Indiana Snowflakes: The Defense
October 8th, 2022 at 3:47 PM ^
After today, Bazelak on the season has 32 "rushes" for -131 yards.
Yes, it's stupid that CFB sacks are counted against rushing instead of passing.
But still, he must be on pace for some sort of record.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:11 AM ^
Yeah, I despise sacks counting as rushing yards. Still wild though.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:47 PM ^
Pass rush making strides. Still feels like linebacker play is a real problem.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:06 PM ^
Yeah the fact that Rolder has been seeing time speaks to that. That’s not to say he isn’t going to be a good player, but this is not a case of a Mason Graham coming in and earning a spot because he’s too good not to play. This is a case of subpar LB play.
Our DL is the strength of the D. Gemon Green just isn’t giving up anything. Teams have been attacking Turner it seems like.
October 8th, 2022 at 5:45 PM ^
The fact that I forgot Green was on the team speaks to how well he's been playing. Teams are just not going his way at all.
October 8th, 2022 at 7:26 PM ^
The rumor is that David Long used to play for us but I dont think its true. Give me all these cornerbacks!
October 9th, 2022 at 7:41 AM ^
Hill-Green injury might have something to do with this too.
And I’m not convinced Mullings doesn’t help the team more as a bigger body RB (yes, based off pretty much 1 run in the spring game!) than as a LB on a healthy team.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:28 PM ^
LB probably the weakest part of the defense, but I think Minter really should have endeared himself to the fan base today. He’s continuing a system the guys enjoyed success with last year and Michigan didn’t seem completely confused by a tempo offense.
Okie is a hell of an addition too!
October 8th, 2022 at 8:53 PM ^
I was not sold on Minter due to lack of top level experience, but his coaching today helped to alleviate my concerns.
Lots of coaches will stay with a bad game plan a lot longer than he did. By the second quarter he had abandoned the man/levels concepts almost completely. Then at the half made adjustments that virtually eliminated the screens.
Nice job.
October 9th, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^
Aside from years of college experience that dwarfed anything Macdonald had (which was zero), Minter was a DC at an SEC school.
October 8th, 2022 at 11:39 PM ^
Well, they were actually thoroughly confused by tempo. However, they managed to clean that up during the game, which is pretty impressive in itself.
(I'm not sure if you could see it on the broadcast, but I can assure you that there was the biggest coverage bust you'll ever see on IU's first third down play. IU had 3 receivers to the field side and Michigan had only two defenders, one of whom was busy sniping at the other to bring help even as the ball was snapped.
If Baselak had been able to stand upright on that particular play, it would have been the easiest touchdown of his life.
The biggest second-half adjustment seemed to be playing a lot more press coverage, which nerfed some of IU's screen attack.
October 8th, 2022 at 11:39 PM ^
double :(
October 9th, 2022 at 7:43 AM ^
Damn…
If you were there, please inundate this thread with what you could see that TV didn’t show. Not being snarky in the least.
Last year at MSU, seemed UM couldn’t get guys on and off the field. They didn’t know what personnel was to be out there, let alone play & coverage responsibilities. That wasn’t nearly as evident yesterday.
October 9th, 2022 at 9:41 AM ^
I was not at the game so could only see what they showed on TV, but it seemed like UM had figured out at least one trick to slow their speedy play when we substituted fairly late, across the field and while taking some time to do it, which seemed intentional to give the other 10 players a quick breath. Only works, of course, when IU substituted themselves. And when the refs saw it happening and didn't start play too quickly and penalize UM for it.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:48 PM ^
Defense looked a little sus in the first half, not gonna lie. But damn if those second half adjustments weren’t on target!
Best second half of defense we’ve seen all season. Well done.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^
I felt like bad calls went both ways (we recieved more bad calls) but both those scoring drives felt very whistle aided.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:55 PM ^
The first one included the taunting penalty that while technically is a penalty doesn't really get called all that often because why wouldn't you let people celebrate and have fun?
The second one included a penalty that wasn't a penalty that the announcers were talking about how good Michigan was handling it when the refs were calling a penalty, fucking bizarro world.
October 8th, 2022 at 11:02 PM ^
Throat slashing is a penalty, but that’s not what he did. So it’s doubly stupid.
October 9th, 2022 at 7:45 AM ^
Marvin Harrison, Jr. did the same thing after a big gain in their win against MSU… no penalty.
Came back into the room later in the evening to a paused BYU/ND game. Wife pushes play to show me the ND linebacker who made the gesture after a big stop at the goal line and asked why it was a penalty in the Michigan game but not there.
As the kids would say…Refs gonna ref.
