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Michigan’s defense took something of a step backward in 2019, but when you say that, it wasn’t an overall regression.
The Wolverines attack under Don Brown finished No. 11 in total defense, by far his lowest since arriving in Ann Arbor, considering he hasn’t overseen a defense worst than third since coming in 2016. But, the maize and blue surprisingly gave up more than 300 yards in the season opener against Middle Tennessee before getting gashed at Wisconsin a few weeks later.
And we all know what happened against Ohio State, who one-upped its offensive performance from the year before.
Speaking with Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast, Brown walked through the season, sharing the ups and downs, particularly noting that while the team got better, the defense has to be better against the Buckeyes.
“I’ll tell you what, it was a group of guys, we found a way to win in the opener, and I thought played extremely well against Army, which took a lot of preparation time during the preseason, during spring practice and right through fall camp and through the early weeks, you were making sure that you were giving Army their undivided attention,” Brown said. “In retrospect, I think it hurt us a little bit in the Wisconsin game. Because obviously they’re a completely different style of offense, and we didn’t play very well and that starts with me. But the next eight weeks, I thought the response from the Wisconsin loss was what you’d expect from a Michigan football team. Guys went to work, played hard, got it right, and we went on a scenario there where we won seven of eight games and gave up less than 300 yards in all of those games. And there were some good teams there. Notre Dame, obviously. Michigan State. Indiana was 24th in the country when we played them.
“Unfortunately we didn’t get the job done in the Ohio State game, and that’ll be something we have to deal with and we are dealing with and we are preparing for. The bottom line is we just shut up and go to work.
“Thought we played really hard against a very talented Alabama offense. There’s some things that we did in that game for stretches of that game that were really, really good against a team that has speed at every skill position and talent across the board in their offensive line. But I think those kinds of games, you really get exposed as to what your weaknesses are, so it helps you in terms of evaluating performance, evaluating where we need to get better, and we’re certainly working hard at that.”
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While the Alabama game did prove that the Wolverines defense under Brown has it in them to stand up to a high-powered offense — Michigan held the Crimson Tide to their lowest point total of the season and third-lowest yardage output — a consolation game against a college football powerhouse isn’t what’s really on the mind.
Of course, it’s Ohio State. And Michigan has shown no proclivity the past two years about stopping, stalling or even brushing against the Buckeyes offense as it moves on down the field.
What has to change? Some of it? All of it?
Brown says that they’re continuing to add things to the schedule now in preparation for their hated rival, but ultimately, it comes down to knowing the assignment, executing it, and not getting stage fright. Which, yes, all of the above have seemingly been issues for the Wolverines in The Game as of late.
“We just need to play the way we’re capable of playing,” Brown said. “Know that sounds like rhetoric, but don’t make the stage too big, and certainly just prepare and play the game the way you’re capable of playing it. Just play at a high level, make sure we’re prepared. Really, the big thing that we’ve done a good job of, we’re building it into our practice schedule. But, stay even-keeled about it, make sure that we’re focused on the task at hand. Technique and fundamentally, we’ve gotta just play the game the way we’re capable of playing. Don’t make the stage too big.”
Assuredly, that won’t be enough to satiate fans. The only thing that will be is to reverse the fortunes of the Buckeyes by getting a win in Columbus this fall. That will be the only metric by which progress can and will be measured, and if Brown didn’t know that before last year, he certainly does now.