Tuesday Thoughts: On concern the Michigan defense might be ‘too aggressive’

The Michigan defense has been lights out the last three years employing variations of the Baltimore Ravens defense Wink Martindale constructed years back. Mike Macdonald helped lead the Wolverines to a Big Ten championship in 2021, and then Jesse Minter brought it to another level in 2022-23, winning a national championship with it last year.

Now, it’s up to Martindale to keep it going, and a segment of Michigan fans have voiced their concerns …

Is he going to be too aggressive? And even, “is he Don Brown 2.0?”

Brown’s defenses did great things at Michigan but were exposed, at times, against Ohio State. His “solve your problems with aggression” mantra is one some might say Martindale has employed at times in his career.

But make no mistake — the new Michigan D.C. knows what he’s doing, and he’s not “irresponsible” when it comes to pressure. He demonstrated that in a recent interview with the GM Shuffle podcast, noting there’s a time and place to blitz, and many occasions not to.

“When you have free runners at the quarterback, the average fan just says, ‘well, that’s ‘zero’ protection, but [it’s not]. We just attack protections well,” the Michigan D.C. said. “In reality, I think it changes from year to year depending on who you have playing for you and who you are playing against.

“The first year we played Patrick Mahomes [Baltimore vs. K.C.], I think we hit him 18 times back in ’18. He got so good at seeing pressures and where they were coming from, changing protections, the last year we played him, anything that looked like a pressure was simulated. There was no reason to blitz him because he sees it and throws it quickly.”

In short, Martindale adapted based on the team and the quarterback — and yes, with the help of analytics. And that’s what he’ll continue to do at Michigan.

Against the Chiefs, they’d sometimes use their fourth rusher to reroute the tight end, for example, before he even got into his route, forcing Mahomes to another read. With other quarterbacks, they’d try to find other ways to get them off their games.

“You have to have the philosophy now through analytics and everything else of, ‘let’s get him playing to his weakness,’” Martindale said. “Let’s push [Buffalo’s] Josh Allen to our right, his left, because his completion rate goes way down. If you’re going to pressure a Josh Allen, you’d better send big bodies at him, because little defensive backs are just going to bounce off him.

“Those are the type of things you look at game-plan wise. What personnel are you going to get out there on third down, and why are you doing it? Maybe to collapse the pocket. Playing Baker Mayfield, you want to keep him throwing from the well, because that well constricts on him, and he has a hard time seeing.”

It’s those issues that are a challenge every week, but Martindale is far from a one-trick pony, aware that different situations call for different defenses. There are many times they’ll simulate blitz, he noted, the way Minter and Co. did in big games, that confuse quarterbacks, as well.

Yes, Martindale will be aggressive, but he knows when to pick his spots, is one of the best in the business, and he has several weapons at his disposal. We’d bet heavily that his version of the Michigan will be just as enjoyable to watch, if not more so, as those we’ve seen the last several years.

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