Film Study - Defense vs GSU

Boomergump

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Or lack thereof.

I didn't want to do it, but I did. I sat there and forced myself to watch those plays over and over. GSU runs option, like you already know. It is a lot of similar stuff to what Wofford ran except they can throw.

So, what happened in the second half? I'm sure that is the question on every bodies mind. Well, let me preface my comments about the second half with the observation that I don't think we played great defense in the first half either. We played a little harder in the early stages, for sure, but there were still break downs. That long TD run was uncalled for. IJ was unblocked on the play. UNBLOCKED! He had the pitch man, but inexplicably took a false step towards the middle before running outside like "oh yeah, I am supposed to be over there". Even with that, he had time to make a tackle after probably a 10 yard gain but he way underestimated the kid's speed and took a real shallow angle and that was all she wrote. It looked HORRIBLE on film in so many ways. He is a senior and he has how many hours playing the option? The biggest difference between halves, in my mind, was that GSU missed a lot of plays that were there in half 1. They had open receivers stepping on the sideline. They dropped passes. They made poor throws etc etc. We played hard, if not smart, but they could have had a little more production if they had played well.

If you are wondering "did we come out flat in half 2, thinking the game was on ice?" ABSOLUTELY. I also couldn't believe my eyes the lack of effort up front during the first series. There was barely any contact, let alone getting pushed around up front. After about 6 or 7 plays, you could see the guys trying to rally themselves, but the damage was done from a concentration standpoint. After the first series we may have played harder but we were just as dumb and once GSU got some confidence and momentum, they started hitting every play that was there. I didn't count the plays, but we totally botched assignments several runs in the half with 2 guys on the QB and the pitch left alone or vice versa. It was like we had never seen it before.
It was shameful really. That is as far as I am going to go with it.

Up front, they were leaving a DE unblocked (as normal with the option) and since we had a 4 man front they could double Gotsis and Green most of the time, leaving one man on the DE from the non-read side. If it was a pass play, interestingly enough, they still doubled our DTs and picked up one of the DEs with a RB in the backfield. That is how little respect we are getting on the edge. Rook-Chungong was largely ineffective. I thought Freeman played pretty well and disrupted things even if the play was outside his normal domain. It is a shame he has to play this year. He is an athlete, but he doesn't look physically ready to me. When he has a couple years in the weight room he will be good.

Davis probably played his worst game. He looked indecisive most of the time and ended up diving at people instead of hitting them. He didn't pick up receivers well either. The DBs covered well from what I could see in the screen, but you have to make a play on the ball when it arrives. That is no time to be a spectator. They made good throws in the second half. I'll give them that, but they didn't ALL have to be completed.

I have no idea what to take from this game. We still have the unfixable issues that we all know of, but I sure hope this is rock bottom in terms of overall effort, assignment discipline, tackling, and ball skills. We made one stop on 3rd down in half two (Milton tackling a receiver short of the marker) and that was followed up by a 4th down conversion to the house. I didn't count them, but there were a lot of 3rd and longs. Shameful. Just shameful.
 

jchens_GT

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Ouch....I haven't been able to bring myself to re-watch this game save for a few offensive highlights. @Boomergump, in your opinion, how much of what we see is teachable/correctable this season and what should we chalk up as a loss? I'm not sure if you've seen a sizeable enough body of work to make a call either way. I'm hoping we can put it together enough to have an average or almost average defense. We've seemed pretty bottom of the barrel so far. Film and defensive stats prove it too.
 

GTNavyNuke

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Thanks Boomer, no way I'd want to watch the D end again. I saw a lot of missed tackles the first time and it reminded me of three years ago under Groh when the players were thinking so much that they forgot to play.

So we'll probably make the VT offense look good on Saturday since there usually isn't that much improvement between the third and fourth game (based on CPJ statements about th most improvement between week1 to week2). Hopefully O and ST can bail us out. But to the point of D, when we play physically better players, they should do even better on the one oon one matchups. Maybe not the overall scheme, but one on one.

