Our defense is awful...

[tech_wreck47]

We have averaged giving up 12 points per game this season to date. Let's keep that in mind before we start calling for changes. I like an agressive D, for a lot of reasons, when paired with our offense, but I am not so sure this season's roster is the one to do it with. Could we have done it more in the recent past? Without a doubt. Look, DJ White and Chris Milton could turn and run with ANYBODY. To my eye Durham looks relatively fast, but I am not so sure we really want to be putting our corners on an island just yet. I watched Lamont for a few plays Saturday and I haven't formed a solid opinion on him either way. Lance is a physical kid with good short space quickness and some tackling ability, but he is not long, nor could he run with Chris Milton. We need to be careful right now. If I were in Ted's shoes, I'm not sure I would have done a lot different to this point.

I agree with this to some extent, you can't be to aggresive with what we have, but at the same time we need to be more aggressive with what we have to off set from getting burnt from just sitting back like it seems we do so much. We don't have the guys that can match up 1 on 1 all the time, so we need to confuse the offense with more exotic blitz, and coverages which I do not believe we do. That's why we see QB's pick us apart so much, we don't disguise our blitz or our coverages well imo, and thats coaching. Bama could play a D like we do because they would literally out athlete the other guys 1 on 1 for the most part. I understand we haven't given up many point so far, but we also haven't played very good offenses. I would be happy to be wrong, but I just don't see our D being a strong point, and that's not because of talent imo, I think we have the guys to produce a lot better than what we're are, i feel we under achieve. I've said it before and I'll say it again, give us a top 30 D and we would be a consistent 10 win team, if we wanna go to the next level it starts with the D imo.

 

[Papa Doc]

I agree with most comments above, the D is really weak. It has been for most of CPJ's tenure. You hear commentators discuss how tough it is for other teams to prepare for our O because it's hard to simulate it with practice squads. I think those comments contain some truth and our D's inability to react to the read option passing spreads that most of the rest of college teams run is hampered by never practicing against a squad that's good at it. Our defensive scheme is very vanilla. It's an umbrella of 4-5 DBs poised to run down backs and receivers with the hope of containing them to less than 10 yards per play in the middle of the field and pushing them out of bounds on the sidelines before they score. It's developed with hopes that the opponent will make a mistake with a turnover or not execute well on series and punt, essentially stopping themselves. It's not a D designed to stop the other team's O or break their will by overpowering them.

 

[33jacket]

We have averaged giving up 12 points per game this season to date. Let's keep that in mind before we start calling for changes. I like an agressive D, for a lot of reasons, when paired with our offense, but I am not so sure this season's roster is the one to do it with. Could we have done it more in the recent past? Without a doubt. Look, DJ White and Chris Milton could turn and run with ANYBODY. To my eye Durham looks relatively fast, but I am not so sure we really want to be putting our corners on an island just yet. I watched Lamont for a few plays Saturday and I haven't formed a solid opinion on him either way. Lance is a physical kid with good short space quickness and some tackling ability, but he is not long, nor could he run with Chris Milton. We need to be careful right now. If I were in Ted's shoes, I'm not sure I would have done a lot different to this point.

you can still be safe and not drop back in quarters as much as we do. By the same token, we do play alot of man...but we don't press...we play this loose man D...its like, not committing to man, its "kind of" man, kinda of like Roof is "kinda" coaching a scheme

where is the 4-3 over scheme?
or cover 3 robber when in 4-2-5?
How about running half field zones with S CB calls based on field halfs like TCU does?

I haven't seen ted run anything multiple like the above. We are back, back, back. We played back with Milton and White, we were in quarters alot with them too. Its a bit of a joke. This concept of dropping back and being safe was prevalent with our two fast CB's last 2 years. Paul begged for more aggressive D...multiple times, publicly....

We do neither of those, and both allow for deep CB coverage and aggressive under route attacks

But bottom line, no one is analyzing Ted on 2 games and 12 points. Its a body of work for 4 years...calling for changes is not about 2 games. Its about 4 years....perspective...

 

[33jacket]

In my opinion if Johnson fires Roof he's next and I think he knows that.

you know that is silly. If we go 8-4 this year (lets say) and it was in-spite of our D like it has been consistently in the past, and he fires Ted, and hires another guy...Paul is safe. He just went 8-4....

