For Everyone Who Thinks the Defense is Better This Year

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johncu

johncu

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It's not. The offense, while not great, is significantly better than the defense. And don't even bother with the total offense and total defense statistics. Our style of play makes them worthless. Here are some more useful stats.

ESPN Efficiency Rating:
GT Offense: 31st
GT Defense: 101st

Don't like those ratings? Let's try another site. I think Football Outsiders' methodology is better anyway:

Football Outsiders FEI Ratings (Efficiency):
GT Offense: 13th
GT Defense: 97th

Wondering how our offense looks so bad in total offense ratings but pretty good in efficiency? Here's why:

Plays per game ranking:
GT Offense: 128th

That's right. We literally run less plays than any team in the country. So it's pretty asinine to judge our performance by total yards, on either side of the ball. Metrics like efficiency or yards per play are much more accurate. And in those metrics, our offense is basically as good as it usually is, and our defense sucks yet again. It is what it is.
 
Can't get off the field on third down, no matter the distance to gain.
Let the other team control the clock.
We run fewer plays.
Other team's defense never tires out like they used to.
 
From my admittedly uneducated point of view, it looks like the problem is as simple as not being able to get to the QB. We do pretty decent against the run, and I actually think our DB's cover fairly well. LB's struggle to cover in space, but we at least keep those gains short most of the time. But time after time opposing QB's get to sit back and pick their WR. It seems like most of the time we get a stop is when they make a bad throw.
 
Those stats dont lie, now who would we go after to remedy this
 
atlanta jacket said:
Those stats dont lie, now who would we go after to remedy this
Click to expand...
The next Derrick Morgan/Michael Johnson. Let me know when you find one that wants to take Calculus and would rather play in front of 55k than 80k.
 
This seems obvious to me from watching the games, but nice to have stats to back it up.

The lack of death march drives this year is obviously skewing the stats in terms of Time of Possession and # of plays. It seems like we either score quickly or go 3 and out.
 
fewer, not less

and it's actually pretty astounding. but the game is won and lost on 3rd downs.
 
How much better do the numbers look when we throw the Clemson game out?

But still... Dammit, I want Ted to work out. But shit do those numbers suck.
 
Sad that the few times we have had a 3 and out I thought of it as a miracle. The long drive after half from Mercer was disturbing
 
Jeebus, some of you just have to find the dark cloud behind every silver lining, don't you??

Total Defensive Points per Game Rank: #33

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/28

And let's look back in time, shall we:

2015: #60
2014: #50
2013: #57
2012: #72
2011: #58

Above from: https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-points-per-game

That's the whole point, isn't it? Keep the other team from scoring? From where I sit, we are getting better. And, for maybe the 4th time now, I have typed until I am blue in the fingers regarding our style of defense as necessitated by the staff on hand, and a severe lack of depth. Roof is in the process of bringing in better players each year than before, and we have the makings of a great class this year.

@johncu I expected better out of you. Did you really have to stir up all of the sandy vee jay jays around here?
 
Total Defense is a borked statistic because our games are "shorter" in terms of the number of plays.
 
Coit's love for Roof knows no bounds.

I don't dislike Roof, I hate his defense.

Beestorms Moms basement
 
beej67 said:
Total Defense is a borked statistic because our games are "shorter" in terms of the number of plays.
Click to expand...

Are you talking to me? Are you saying that giving up fewer points doesn't matter? Or are you talking to someone else?
 
Our defense has not been very good for about a decade now, which is why it benefits us to slow the game down and limit possessions. Once you accept that the problems on defense are mostly unfixable due to recruiting issues, you realize that we have to make the best of it with the offense. When our offense is really good, we can still win a lot of games, but unfortunately our offense has not been "really good" since 2014. I'm still optimistic that we are getting better this season, but I gave up on our defense several years ago. The truth is that our recruiting challenges affect both sides of the ball, but CPJ can do more to offset that on offense than is possible defensively.
 
Thomsonjacket said:
Coit's love for Roof knows no bounds.

I don't dislike Roof, I hate his defense.

Beestorms Moms basement
Click to expand...


So you just "hate his defense" without any consideration given to the players he has at his disposal?

As an example, let's look at Sir Francis Kallon. I don't mean to disrespect him in any way, because I don't like talking negatively about student athletes, but the guys sum total of football experience was at Central Gwinnett HS. He was offered solely on his size and potential for growth. Guess what. It just didn't work out. We are playing a guy at DT that we have groomed for 4 years to play DE. Because we have no other options.

If I have to, I will go dig up my detailed post on the depth that I prepared before. I guess I should, because you freaking whiners just won't take an objective look at the situation.

It has nothing to do with Roof for me. It has everything to do with looking at the WHOLE PICTURE. Are you capable of doing that?
 
Some FACTS, for those of you inclined to stop crying long enough to read them.

Using the excellent summary prepared by @GTFLETCH here:

https://www.stingtalk.com/board/threads/too-soon-to-pull-the-plug-on-cpj.89993/page-3#post-1858389

And the summary below taken verbatim from a post exactly one week ago, here:

https://stingtalk.com/board/threads/one-part-of-our-team-that-is-working-well.90051/#post-1859787

Roof has basically 2 recruiting classes on the field at this point. He has been a part of 3 classes, but consider that pretty much all of his 2016 guys are redshirted. Of the guys in his classes that are playing, 12 guys on the 2-deep did not redshirt, i.e. they played as freshmen. So, we are behind the curve a bit from a maturity level.

Also, according to the 2-deep, there are 6 guys from the 2012 and 2013 classes. SIX. TOTAL. At least 10 of the 22 guys on there should be 4th and 5th year guys. I just glanced at Pitt's depth chart and they have 11 guys that are either RS JR, SR, or RS SR. And their chart even goes 3-deep in some positions. Other schools will show similar situations.

Additionally, we all know that our recruiting has improved under Roof, dramatically in some cases. Let's not forget that one of our starters on the DL (until recently anyway) was brought in on sheer potential, and has not panned out.

So, we have a dearth of upperclassmen, the guys we do have playing are a year younger than would be preferred from an experience standpoint, and our upperclassmen that we do have are not as talented as some of the guys are we getting now. Those things combine for a real problem from a depth standpoint.

My takeaway, and I hope yours as well, is that Roof is raising the bar on our defense. But it takes time to overcome the barren cupboard he was left with. He's bringing a strong class this year, and I think the next two years will show an uptick in defensive performance similar to what we've seen from when he got here until now.
 
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