After this year\u2019s Michigan 45-23 beatdown of Ohio State, many OSU fans were perplexed at how the Wolverines could dominate their five-star collection of talent (\u201cbut \u2026 but \u2026 we\u2019re better!\u201d) for a second straight year. They blamed snow, flu, etc. for the 42-27 hammering a year earlier, and vowed it would be different in Columbus a year later, especially when the forecast called for sunny skies and 54 degrees for their \u2026 uh, weather-averse offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RELATED:<\/strong> Michigan football: Predicting position battle winners on offense<\/a><\/strong> Instead, they got more of the same. The Wolverines got big play after big play, dominated the second half, and wore the Buckeyes down in the second half with better line play on both sides. Head coach Ryan Day<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s team took dumb penalties on top of necessary ones, the officials actually called a great game in the hostile environment, and Michigan turned the tables in the rivalry, with a chance at full control with a third straight win this year in Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n Day looked lost at times on the sideline. In the aftermath, both immediate and at Big Ten Media Days, he tried to explain it away as \u201cfive or so plays.\u201d That might work when it\u2019s a one-score game. But it sounded awfully familiar \u2014\u00a0like Michigan defenders in the 2017-19 game trying to say they just needed a few tweaks after giving up 56 and 62 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n And in our interview with former Ohio State linebacker Josh Perry, now a talented analyst who will be with NBC this fall, we got flashbacks. Some in the Michigan locker room thought those 2018-19 games would have been dogfights had Michigan taken the \u2026 well, the approach the two defensive coordinators have the last two meetings. In hindsight, they\u2019re probably right. Last year in particular, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles<\/a><\/strong> looked like he was doing his 2018-19 Michigan impression in what now looks like a massive overcompensation from Day \u2026 we asked Day if it was \u201ctoo aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think there were some spots, but I think that\u2019s who Jim Knowles is,\u201d Perry said. \u201cAnd I wouldn\u2019t ask somebody to change their philosophy or their personality. I would ask that the personality and the philosophy become refined, so you don\u2019t have those big plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I talked to him initially, I asked him about it, because I watched tape when it was announced he was hired. I would look at plays and see a guy that was running scot-free,\u201d Perry recalled \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a big play only because the quarterback would get sacked. They would create havoc, and I think that\u2019s a part of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut I said, \u2018what\u2019s this idea about big plays?\u201d He said, \u2018well, the defensive system we run, we might give up four or five in a game. As long as we\u2019re around that point, we think it\u2019s going to be fine, particularly with a productive offense we have. We feel like we\u2019ll be able to make up the gap there.\u2019 Against Michigan, you saw some of the aggression burn them. Against Penn State, a very similar thing happened in a couple situations where the aggression burned them.\u201d<\/p>\n Sound familiar? If not, it should. We heard and wrote the same about those Michigan defenses. \u201cYou can\u2019t change who you are, solve your problems with aggression,\u201d etc. But the reality of it was that good teams and well-coached squads are going to be able to use that against you to put up points. We saw it at U-M, and with the Buckeyes against Michigan last year, too. What might hold an inept Iowa offense to 3 points, for example, isn\u2019t going to work against the great teams. Like in Don Brown\u2019s defense, for example, the defensive backs are going to be put in tough situations, especially if they\u2019re overmatched.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the other part of it is you\u2019ve got to flip the switch as a player when you\u2019re in a defense like that because it\u2019s so untraditional in terms of aggression,\u201d Perry continued. \u201cYou just have to be okay with saying, \u2018my rear end is going to be out on this play. We\u2019ve just got to get the job done.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think this offseason and training camp is going to be big for that mental progression, because it is tough when you know you\u2019re coach is putting you in a position where you might be on an island, and you\u2019re the guy that\u2019s going to get targeted. You have to find comfort being in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019ll spare you the details, but Perry went into detail about the sketchy linebacker play, too, and the \u201cjack\u201d position, how it\u2019s \u201cunique\u201d (\u201cdropping into coverage vs. going up the field \u2026 it\u2019s a skillset and something that takes time to develop,\u201d Perry noted). Swap \u201cjack\u201d for \u201cviper\u201d and we\u2019re back to 2018 and \u201919 Michigan once again. And now they\u2019re promising some changes, talking about playing to win rather than going for the knockout punch, etc. \u2026 again, all too familiar. We\u2019ll see how Day and Co. adjust, but we know one thing \u2014\u00a0the pressure is now squarely on him, as it was Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for so long.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that\u2019s a tough spot for Coach Day. I know he\u2019s had to live with that for a couple years,\u201d Perry said. \u201cEverybody brings it up. But I think there\u2019s also a thought process about the edge it brings you and how you have to attack that aspect of the job. Everything else has been really good. But a lot of people are going to look at you and ask, \u2018what\u2019s your record in The Game,\u2019 and that\u2019s how they\u2019re going to judge.\u201d<\/p>\n Three in a row, we dare say, would result in \u201cextremely harshly.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Michigan and OSU have switched roles in the rivalry \u2014 this is a big reason why<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After this year\u2019s Michigan 45-23 beatdown of Ohio State, many OSU fans were perplexed at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
RELATED:<\/strong> Michigan football depth chart to start fall camp: Offense<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n