Pauls job becomes unsafe if the overall record is poor, combined with a new AD etc....but its not tied to a DC who is not performing well.

just FYI, UGA has rotated DC's like a revolving door...programs do that...so no fear for me to change again if Paul feels the need

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

All I am saying is we need more 2nd and 9's and 3rd and 8's. And no one has addressed aDL, left un blocked, pursuing the QB on a screen pass four plays in a row. That is one of two things, but I will not say which.

 

[Chas_Jacket]

One more team/result comparison. BC beat UMass 26-7. The same UMass team that was only down 10-7 in the 4th qtr to the Fla Gators in the swamp the previous week. While they ended up losing 24-7, they gave Fla fits. This past week Fla crushed another SEC team Kentucky, 45-7 in a game that was over in the 2nd qtr. Perhaps BC and GT are not as bad as depicted.

 

[slugboy]

I think we can look for what we want in the games. We can choose to see improvement or we can choose to see that we're not much better.

Here's our F+ stats--we're ranked #44 after two weeks: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/fplus. In S&P we're ranked #54: http://www.footballstudyhall.com/pages/2016-college-football-advanced-statistical-profiles. The deep dive is at http://www.footballstudyhall.com/pages/2016-georgia-tech-advanced-statistical-profile.

It's early, but we're about the same on offense and defense. We're turning the ball over way too much on offense. We're not scoring as many points as we should when we make it to the opponents side of the field.
On defense, we're not getting tackles for loss, sacking the QB, or creating much "havoc".

Right now, unless we get better, we're looking at about 6 wins.

 

[Longestday]

I wonder what the F+ was after the second game in 2014... If I remember right it was Wofford and Tulane. Both of those games were not very impressive, but they were wins. Then we had GSU... not very impressive 2nd half but a fun ending! Now VT... again GT barely won, but the team willed the win to happen. Miami was a well executed game!Then GT had the UNC shoot out and we did not have the ball last and Duke Rollgate. Pitt had a fumble fest. NC State was not as good as GT. Virginia was stumbling. Clemson lost their starting QB. The old days (2014) were great but it is never as good or bad as it seems.

I think we are about in the same place as 2014 with a little less experience in our defensive backfield where GT's passing defense is more likely to look like 2013.

The O line has a chance to be better than 2014. The A-Backs may make it to similar levels of production. The WR will benefit from the better pass protection. The B-Back need to continue to grow into their rolls, but the ceiling may be/is higher.

If I remember right we had trouble getting Wofford off the field and we had a fumble issue with Tulane. Not to mention the BC game looked just like the 2014 VT game. History is repeating? I sure hope so...

 

[Chas_Jacket]

Another interesting comparison;
Umass at UF:141 yards passing, 46 yds rush on 35 attempts
Umass at BC: 145 yards passing, -23 yards rush on 33 attempts.

BC defense appears pretty stout again.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Another interesting comparison;
Umass at UF:141 yards passing, 46 yds rush on 35 attempts
Umass at BC: 145 yards passing, -23 yards rush on 33 attempts.

BC defense appears pretty stout again.

Of course, we all acknowledge that one game comparisons don't mean a lot, however, I was struck once again by the "general tone" of how these two games got discussed in football circles. Basically it was, "Florida had an off day because, you know, they are SEC and are allowed, whereas BC is just a really bad team that Tech was lucky to beat."

Again, one game comparisons don't mean a lot but I always wonder how pundits and fans get away with having it both ways when it comes to what a win against UMass means.

 

[PBR549]

you know that is silly. If we go 8-4 this year (lets say) and it was in-spite of our D like it has been consistently in the past, and he fires Ted, and hires another guy...Paul is safe. He just went 8-4....

Pauls job becomes unsafe if the overall record is poor, combined with a new AD etc....but its not tied to a DC who is not performing well.

just FYI, UGA has rotated DC's like a revolving door...programs do that...so no fear for me to change again if Paul feels the need

What I mean is Ted has the recruiting going in the right direction. He's sound with what he is doing. I don't think there is anyone out there who can come in take the kids we have, keep the recruiting trending upwards and improve our defense enough to make our record any consistently better. In other words there will be a drop off. Paul knows he won't withstand another drop off. The best thing we can do is keep our staff as consistent as possible. We aren't a factory like UGA. It takes special coaches to be competitive here year in and year out. We've NEVER done that in the post Bobby Dodd era. CPJ understands this as much as anyone. If he changes DCs again it will not buy him more than one more year and he knows it.

