Defensive report card for Michigan through nine games

Defensive line: B-

The defensive line this far for Michigan has been decent but a little bit lackluster compared to what I was expecting from them coming into the year. Derrick Moore is the only player who's been a consistent big time player for Michigan this season. Without him and his production I think this position group would be performing quite a bit worse as a unit. They’ve had their moments of really harassing offensive lines as a position group but against most teams they’ve been more like solid rather than good or great. They're 18th nationally as a team in tackles for loss which is a stat that's largely driven by defensive line play. They're also 23rd in team sacks so they do get fairly good pressure on the quarterback and do a good job overall of creating negative plays. I want somebody else on this defensive line to emerge and play better in these last three games for Michigan because that would go a long way in making it tough to block this unit as a whole.

Linebackers: B

The linebackers have been the best position group on defense in my opinion. They got picked on against USC, but other than that, they’ve largely played quite well. The tackling has been good and the coverage has gotten better as the season has gone on as well. Ernest Hausman has been good, as he ranks 9th in the Big Ten in total tackles. Jimmy Rolder showed out against Michigan State in what was a breakout performance and despite missing a full game is 23rd in the Big Ten in tackles. This group does need a healthy Cole Sullivan to fully show out, but even the depth players of Trow Bowles and Chase Taylor played well against Purdue. This position group looks like it's in good hands for both now and the future.

Secondary: C+

The secondary has been somewhat disappointing on this defense. They typically play fairly soft coverage and focus on tackling the wide receivers after they make the catch but in an ideal world they’d be in position to stop catches from even being made in the first place. As a team they rank 40th in team pass efficiency defense which kind of shows that they've been solid against the pass but not exactly as good as you'd like to see from a Michigan defense that has been good at generating pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

At cornerback, Jyaire Hill has done his part, largely locking down wide receivers on a weekly basis. Zeke Berry has missed some time but when he’s been out there he’s been more solid than anything else. True Freshman Jayden Sanders and Shamari Earls have had their moments but they've both been inconsistent which isn't surprising for true Freshman. Michigan does seem to have 4 players it trust at cornerback which is a good thing for depth purposes but cornerbacks 2-4 need to step up and play better down the last three games of the season if Michigan wants to accomplish all of its goals.

As for the safeties, I thought it had a chance to be Michigan’s best position group on defense but they have not performed up to that level this year. TJ Metcalf got a lot of fall camp hype and he’s been solid but unspectacular. Rod Moore has played sparingly and is banged up once again which is not a good sign. Mason Curtis has looked pretty good but hasn’t played a ton either. Brandyn Hillman is too inconsistent at this stage in his career, as he always goes for the splashy plays that’s just as likely to be a bad thing for the defense as it is a good thing. Hopefully this group can get back a healthy Rod Moore because I do think that would change this position group pretty dramatically if he could come back and play well in these last three games.

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