A Love Note to Michigan's Defense: Containing an OSU Offense w/3 1st-Round Picks
Bloody hell. Mike Macdonald, Jesse Minter, and everyone doing the Michigan Defense's recruiting, take a bow. In particular, Minter managed to do it with arguably less to work with.
We knew the Michigan's D played well, but the NFL draft gave us a more objective assessment of what they were playing against:
- Stroud goes 2nd overall, and NFL.com gives the Texans a B+ for picking him and another player, implying that Stroud was a good pick
- Johnson goes 6th overall, and NFL.com gives the Cardinals an 'A' grade for picking him
- JSN goes 20th overall, and NFL.com gives the Seahawks an A+ grade for picking him and another player (I know JSN wasn't available for the last Game, but when he did play, he acquitted himself nicely.)
To be fair, Michigan did this with a couple of 1st round picks of their own (Aiden Hutchinson and Dax Hill, 2nd and 31st respectively, last year, and Mazi Smith at 26th overall this year), but that gets balanced out in the previous Game by two MORE OSU offensive 1st-Rounders (Wilson at 10 and Olave at 11).
We've come a long way from the "we cant and shouldnt expect to beat OSU, the talent gap is too big" days of 2018-2020. Maybe scheme and coaching matters more than people think.
Obviously but I believe just as much credit - if not more - should be given to our offense which basically TOTALLY controlled their defense and kept their offense off the field especially in 2021.
OSU's offense is always explosive and will be again in 2023. Their season runs thorough that putrid defense and without improvement will once again get drilled by any decent offense - including ours which will be one of the best in the country - OBVIOUSLY
April 29th, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
Ryan Day is our secret weapon. May his seat stay ever frosty. Jim owns him in every way.
The difference between MacDonald's scheme and Brown's was Mike and Day.
If MacDonald and Minter truly have installed a form of the Ravens NFL defense then we’ve elevated our scheme to have a better chance of handling all that talent. I think it’s worth noting how much interaction there is between Jim and John Harbaugh with regards to scheme and football in general. That thinking/rethinking is a big part of why the last 2 years have gone so well.
Exactly. UM has a system with really good NFL players (but mostly not 1st rounders), built to first eliminate the run, then put a shell on explosives and downfield passing games.
O-line is built to control the tempo of the game and road grade and fully exploit the 4th quarter.
OSU doesn’t have a talent problem, they have a Michigan problem..just not a good matchup for their pass happy offense. Couple in their defense which has taken a step back on the d-line and secondary since Meyer left, and it makes sense.
I’d argue that the fact that so many of OSU’s top picks are receivers, is a reflection of an unbalanced roster and game theory approach.
will be interesting to see Harbaugh and staff with better talent (prospects) and classes coming in.
OSU has been really good the last two years. I think their bigger problem was that in 2021 Michigan had an insanely good pair of edges, and in 2022 Michigan had an insanely good trio of cover DBs. And Michigan had a run game that could bludgeon people (and put OSU in a position in 2022 where they had to be irresponsible to stop the run).
100%, like Coach Jim said over the summer, that last year's "no name" defense might be better than the year before with Hutch and O-ja-bo!
Also, got to give a shout-out to two of many great performances. Mikey Sainristil, a self-less player, coming over from WR, leading from the sidelines, rallying the D at the start of the 4th Q, and then the two PBU's, 4 pt plays, on Stover and the slant on the goal line. He and true freshman Will Johnson had a couple of great performances keeping that great offense in check in the second half.
Over the past two years combined, OSU has had 3 plays of 30+ yards against U-M. (For context, U-M has had 10.)
They’ve made OSU drive the field and convert in the red zone. Against that level of talent, that’s all you can ask.
Richard75,
Former M DB Steve King (92-96) used to tell me exactly what you said. Steve said the defensive culture was built around making OSU have to go 80 plus yards to score and make them have to use 12-14 plays to do it. He talked about how OSU would rip teams apart with big plays all year and never really do the little things needed to sustain drives against good defenses.
Mattison and Carr were hugely influential in this culture and it gave the team a quiet confidence about The Game throughout Schembechler Hall.
April 29th, 2023 at 12:45 PM ^
Ths Carr part makes sense to me given his long history and ties to the university, but Mattison? No way.
Not to mention Marvin Harrison Jr.
April 29th, 2023 at 11:15 AM ^
This. MHJ is universally regarded as the best receiver tOSU has had these past several years, better than a slew of 1st round picks
MHJ, if fully healthy for 6+ years and having a QB that can just get the ball near him, has NFL HOF receiver written all over him. While it's generally unfair to put this type of pressure on any player, MHJ is just a phenomenal on field talent and athletic specimen.
Size, catch radius, body control, route running, top end speed, acceleration, ball skills - the kid has absolutely everything. I never paid attention to his blocking but tbh, that doesn't matter with a generational talent like MHJ. He's the best of the OSU receivers that have come through, by a wide margin.
Njigba is incredible, but not sure how he will match up on the outside against elite NFL QB's - he's not quite as big and strong. I think in the slot he will be dynamite in the right system. He should be All-pro, but wouldn't quite make a HOF career prediction like I would with MHJ.
The 'talent gap' was there in specific spots, think slot rcvr vs our nickel, OL vs a poor DL, slow LBs vs an explosive passing game, etc. Those are things that OSU was easily able to exploit - and the more those gaps were exploited, the more desperate and out of character Michigan had to play.
