Back Seven on Defense

Oldgoldandwhite

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People can blame the front four, but if the back 7 were doing their job, the longest play would have been 5-6 yards. Our linebackers and secondary got gashed constantly. They had receivers uncovered all game long. Everyone that said this would be the strength of the team may need to reevaluate the defense.
 

Boomergump

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I don't think the back 7 played well at all yesterday, but one thing you have to remember is that playing against the option the depth of the safeties is usually very different and the assignments are different. So it may not end up being a reflection of where they are at as a unit against the bulk of the competition. At times the angles taken in support of the run were terrible. At times the coverage was good but we didn't play the ball well when it arrived. At times the LBs failed to pick up releasing players because there eyes were following the run. These are the type problems that our offense gives opponents. It may not be excusable, but it is understandable.
 

Frenchise

Ramblin' Wreck
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I don't think the back 7 played well at all yesterday, but one thing you have to remember is that playing against the option the depth of the safeties is usually very different and the assignments are different. So it may not end up being a reflection of where they are at as a unit against the bulk of the competition. At times the angles taken in support of the run were terrible. At times the coverage was good but we didn't play the ball well when it arrived. At times the LBs failed to pick up releasing players because there eyes were following the run. These are the type problems that our offense gives opponents. It may not be excusable, but it is understandable.

Nothing excuses or explains the tackling yesterday. You can talk about angles, but that tackling has no excuses.

Thanks always BG.
 

takethepoints

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I think part of the problem here is that we have so many new players on D. Not the starters, mind, but in the rotation. Neither of our DEs were expected to start this year. Many of our DBs are either playing regularly for the first time or are true freshmen. These folks tend to screw up. Add in that the O they are facing is deceptive –that's the whole point–and it isn't too surprising that we had trouble once the other side went no-huddle.

And it is that that worries me. We had trouble with no-huddle Os last year and I thought were training for it some last spring and this fall. It might be that we did and that a non-option O wouldn't give us fits. But the jury verdict so far is that the problem hasn't been taken of and should be priority one until it is.
 

Boomergump

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Nothing excuses or explains the tackling yesterday. You can talk about angles, but that tackling has no excuses.

Thanks always BG.

I agree totally. The tackling was horrendous at times. I want to make an analogy to the sport I coach. When a pitcher isn't making good pitches and is just missing on his control, fixing the problem usually works from the ground up. Rarely is the root cause just failing to hold the ball right or a poor release. Throwing a pitch is a chain reaction of several things. The hand knows what to do when the other body parts are cooperating, but usually cannot compensate for poor fundamental movements well at all. Well, there is a certain anatomy to a poor tackle as well and it is usually set up by some other fundamental factors being out of whack. If you take poor angles, are late to arrive, don't get your body low enough, or run through ball carriers, you tend to miss tackles even though you know how to tackle and are normally adept at it. I think we tackled poorly yesterday in half 2 because we were constantly out of position and getting there late.
 

GlennW

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Nobody on the defense played well yesterday, starting on the defensive line, moving through the linebackers, working around the cornerbacks, and ending with the safties.

And I'll add that our special teams were also totally outplayed yesterday by GA Southern. We never returned punts or kickoffs because their coverage teams blew our guys out of the water, almost like we were just trotting around while they were running at full speed.

I'm rarely critical of players or coaches, but will say that it seemed like our defense was playing like they'd never played against an option offense in their life before, which is ridiculous. I'll also say I understand our offense can't score every series they have they ball, however, yesterday, the second half of the game, the play calling was "questionable" at times to me because I thought we had shown we could be successful running the ball in the first half and we went against those plays, and got off the field quickly, which meant our defense went right back onto the field so they couldn't rest up or regroup.

The time we needed our renowned "death marches" were ignored for quick passes and runs that had never worked in the game. We needed those B-Back "4 yard gains up the middle," QB follows, and rocket sweeps, to eat up clock when we had an 11-point lead and our defense needed rest. Pound and ground; pound and ground; pound and ground. THEN hit the pass.

I will say that I noticed several times GSU offensive linemen were blatently holding Tech's defenders right in front of officials and no flags were thrown, and on their long pass plays, it seemed to me from my perspective, that their receivers were constanty pushing off of Tech's DB's, which should have been offensive interference.

So as badly as the team played, had the flags been thrown against their offensive linemen, perhaps we would have actually made the stops we were in place to make and those first downs and TD's GA Southern wouldn't have made that big comeback.
 

AE 87

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@GlennW I'm not sure what you mean by our called pass plays "never worked in the game." I haven't gone back to look at what made those plays different, but here's my two cents: they were open, weren't tough throws, and for all but maybe 1 JT had time. It's hard for me to second guess a play-call that we should have been able to have success with just because we didn't.
 

str8shooter

Georgia Tech Fan
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Refs didn't call holding much on pass plays and it was going on with both teams. There are four or five obvious holds on GT that were not called, just as there were some by GS.
 

dressedcheeseside

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They were pooped after the 3 minutes they had to play in the first half?
They were pooped from being on the field the entire second half. That was partly their own fault for not getting off the field. GSU made EVERY 3rd down conversion.... EVERY ONE. Most were long, to boot. The O didn't help them out one bit going 3 and out several times.
 

Eric

Retired Co-Founder
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12,734
Personally I still think the back 7 is our strength...they had a bad game but I'm not giving in on that yet.

We have to get pressure on third down passing situations...were only rushing 4 and half the time the QB has all day to throw.
 
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