A fan's plea to GT's D

[AE 87]

We have been thrilled with the timely turnovers.

We rejoiced with the forced fumble vs GS. We slapped hands for the interception vs VPI before the game winning score. We laughed and danced with the picks against d'oh U.

But please, could you just force a bunch of punts vs Duke?

 

[Treb1982]

Or tackle their player into Cuttcliff one time

 

[RamblinCharger]

I think the TOs and yards given up will continue. We can't pressure the QB without bringing 6 guys and we will probably keep playing soft and then tighten up when the field gets smaller once they're on our end. I imagine each team will have 12 or so possessions and if we can get 4-5 stops I think we'll be okay. I think we'll make them punt 3 or so times and then we will probably force 1 TO. If we can stay away from turning it over ourselves I don't see them stopping us. We should take what they give us and eat clock. That's the best formula for us to win right now, although I do think we'll have some big plays especially if they try to sell out on the run.

 

[AE 87]

Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, reduce yards/play

 

[CrackerJacket]

Or have multiple team meetings on the Duke QB's chest.

 

[Eastman]

And we still want the turnovers as well!

 

[00Burdell]

We have been thrilled with the timely turnovers.

We rejoiced with the forced fumble vs GS. We slapped hands for the interception vs VPI before the game winning score. We laughed and danced with the picks against d'oh U.

But please, could you just force a bunch of punts vs Duke?

Wait... isn't Duke the program that FIRED our beloved Defensive Coordinator?

And... isn't Duke the program that said our offense stinks and no one wants to play in it and that their recruits were better than ours?

Yeah, I think a few negative yardage possessions followed by a blocked punt and a scoop 'n score are in order.

 

[bartoma]

I love 'em:

 

[BerryGT]

Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, reduce yards/play

This, so much. We're nearly UNC bad on defense. We can't rely on inexperienced QB's throwing INT's and the offense in complete control every week. Really need the D to step up.

 

[RamblinCharger]

This, so much. We're nearly UNC bad on defense. We can't rely on inexperienced QB's throwing INT's and the offense in complete control every week. Really need the D to step up.

Wow man that's offensive.

 

[wingsrlevel]

This, so much. We're nearly UNC bad on defense. We can't rely on inexperienced QB's throwing INT's and the offense in complete control every week. Really need the D to step up.

we can rely on them (Gt D) trying to do whatever is necessary for a win. If that's creating young QB's to make bad throws or getting a timely fumble then better for us. Turnovers are part of the game and they can become contagious, both for and against. So far it's been good and timely for GT.

 

[Papa Doc]

we can rely on them (Gt D) trying to do whatever is necessary for a win. If that's creating young QB's to make bad throws or getting a timely fumble then better for us. Turnovers are part of the game and they can become contagious, both for and against. So far it's been good and timely for GT.

All we really need is to be 1 point better on D than theirs.

 

[00Burdell]

§

 

[00Burdell]

This, so much. We're nearly UNC bad on defense. We can't rely on inexperienced QB's throwing INT's and the offense in complete control every week. Really need the D to step up.

The int that allowed us to come back and beat VT and the game-winning int against UM resulted from extensive film study by our secondary and good coaching by our staff.

I could direct you to the threads, articles, quotes and video breakdowns I am using to support my point but that would be like me doing your homework.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

The defense's job is to prevent points, period. Our D, with the help of our O, is doing that in their own way. As long as they continue to do that, I don't care how they do it. What does coach say, "As long as we have 1 more point on the scoreboard at the end of the game, I'm happy...."?

 

[MidtownJacket]

Agreed Cheese.. Some people seem to think that the whole program needs to be #1 in everything.. here is some interesting news.. no one does that. A team has to have an identity, granted. But c'mon man. We are perfect this season, and each phase has shown development and improvement. There are tons of indications that every phase, O, D and (shoutout to our resident ST Junkey GTNavyNuke) Special Teams.

The D has shown their willingness to play tough, opportunistic football. They have played within their system, and executed CTR's plan in a manner that has us sitting at 5-0. Read that again. They have executed CTR's plan in a manner that has us sitting at 5-0.

Can they get better? Yes.
Should they get better? Yes.
Do we need them to continue to grow and develop this year to stay on the left side of the W/L Column? Yes.

But the deal is they are kids. Kids who have a lot of priorities competing for their time, school, social life, football, friends, family, media. The last thing they should be subjected to (by our own fans I might add) is unrealistic pessimism. The game plan has been to bend not break, lull offenses into thinking they have those soft coverage areas then pick it up when needed. That plan has been executed by proof of our team having 8 players with a pick each. Through 5 games.

I am - if you can't tell - a huge fan of this team. They have shown resilience in their come back wins, they have shown a fire to win metered with the calm to keep things controlled and they have brought back the death by a thousand cuts. They do film work, stay humble, don't make many stupid penalties, represent the institute well, and gosh durn if they don't keep finding ways to win. How about we all get on board and enjoy the ride.

