I know posts like this are heretical around here

[FightWinDrink]

I blame the defense. When is the last time we won a game scoring less than 20 points?

2008 vs Gardner Webb (10 points) and BC (19 points)

 

[Legal Jacket]

How can a defense be expected to be a top tier d when you have 3 DC's in 8 years. How can you expect a defense to be top tier when the HC doesn't care about defense. All everyone said was if we could just get a few stops a game we wound be almost unstoppable. Well that happened this year and Johnson didn't get it done. Roof got more from the d this year than last. I've never heard or read anything where Paul said I failed the team and fan base in any game. He's the OC and should look in the mirror to see what went wrong this year.

Again, the point is that the D and O should be treated evenly. We pretty much were unstoppable on offense last year. This year we regressed to where the D and O were about even. Saying the "HC doesn't care about defense" is laughable. You really think Paul doesn't care about defense?

The inconsistency is amazing. Fans are satisfied when our D gets a few stops, and want CPJ's head to roll when our offense gets stopped more than a few times.

And if you haven't heard Paul take accountability for anything, you just aren't paying attention. This took about 8 seconds to find. I hope you admit you are wrong in the next post; I'm sick of all the people criticizing Johnson for never taking responsibility.

“I think a lot of it is youth. A lot of is guys who will not probably be playing next year when we get everybody back, and we’ve got to coach better, so it’s all of the above. We’ve got to pay more attention to detail, and we’ve got to do a better job coaching.”

http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/co...rnallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

"I've never experienced anything like this in my coaching career, being as inept as we are on offense," said Johnson. "I was disappointed with the effort today. We looked like a very poorly coached team. That starts with me. Right from the very opening series offensively. We can't even take the play call into the huddle without screwing it up."

http://www.fromtherumbleseat.com/20...tech-has-worst-rushing-performance-under-paul

 

[Legal Jacket]

The article was referring to that one game. Yes he threw the defense under the bus. He points out two mutt possessions that hurt Tech's chances to win. Yet he doesn't discuss the total sh÷t storm that was the offense. He commented that the d made uga punt 4 times and everyone is happy, but if the offense doesn't score on every possession they stink. That is a crying winning little ***** to me. Reread the article.

You act like he wrote the article. He didn't. The problem with your post is you conflate CPJ with the author of the article. This is all Paul said:

"You've got to get better expectations," Johnson said. "For whatever reason, if the offense doesn't score every time, they stink. And if we can make them punt four times, that's great. We've got to have the expectations for both sides."

"We still had a chance," Johnson said. "We get them on the 6-yard line, and whenever we need a stop, we can't get one."

The first quote isn't about the uga game. It's about expectations being the same for both sides, in general. He doesn't point out two possessions; he points to one. He doesn't discuss the offense because the author of the article didn't quote him on the offense. CPJ didn't choose the quotes, the author did. Paul has criticized the offense on a number of occasions (see my last post in this thread) and admitted that it starts with him. I don't need to reread the article because I got it the first time. Did you?

 

[ibeattetris]

I will ask for anyone who thinks Johnson threw the defense under the bus to please respond with direct quotes from Paul Johnson. Sensationalist headlines are meant to ruffle feathers, and it seems some readers choose to come to conclusions without reading what was actually said. Asking for better expectations is no where near blaming. I grew up playing sports, and I do not remember a single instance of a coach saying, "Well guys, you have absolutely no room for improvement, and I feel my expectations are completely met." I for one am glad our coach has high expectations for our team, and I hope that when we meet those expectations he continues to set the bar higher.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

Ball,
Here is my drivel - you don't like CPJ do you?

I stand with CPJ even if we go 2-10.

He's done his all for this program, given us 4 of the better and best seasons we have had.

He seems to dislike uga as much as some of us.

His presser was open and honest and non defensive.

I stand by CPJ. He will get this straight.

Did you know it is possible to hold a more nuanced position than "me no like!" or "me like very much!"? I would hate to think you can't comprehend the world in more than black and white, but based on your response and other posting patterns you leave me little empirical data with which to draw a different conclusion.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

I don't see how you could possibly misread the article to a greater degree. He didn't blame the defense for the loss. He said the defense needs to improve, and that when we needed a stop we weren't able to get one.

You point to ONE game against an inept offense as somehow establishing that we were ok at defense this year. First of all, holding uga to 13 just isn't that great post-Chubb. Mizzou held them to 9. Florida held them to 3. Ga southern kept them at 17 in regulation. Georgia was 76th in the country in yards per game - about 3 yards per game better than us (we were 80). They were 86th in the country in ppg. Factor out the first four games (when they still had Chubb and played teams like La Monroe, Vandy, USCe, and Southern University) and they averaged only 17 points a game. That's right. The last 8 games of the year, uga averaged only 4 points more than what we "held" them to.

