I am not Bill Walsh, but I have a decent grasp of X's and O's. 

In my opinion, when you have the talent advantage, you should be keeping things simple. Let your talent play fast. Over the course of a game this will result in pressures, turnovers, negative plays, etc.

Michigan last year versus this year is a perfect example. They ran a pretty simple defense last year. Played a lot of man with spot drop coverages. Nothing exotic. But they did it over and over and over, and they were awesome at executing it. This year, their new coordinator has most of the same guys, but he is asking them to do way too much. He is always trying for the "perfect" call. As a result the same UM guys are playing slow. That is the difference between the best D in the country last year and a mid-level Big Ten defense.

Jim Knowles's defense is just too cute and too complex. It is essentially a 4-2-5 scheme but his scheme places a ton of demands on the linebackers and safeties that is well beyond basic run fits and pass coverages. On very basic offensive concepts you see safeties being asked to cover a ton of ground. On run fits he is asking linebackers to move a lot laterally to get in their run lane. We also have this riff between JK and LJ, which somewhat explains the lack of QB pressure, but still, we have 5 star guys all over the line and can't get pressure. We are thus bringing a lot of LB pressures and those aren't getting home, either.

All of this means we are playing slow. We are hesitant. 

I think it's good we are on an idle week. Let's get back to basics. We don't need to outsmart the other team. Line up in a 4-2-5. Play cover-1 press man. Keep it in front of you. Make them beat you. It makes no sense do to otherwise when you have half a dozen NFL players on your defense.