The Lions' Pride

Unfortunately, I think the C+ for the secondary is grading on a generous curve. It might show progress to this point, but they were horrific early in the season. Not having a pick demonstrates just how safe they are playing things.

And while Davis is improving, he clearly plays scared and plays not to get beat. He wasn't the only, but was a major reason Ohio converted on almost every third down. His play stepping up allows so much to happen in the second half. Lets hope it happens.

DLine grading is spot on. Teams game plan against good pass rushes these days so you cannot count on sacks unless the opponent is playing from far behind. Their inability to stop the run creeps in sometimes (Ohio killed it, and even NW got more than they should have), and will be the key to more wins. Room to improve, but injuries have hampered here.

LBers ... can you give a higher grade. True, we are only 4-deep, but you cannot ask for more. They have an awesome set of complementary skills and attitude that makes them fun to watch.

Thnaks for the grades.

Although, to be fair, I don't know how your grading is set up. If you are basing grades on how they are vs how we thought they would be, I guess c isn't far off. But if it's based on how they're playing in comparison to the average team, I think they're well below.

DBs give a C. Playing avg but better than the first two games. Still no INT despite all the pass attempts against them.
Special Teams = D-. No way they are a C. Not even close.
They are last in the Big10 in everything.
Cant give an F b/c some aspects are good like coverage & putting inside 20.
But kicking and punting have been the achilles heal for this team. Even though i think Ficken can be a good kicker once he gets confidence, but he wont get confidence if he doesnt kick in a game & OB shows no confidence in him either.

Our FG kicking already did prove costly in a tight game. The game was in Charlottesville. I was there sulking in the stands. The offense moved the ball all day but couldn't close out drives and the result was 4 missed field goals (including the game winner) and what would've been the game-tying extra point.

Hopefully we've seen the worst of it. And our offense has gotten better at finishing drives.

Special teams is a D- or an F. How many missed FG's? Punt return for TD. Blocked extra points. muffed punts. Do we really have any decent returns? It really has been the weakest link by far. DB's are coming on and seem to be playing better lately so I can deal with the C+ there.

If anything(going against what seem to be the consensus here) I would take the DB's the other way. People keep mentioning the first 2 games, and that is when I personally thought our scheme was making it damn near impossible for the back 7. They have tackled extremely well overall, progressed with the ball in the air, and now that the scheme isnt putting them in positions that no DB's could handle in college football (safeties on 1 and 2 WR's at times), things have settled some. Granted, I wouldnt be taking the grade far as they havent produced the turnovers or really lit up the WR's and blanketed for coverage sacks. Lots of room to improve.