Second, the "pre-season all-GTSwarm DT" played most of the year as a backup and wasn't nearly as good as hyped (not his fault, that's ours). Gotsis played for a good chunk of the year too, and little good it did us.

We were 61st in rush defense, giving up 165.1 ypg and 4.7 ypc. That's mediocre at best. Pass defense we were 38 at 202.9 ypg. That's not bad - but not great either considering the yards we gave up on the ground AND that we pretty much just had seniors at DB.

Third, let's be real - what improvement did you actually see? That we held uga to 4 points under their post-Chubb average? That we held Miami to 38 the second to last game of the season? That we shut down virginia to the tune of 27 points? Kept Pitt to 31 points on our own field? Allowed an inept VT team to score 23?

We "improved" only in the sense that we were god awful last year. The "Defense" gave up 30 or more during each game of the 5 game losing streak. If we instead manage to keep those teams to between 21-24 points, we may beat ND, Duke, UNC, and/or Pitt - at the very least we would have won a couple more of those. That could have been the difference to being 5-3 or 6-2 after FSU, rather than 3-5.

Sure, the offense wasn't great either, but we were 57th in scoring defense and 63rd in scoring offense. Those are pretty even numbers. Yet some people are going on and on about how bad the offense was (don't get me wrong, it was bad) and giving the defense a pass. That's all CPJ is saying - grade them by the same system. Neither did particularly well - maybe we should beat uga if we hold them to 13, but we should also win games where we score in the high 20s, low 30s.

I appreciate the thoroughness of your response, but I think you are arguing against a point I did not make. I may have been unclear.

To be clear, the defense was not good. @33jacket can vouch that I am a staunch Tenuta type guy. In fact, I was more critical of Ted Roof than most this year.

THAT SAID, when the offense lays a tremendous egg and the FIRST thing out of Coach's mouth is "well, we'da won 7-0 if the defense had done its job," it seems out of character for him and a bit disingenuous.

My feeling is that the media makes him more defensive than he really is, but nonetheless, it's a little telling especially when I think the FIRST coach on the chopping block should be Sewak.

I'm also a bit curious as to why people are using 20 points as a benchmark when it's been about 2 decades since 20 was the average offensive output; I believe it's north of 30 now with rule and scheme changes over the years.

 

[Boomergump]

I wonder if the kids in the locker room were blaming the "other unit" for the losses?.........................NOT! Football is a team sport. Apparently the kids understand it better than we do. This much is true: the combination of our offense, defense, special teams and coaching was only good enough to win 3 of 12 games. There is not a single area of our team that is good enough right now. All this blame talk is pointless.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

I wonder if the kids in the locker room were blaming the "other unit" for the losses?.........................NOT! Football is a team sport. Apparently the kids understand it better than we do. This much is true: the combination of our offense, defense, special teams and coaching was only good enough to win 3 of 12 games. There is not a single area of our team that is good enough right now. All this blame talk is pointless.

Well, that would be my thoughts but it does seem that CPJ blames the defense more, even where it may be unwarranted. I understand he must be frustrated because largely it has been the D holding us back during his tenure, but in the context of just the UGA game it's very hard to say that with a straight face.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

I blame the defense. When is the last time we won a game scoring less than 20 points?

When is the last time 20 points was a good barometer of defensive prowess? 1945? The average NCAA offense has been scoring above 30 for about 2 decades now.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

@Legal Jacket [QUOTE="The inconsistency is amazing. Fans are satisfied when our D gets a few stops, and want CPJ's head to roll when our offense gets stopped more than a few times." [/QUOTE]

Well, part of that this year is due to the undue hype from the offseason around here. I tried to moderate that and thought 8-4 would be a good year; I was shouted at, cursed at, sent vicious PMs, and generally ridden out of town on a rail for being a naysayer.

It's when I decided most folks on here aren't really that much more intelligent or insightful than the general internet fonts, and weren't worthy of that much respect.

You can't build an enormous hype train, and then become all anguished when people ride it to its logical conclusions unless you have little integrity in your positions. This could be the indirect result of not being able to have a more than black-and-white view of things. There was even one discussion on here where people took offense to the notion that JT could be a more accurate passer.

I've been overwhelmingly supportive of CPJ on here, but any time I bring up an area I think could improve am immediately castigated and labelled a CPJ hater.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

I think some of this is the way the media is spinning things as well. Coach would be the first one to tell you he's very upset with the offense this year.

...and yes, we should beat Georgia when we hold them to 13. That really pissed me off...

