Our defense is awful...

[Oldgoldandwhite]

We are 45.

Is that awful?

Yes, unless you are happy to be ranked 45th. But Dave Braine would say 45th is very good.

 

[elwoodgt]

We had some good Ds when O'leary was DC......some terrible ones when he became HC. I don't think they were terrible because he forgot how to coach D or hire a decent DC.

I was a huge Tenuta fan....and was in favor of him as a HC before CPJ's name came up. I recall many fans hating his scheme (mostly for giving up big plays) and we friggin had top 20 Ds during his tenure! Fans are fickle.

Since it's relevant to our current discussion - do you recall who the coordinator was on some of those terrible defenses when O'Leary was HC?

 

[rosebud78]

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-points-per-game

Top 25 in scoring defense, I guess mercer hasn't been plugged in but 12 ppg is probably around ranked 15-16. Stats have to be taken with perspective. Cpj just was saying this in latest presser.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Yes, unless you are happy to be ranked 45th. But Dave Braine would say 45th is very good.

IIWII, but life is too short for mediocre D.

I call it more mediocre as most other teams want to win too. (tic)

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Here's some stats for ya: 2 - 0.

 

[elwoodgt]

I'm not a defensive expert by any means, but I don't think our weakness on D is due to personnel. Or rather, the scheme we run makes it about personnel, by creating one-on-one match ups that require an individual player to win his own battle instead of using confusion and timing to create a numbers advantage at the critical point.

Again, I'm no expert, so if someone can drop some knowledge here please do. When an offense comes set, the center is pointing out defensive players, getting everyone on the same page about blocking responsibilities, potential blitzes, whatever. A smart defense will disguise its intentions by bringing a blitzing player in just before the snap, or dropping a DE into coverage, or making other changes. It makes the offense adjust on the fly as the play starts, and if someone guesses wrong you can get one of those negative plays CPJ is always talking about.

We never seem to do that. We line up in whatever scheme or technique we're going to use on that play, and that's what you get. We advertise pretty clearly what we're going to do, and hope one of our guys can win his individual battle to make a play. We don't have dominant players, so that rarely happens. There's seldom confusion on the part of the offense, just straightforward execution, blocking and tackling.

It's like... we never make it hard for an offense to play us. We don't require quick thinking. Opposing QBs never have to make quick decisions about where pressure is going to come. Even when we blitz, the whole defense can plainly see who the extra rusher will be, and make sure he's picked up before the ball is snapped.

So sure, you can say it's personnel, in that a dominant DL could overmatch an OL head to head. But I don't think it's fair to put that expectation on the players we have.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

We never seem to do that. We line up in whatever scheme or technique we're going to use on that play, and that's what you get. We advertise pretty clearly what we're going to do, and hope one of our guys can win his individual battle to make a play. We don't have dominant players, so that rarely happens. There's seldom confusion on the part of the offense, just straightforward execution, blocking and tackling.

I wouldn't go that far. I see us walking guys up and backing off at the snap. That's an attempt to disguise coverage, pretend blitz.

 

[rosebud78]

Here's another, opponents in our red zone, walk away with points only 1/3 times. Not bad at all.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Here's another, opponents in our red zone, walk away with points only 1/3 times. Not bad at all.

That's the don't break part of bend/don't break. As long as we continue to do that, I don't care if our D is at the rock bottom of every other defensive stat.

 

[AE 87]

We are 45th in total D after two weeks. Many other teams have played weak teams the first two weeks. http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category10/sort01.html

I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up around 45th as that is close to our average over the last 4 years (43, 28, 81, 42 from 2012 to 2015). Our worst year was 2014 ...... just saying.

Is that awful?

We are #25 in total D vs FBS opponents (granted BC was one of worst O's in FBS last year).

I think that stat will go up this week since we're both running teams.

As you say, we were #42 last year. With a better O controlling the ball, we should again be in top 35 in total D without much improvement on D, but I think we've improved some.

 

[elwoodgt]

I wouldn't go that far. I see us walking guys up and backing off at the snap. That's an attempt to disguise coverage, pretend blitz.

Do you think it's effective? Does it seem to you that our pretend blitzes are fooling people, or that our coverages are disguised?

The idea of a blitz is a gamble. You bring an extra rusher to the line, and leave fewer players in pass coverage. Whether in a lighter zone or "man free," there are holes in pass coverage that a QB can exploit if he has enough time. So it's a race - can you get to the QB before he figures out which receiver has been left open?

It seems to me that we make that job relatively easy for opposing QBs. Sure, we walk a linebacker up before the snap, but we do it as the OL is coming set, giving them plenty of time to see and adjust.

 

[Dottie1145]

Guys, the key to an awesome defense is right in front of our eyes......Brad F'ng Stewart.

He was the State defensive POTY in 2A. Just saying.

