Next Thing I'm Worrying About...

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Huntrey

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Alright, I'm the sucka who posted about the future of the B-Back position last week. Here's the next thing I'm worrying about.....

Are there other fans out there who are concerned about our defense? I mean it only in this sense - they don't see much of a passing offense in practice so how exactly can they get prepared for a game against a team that passes downfield ~50% of the time?

I'm not exactly looking over the ledge about this, but I would like to be talked down off the roof. What do you guys think?

13 days.....
 
I worry about not having Johnson there at DE. In his career at GT, he always seemed to come up with a game saving play on defense when we needed it. He was also our best player on punt coverage, usually beating everyone downfield to make the tackle. In my opinon, Dieke / Cross / Crenshaw and/or Wilson HAVE to fill that void and be at least as good -or better -than Johnson if we are going to have a solid defense. Of course, those 4 are some very talented, fast, and physical football players - so I think we'll be fine. One, or preferably all of them, just have to step it up. I would love for GT to become a DE's dream school.
 
Huntrey said:
Alright, I'm the sucka who posted about the future of the B-Back position last week. Here's the next thing I'm worrying about.....

Are there other fans out there who are concerned about our defense? I mean it only in this sense - they don't see much of a passing offense in practice so how exactly can they get prepared for a game against a team that passes downfield ~50% of the time?

I'm not exactly looking over the ledge about this, but I would like to be talked down off the roof. What do you guys think?

13 days.....
Click to expand...

I personally am not worried as much. I think our run defense will be as good as last season's and our pass defense will be better. Our secondary rocks. Period. LBs will be much improved. The question is D-line which should still be solid. Wommack talked about stacking the box a little bit to help with the run but I am concerned about pressure on the QB. If he has all day to throw we could be in trouble. But it makes since that we would put a little focus on the run with a secondary as good as it is. We were a top 25 defense last season and if we push to top 15 next season we are probably ACC champions. I expect to finish around 20.

The real question is special teams. I am terrified of special teams losing a game or two.

Also offensive fumbles. That scares me but I expect that category to be much improved.
 
JJacket said:
I worry about not having Johnson there at DE. In his career at GT, he always seemed to come up with a game saving play on defense when we needed it. He was also our best player on punt coverage, usually beating everyone downfield to make the tackle. In my opinon, Dieke / Cross / Crenshaw and/or Wilson HAVE to fill that void and be at least as good -or better -than Johnson if we are going to have a solid defense. Of course, those 4 are some very talented, fast, and physical football players - so I think we'll be fine. One, or preferably all of them, just have to step it up. I would love for GT to become a DE's dream school.
Click to expand...

If you're looking for a replacement for Micheal Johnson you might want to look towards a player who has played college football (basically, the current likely starter Robert Hall). I see what you mean for long term but I feel we shouldn't sell Hall too short.
 
MtownJacket said:
I personally am not worried as much. I think our run defense will be as good as last season's and our pass defense will be better. Our secondary rocks. Period. LBs will be much improved. The question is D-line which should still be solid. Wommack talked about stacking the box a little bit to help with the run but I am concerned about pressure on the QB. If he has all day to throw we could be in trouble. But it makes since that we would put a little focus on the run with a secondary as good as it is. We were a top 25 defense last season and if we push to top 15 next season we are probably ACC champions. I expect to finish around 20.

The real question is special teams. I am terrified of special teams losing a game or two.

Also offensive fumbles. That scares me but I expect that category to be much improved.
Click to expand...

Your really optimistic about our defense. I am not sure that our secondary rocks, and I am very worried about our D line. We are light in the pants and anyone that can hammer the run is going to do very well against us. Expect alot of 35-31 games this year.
 
Not quite sure what light in the pants means, but we mustn't forget that our current leaders for replacement are wet-nosed newbies to the college game, and anyone who beats them out is also going to be good. Lets not forget that despite our great defensive line last year people still scored at us, because our secondary was inexperienced and had no depth and our linebackers were injured and not play to full potential.
The defensive line is not the only component in stopping the run, linebackers have to contribute as well. So because everything I've heard this offseason points to improved linebacker play I'm going to pick QB pressure as the worry point as well. If the DL can't do it we have to rush the other players more and the more people you need to pass rush the less you have to cover anything else that happens (trick plays, screens and such).
 
The Champ said:
Your really optimistic about our defense. I am not sure that our secondary rocks, and I am very worried about our D line. We are light in the pants and anyone that can hammer the run is going to do very well against us. Expect alot of 35-31 games this year.
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Well I am pretty darn sure that our secondary rocks. With Burnett returning and Tarrant back and Iron Jacket Cooper Taylor moved to free safety with a lot of solid players around them I think we will be cashing in the interceptions even more than last season.

