where maybe at the least gray could've prevented the TD. still a brutal call back to last year.
January 1st, 2022 at 1:57 PM ^
The defense is talented however when you hesitate just a moment you get behind the play. The SEC speed is a shock to a team who hasn't played it. They certainly have a higher talent recruited out of high school however our guys have speed as well. Colson did well to stay close down the sidelines with one of their speedsters for example. But he is still young and has trouble at times getting in the right place. But he will be a great player.
Out guys just got confused much of the time. Credit the DC of the Dogs.
They ran plays away from Hutch and Ojabo needed to have a great game. He was handled.
Lastly, the preparation on offense was perfect. The momentum was overwhelming in a fast game. Add to that back to back to back turnovers. The offense failed to score while turning the ball over.
The defense did better in the second than I thought possible.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:14 PM ^
The 14-0 hole put this game out of reach immediately. Our offense wasn’t built against that defense to try to play catch up.
I was recently talking about how well our coverage has been this year - rarely getting flat out beat on routes. We got flat out beat on routes tonight.
Georgia’s O-line was dominant, they had a smart game plan, and unfortunately that was the worst tackling game we’ve had this year. I quickly lost track of how many missed tackles and extra yards Georgia was picking up.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:27 AM ^
Our corners didn’t previously get beaten because our pass rush didn’t give QBs time to throw. Our DL was absolutely impotent tonight, giving Bennett a clean pocket in which to calmly pick apart our defense. Pretty simple.
January 1st, 2022 at 10:08 AM ^
These guys were DB's defense personified before the staff changes.
Which is why that guy isnt here anymore.
Not surprising that the deficiencies of a system that recruited players for that system are still lingering with a new staff.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
This might've been the most surprising aspect of the game, getting pushed off the LOS. There were a bunch of runs where it was the UGA line pushing the pile forward a la a vintage Hassan Haskins run.
Early on, and throughout the game, the defense didn't quite match the physicality of the UGA team. I also thought Georgia spread the field laterally making things easy for Bennett and putting their 5* athletes on our 3* DBs in space. It was a good game plan.
Colson getting toasted in coverage...Gray getting toasted in coverage or losing the ball or thinking the play was over (?). Didn't really have any margin for giving up big plays like those.
Too bad the UM pash rush never really got going.
I am excited to see how the position battles play out into next season and what Macdonald has on tap for his sophomore year.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:20 PM ^
Re: the Gray play.
That was a backbreaker. And Gray has been highly criticized going back to last year's disaster; I got after him after the WMU game this year.
But he was actually dominating that route until he just stopped running. It was bizarre. He could have had a pick if he had kept going, honestly. Something caused him to lose track of where the ball was going; maybe he was ahead of the receiver and thought that the receiver had pulled up or something, or thought the throw was shallower.
A bad mistake, but a weird one, because it wasn't a failure of physical ability. It was a game awareness thing that hasn't been demonstrated to be a consistent weakness. Just happened at the worst possible time.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:31 PM ^
Fowler and Herbstreit thought that Gray thought the play was over. Personally, I think Gray misjudged the flight of the ball--almost like he snapped his head around and saw "underthrow" and tried to PBU it.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:34 PM ^
That’s exactly what I thought happened; he misread the ball, thinking it was underthrown.
January 1st, 2022 at 8:37 AM ^
JH said in post game that he lost the ball in the lights.
Doesn't sound right, reciever had the same angle, he broke stride/tripped.
The linebacker angles on wheel routes were poor all night, but that O-line provided time to run the routes (UM had the same success with Edwards)
Game just showed how recruiting speed trumps game planning/coaching.
January 1st, 2022 at 1:37 PM ^
On a lot of those plays Bennett was throwing just as pressure arrived. He had a decent number of arm punts on which he didn't have a lot of time. Lot of credit to him for nailing them and to the TE for making a great catch on one, Gray got lost on another, and the RB just beat Colson on another.
January 1st, 2022 at 1:31 PM ^
In the press conference after the game, Harbaugh indicated that Gray lost the ball in the lights. I guess that would explain Green's reaction to a certain extent, but I just can't imagine why you wouldn't be reading the body language of the of the receiver you're covering before slowing up. In any case, that was the reason given for that play. It was also cited for Baldwin not making a play on the end zone pick.
I think Georgia did a good job managing favorable matchups against Michigan's least experienced defenders. their linebackers and corners on the outside. During the season, Michigan had been vulnerable to big plays but were usually bailed out by their rush.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:29 AM ^
Same weirdness when Baldwin stopped running the deep route that ended in an INT. Either they were confused or couldn’t track the ball. Very weird plays.
January 1st, 2022 at 9:08 AM ^
The Georgia WR deeked Gray there. He slowed up a bit as if the ball had been underthrown and turned on the jets when Gray bought it.
January 1st, 2022 at 1:34 PM ^
Exactly what I thought when watching the play live. I think the WR executed a perfect underthrown ball fake.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:39 PM ^
I will add in the RB pass, which UM played perfectly, but he was beaten so badly it looked like he must have been fooled….nope. (And Herbie, come on, you couldn’t see that?!?! Saying that the play fooled UM. No, the LBs went after the RB, as they should. The 2 DBs? Just woof.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:39 AM ^
For much of the year our interior DL didn't get much of a push. I was shocked in the OSU game how well it played. This looked more like it did pre-OSU. I thought the rush D hung in there decently, all things considered. Pass defense was another story.
January 1st, 2022 at 12:57 PM ^
talk about talent all you want, but we just had too many plays where guys seemingly gave up on plays where they initially had decent position and they turned out to be huge going the other way. gray had two, colson and baldwin. that's a potential 28 point difference right there.
we needed to force GA to earn their points and that didn't happen.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:16 PM ^
LB play has been suspect all year, Colson is the only one with speed and he still has no idea what he is doing. They took advantage of this by attacking the edges.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:17 PM ^
Anyone have McCray on Barkley flashbacks when Cook went out wide and , checks notes , Colson followed him with no safety help?
Good times.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:23 PM ^
You're always going to have LBs on RBs and Michigan had a plan to bracket Bowers so that's where the S help come in so it's picking your poison thing for Michigan defense. Either help out LBs or let Bowers go wild on you.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:29 PM ^
That happened twice. Harrell also got stuck in single coverage on Bowers, who is basically a big slot receiver.
On top of that, the corners had their worst game of the year and the ends mostly didn't do anything special.
Overall, easily the defense's worst game of the season.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:22 PM ^
Poor tackling with over matched speed. Add the lack of adjustment and here you are.
December 31st, 2021 at 11:22 PM ^
I think Dax arrived in Miami and the rest of the team took a flight out of town. Very disappointing game, but a huge improvement by Macdonald this season.
Big improvement is needed again next year if UM wants to play for all the marbles. Tough given the talent exiting to the NFL. We will really see the ability of Macdonald & his staff next year.
Go Blue.