 

[rosebud78]

#12 in red zone defense.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-red-zone-scoring-pct

 

[SidewalkJacket]

I'm not a defensive expert by any means, but I don't think our weakness on D is due to personnel. Or rather, the scheme we run makes it about personnel, by creating one-on-one match ups that require an individual player to win his own battle instead of using confusion and timing to create a numbers advantage at the critical point.

Again, I'm no expert, so if someone can drop some knowledge here please do. When an offense comes set, the center is pointing out defensive players, getting everyone on the same page about blocking responsibilities, potential blitzes, whatever. A smart defense will disguise its intentions by bringing a blitzing player in just before the snap, or dropping a DE into coverage, or making other changes. It makes the offense adjust on the fly as the play starts, and if someone guesses wrong you can get one of those negative plays CPJ is always talking about.

We never seem to do that. We line up in whatever scheme or technique we're going to use on that play, and that's what you get. We advertise pretty clearly what we're going to do, and hope one of our guys can win his individual battle to make a play. We don't have dominant players, so that rarely happens. There's seldom confusion on the part of the offense, just straightforward execution, blocking and tackling.

It's like... we never make it hard for an offense to play us. We don't require quick thinking. Opposing QBs never have to make quick decisions about where pressure is going to come. Even when we blitz, the whole defense can plainly see who the extra rusher will be, and make sure he's picked up before the ball is snapped.

So sure, you can say it's personnel, in that a dominant DL could overmatch an OL head to head. But I don't think it's fair to put that expectation on the players we have.

Here's another, opponents in our red zone, walk away with points only 1/3 times. Not bad at all.

I see valid points in both of these posts. Here's to another week of wondering if our D is actually good or not...

 

[rosebud78]

I see valid points in both of these posts. Here's to another week of wondering if our D is actually good or not...

Someone that can see nuances, rather than absolutes? What's going on here?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Again, I'm no expert, so if someone can drop some knowledge here please do. When an offense comes set, the center is pointing out defensive players, getting everyone on the same page about blocking responsibilities, potential blitzes, whatever. A smart defense will disguise its intentions by bringing a blitzing player in just before the snap, or dropping a DE into coverage, or making other changes.

Actually, I have noticed that we are doing some of that. If it is not effective it does not necessarily mean that the offense figured it out. Sometimes it IS the wrong defensive call. That happens to all teams at some point, hence, the chess match.

We never seem to do that. We line up in whatever scheme or technique we're going to use on that play, and that's what you get. We advertise pretty clearly what we're going to do, and hope one of our guys can win his individual battle to make a play.

I hear people say this but I am not sure what the evidence is. I know some will say, "results on the field," but so far the results are 2-0 and holding teams to low scores. One of the things we saw in 2014 was that the defense would occasionally look the same way on several plays in a row but there were subtle assignment changes. This resulted in interceptions, something the players said they had actually practiced.

What I am seeing, and I am just as much of a non-expert as anyone, is players failing to make the play. I said in a post, either on this site or another site, that it looks like certain defenders are just not quite up to game speed yet. Given the way teams practice today that is not surprising. We usually need (both on offense and defense) a few warm up games for everyone to reach the point where they react with speed rather than thinking.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Someone that can see nuances, rather than absolutes? What's going on here?

Speaking of nuances, Alabama and Georgia would absolutely demand that we look at the nuances of this debate since, so far, they are giving up points in the red zone 100% of the time.

 

[danny daniel]

Defense is a process early in the season. It would take me as a coach about 3 games to find the right D players based on game observation (practice drills help find the right players but anticipation, finding the ball, getting off blocks, the results of conditioning, and taking good angles can be better found out in games). Right now players such as Curry and Simmons are looking like starters and perhaps Glanton, L Simmons, and Adams may move up in PT. And time will identify others. When you find the right players then you can fine tune your scheme to better suit your personnel. Its a process and after this Vandy game we will know much more about our D.

 

[AE 87]

The crazy thing is that I don't think Vandy's offense is that good, and Clemson's O hasn't been that great this year yet either (and won't show anything this week).

We won't know anything this week unless we completely shut Vandy down or get blown out, imo.

 

[33jacket]

We are 45th in total D after two weeks. Many other teams have played weak teams the first two weeks. http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category10/sort01.html

I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up around 45th as that is close to our average over the last 4 years (43, 28, 81, 42 from 2012 to 2015). Our worst year was 2014 ...... just saying.

Is that awful?

Nuke. Yards a game is no good. Yards a play is closer. Ppd is best.

Yards a play:

2016 - 77
2015 - 92
2014 - 110
2013 - 78

Feel free to discuss if you think thats awful. I DO. No reason we cant be top 40 in this stat. We arent close. And this goes back to his loose scheme giving up too many yards a snap.

@AE 87 may have ppd numbers