The defensive scheme clearly has a say, also. Don Brown's defense gets much maligned around here, but remember that he was brought in to stop Urban Meyer's spread to run power game - and it worked like a charm. The 2016 and 2017 games were defensive masterpieces brought down by bullshit refs and QB injuries. And that was done with inherited players that 'had a talent gap'. His problem was that he refused to zag after OSU zigged. He was too absolute in his beliefs and never adapted to new realities.
The scheme change to Baltimore's defense with MacDonald was that zag. And it's worked quite well. It will continue to work so long as Ryan Day doesn't change his offense to do something else. When (if) he does, they'll beat us unless Michigan adapts to it. And with this seemingly refreshed version of Harbaugh - they guy we had in 2016 and 2017 - I believe Michigan will zig before OSU zags. I have no faith that Day can out-coach Jim MF'in Harbaugh.
Jim Harbaugh is a machine. :format(png)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/49070119/Screen_Shot_2016-03-14_at_8.54.54_AM.0.0.png)
3* mafia crushing the mercenaries of ohio. ohio fans mock our recruiting and tout their own as the assembly of the gods.
and yet, this:
bwahahaha
Great perspective on the situation and it is always good to revisit winning ways. Those that study history are bound to repeat it. Beat OSU by not beating yourself.
April 29th, 2023 at 11:22 AM ^
Those who forget their history are bound to repeat it. Lone Rangering can make you go blind.
JSN is legit. He was, IMO, better than Olave and Garret Wilson from the 2021 team and kept Marvin Harrison Jr on the bench. If he didn't get injured last year OSUs season could have been different and horrifying.
Both ‘21 and ‘22 were coaching wins. In both cases, we built our defense around stopping OSU’s strength on offense, while the lazy OSU coaching staff built nothing that addressed our strengths on offense. Game, set, match Michigan. Last year’s game was particularly illuminating. Without Hutch and Ojabo, we had less inherent pressure on Stroud, but took him out of his game anyway by taking away his first option time and again. This in a game at OSU, who had been hearing about the beat down we put on them in ‘21 for a full year. Harbaugh and his staff looked like geniuses compared to Day and his island of broken toys. Can’t wait to make it 3 in a row come November, and I can only hope that our victory will be crowned with a picture of Day sitting alone in a golf cart, wolfing down a cold pizza.
Ryan Day seems to be a good human being from a difficult upbringing (father committed suicide). He's not a complete scumbag like Myer or hypocrite like Tressel. It's hard to have the same vitriol for Day as his predecessors.
That said, I'm sure part of my sentiments come from beating them the last 2 years instead of he other way around.
April 29th, 2023 at 10:42 AM ^
The hang 100 comment and the fact that he coaches for OSU is reason enough for me. Definitely not Meyer level, I hated him before OSU and it felt like Vader getting the death star.
April 29th, 2023 at 10:47 AM ^
I agree with everything you are saying but JSN receiving just Stover's targets could have easily changed two of the most important plays of the game (For Reference: fails 4th and 2, Sainristil becomes a living legend).
BUT Corum maybe wins the Heisman if he stayed healthy and hypotheticals like this don't matter. Best team won.
Edit: also they maybe put away Georgia and win a national title. I like this universe much better.
For this reason, Michigan has to continue building its defense.
Michigan gave up over 700 passing yards between OSU and Purdue.
The big thing was, we kept both teams out of the endzone, making a TON of "4 point plays" (as Minter likes to call them). Combined they were 8/8 on FGs and only one was over 45 yards (47 from Ruggles). Five were inside 35 yards. That's 5 key stops deep in our territory, in two games.
Hats off to them for the "bend but don't break"...they didn't. But we have to continue building to keep those from being touchdowns in the future.
McDonald and Minter have been A++. Love the Patridge addition. Clinkscale is technically co-DC and Defensive Passing Game Coordinator, he deserved more credit than he gets. These guys have done what it takes, because the talent on the otherside has been as good as Michigan has ever seen.
They've had better OSU teams (I'd say due to coaching), but I can't say they've had more talented OSU teams. Our guys have answered the call and if this is going to be the year, they'll need to do it again.
It seems that some credit should go to offense and its style against OSU. I do not have the stats but I am certain that the long offensive drives, especially in 21, had a major impact on giving OSU fewer offensive plays than they were used to.
Here’s the thing - OSU had the higher TOP in 2021. So they had plenty of plays. But they were getting smashed apart by the OL, Haskins, and Hutchinson
Go Blue!
Blow glue all over the The osu’s offense!
Add to that:
Olave & Wilson who as rookies already proved to be Top-15 NFL receivers. Marvin Harrison Jr. who if eligible this year would have been a top 5/10 pick and the first WR off the board; which he will be next year, two OL who are projected as First round picks next year, and Emeka Egbuka, another 1st round talent.
And we constantly forced them into field goals. And this wasn’t due to turnover luck, as the only turnovers in the last two years occurred when the game was pretty much or very much out of reach.
April 29th, 2023 at 12:30 PM ^
A love note to OSU's offense...
According to Allen Trieu next year they are going to have 7 first round picks and we'll have none, yet we're going beat that team too.
And they know it.
Our defense was not dominant against OSU the last two games, but it did just enough . . . holding them to several field goals while our offense was scoring TDs. It was the perfect game plan against them and it frustrated them versus what they were used to all season (see for example: their blowout Sparty games two years in a row).
Curious to know if Jim could pick again if he'd have picked Minter over MacDonald, as Minter finished a close second the first time around.