Nothing you said was a surprise though. I will say though that GSU made some great passes with touch and caught the ball in the second half with our DB there and our DB knowing where the ball was. Some of those passes were just perfectly thrown and wouldn't be incomplete without pass interference ....... Also GSU had only one turnover and that was somewhat forced by our D (and a bad pitch into traffic). So GSU played well; better than I thought they would and didn't get the memo at half time that the game was over at 35-10. But for all the teams left on our schedule, they all have the capability to play better on O than GSU did.
 

kg01

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Speaking of taking one for the team, I have to ask the obligatory question ... Should Roof come down out of the booth?

Does that make a difference from a "hey, kid get your head in the game" standpoint? Maybe that's what Pelton's there for. Could that be why he and CPJ had the heated exchange after GSU TD 1?

Ok, have at it guys. I'm the dummy that asks the stupid question I'm sure some others were wondering. :oops::(
 

AtWork

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That's why it is a game of inches. Bad angles, false steps, and not playing hard to the ball will put you behind, especially when the whole teams comes out flat like they did. The main thing that I try to take away from it is we won allowing 38. If we can straiten up assignments we can clean a lot of it up. The "i thought you had the pitch" stunk it up last week. I think assignments are correctable and can be done quickly. The tackling is an effort issue. Let's hold them to 21 and see if Justin can keep our defense off the field.
 

jchens_GT

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Speaking of taking one for the team, I have to ask the obligatory question ... Should Roof come down out of the booth?

Does that make a difference from a "hey, kid get your head in the game" standpoint? Maybe that's what Pelton's there for. Could that be why he and CPJ had the heated exchange after GSU TD 1?

Ok, have at it guys. I'm the dummy that asks the stupid question I'm sure some others were wondering. :oops::(
I want to say that Tenuta spent most of his time in the booth. He was a very intense guy from what I remember. What did Roof do during his first stint at Tech? I don't recall what Wommack or Groh did.

With a defense full of young players who naturally tend to lose focus, I would think that having your best motivators on the sidelines would help. We've got so many problems on D though, I wonder if Roof thinks he gives us a better chance to win if he can see all of the action himself?
 

Aanderson1839

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In my opinion the poor angles and positioning by our Safeties are the biggest problems and why we are giving up huge plays on breakdowns instead of making stops. Add to that the fact we continue to rush 4 guys but have man coverage with no help over the top on long balls.

We have two experienced Safeties so I am not sure if this is a scheme or talent issue, or a combination of both.
 

kg01

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In my opinion the poor angles and positioning by our Safeties are the biggest problems and why we are giving up huge plays on breakdowns instead of making stops. Add to that the fact we continue to rush 4 guys but have man coverage with no help over the top on long balls.

We have two experienced Safeties so I am not sure if this is a scheme or talent issue, or a combination of both.

I've been screaming this for 3 years now. Safety play has absolutely killed us for years. I think Boomer's being kind giving them the "took a misstep" excuse. The bad angles and missed tackles happen way too many times for them to be a one-play mistakes. They are what they are at this point.

I wanted them to put the young guys in because at least they had the youth excuse, but it's ridiculous this problem just keeps going on and on. Could this be what @Leonard Larramore has been telling us regarding DB coaching (or lack thereof)?
 

dressedcheeseside

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One of our esteemed fellow posters who also happens to be an ex-NFL player suggested we are lacking in our coaching in the secondary, especially techniquewise.
 

AE 87

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FWIW, Roof started the year last year on the sidelines and moved up to the booth ... CAM seems to be the main on the field guy
 

GTNavyNuke

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As I think about it more, the type of poor tackling and bad angles seem independent of the O scheme we face, e.g. pro style or spread option. Please tell me why I am wrong.
 

danny daniel

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As I think about it more, the type of poor tackling and bad angles seem independent of the O scheme we face, e.g. pro style or spread option. Please tell me why I am wrong.

IMO No deep safety- no last line of defense against the breakaway run, no good coverage on the deep post, no help ever for the CB on deep routes, no angle to get sideline to sideline. Makes no difference about what O we play if the safeties are too close to the LOS and out of position and not as fast as they need to be for the position we put them in. In the spring game Laskey got by both safeties. Heck Swilling got by both safeties (Davis ran him down-not a speedster himself), Byerly got by both safeties in scrimmage, Wofford got by them, Tulane got behind them, Ga So did all the above to them multiple times. Rant over.
 

