Upon Further Review 2014: Defense vs Rutgers

FORMATION NOTES: Not a whole lot was different, but Michigan did line up in a number of under fronts…

…so that was frustrating what with Ross playing SAM and Ryan at MLB, neither of them doing particularly well.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Usual rotation on the line except Charlton got the start and played about the same number of snaps as Beyer. Hurst continues to get a few snaps, which is a change from earlier. LBs same; corners generally Lewis and Countess with Taylor coming in for the nickel, pushing Countess inside.

Wilson went the whole way; Clark was the other starter at S with Thomas coming in regularly.

[After THE JUMP: the center cannot hold.]

This is a bad team.

I'm promoting you to Major Obvious.

Is major a higher rank than captain?

I don't know. /googles

It is! It is in fact what you would be promoted to if you were Captain Obvious and did a really good job at your role!

This reminds me of something.

Yes, it reminds you of this football team, which does things right from time to time despite a haphazard approach to everything.

So this team is bad because…

Because the players aren't particularly good and don't know what they're doing and probably aren't in the right spots to take advantage of their abilities.

That seems pretty comprehensive CHART

You can't just throw it out there like that.

I can. I'm Major Obvious Haphazard, Esq.

Ah. All right. Please take the metrics into account for this one.

So. The thing is: this could have been worse. Rutgers had Michigan dead to rights on the fake punt but the upback's throw took about a decade to get there; they were lucky that Carroo fell over on a deep ball he was going to be wide open on…

…and Grant dropped a pretty easy fourth down conversion. Much easier to see this going even worse than to see it going better.

And so that's pretty much that for any hope you might have had. The defense we were all hyped up on just gave up 400 yards passing to Gary Nova a week after almost allowing David Cobb to run for 200. It may get better, it may not, but the continuing disorganization Michigan exhibits infects everything.

I feel very badly for Blake Countess.

I know. So the little angle route that went for 53 yards in the first half was addressed by Seth earlier this week, and I agree with his assessment: Countess lunged for a jam that he totally whiffed on, not only leaving his guy open by some three yards but preventing Lewis from closing on the angle.

I can add supporting evidence as well. Rutgers returned to this exact play later in the game:

No jam attempt by Countess, Lewis unimpeded, Lewis annoys route into incompletion.

So that's one thing. Then Mattison didn't name names but when asked what happened on the 80 yarder he made it clear it was not a safety issue:

"…we called a defense where a safety would be lower than usual to be able to help with the run and we didn’t get inside enough with another defensive back, and knowing the whole scheme of the defense, knowing where you’re a little bit weak- whenever you call a defense there’s always somebody that has a little bit more on his plate than everybody else or otherwise you’re going to run just straight generic defenses all the time, and it’s just a matter of everybody being focused in at that time to say, ‘Okay, I’m the one that can’t do this. I can’t bite on this out route right now. I can’t bite on this route because we’re a little bit weaker here’ "

Countess bit on the out route and when the ball got to the WR there wasn't anyone within a mile.

And then on the touchdown to end the first half Clark's non-sack did at least force Nova into a throw that was behind the WR, and hypothetically in a zone where a DB has a play on the ball. Countess was not close enough to make that play.

It's hard to believe he was an All Big Ten sneaky-good interception machine last year. This is like watching what happened to JT Floyd in reverse.

So the safeties are okay?

No. Jeremy Clark had an alarming game, his second or third. It's developing into a pattern. Here he's got his eyes on a wide receiver to the opposite hash the whole play in some truly inexplicable coverage:

A little dump to the TE there is not going to find anyone there to tackle on third and ten and he can't help on the slant.

That's fuzzy; this grim tackle attempt is facepalm-worthy.

Clark got yanked from time to time after making plays like the above, but Dymonte Thomas wasn't better. Here he threatens to turn a first down into a very big play by losing contain on a jet sweep:

That's basic, and he didn't even make it particularly difficult for the guy with the ball to read. He just set up inside.

Even Wilson, the reliable veteran, turned ten yards into 30 by taking a bad pursuit angle on a screen pass to start a Rutgers drive; he lined up way too far inside on a waggle and a fullback got a hefty catch and run on him.

Will you finally start tearing Greg Mattison into tiny bite-sized chunks?

Yes, okay legion of internet commenters who has been mad about my general enthusiasm/tolerance for Greg Mattison even at this late date: skepticism is creeping in here too. They've seemingly killed Blake Countess by not knowing what he's good at; the Ryan move was incredibly risky and has turned one of Michigan's main assets into an average-at-best player, and this was not real good tactically.

Michigan does not do a good job of disguising coverages. This was an issue they copped to after Notre Dame and it remains a problem. On this third and eight conversion Thomas rolled down to the LOS, suggesting cover three; Nova pointed it out to his offense and then confidently stepped into a timing throw at the weak spot of that zone.

Very rarely has any semi-competent quarterback looked confused by what Michigan is running. They think they're going to see something presnap, that is what they get, and Gary Nova ends up looking like a Heisman finalist.

Michigan had no answer for the jet sweep, either, letting it outside like they'd never seen such a thing.

The middle was open the whole game and this is on Jake Ryan?

Well… after an encouraging couple weeks the Ryan MLB hype train looks to be grinding to a halt. There's far too little of the old Ryan see-kill-destroy, too much of Ryan eating a lead block and going backwards. This is just…

…why did you think this was a middle linebacker, especially when he was already a star at SAM? And you need pass rush?

Moving Ryan to MLB has nerfed his great skills and put him in a position where he is frequently uncertain, or out of position, or both.

In coverage we've seen Ryan go after chucks on guys who are hardly threats over and over again this year, and that's not stopping. This week opened up a window for a slant on third and ten by paying far too much attention to a guy running a route only Iowa thinks is a viable third down strategy:

And he bit on nonexistent play action to allow another long-yardage conversion; when it was actually third and six he was nowhere to be found when Grant caught a drag route:

The missed tackle is insult to injury.

Moving a guy who had never played MLB to the position as a senior when you had Bolden, Ross, and Morgan coming back was one of those This Better Work decisions, and it does not appear to be working. The lack of Ryan's pass rush was badly felt in this game as well.

I mean, he's coping. He does some good things. He's JAG at MLB.

Give me a bright spot, anything.

Jourdan Lewis seems pretty good. He is generally in contact with receivers and has a knack for disrupting them. He just about got beat on one hitch and go but was close enough to 1) futz with the WR's arm and 2) get a hand in to deflect it away.

Later he'd get targeted deep, run with it better, and grab the WR's hand so he had to make a one-handed stab.

After the pass interference penalties to kick off serious playing time against ND, Lewis has calmed down with the ball in the air and looks like Michigan's most capable DB by some distance.

This is what happens when you apologize to the gypsy and not every throw at your guy is perfect. Unfortunately, Lewis apologizing to the gypsy set off a chain of unforeseen events that landed us in our current situation. Life!

Heroes?

Jourdan Lewis. Ryan Glasgow.

Maybe not so heroic?

Countess. All safeties. Life.

What does it mean for Penn State and beyond?

This is a bad football team. They are bad at football.