Defense is now totally optional.

Jerry the Jacket

Jerry the Jacket

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Here I was thinking we were one of the worst defensive teams playing out there but the more I watch the more I see that we are not alone. What the hell has happened to defensive football? You know we could really distinguish ourselves if we could just improve a little bit. We seem to be pretty inept, especially when it comes to stopping someone on third and or fourth down. In fact, it seems that whatever our opponent needs to gain to advance toward scoring, we figure out a way to give it to them. It makes me wonder when our coaches and players will get feed up and do something about it.

Clemson appears to be one of the few teams that actually has a pretty good defense. It is shaping up to be a long day next Saturday. I am thinking about driving up to the mountains to watch the leaves turn.

Go Jackets!
 

flak

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Despite all our problems on D it was good to see GT only allowed Louisville to put up 6 on the scoreboard in the 2nd half.Having to play Clemson on the schedule next is a tough break but we don’t get to choose who to play each week.I appreciate the turnovers the D created to put us in position to win Friday night, just going to have to fight that much harder this week
 
slugboy

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Kentucky held Miss State and Mike Leach to 2 points. I guess it depends what games you were looking at.

With Bama-Ole Miss, I think the score says more about Lane Kiffin’s offensive ability than about Saban losing his abilities on defense. Kiffin knew where to hit Bama, but he couldn’t stop them.
 

MWBATL

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slugboy said:
Kentucky held Miss State and Mike Leach to 2 points. I guess it depends what games you were looking at.

With Bama-Ole Miss, I think the score says more about Lane Kiffin’s offensive ability than about Saban losing his abilities on defense. Kiffin knew where to hit Bama, but he couldn’t stop them.
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I agree with you, but there were tons of other high scoring examples:
  1. UNC 56 VT 45
  2. Missouri 45 LSU 41
  3. Texas A&M 41 Florida 38
  4. Georgia (yuck) 44 Tennessee 21
There were a grand total of 4 games yesterday where the winner scored less than 30 points. That's 4 out of 29. That sure seems high to me. Maybe it isn't, I haven't done any research comparing to prior years, but it sure seems high scoring...
 
LibertyTurns

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slugboy said:
Kentucky held Miss State and Mike Leach to 2 points. I guess it depends what games you were looking at.

With Bama-Ole Miss, I think the score says more about Lane Kiffin’s offensive ability than about Saban losing his abilities on defense. Kiffin knew where to hit Bama, but he couldn’t stop them.
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Wow, just looked at the box score. 6 INTs!
 

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Almost 10 teams who were ranked in the top 10 have now lost in the last couple weeks. Last years national champion’s only win so far is against a winless team. It’s a crazy year, which honestly is what many of us wondered would happen. Hardly any practice in the spring and summer. No chance to work on fundamentals. No chance to work on your schemes. No chance to learn and gel with your teammates in these schemes. It really feels like each week is a season - the team that prepares the best in any given single week can win, regardless of what the matchup looks like on paper.
 
slugboy

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slugboy said:
This might be an example of how well Kiffin knew how to attack Bama—Saban thought he was stealing signs: https://www.espn.com/college-footba...ck-saban-wonder-ole-miss-knew-defense-signals

It’s probably more if you let a good offensive mind watch your defense 6-7 days a week for years, he’ll recognize whatever you have and have a plan for it.

Here’s the ESPN summary page of the MSST-UKY game: https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401237104
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My question for Saban would be why not project a few defensive calls that were fake, and really call the opposite and see what happens. Easy to do on a few plays, especially coming out of halftime or a timeout.
 

alagold

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dressedcheeseside said:
I just watched a bunch of highlights from all top games and I noticed something, tackling is poor across the board. Maybe this a byproduct of covid affecting the preseason.
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yep, it is lack of tackling practice but to me it is more about the new rules that you can't use your head in leading to a tackle which makes it MUCH more difficult to bring down these big strong fast runners.
 

takethepoints

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Jerry the Jacket said:
Here I was thinking we were one of the worst defensive teams playing out there but the more I watch the more I see that we are not alone. What the hell has happened to defensive football? You know we could really distinguish ourselves if we could just improve a little bit. We seem to be pretty inept, especially when it comes to stopping someone on third and or fourth down. In fact, it seems that whatever our opponent needs to gain to advance toward scoring, we figure out a way to give it to them. It makes me wonder when our coaches and players will get feed up and do something about it.