Wrecking Ball

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The safety play at this juncture implicates the DB coaching. I miss the years when the safeties were quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) solid.
 

Boomergump

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In my opinion the poor angles and positioning by our Safeties are the biggest problems and why we are giving up huge plays on breakdowns instead of making stops. Add to that the fact we continue to rush 4 guys but have man coverage with no help over the top on long balls.

We have two experienced Safeties so I am not sure if this is a scheme or talent issue, or a combination of both.
Well, when you are defending the option, rushing 4 and still not having safety help up top is the order of the day. You have to make up for the optioned off player, in terms of manpower, and the safety does that usually. The advantage we will have playing a more conventional offense in the coming weeks is that safeties can now back up and give help to the guys on the boundary. Blitzing is less risky when you have guys back.

Right now, I would say it has been established that if we want any kind of consistent pressure we will need more than 4 on the rush. I hate to say it, but it is my honest assessment at this time. At DE, Freeman is going to be good but he is really being pushed ahead of a normal development pace by us. Rook-Chungong is decent but far from an elite pass rusher. So that leaves us with DTs, who will face a lot of double teams unless a fifth guy is coming too.

I don't want us to panic. We have a lot of the same guys back who showed they can play a little bit. There are some pieces that have yet to be fully replaced, however. JA and JT are the two that come to mind, but we have to remember BW too. He was an interesting cat who could cover fast guys as a LB. I think Jemea has been the closest to being replaced at this point. We haven't found a rush end yet and we have gotten smaller with Demond replacing Watts.

I have been saying this for a while now, no defense will look good when the guys up front aren't getting it done. If you can win a draw and hold point at the LOS on defense against the rush, then the run fits all work. If you get some pressure with 4, then 7 guys in coverage can look pretty good. That field starts to look deep and wide when there are only 5 guys back (because 6 are needed for pressure) and one has to shadow the QB.
 

4NatlChmps

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IMO No deep safety- no last line of defense against the breakaway run, no good coverage on the deep post, no help ever for the CB on deep routes, no angle to get sideline to sideline. Makes no difference about what O we play if the safeties are too close to the LOS and out of position and not as fast as they need to be for the position we put them in. In the spring game Laskey got by both safeties. Heck Swilling got by both safeties (Davis ran him down-not a speedster himself), Byerly got by both safeties in scrimmage, Wofford got by them, Tulane got behind them, Ga So did all the above to them multiple times. Rant over.
My opinion is #1 isn't what we tht as a sophomore. Get him out. No speed and injury machine
 

takethepoints

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I think it is a bit early to panic and that we could get better. We have a lot of people playing who are either 1) freshmen, 2) brand new as starters with precious little playing experience, or C) playing again after season ending injuries. All three conditions are things to work through. Also, we really have been playing plain vanilla so far.

Does this mean we'll be world-beaters soon? No. I think we won't be quite as good on D this year as we were last even with addition experience. I think the talent is there, but it is far too green for us to replace what we had. Too bad about KW and JHD; that would have helped. Sooooo … Tech = Navy, as I said before. And let's hope JT continues to improve.
 

vamosjackets

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I said this in another post on the recruiting board. There is no possible way we were going to have a good defense this year. We lost 3 probable starters (K.Whitehead, K.Robbins, J.Hunt-Days) and 3 major contributors, if not starters themselves (J.Akins, D.Commissiong, J.Kitchen) all on the DL. That kind of attrition at a position like DL at a school like GT is insurmountable. And, we're likely to improve somewhat next year but still not be very good while still trying to get over those losses by recruiting. You can't rely on freshmen on the DL and expect to be any good.

All of this is because we actually have a school and real degrees that require actual learning/studying for our SA's. So, it is what it is. Go Jackets!
 

swampsting

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I said this in another post on the recruiting board. There is no possible way we were going to have a good defense this year. We lost 3 probable starters (K.Whitehead, K.Robbins, J.Hunt-Days) and 3 major contributors, if not starters themselves (J.Akins, D.Commissiong, J.Kitchen) all on the DL. That kind of attrition at a position like DL at a school like GT is insurmountable.

It's insurmountable anywhere. Especially at Tech. But losing six of your projected top 12-16 or however many DL ... hard to overcome anywhere.
 
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