Not only do they completely sellout to stop the run year after year, but it’s success for their team overall is not just dependent on the talent they may or may not have. Caliber of QB’s/passing offenses that they have faced during their most successful seasons, and bad weather conditions play right into their defensive approach.
The Big Ten historically has had some pretty good QB’s come through the league, but the past 10 years or so has seen a dearth of NFL caliber passers. That parallels Sparty’s most successful seasons, and they have even benefitted from good QB’s being hurt the week they played them.
This has started to turn around a bit, with Northwestern, Penn St. , Purdue, Indiana, OSU, and yes, Michigan - all possessing potent passing games. We’ll see how they fare the rest of the year against this resurgence in QB play.
Of course the other wildcard that has benefited them more than anyone is the possibility of rainy, windy, weather conditions. Some of their biggest wins recently ( OSU a couple years back when genius Urban ran Zeke Eliot only 9 times in the rain, and the Michigan and Penn State games last year in torrential rain ) were gifts from the weather gods ( or weather devil, if there is such a thing ).
Let’s see how they fare against McSorley, Haskins, and Shea. Weather permitting, it may not be pretty!
The Big Ten historically has had some pretty good QB’s come through the league, but the past 10 years or so has seen a dearth of NFL caliber passers. That parallels Sparty’s most successful seasons, and they have even benefitted from good QB’s being hurt the week they played them.
This has started to turn around a bit, with Northwestern, Penn St. , Purdue, Indiana, OSU, and yes, Michigan - all possessing potent passing games. We’ll see how they fare the rest of the year against this resurgence in QB play.
Of course the other wildcard that has benefited them more than anyone is the possibility of rainy, windy, weather conditions. Some of their biggest wins recently ( OSU a couple years back when genius Urban ran Zeke Eliot only 9 times in the rain, and the Michigan and Penn State games last year in torrential rain ) were gifts from the weather gods ( or weather devil, if there is such a thing ).
Let’s see how they fare against McSorley, Haskins, and Shea. Weather permitting, it may not be pretty!
