Michigan Football: Defensive Review vs. Oregon State
By Jay Meade
I was pleasantly surprised with Michigan football on Saturday against Oregon State. Here is my defensive review for the game.
More from Michigan Football
- 3 things to watch for Michigan football vs. Rutgers
- Michigan football vs. Rutgers: Prediction, Odds, Spread and Over/Under for College Football Week 4
- Michigan Wolverines news: Jim Harbaugh wants J.J. McCarthy ‘gunslinging’, plus a drop in recruiting rankings
- Grades, game balls for Michigan football vs. Bowling Green
- Michigan Wolverines news: Jake Moody is money in the NFL, plus more
It started off a tad bit rocky, but we finally started to pull through and look like Michigan again! We fought some adversity and played a fairly talented team with a chip on our shoulder. They gave us their hand early and we played the cards that were dealt.
In the first quarter of the game, on the first drive, Oregon State marched down the field for 79 yards and grabbed the first touchdown of the game in less than two minutes. We didn’t look too great on defense, but we didn’t look bad either. It was like that though the whole first quarter.
During the first quarter I didn’t think we were getting enough pressure on the quarterback during passing situations. Chris Wormley seemed to be the only one who could actually get in most of the time. The defense however was stuffing almost every run due to some terrific play recognition, and even shut down the very athletic Seth Collins.
We were kind of letting them pass at will for short gains. That led to us getting gashed pretty badly by Collins on a read option play. Collins wasn’t able to do much else. When he tried to hurdle a defender, he was snatched out of the air and put to the ground by Jabrill Peppers.
The second quarter started off a bit rocky as well. Our coverage was taken advantage of for a nice gain to begin the quarter. After that, Collins would try to break a run on the outside before Delano Hill stopped that progression with a beautiful one-on-one takedown in the open field. It was a hit that seemed to say, “Welcome to big-boy play.”
It was all downhill from there. The team still seemed to be lacking the penetration needed to really fluster a better quarterback. Our coverage, on the other hand, was picking up the slack. Oregon State was stopped a few times by a stingy Michigan defense.
Then there was the play, the call, the blowup—whatever you want to call it. Off of a bad snap that resulted in the punter bobbling the football and running outside of the tackle box, Jeremy Clark would get into the backfield and, after the punter released the ball, Clark ran right into him.
Flag. Flag? Flag?!
As confused and upset as I was, Harbaugh was my on-the-field anger. He defended his team from a call that the refs maybe forgot the rules to. While Harbaugh was firing from all cylinders, and looking like his typical self, the team seemed to feed off of this. It was like watching Bo Schembechler, and the players loved what their coach was doing for them.
This time on fourth down, it was like there was a “ball don’t lie” kind of moment. The center would snap the ball so high above the punter’s head that it went all the way down the side of the field where Michigan could capitalize.
Breaking down the third and fourth quarters won’t take much time at all.
Michigan went on to absolutely dominate the entire second half; Oregon State couldn’t move the ball. Chris Wormley was looking terrific, and looked more comfortable as he was getting plenty of penetration.
In the fourth quarter Peppers had a really nice hit on a Beavers receiver and Desmond Morgan would follow that by chasing down the backup quarterback for a sack.
In the entire second half Oregon State only picked up one first down. Some of you may not remember my defensive article earlier this year, but if Michigan can tweak just a couple more things, it will prove true.
Throughout this game, we held Oregon State to just 138 yards and a very high majority of that was in the first quarter. That means we dominated three quarters of football. I don’t care who you are or who you’re a fan of, that’s impressive against any team.
Oregon State was also held to only 12 first down. Turnovers even picked up this week. Michigan forced two fumbles and recovered one for 18 yards. Oregon State only saw the red zone one time. If defense is what makes a team great again, write us in. We made a statement last Saturday and I expect that won’t stop anytime soon.