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MWBATL

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,597
I must admit that I have found myself thinking recently that I wanted a defense that was off the field in 3 plays....one way or the other. Either we get a three-and-out.....or the other teams scores.

I just feel so tired of the read-and-react defense that I am almost willing to over-react in the other direction.

I have NO doubt in my mind that Roof will NOT change. He only gets aggressive defensively if we are well ahead and a mistake will not cost us the game. He is scared to death of a Tennessee-style defensive collapse and tries to design his defense to prevent that. But as we all know, "prevent" defense more often prevent victories, not touchdowns. Some of my friends who like Roof rely on the argument that he doesn't have the athletes to play aggressively, especially against the spread offense dominant today.

For whatever reason, Roof seems to think scheme cannot overcome lack of talent. Maybe he's right (I don't pretend to be smart enough to really KNOW the answer to that question). I fully expect to see the same read-and-react defense we saw against Tennessee when we play other P5 teams. It will drive me nuts again. Roof clearly believes you can only play aggressive defense when you have superior talent.
 

sidewalkGTfan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,276
dawgbasher said:
If Kelly at ND gets canned after this season, Mike Elko will be available. Great defensive mind.
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I may be misremembering but I think he was interviewed back when Roof was hired. I haven't looked it up but I'm thinking he was at Bowling Green, with the current WF head coach, at the time.
 
Jmonty71

Jmonty71

Banned
Messages
2,156
MWBATL said:
I must admit that I have found myself thinking recently that I wanted a defense that was off the field in 3 plays....one way or the other. Either we get a three-and-out.....or the other teams scores.

I just feel so tired of the read-and-react defense that I am almost willing to over-react in the other direction.

I have NO doubt in my mind that Roof will NOT change. He only gets aggressive defensively if we are well ahead and a mistake will not cost us the game. He is scared to death of a Tennessee-style defensive collapse and tries to design his defense to prevent that. But as we all know, "prevent" defense more often prevent victories, not touchdowns. Some of my friends who like Roof rely on the argument that he doesn't have the athletes to play aggressively, especially against the spread offense dominant today.

For whatever reason, Roof seems to think scheme cannot overcome lack of talent. Maybe he's right (I don't pretend to be smart enough to really KNOW the answer to that question). I fully expect to see the same read-and-react defense we saw against Tennessee when we play other P5 teams. It will drive me nuts again. Roof clearly believes you can only play aggressive defense when you have superior talent.
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I agree with you. Been saying this for 3 years now. Ball awareness is not there. Read and react works when you have 4 and 5 star recruits. We just don't have the power and speed to read and react to strong teams equal or better. Whether people admit it or not, it's true. Our LBs are slow. Our DL is undersized. Our DBs ironically DO have the speed. But, they get put at risk from the lack of size and speed on the front 7, in my opinion.

Now, there are ways to turn those weaknesses into strengths. Undersized DL usually means quicker. We don't shoot gaps well.. The LBs.. Well... that's an issue. I don't see the strong tackling needed, for read and react. Nor do I see a great scheme that can utilize them, the best. Either way... I think this is our weakest area on the D.

I think part of it is Roof's schemes... part of it is we simply don't have the type of athletes needed for his style of play.... part of it is just bad play.... part of it is mistakes. You take all 4 parts you get what you had against UT in the 2nd half, you get what we had in the 1st half of the JSU game.
 
OldJacketFan

OldJacketFan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,348
Location
Nashville, TN
Jmonty71 said:
I agree with you. Been saying this for 3 years now. Ball awareness is not there. Read and react works when you have 4 and 5 star recruits. We just don't have the power and speed to read and react to strong teams equal or better. Whether people admit it or not, it's true. Our LBs are slow. Our DL is undersized. Our DBs ironically DO have the speed. But, they get put at risk from the lack of size and speed on the front 7, in my opinion.

Now, there are ways to turn those weaknesses into strengths. Undersized DL usually means quicker. We don't shoot gaps well.. The LBs.. Well... that's an issue. I don't see the strong tackling needed, for read and react. Nor do I see a great scheme that can utilize them, the best. Either way... I think this is our weakest area on the D.

I think part of it is Roof's schemes... part of it is we simply don't have the type of athletes needed for his style of play.... part of it is just bad play.... part of it is mistakes. You take all 4 parts you get what you had against UT in the 2nd half, you get what we had in the 1st half of the JSU game.
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1st half of the Jax St game, 7 points, under 100 yards total offense given up by the D. I, like everyone on else on here, know your distaste for CTR but there are enough poor performances to point to without having to make any up.
 
tech_wreck47

tech_wreck47

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,670
PBR549 said:
A lot of "experts" here. Let the coaches coach please. Let PJ run the program. Ted doesn't come to your job and throw rocks at you while you're mowing!
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No he doesn't, but he does affect my health on saturdays...... J/K I'm not one to bash, and if he can turn things around then great.
 
tech_wreck47

tech_wreck47

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,670
presjacket said:
Maybe you're right. I just get tired of reading the negative opinions of our defensive coordinator in every other thread. Perhaps I'm just extra grumpy today because I should be in Orlando preparing to watch us play.
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lol I was just goofing off, but yea it does come up a ton.
 
wreckrod

wreckrod

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
429
Maybe if we sucked less people wouldn't talk about Roof so much.

I don't love the scheme in particular, but I don't think it's inherently flawed. 4-2-5 is fine against the mostly spread teams we play. Would I like to see a few more blitzes called, and tighter coverage? Absolutely. But again, this isn't the root of the problem.

Watch iBeeballin's defensive breakdowns. He's not explaining things like "ok look how when the safety reads this and the corner reads that it puts them in a bind, the offense is attacking this part of the scheme" no, he says stuff like "this player took a bad angle. This guy has to wrap up. This player should know he has help inside. This player is telegraphing the blitz." It's all basic stuff. I don't care what freaking scheme we run or how much we blitz if we take bad angles. If we don't wrap up. Some things about the angles and where help will be is scheme-related, but a lot of it is just defensive football 101.

I don't know what Roof is stressing or saying to focus on, but we would have a massively improved defense if we did nothing but take good angles and wrap up the tackles when we got there.
 
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