LBs were a weakness last season due to injury and inexperience. They should be much improved this season.

The D-line again is the question mark. We bring back our best player (in my opinion), Morgan. I think TJ Barnes will be starting by the UNC game, hopefully by merit, but perhaps by injury, and that man IS A BEAST! The 3 new DTs we have as #1 on the depth chart now have 29 tackles between them. Robert Hall has had a good bit of experience.

But the problem is we lost a lot of talented pass rushers to the NFL. Like I said this gives the QB more time to throw. This makes me happy that our Secondary is as good as it is.

We will be fine on D. Not SPECTACULAR but perhaps top 20 in the country and top 4 in the ACC.
 
Vance played injured and I think MJ was sporadic. The Dline really was not as dominant as it should have been given all the NFL players IMO.

I think if the LB's and DB's play better than last year (which should happen given experience and normal maturing) than the D could actually be better than last year.

Also if our Off is better then that will force teams to open it up more which should benefit the D.

All in all I am cautiously optimistic that the D can OVERALL improve this year.
 
GTLiebs said:
Not quite sure what light in the pants means, but we mustn't forget that our current leaders for replacement are wet-nosed newbies to the college game, and anyone who beats them out is also going to be good. Lets not forget that despite our great defensive line last year people still scored at us, because our secondary was inexperienced and had no depth and our linebackers were injured and not play to full potential.
The defensive line is not the only component in stopping the run, linebackers have to contribute as well. So because everything I've heard this offseason points to improved linebacker play I'm going to pick QB pressure as the worry point as well. If the DL can't do it we have to rush the other players more and the more people you need to pass rush the less you have to cover anything else that happens (trick plays, screens and such).
Click to expand...

If your d-line is getting blown off the line of scrimmage it isn't going to matter what your linebackers are doing. And if you can't pressure the QB the DB's aren't going to have much success no matter who they are.

right now our starting DL has nobody over 275 and Peters was in the 250's as of last week. On top of that our depth has no experience, we are going to need some freshman to step up.
 
The Champ said:
...we are going to need some freshman to step up.
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TJ Barnes.

Derrick Morgan, Robert Hall, TJ Barnes, and a battle between Ben Anderson and Jason Peters is my predicted starting line-up. In fact I will go ahead and say Ben Anderson but Peters will be a great backup.
 
Huntrey said:
Are there other fans out there who are concerned about our defense? I mean it only in this sense - they don't see much of a passing offense in practice so how exactly can they get prepared for a game against a team that passes downfield ~50% of the time?
Click to expand...

Asked the same question a few weeks ago on Stingtalk. Someone suggested to take some assurance in that the scout offense our defense practices with will try to keep our D up-to-speed with defending the passing offense.
 
I should add that the spring game put me at ease as far as the defense was concerned. I was very impressed (I know the outcome would have been different if Nesbitt, Dwyer, and Thomas played the whole game or at all).

Anyways, hard tackling, forced fumbles, it was just a good show.
 
Were going to play a good bit of FR.

Cross
Sweeting
Thomas

Maybe Julian Burnett. Lanier was going to play but now may not because of the injury.
 
Playing our O makes our team good tacklers especially the secondary. At the beginning of last week til the end of the season our defense plays exclusively against the scout team offense. Technique wise, the D prepares for traditional offenses year round. They don't practice option defense techniques. This is probably one reason you saw our O look good against our D on T Day when typically goes games are dominated by the D.
 
I do not agree that it will be top 20 in many categories. I think one of the big keys will be whether or not the 2nd DE can be good. If you try to look from an unbiased perspective, our linebackers are not that strong. That was a weakness last year and the only thing that has really changed is experience. That means we are depending on guys to get better because they have experience. That can happen but does not always happen. Our secondary is probably above average but there will have to be someone other than Burnett that is in the mention for all-ACC for it to "rock." I am optimistic that our D will be average to above average in the ACC. I do not think it will be below average, but I always question having to depend on players we have never seen, playing well.
 
carober18 said:
I do not agree that it will be top 20 in many categories. I think one of the big keys will be whether or not the 2nd DE can be good. If you try to look from an unbiased perspective, our linebackers are not that strong. That was a weakness last year and the only thing that has really changed is experience. That means we are depending on guys to get better because they have experience. That can happen but does not always happen. Our secondary is probably above average but there will have to be someone other than Burnett that is in the mention for all-ACC for it to "rock." I am optimistic that our D will be average to above average in the ACC. I do not think it will be below average, but I always question having to depend on players we have never seen, playing well.
Click to expand...

well said
 
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