I think that's fair; I would think the media had an angle on his overall quotes. I think Coach would agree that the team as a whole was not what he expects of his teams this year; it just came across differently.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

Well, that would be my thoughts but it does seem that CPJ blames the defense more, even where it may be unwarranted. I understand he must be frustrated because largely it has been the D holding us back during his tenure, but in the context of just the UGA game it's very hard to say that with a straight face.

I don't feel CPJ blames the defense more but rather is a bit ticked of the many many years where his offense is blamed for losing since they didn't have their normal 30+ point game. This happened quite a lot in the TW seasons.

All he's saying is you should have the same expectations for the units rather than expecting the defense to hold the other team to 30ish points and expecting the offense to always score 40ish.

 

[ibeattetris]

THAT SAID, when the offense lays a tremendous egg and the FIRST thing out of Coach's mouth is "well, we'da won 7-0 if the defense had done its job," it seems out of character for him and a bit disingenuous.

I am going to need a source on this, or are you being "a bit disingenuous"?

 

[Wrecking Ball]

The bottom line of the season is that we could not put opponents away on O when we got stops on D, and we could not get needed stops on D when the game was on the line. That is called losing as a team. In 2014 we won as a team, because both sides of the ball could step up when it mattered the most, whether it was a score against GA Southern, a kick against VT, or a pick against UGAg.

We had the winning mojo in 2014 with a focused team effort. We did not have it in 2015. The team wins and loses as a team. The offense, defense, and special teams are all to blame for the wins and the losses. It is just easier as fans to single one out in particular for a loss based on the score.

This is not even remotely true. There are times when it is appropriate to single out under-performing segments of the whole. This would be a fine plot for a Disney film, but you cannot honestly believe that sometimes we win in spite of circumstances or performances and not because of them. That's also part of being a team. If you do honestly believe this, I would suggest choosing to read books that aren't sold in "Inspiration and Self-Help" next time you read.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

I am going to need a source on this, or are you being "a bit disingenuous"?

I was using hyperbole, but I caged it with pointing out that, overall, it's out-of-character for a host of reasons (the host of reasons have been covered ad nauseum elsewhere.) In some respects, that could be construed as disingenuity.

 

[ibeattetris]

When is the last time 20 points was a good barometer of defensive prowess? 1945? The average NCAA offense has been scoring above 30 for about 2 decades now.

The average scoring points per game scoring offense this year was less than 30 this year: http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/team/_/stat/total/sort/totalPointsPerGame
29.5

 

[Wrecking Ball]

I don't feel CPJ blames the defense more but rather is a bit ticked of the many many years where his offense is blamed for losing since they didn't have their normal 30+ point game. This happened quite a lot in the TW seasons.

All he's saying is you should have the same expectations for the units rather than expecting the defense to hold the other team to 30ish points and expecting the offense to always score 40ish.

Well, that's true in a vacuum, but in the context of our program, I really am OK with the defense holding teams to around 27 points. It's the reality of the situation. We're a program built around the O. Would I like to win games 99-0 every time? Yes. But, the uncomfortable reality is that expectations, for myself and a lot of others, are not based on an ideal but on the facts of business.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

The average scoring points per game scoring offense this year was less than 30 this year: http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/team/_/stat/total/sort/totalPointsPerGame
29.5

In what way does the .5 point discrepancy detract from my overall point, or do you have a bone to pick with me? If you do, just send me nasty PMs that I can ignore without derailing the thread to engage in auto-erotic nitpickery.

Edit to say that it's not clear that 29.5 is the average, it seems to be the median (except it isn't that either, but maybe you thought it was.)

 

[ibeattetris]

In what way does the .5 point discrepancy detract from my overall point, or do you have a bone to pick with me? If you do, just send me nasty PMs that I can ignore without derailing the thread to engage in auto-erotic nitpickery.

Then let us make the discussion be based on fact not some hyperbolic fantasy where we can make up points that suit our opinion. I asked earlier for ANY quote where Paul directly blames the defense for a loss, and I have yet to see one.

No one is happy with our offense this year, and I would guarantee that CPJ was at the head of the line for who is most disappointed. Saying CPJ blames the defense because he has high expectations for them seems a bit over board.

 

[Wrecking Ball]

Big difference between blaming the defense for the loss (he didn't) and saying it needs to improve (it does). Frankly, I'm shocked anyone objects to a word he said. Most of us have griped about the defense - I know I sure as hell have - and now he's saying we need to raise our expectations. What, exactly, is the problem here?

I've done my fair share of griping about CTR, including his unimaginative schemes, but when we finally do hold a superior opponent to less than 2 TDs, that is not the time to raise the expectations of the defense. It would have been better leadership to do so had we won 14-13, not after a game in which we were fortunate not to be shut out.