Michigan Football: Grading defense, teams and coaching vs Rutgers

Michigan football needed three overtimes to beat Rutgers on Saturday and here are our grades for the defense, special teams and coaching.

It was good to see the Michigan football team finally pull out a win this week at Rutgers, but it was also discouraging that it took three overtimes and that the defense struggled again.

The final numbers for Noah Vedral were passing for 381 yards and three touchdowns. He had well over 300 even at the end of regulation and for the season, the defense is giving up 273 yards per game. Vedral also more than doubled his season average in terms of passing yards.

However, the worrisome stats about the defense could go on and on. In the past four games, Michigan football has forced just two turnovers and been credited with just three sacks.

The Wolverines also have one red zone stop this year. One. That’s not just bad, it’s atrocious. Good defenses stop people in the red zone and Michigan football, by every possible measurement is just a bad defense.

To be fair, there were improvements Saturday night. The run defense was solid and allowed less than three yards per attempt and the defense did come up with some key stops. You don’t rally from 17 down without a little help and even though the turnover didn’t come until the final play, Don Brown’s unit did force some key three and outs.

After some really poor grades the past two weeks, here are the grades for the defense, special teams and coaching, but we’ll start with the defense. (Offensive grades click here)