Mailbag question: Defense was not the problem against Michigan State

Mailbag question: Defense was not the problem against Michigan State

Guys,

To me the defense was not the problem yesterday, but it sure does seem like most fans are blaming the defense! Why is this? They only gave up 20 points in 60 minutes and it could have gotten worse with that turnover inside the red zone along with the debacle punt deal in which both time the defense only gave up two field goal's.

When will people start blaming the offense and also the people calling the plays?

Tom T.

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Thanks for the question.

Football is the ultimate team game and all three phases should share in yesterday’s loss. At the end of the game crunch time all three phases had problems.

If anyone would have guaranteed us that Michigan’s defense could hold Michigan State's offense to only twenty points in sixty minutes of football, we would have predicted that UM would have won by two touchdowns.

GBMW thought the defense deserved a ton of praise yesterday. It held Michigan State to field goals twice when placed in terrible situations, by either a turnover or the fake punt, similar to the Indiana win.

The defense also held and got the offense the ball back twice in the fourth quarter. This gave Michigan a chance to win the game.

In our opinion many do not criticize the offense because they see this as criticizing Coach Rod, the same mode of operation as last season.

When a team only runs for 28 yards (1.0 average per rush) that presents grave problems winning games. Some fans do not believe time of possession is a huge deal, but when an offense is only on the field for 7:20 in the first half said team is going to struggle scoring points. Michigan State almost doubled the time of possession (39:46) against Michigan (20:14) and this stat takes into consideration that Michigan had the ball for almost seven minutes in the fourth quarter.

We also understand that Michigan will not win the time of possession battles many times because of how quickly the offense hurries to the line and uses the read-option offense to gain an advantage. But when this is not working and an offense is not getting first downs or scoring, this places an unnecessary burden on the defense (playing more snaps) and placing the responsibility for team success on a group that is currently a weakness.

Yes, some of what happened can be blamed on the defense for not getting off the field quick enough, but way too many three and outs, and putting the defense back on the field in so short of time, had to have really hurt the defense as well, especially since this group does not have the needed quality of depth and talent.

GBMW took some heat for pointing out the deficiencies in Michigan’s offense and not placing all the blame on the defense last season.

Bottom line is a team in a competitive game cannot play one quarter of football and expect to win. Somehow Michigan was given an opportunity against Michigan State to stay in the game in the fourth quarter and almost stole another win.

For this team to win in the Big Ten, it must come ready to play every game, every quarter, every snap, and every moment they are on the field. If not this season could get ugly, because the Big Ten season is only going to get tougher from here on out. Note: MSU is not as good as several teams remaining.

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Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine