So, is this defense good or not?

We have found out that Iowa's offense sucks. They haven't scored a TD in 2 games. M was throttled by Wisconsin so the jury is out until Saturday night. 

I don't think PSU is as good at any one thing as Wisconsin is at running the ball so I think the defense will fare better against PSU but they'll eventually gas due to the offenses futility.

It's better than I though it would be.  However to make up for this the offense is worse than I expected.  

I lean towards very good. The defense is where everyone wishes the offense was. Ie, fans have incredibly high standards because of how good they have been. The 2016 defense was the best under Harbaugh, but the defense has been very good to great every years he's been here. I think this defense is probably on the lower end of that scale, but they are improving with guys like McGrone coming into the lineup. Top ten, which is better than I expected. I thought maybe 12-15 range. But I also thought the offense would be in the 10-15 range as opposed to 54th. 

It's good, it's bad, it's good, it's bad

It's okay, how about that? 

This defense is good.  We've just been spoiled by great-to near great defenses the past 4 years.  

We lost 2 dudes at Defensive end, some guys at DT, a dude and a guy in the secondary and a dude at MLB.   The D predictably has taken a step back this year.

With 9 returning starters the O should have been able to more than make up for a bit of a drop in D and that hasn't happened.  

This D has fared about as well as could be expected.   The drop-off on the other side of the ball makes no sense.  

Yes, this defense is good but not great. However, this defense isn't good enough to endure Michigan's lack of offense.  The defense has been forced to be on the field for waaaay tooo long.  The grinding Michigan O from last year would compliment this defense much better than this quick three-and-out (#SpadeInSpace) and TO plagued Offense.

If Michigan can't sustain drives or put up points, this defense is gonna eventually fade at the end.

Magic 8 Ball says Ask Again Later. Next 2 weeks will tell us alot

Like the offense, the defense has been inconsistent from good to bad.  But the defense's amount of variance to the good side has been demonstrably better than the offense's variance to the good side.  In other words, the defense has shown flashes and decently long stretches that prove they can be dominant.  The offense really hasn't shown jack yet.

As once said in the Madden Football video game

This is either bad, bad offense or good, good defense.

Will find out in the next two weeks. But it is better than the coaching and the offense has been so far this season.

Yes, no, maybe so.

We'll find out vs PSU & ND

remember: on the mgoboard, if it's not perfect, it's horrible. don brown is a "pussy" who doesn't ever make in-game adjustments because ???, according to our loudest "fans". 

in reality 95% of college teams would kill for the defense we've put on the field since even before brown came on board. this year we are weak on the D-line and that makes us more exploitable, but yeah i think we're still very good. also we lost 4 starters that were drafted in the first 3 rounds and have  reloaded, so let's not forget that that's also very good!

The D is good, but not elite like it was in the past few years.  The difference is highlighted when the O gives up the ball on a turnover, leaving the other team with a short field to go to score.  Previously, the D usually shut down the other team, holding 'em to a field goal at most.  This year, the D is giving up touchdowns when forced to defend a short field.

Very good defense 

It seems to be a solid defense. If you could pair it with a top 20ish offense, we'd probably be a title contender. It still may be a defense that cedes 50+ points to OSU

It's good. However, I suspect by "good" you mean great, dominating, holding-every-team-under-2-touchdowns. If that's what you mean by good, nope. But if you mean good, yep.

It's good. However, I suspect by "good" you mean great, dominating, holding-every-team-under-2-touchdowns. If that's what you mean by good, nope. But if you mean good, yep.

All I know is, my gut says maybe

This defense has been good overall save for the performance at Wisconsin in the first half (keep in mind the Badgers scored nothing in the 2nd half; yes, too little, too late, but...).  However, it definitely has taken a step back due to star power loss.

Don Browns defense is yet again above average but not elite or able to compete vs good offenses

I think we have a big enough sample size to know Don Brown does not produce ELITE defenses. He produces stat stuffing defenses that dominate immobile QBs and bad teams and get exposed in big games

My prediction is Michigan will be out of the top 25 in 11 days and they’ll have Pam Ward announce the msu game. 

Good?  Yes.  Elite?  No.  They are and will be dominant at times, and at others they are and will be completely maddening.  

I'd like to see our defense fully healthy. Weve been missing pieces all year. Throw Ross, Hill, Dwumfour, Paye and Jeter in here all year and I think the defense would've looked a ton better. With Mcgrones emergence, I cant wait to see him play with Ross

Regarding Illinois’ 3rd quarter - I think it was a combination of Illinois using tempo and our guys falling asleep when we got up 28-0.

?‍♂️

Good.

When they are schemed to play fundamentals like zone coverage and gap control then they are very good. However, when they are schemed to play Browns experimental pressure packages that seems difficult to follow then they give up a ton of big plays resulting in tons of points. 

The defense is obviously good. SP+ has them as the #2 overall defense. They have at least 6 players that will make an NFL roster. They got curb stomped by an offense that was a really bad matchup (and also just curb stomped a good defense that was a much better matchup) while they were still figuring things out. Will they get lit up by OSU? Possibly! OSU is real good! But it’s absolutely a good defense and has far outperformed reasonable expectations for the year. 

I’d say the defense is okay, not great at all. Our only big test and it got its doors blown off. We’ll find out Saturday night as well as next week. 

What I've seen the over the years is vs any good OC and good team, too many players get caught uphill and the middle is barren, and we get gashed repeatedly.  Though it works well vs weaker opponents, to me it is unsound.   I hope I'm wrong,  and/or Brown tweaks it. But with a newbie in McGrone, who is still learning, we are very vulnerable.  I'm hoping Ross returns in the middle and they put McGrone on outside.  

So far our defense has been very good to excellent.  The turnovers and 3 & outs have a lot of pressure on the defense, and they have held up well.

It's good, top 40. I still think they get blasted by osu, will give up 30 to ND, will shut down msu maybe 7 points, I think PSU scores in the 20s. 

Depends on how you want to define “good.”

We’ve been spoiled recently with top 5 units. This unit is a step down from that. Probably in the 15-20 range, possibly top 15. So good, great even. But short of elite. 
 

Wisconsin was a really bad matchup for us from a personnel and scheme standpoint. We were hurting for depth at DT and Dwumfour was out still. Not exactly a recipe for success against a team who likes to run power and uses 6-7 OL fairly frequently.