Ok, didn't mean to rant but just thought it needed to be said. Go Jackets, #TogetherWeSwarm

 

[B Lifsey]

And I'd say it was well said...

The ints in the Tulane game can be partially credited to QB mistakes but the VT and UM ones were just as much, if not more so, good D on our part as poor O on theirs. Even with the Tulane ints, the QB errors were from those times we were able to get pressure on him.

 

[GTJake]

Looking across the CFB landscape this seems to be the era of the Offense, few if any dominant Defenses. BTW, I'm scratching my head over ESPN's game prediction GT 17-14 ??
The int's vs. VT and UM were the result of good coverage on the intended reciever, mixing in some timely blitz packages to keep the QB off balance would obviously help the pass Defense.

 

[AE 87]

Agreed Cheese.. Some people seem to think that the whole program needs to be #1 in everything.. here is some interesting news.. no one does that. A team has to have an identity, granted. But c'mon man. We are perfect this season, and each phase has shown development and improvement. There are tons of indications that every phase, O, D and (shoutout to our resident ST Junkey GTNavyNuke) Special Teams.

The D has shown their willingness to play tough, opportunistic football. They have played within their system, and executed CTR's plan in a manner that has us sitting at 5-0. Read that again. They have executed CTR's plan in a manner that has us sitting at 5-0.

Can they get better? Yes.
Should they get better? Yes.
Do we need them to continue to grow and develop this year to stay on the left side of the W/L Column? Yes.

But the deal is they are kids. Kids who have a lot of priorities competing for their time, school, social life, football, friends, family, media. The last thing they should be subjected to (by our own fans I might add) is unrealistic pessimism. The game plan has been to bend not break, lull offenses into thinking they have those soft coverage areas then pick it up when needed. That plan has been executed by proof of our team having 8 players with a pick each. Through 5 games.

I am - if you can't tell - a huge fan of this team. They have shown resilience in their come back wins, they have shown a fire to win metered with the calm to keep things controlled and they have brought back the death by a thousand cuts. They do film work, stay humble, don't make many stupid penalties, represent the institute well, and gosh durn if they don't keep finding ways to win. How about we all get on board and enjoy the ride.

Ok, didn't mean to rant but just thought it needed to be said. Go Jackets, #TogetherWeSwarm

I don't know why you say, "Some people seem to think that the whole program needs to be #1 in everything," in this thread.

Are you unaware of the fact that we are currently #118 in yards/play defense, worst of Power 5 conference teams? Or that we are #121 in forcing punts (in part because of timely turnovers, but still) and #92 in points/drive defense? When you consider our strength of schedule, those are eye popping stats.

How you can go on a rant about people having unrealistic expectations for wanting our defense to be somewhat better than the worst defense of power 5 conference teams almost leaves me speechless. Still I hope your post made you feel somewhat a better fan than everyone else.

 

[IEEEWreck]

Are you unaware of the fact that we are currently #118 in yards/play defense, worst of Power 5 conference teams? Or that we are #121 in forcing punts (in part because of timely turnovers, but still) and #92 in points/drive defense? When you consider our strength of schedule, those are eye popping stats.

I like that people are more interested in statistics as a way of tracking performance and I often really like what you have to say, AE, but I think you've lost sight of the bigger picture.

Statistics like you cited work well in a context like baseball, where the overall strategy is more or less static with a few exceptions and rigorous study of a large body of statistical data can reveal what statistics are relevant to winning.

That doesn't work in football and a lot of other contexts because each overall game strategy changes the relevance of each statistic. More than that, the strategy and the opponent alter the correlation and covariance among statistical measures between games and even halves. You have to read the data in a way that makes sense with observable trends. Otherwise you get statistically valid models that do a great job fitting past trends and a terrible job predicting the future.

The only statistical measure that actually matters is games finished with more points than the opponent. I think it's reasonable to observe our play and say that we've been giving up lots of yards but preventing points. We've used a strategy that's worked well against inexperienced qb's.

But I think we can have enough confidence in Ted Roof to trust that he won't deploy a strategy fitted to prey on inexperience against any and every team. I think given past performance we can trust him to come up with a strategy that best utilizes what strengths we have to strike at the biggest opponent weakness we can identify. I think we can trust in our defense to pour their hearts out on the field and execute as hard as they can, and then get up and learn to do it better next week.

I don't see much on the replay that makes me think another 3 months of practicing anything was going to let our d get a bunch of 3 and outs against Miami. And that's just peachy with me- we neutralized their offense anyway. The something something worst defense in the power five whatever held Miami to 17 points.

Next year, yeah, I think we have a much better shot at playing a more traditional defensive strategy and doing much better by traditional measures. We'll be incredibly dangerous, because we'll have a lot of strategic flexibility and a sharp mind directing the team. Until then, I want the jackets to play as hard as they can as smart as they can. And a big congratulations to them for doing just that so far.