October 8th, 2022 at 5:42 PM ^
Honest question. Never played organized football. What makes it easier for coaches to make adjustments at half rather than in between series? Obvious answer being, there is an active game occurring between series and A LOT is going on. What is going on at half that can’t on the sidelines? Thanks!
October 8th, 2022 at 5:58 PM ^
Short answer to your question is just time. But there are adjustments made during the game but they are minor fixes by the position coaches. Halftime is nice because the HC will address the team while that's happening the whole coaching staff (OC with his position coaches and the DC with his coaches) meets to figure out the gameplan going forward. When they finish the OC and DC will speak to their side of the ball. Because coordinators have to call plays they don't have time to really do a lot of coaching on the sideline, halftime they get 10 minutes to speak to their guys uninterrupted.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:48 PM ^
Minter definitely showed his coaching chops to adjust to the WR screen game. The heat from the D line was beautiful. Bazelak saved his brain by throwing high balls way out of bounds over and over again.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:06 PM ^
Did he though? It took way too long to shade a linebacker over there. Not like Indiana was ever going to run on us if we lightened the box.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:45 PM ^
Some credit to the Indiana wide receivers, of course, but once Michigan’s defensive backs started to not sit back and eat blocks, the screens lost efficiency. Thanks to some good pass rush, once they got to drop back downs, Indiana was in for rough sledding.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^
It looked like they had trouble at first with Indiana’s pace, but they limited them to 40 something in the second half and the pass rush was relentless. Very encouraging.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^
7 or 8 sacks. Maybe we should ask Bazelak.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:51 PM ^
Don’t ask him - dude is dazed and confused right now
October 8th, 2022 at 6:45 PM ^
That's an unsportsmanlike conduct..
October 8th, 2022 at 3:59 PM ^
And that's with a million or so lobs thrown out of bounds. That was a quite performance by the dline.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^
Defense is getting sacks!
October 8th, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^
IIRC, Indiana only had 21 second-half yards until their garbage-time drive at the end. Impressive turnaround from what happened in the first half. The defense either hit IU's quarterback and/or forced a throwaway on almost every passing play in the 2nd half. Hopefully they can do that moving forward.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:16 PM ^
the “garbage time drive” was six plays, eight yards.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
The adjustment to the screens was exceptional. I counted 4 screen attempts that straight-up weren't there in the 2nd half.
Also, it seems like Okie is emerging as a leader on the defense. They caught a couple candids of him on the sidelines talking other guys up, getting people hyped, etc. Really nice to see his continued emergence.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:54 PM ^
I know the RT is very bad but we are seeing everything we could have dreamed for from Okie. Really McGregor and Moore are also looking very promising.
October 8th, 2022 at 11:17 PM ^
I know it's still this season, but if Okie sticks around, I'm very excited about the DE position next year
October 8th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
We were a little confused early but overall that was pretty dominating. The second half was a destruction. Okie is the wild card. He is getting better and better. Minter did a great job making adjustments. We had them figured out in the second half. Kudos to the coaches.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:51 PM ^
Scary as hell the first half but Minter adjusted and clamped it down. Okie needs to be on the field all the time.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:51 PM ^
Sloppy and unfocused in the first half. Absolutely outstanding in the second half.
October 9th, 2022 at 1:42 PM ^
Football is an emotional game. If you're not all there it's hard to play at a high level. I'm sure they were not all there for most of first half and the 1st 2 drives were ref shows. If they don't flag Harrell for unsportsmanlike conduct its 2nd or 3rd and very long.
Hope Mike Hart is OK and is back with the team when he gets cleared to fly home.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:51 PM ^
Defense did great. Only gave up 10 and the touchdown drive that they gave up had a poor unsportsmanlike penalty called that turned a 3rd and 20 into a 1st and 10.
Great pass rush, especially in the 2nd half.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:57 PM ^
Those Indiana players in the black and white striped uniforms were the best part of their offense. Defense struggled with them extending drives.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^
Adjusted and mushed them in second half. Win and advance
October 8th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^
That d-line!
October 8th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^
Minter took the hint...er and adjusted like a baseball player with jock itch.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:53 PM ^
Starting to look as if we may have a pretty good pass rush.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
Competition caveats apply, but overall it's more optimistic than we were in the preseason. I'm loving Okie - there was no legitimate reason to expect him to be anywhere near this good. Great pickup for him and the team.
October 8th, 2022 at 4:51 PM ^
Id say its looking up but I think today was more an utterly trash IU OL. Theres a reason IUs game plan was to pass the ball immediately. They couldnt hold up for 2 seconds
October 8th, 2022 at 3:53 PM ^
I grade the defense with an A overall.
October 8th, 2022 at 3:53 PM ^
If we can figure out our linebacker play, we can be absolutely dangerous. Not sure it’s fixable