i'm reading a lot about how ohio state has one of the worst defenses in the league around different forums. how we struggle against the short - intermediate passes, how we can't tackle in space, and so on.
take away a deep pass to a fullback (wow..btw) and a bad special teams effort in tackling a return man, ohio state's defense surrendered 6 points against purdue. that would indicate, hypothetically, that ohio state gave up ~270 yards against a team that leaned heavily on a screen game. with only 1 starter in the linebacker corps available (shazier), i'd say our defense did dam* well. it was frustrating to watch death by screen balls, or so i thought at the time..but the complete game was a great defensive effort. noah spence and nate williams on the field at the same time is a great look for pass heavy offenses.
i think we turned a page defensively this week. i'm confident the coaches can come up with a game plan that will make either kenny g. or braxton effective against the rest of the big ten teams because the defense will keep us in the games. my big asteric this week is that if storm klein is in on a pass play it's a big liability at this point, as we all know from the missed coverage on play #1. not to hate on the guy, just simply saying it like it is.
I definitely agree that the defense did better this week, but they scored on a drive with six straight screen passes. We need to learn how to defend those, and Storm Klein in the middle is awful. I'd love to see Perkins/Marcus seeing some time on defense. But otherwise, I thought the defense wasn't that terrible.
I wouldn't cheer for Michigan if they were playing the Taliban.
Defense was better, but I think we'll need to see more before declaring that they have turned a page.
The D was great when it really counted. Solid as a rock the last few minutes of regulation and pure domination in OT.
An angry fan...rooting for an angry team...led by angry coaches
The defense stepped up huge in OT. Good to see them rally up in crunch time like that. It wasnt a horrible day for the defense. Better than I have seen in the past few weeks. They gave up that big play right at the beginning of the game and let them convert on a few third downs which sucked but for the most part they played pretty good.
This was exactly what I was saying in other forums though about not relying soley on the offense because there can be games where they might struggle to get it going. I mean look at how WVU is playing now. 2 straight losses because they have a horrendous defense and the offense is struggling right now. The boys arent there yet thats for sure but they are getting there. I think this coming game in happy valley will be a huge test for them.
I must say I was pretty happy with the overall performace of the D against Purdue.