OK, let's talk about the Defense

Buzzilla

Buzzilla

I'm all out of bubblegum
Joined
Dec 31, 2001
Messages
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Where has what we saw Saturday been? Tackling was better than I've seen in seemingly years. We went from unable to stop a pretty bad Bowling Green offense (that got shut out against Miami-OH) and unable to tackle anyone in the open field to making stops when we had to, timely blitzes, well disguised secondary coverage, max effort and running to the ball, and pretty solid open field and one on one tackling. WTF?

How does that happen in one week with a new coordinator?
 
Honestly I think the boys are on drugs. They're not serious and they're out on the ATL and partying and getting laid. Tell me I'm wrong.
 
Buzzilla said:
Where has what we saw Saturday been? Tackling was better than I've seen in seemingly years. We went from unable to stop a pretty bad Bowling Green offense (that got shut out against Miami-OH) and unable to tackle anyone in the open field to making stops when we had to, timely blitzes, well disguised secondary coverage, max effort and running to the ball, and pretty solid open field and one on one tackling. WTF?

How does that happen in one week with a new coordinator?
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Looked like a return of bend don't break to me. We did give up a ton of yards, even though we got like 4 turnovers.
 
coit said:
Looked like a return of bend don't break to me. We did give up a ton of yards, even though we got like 4 turnovers.
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Is that what we need with this current group of guys. Maybe, if we don't bend, we WILL break? Not suggesting we stick with it forever, but if it gets the best results out of the current personnel, I'm okay with it.
 
Buzzilla said:
Where has what we saw Saturday been? Tackling was better than I've seen in seemingly years. We went from unable to stop a pretty bad Bowling Green offense (that got shut out against Miami-OH) and unable to tackle anyone in the open field to making stops when we had to, timely blitzes, well disguised secondary coverage, max effort and running to the ball, and pretty solid open field and one on one tackling. WTF?

How does that happen in one week with a new coordinator?
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Some of our bad tackling was bad angles created by the scheme. But they must have changed something, because I don’t recall seeing and shoulder tackles attempted.
 
coit said:
Looked like a return of bend don't break to me. We did give up a ton of yards, even though we got like 4 turnovers.
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We don’t have the talent for anything else, we don’t have even a semblance of a pass rush
 
Miami helped us out by not going deep. I don’t know if they just ignored the film on us or what, but statistically Tech is gonna give you several of those each game.

That said, tackling was damn near elite. I don’t know where that’s been. All I can figure is Sherrer threatened some guys with playing time if they didn’t get their öööö together. My hope is Sherrer is a tough as nails, “I ain’t your friend” kinda coach.
 
M39Buzz said:
Is that what we need with this current group of guys. Maybe, if we don't bend, we WILL break? Not suggesting we stick with it forever, but if it gets the best results out of the current personnel, I'm okay with it.
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From what I remember, that was a lot like our 2014 defense. Gave up a lot of yards between the 20s, but had a knack for creating turnovers and clamped down in the red zone. Of course, that worked great when our offense was as efficient as they were in 2014. I'd prefer a defense that forces a lot of 3 and outs, but whatever it takes to win.
 
Saturday was about effort and focus. We aren’t going to be a very good defense but with effort and focus we can be average. Turnovers will be needed to beat good teams.

When you play your assignment and tackle (both individually and swarming to the ball) then you should make a few stops a game and be in place for a TO if the offense makes a mistake.
 
coit said:
Looked like a return of bend don't break to me. We did give up a ton of yards, even though we got like 4 turnovers.
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It was for sure keeping everything in front, but we did keep Miami under their season average for total yards, passing yards, rushing yards, and points.
 
GoGATech said:
It was for sure keeping everything in front, but we did keep Miami under their season average for total yards, passing yards, rushing yards, and points.
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I think both teams were affected by the weather conditions. I was happy with the performance from the defense myself. As long as we can get the stops to keep points off the board, who cares how many yards they give up.
 
This looked like a much more solid defense against probably the best offense we've played. Solid tackling, good flow to the ball, good pursuit angles, few matador tackles (outside of the repeat offender from last week). Much better from a fundamentals perspective, which had been sorely lacking. Not sure how that changed in a week.???

From a scheme perspective, did anyone notice the number of times we had safties making plays in the box on run support? Much more than previously. We also weren't trying to cover the flat with a DE.

Miami is a top 10 offense, so our defensive performance was very good. Sure, it was just one game. But it's a nice change to hold an opponent below their season average on offense as opposed to being their season high.
 
THWG247 said:
We don’t have the talent for anything else, we don’t have even a semblance of a pass rush
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But Geoff Collins supposedly was a far superior recruiter than Paul Johnson???? So you mean all those 4 stars Geoff recruiter were over rated?
 
Technician said:
This looked like a much more solid defense against probably the best offense we've played. Solid tackling, good flow to the ball, good pursuit angles, few matador tackles (outside of the repeat offender from last week). Much better from a fundamentals perspective, which had been sorely lacking. Not sure how that changed in a week.???

From a scheme perspective, did anyone notice the number of times we had safties making plays in the box on run support? Much more than previously. We also weren't trying to cover the flat with a DE.

Miami is a top 10 offense, so our defensive performance was very good. Sure, it was just one game. But it's a nice change to hold an opponent below their season average on offense as opposed to being their season high.
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Shades of when Charles Kelly took over from Al Groh
 
In some ways, we looked better defensively against wake forest. At least in that game we were able to generate pressure on the QB. We need to do better at getting the opposing offense off the field and limiting yards if we want to get to mediocre on defense.

In terms of why we were better at tackling, it does come down to the plays we called put our players in position to get to the point of contact under control which was nice.
 
BainbridgeJacket said:
In some ways, we looked better defensively against wake forest. At least in that game we were able to generate pressure on the QB. We need to do better at getting the opposing offense off the field and limiting yards if we want to get to mediocre on defense.

In terms of why we were better at tackling, it does come down to the plays we called put our players in position to get to the point of contact under control which was nice.
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I think we matched up well against WF. By that I mean that WF’s weird 30 second mesh somehow allowed for us to get pressure on the QB that we don’t get when the play out of the backfield is much faster.
 
We gave up 453 yards of offense to Miami, so I wouldn’t call it a great game defensively. 5 turnovers is what kept their score down. Same with Wake (400 yards, 5 turnovers). BG was 400+ yards but no turnovers.

Take the win, move on, but let’s not get our hopes up that the defense has made a step change in performance.
 
savbandjacket said:
I think we matched up well against WF. By that I mean that WF’s weird 30 second mesh somehow allowed for us to get pressure on the QB that we don’t get when the play out of the backfield is much faster.
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Good point the delayed mesh works great on the overly aggressive defensive front that will over commit quickly. On the slow working defensive front the mesh gives them time to find the ball.
 
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