Really trying to figure this out. Heading into season we knew we were thin at LB, but thought our dline would be able to cause havoc and our secondary would be a strength. There have been flashes of potential like smu game but lately it is chunk plays, missed tackles, and zero discipline
Why is our defense trash?
- Thread starter beelit47
- Start date
It’s a long season. As GOL always said,”Each week you’re either getting better or worse.” Definitely worse the last two weeks. They did cause 3 turnovers, though. If we hadn’t turned it over 3 times ourselves that game is a blowout. Is it fatigue (mental and physical)? Is it beat up /injured players? Bad planning by coaches? Bad execution by players? Probably everything.
One thing we do know. You can’t win a conference Championship if you’re not playing for it and we earned that opportunity yesterday. Let’s hope the team is prepared, and executed next week.
One thing we do know. You can’t win a conference Championship if you’re not playing for it and we earned that opportunity yesterday. Let’s hope the team is prepared, and executed next week.
Poor tackling taught by Scott Frost, Josh Heupel, Gus Malzahan and their defensive staffs. This has been a problem for about 6 seasons.
Seemed to snowball in the second half. Offense quickly coughing the ball up three times in our end left the defense out there longer than otherwise would have been. Coming off the always taxing Navy game as well and you wonder if that had any impact.
usf offense wasn't bad overall this season. Veteran o-line. Battie and Horn are real good players and Brown looks like a nice QB to run their scheme. They emptied the tank on us and didn't look like an offense that couldn't beat a FBS team. Incredible they found a way to lose that many games.
usf offense wasn't bad overall this season. Veteran o-line. Battie and Horn are real good players and Brown looks like a nice QB to run their scheme. They emptied the tank on us and didn't look like an offense that couldn't beat a FBS team. Incredible they found a way to lose that many games.
The D is very thin because of injuries and frankly some of the guys we expected to contribute this season didn't even show up. And many of the guys out there are dinged up per Malzahn. That won't change in a week so be prepared for a high scoring championship game. USF pulled out all the stops (although we stopped their trick plays and even caused a fumble on one of them). But the glaring problem was that other than a couple of guys who played lights out (Johnson, Montalvo, TMB) the rest of the guys got beat consistently and the entire unit was gassed by the 4th quarter. Give USF credit for recognizing it and pounding us on the ground (their RB and QB rushed for almost 300 yards). We have to add more talent and build more depth on this side of the ball starting immediately if we are going to compete in the B12.
Agree.
I’d mentioned it before, but I do believe the lack of bye week is a factor stacking on top of the injuries.
Defense played decently this game until our offense had zero TOP on back to back turnovers. Perry ejection was a big deal too.
I think they have been terrible all season. Our defensive lineman are small and weak with no real defensive push. Our linebackers are slow and can’t cover anyone. No one in our secondary can cover a receiver, tackle, or find the ball in the air. This is why I think it’s both a lack of talent and coaching. I really hope The staff is putting a huge emphasis on defensive recruits. I also think a new defensive staff wouldn’t hurt. This team will get lit up in the B12
secondary has been shit all season. no NFL players back there. going into the season i thought davonte brown was the guy and would be leaving for the NFL after this season. i don't see it now though.
Maybe he stays now. Definitely need some bulk there. If we can keep walker committed, he should plug the middle with lee hunter. Need some edge rushers to too it off
The bye week was changed due to the hurricane. Our previous game was changed to later so cut some days off of the bye week i think.
We never really had 2 weeks of planned recovery. We were prepping for a game, then it got pushed a half week later for the hurricane, and then it was on to prep for the next game.
Maybe it doesn’t matter, but we’ve ended up with some slightly longer than usual breaks versus some solid ones. Just remember the 2017 team citing it as a difficulty of the schedule for that year once we added Austin peay to make up for the hurricane game.
Well the elephant in the room say's our defensive secondary really isn't challenged with a passing QB with JRP in practice and it shows.
The elephant in the room isn't our QB1 (but it seems like some of you want to blame this kid for everything). In the Spring and Fall the D faced all 3 QB's but primarily JRP and Mikey. Both got equivalent snaps. Even if you think JRP can't pass (btw, 8-8 in the first half of the USF game and 65% completion for the season), I think we all agree that Mikey can pass. And during the season they see the scout team and that's led by a former USF QB1. So, they get plenty of practice and our QB's are not a good excuse (or even the problem). We need more ballhawks and aggressive coverage. For some reason, that's missing this year. It's either our schemes or our talent so to correct the problem, the elephant in the room is that the DC needs to fix the schemes and we need to add more talent.
Agreed. Our QB's are not the problem. We can win with either of them if our line opens up holes and gives them some time. Our defensive line is not as good as I thought they would be and along with our porous secondary and poor tackling we make most QB's look like Heisman candidates.
Sure theres some questions on defense but I still think the biggest problem this season was turnovers by the offense. 4 against ECU and 4 against the cows if I remember correctly. When an offense gives away 4 possessions it's hard for a defense to keep their team in the game.
Agreed, the turnover deficit has hurt our D significantly. Extra time on the field combined with our lack of depth makes it tough to be stout an entire game. And right now, we're light in talented depth on this side of the ball. We'll need the O to play a near perfect game and the D to make some 3rd down stops to win this game. Let's see if we have it in us....
Difference in those games? We forced 3 of our own TO’s against usf and still won. Need more of that from defense
Or ya know, stop coughing it up on our side of the field. Bend but don't break defenses don't do well on short fields and even if we held them to 2 FGs that's still 6 points vs 14.
Yea but I don't expect getting turnovers the way I expect ball security. If the offense doesn't cough up the ball our defense would be a lot better.
Missing Big Kat, Kalia, Goode, and Bethune make the biggest difference in the front end. Overall we have 14 fewer sacks and 18.5 fewer TFLs. 27% less production in those two statistics alone. Hell Bethune even had two picks. He was every bit the loss we all knew it was back when he announced the portal.
We had 11 picks last year, but 5 of them were by LBs and DLs. Those positions have accounted for 0 this year.
I know this board had plenty of hate for Bryson last season, but the fact is he matched/beat Hodge's production in every way, and with 3 fewer games played.
Then add in injuries to key personnel where true Freshmen Kam Moore, Nikai Martinez, and a Henderson twin were never really supposed to be in these situations but now they are.
There's stuff to point out everywhere, it's not just one thing.
We had 11 picks last year, but 5 of them were by LBs and DLs. Those positions have accounted for 0 this year.
I know this board had plenty of hate for Bryson last season, but the fact is he matched/beat Hodge's production in every way, and with 3 fewer games played.
Then add in injuries to key personnel where true Freshmen Kam Moore, Nikai Martinez, and a Henderson twin were never really supposed to be in these situations but now they are.
There's stuff to point out everywhere, it's not just one thing.
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