Clemson appears to be one of the few teams that actually has a pretty good defense. It is shaping up to be a long day next Saturday. I am thinking about driving up to the mountains to watch the leaves turn.

Go Jackets!
Click to expand...
I blame the PAC-12. Out there, they simply quit playing D everywhere but Stanford. It was as if a Loyola-Marymount (remember them?) mentality had leaked over to the football programs. And this has spread; coaches don't seem to think they can stop modern offenses, so they try to out score the other side instead.

Well, perhaps they are right. Some of this comes from rule changes. Modern blocking rules - put in to make sure that college football could compete with the pros for tv money - allow flagrant holding. Modern coverage rules - put in to make sure that college football could compete with the pros for tv money - have abandoned offensive interference altogether (why do you think every team wants a lot of really big WRs?). Then there are all the protections - put in to make sure that college football could compete with the pros for tv money - for QBs. The rest is due to the widespread adoption of option offenses; they really are harder to defense. Still, as Stanford shows, a team that holds onto the ball and plays good stout D has a good chance to win, even with the new environment.

Iow, there's a niche out there, but only a few teams seem to want to occupy it. I mean, really, everybody knows defense is boring.
 

billga99

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And my guess is the most talented players want to play on the skill positions for offense. If you had really good hands and speed would you rather be a Wide Receiver or Defensive Back? Wide Receivers get lots of accolades regarding catches, yards and TDs. Defensive backs get recognized primarily when they get beat deep...yes positive on interceptions but suspect that happens a lot less than getting beat deep.
 
AlabamaBuzz

AlabamaBuzz

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Defense is not optional, in my opinion, but it is true very few teams, even some that have perennially great D's, have looked good this year. UGAG, to my chagrin, has a top notch D with NFL guys everywhere. Obviously, Bama's D is way, way down. Clem's son appears to have a very good D - if they hold ND to less than 24, I think that will seal the deal about their D. Miami's O is not terrible, and Clem's son held them to less than 20.

I would like to think Kirby "fake a punt for no reason" Smart will blow it somehow, but right now, it would be intellectually hard to pick against them making the playoffs and possibly the championship game. In today's more offense-centric big boy football, a team that can get a few 3 and outs every game is going to be considered stellar. The rules are definitely skewed for the offenses, and the RPO has made playing D even more difficult.
 

MountainBuzzMan

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AlabamaBuzz said:
Defense is not optional, in my opinion, but it is true very few teams, even some that have perennially great D's, have looked good this year. UGAG, to my chagrin, has a top notch D with NFL guys everywhere. Obviously, Bama's D is way, way down. Clem's son appears to have a very good D - if they hold ND to less than 24, I think that will seal the deal about their D. Miami's O is not terrible, and Clem's son held them to less than 20.

I would like to think Kirby "fake a punt for no reason" Smart will blow it somehow, but right now, it would be intellectually hard to pick against them making the playoffs and possibly the championship game. In today's more offense-centric big boy football, a team that can get a few 3 and outs every game is going to be considered stellar. The rules are definitely skewed for the offenses, and the RPO has made playing D even more difficult.
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7 of those came from a Clemson FG try that was blocked and ran back for a TD in the closing seconds of the first half. The other TD was in the 4th Quarter when the backups were in. Their Defense looks legit.
 
Milwaukee

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slugboy said:
This might be an example of how well Kiffin knew how to attack Bama—Saban thought he was stealing signs: https://www.espn.com/college-footba...ck-saban-wonder-ole-miss-knew-defense-signals

It’s probably more if you let a good offensive mind watch your defense 6-7 days a week for years, he’ll recognize whatever you have and have a plan for it.

Here’s the ESPN summary page of the MSST-UKY game: https://www.espn.com/college-football/game/_/gameId/401237104
Click to expand...
Saban needs to stop moaning and just admit that they got ran through like sh*t through a tinhorn and give credit then move on. It happens even to the greats.

 

gtwcf

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When 70% of the offenses are option (including ours!)....defense goes out the window.

Clemson and Bama to a certain extent have the guys who are 6-3 250 and run like Road Runner and can keep up. A majority can't.

Quite different from the I-formation days.....
 
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