Grading Michigan Football’s defense in loss to Michigan State

Michigan football’s defense struggled in a loss to Michigan State on Saturday and here are the grades for the defense and special teams.

During his time as defensive coordinator of Michigan football, Don Brown’s defenses have had some good days. But they have had some bad ones too and Saturday’s loss ranked right up there.

It’s not like 27 points is a ton and in today’s world of college football, if your defense holds someone around 20 points, you should be able to win.

The problem is that Michigan football’s offense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain and the 24 points it scored proved not to be enough.

To be fair, there were problems on both sides of the ball and it would be folly to put the blame solely on the offense or the defense.

The bottom line is that neither group did enough to win the game. Coaches and players always talk about making big plays and Michigan clearly didn’t make enough to win the game.

Rocky Lombardi threw for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns and the Michigan State running game, while not dominant by any means, racked up 126 yards as the Spartans finished with 449 total and 27 points, points they scored without the benefit of a turnover.

That’s the strangest thing about this upset. It’s not like Michigan football turned it over a bunch like MSU did against Rutgers. The Wolverines just got beat and that’s maybe the biggest concern.

As far as the defense is concerned though, he’s a look at the grades starting with the defensive line.