Boomer, I won't disagree with your DLine assessment other than to say all we really need from them is to know what we can get from them on a consistent basis. If the coaches know that, then at that point they should be able to scheme for any weaknesses or shortcomings there are on the line. I recall last year you were extremely harsh on Attaochu as a DE so I am just going to consider you a hard grader. We may not line up 4 all ACC players but last year everyone was saying Dieke was horrid and he made it in an NFL camp for a while before he got injured so he must have been at least serviceable. Gotsis is a year older and a year better, Green is a bigger, better version of Cummings so our run defense shoudn't be any worse than it was last year. Chungong and Freeman are the weak points against the run but with Harrel, Marcordes and Nealy back there to fill the gaps, our linebacker play should be sufficient to cover the drop down from Attaochu and Dieke... Attaochu wasn't drafted for his run stopping ability.
VT doesn't have a good offensive line, UNC doesn't have a good offensive line, UVA doesn't have a good offensive line, Miami doesn't have a good offensive line, Pitt has a good line but a big slow back, we held him to less than 40 yards last year and Duke is still Duke.. We will win or lose games based on what we do as a whole on defense not because of the DLine.
Right now my biggest concern, since I hope that CTR has decided to never play Noble another meaningful snap as safety this year, is we continue to start games off with our corners giving way too much room on the outside trying to avoid the big play down the field. Instead we allow the QB and the recievers to get into an early rhythm throwing and catching the ball and converting on those third and mediums. It's frustrating to no end for it to be third and 4 and see the corner playing 10 yards back. With griffin back, we have bigger, stronger corners and White is equally adept and turning and running with the best of them. We need to start games off in much more press man coverage to take away those easy passes that teams look for to get into a groove. Closing down those easy lanes will allow for more blitzing and help the dline put pressure on the QB. Once you hit the QB and get him rattled, then switch back and forth between man and zone.. blitzing 5 or 6 and dropping 8 into coverage. But you have to get him rattled and questioning what he sees first. Last year we allowed every QB we played to have almost a career day passing against us and that was not all the dline's fault.
The offense is going to have to not give opposing teams short fields to drive and CTR is going to have to get these corners to trust their technique and press, press and press.. bump and run.. On the UNC qb is a dual threat QB so, worrying about QB's running against us shouldn't be an issue.. just unleash those DB's !!!!