 

[Techster]

I wonder how our practice squad simulates TE's? We don't have that position in our offense, therefore we don't have anyone on the roster that plays it. Who do we put there? A WR? I mean, our WRs are usually bigger, but it's hard to simulate all a TE does for an offense in blocking and receiving if you're using a WR in practice. We're certainly not using our top of the rotation WR to practice at TE to help the defense. So we're using a freshmen or 3rd string guy to simulate a position we don't even have for scout team.

I think there's truth to the fact that our offense DOES affect how we practice, and it's more practice personnel than the scheme CPJ is running on offense. Let's face it. If we're playing a pass heavy offense that week, who on our roster is a talented enough passer to give our defensive secondary a good look? JeT? I doubt we're using him during a scrimmage on the 3rd team to simulate the other team's QB. This year we might be better off with Lucas Johnson, but last year it was probably walk on Brady SWilling or Christian Campbell. You compare that to other teams who sign QBs who were talented passers in HS that are available for the practice squads.

 

[g0lftime]

TR is improving defense recruiting. It takes time to develop relationships with the HS players. I do wonder about our tendency to play soft on the corners especially on short 3rd down plays. We even play soft when we blitz and we don't seem to do a good job getting to the QB with those short drops and soft coverage. We got burned over and over again by Mercer with pass rush leaving a huge gap and LB's dropping into coverage. TR sure needs to get that fixed in a hurry. I often wonder how not having any TE's on the team hurts our practice squad preparation since virtually all our opponents use a TE. Wonder why Klock who played TE in high school isn't used in a tackle eligible formation sometime.

 

[tech_wreck47]

I think we can look for what we want in the games. We can choose to see improvement or we can choose to see that we're not much better.

Here's our F+ stats--we're ranked #44 after two weeks: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/fplus. In S&P we're ranked #54: http://www.footballstudyhall.com/pages/2016-college-football-advanced-statistical-profiles. The deep dive is at http://www.footballstudyhall.com/pages/2016-georgia-tech-advanced-statistical-profile.

It's early, but we're about the same on offense and defense. We're turning the ball over way too much on offense. We're not scoring as many points as we should when we make it to the opponents side of the field.
On defense, we're not getting tackles for loss, sacking the QB, or creating much "havoc".

Right now, unless we get better, we're looking at about 6 wins.

I'm gonna have to disagree about 6 wins if we don't get better. We could have scored almost every drive against mercer and we played the top D in the country the first game of the season. This past Saturday Boston college only gave up around 120 yards total, and negative rushing yards. Stats don't tell everything. It's early but our offense should be fine and will probably have to carry us to wins, but we can win more than 6 with where we are right now.

 

[tech_wreck47]

TR is improving defense recruiting. It takes time to develop relationships with the HS players. I do wonder about our tendency to play soft on the corners especially on short 3rd down plays. We even play soft when we blitz and we don't seem to do a good job getting to the QB with those short drops and soft coverage. We got burned over and over again by Mercer with pass rush leaving a huge gap and LB's dropping into coverage. TR sure needs to get that fixed in a hurry. I often wonder how not having any TE's on the team hurts our practice squad preparation since virtually all our opponents use a TE. Wonder why Klock who played TE in high school isn't used in a tackle eligible formation sometime.

I think roof has had enough time, there are other coaches that have turned defenses around in 2 or 3 years. But getting GLOCK the ball would be awesome, could you imagine twins left , and then fake rocket toss left with GLOCK going to the flats on the right side, the left side aback would have to be on the line though. Do this when your in the redzone for a good trick play, TOUCHDOWN!

 

[JorgeJonas]

I think I'll offer a contrarian opinion. Our defense, while not dominant, is okay. Not great, but okay. We're allowing 6.7 YPA through the air, which, if we continued, would be an excellent year. Run defense is allowing about 4 YPC. That's pretty good, too. Granted the sample is really, really small, but the numbers are not bad. If the offense can continue to improve - and I think they will - and we play games where there are only 10 or 11 possessions, we are going to be okay.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I think I'll offer a contrarian opinion. Our defense, while not dominant, is okay. Not great, but okay. We're allowing 6.7 YPA through the air, which, if we continued, would be an excellent year. Run defense is allowing about 4 YPC. That's pretty good, too. Granted the sample is really, really small, but the numbers are not bad. If the offense can continue to improve - and I think they will - and we play games where there are only 10 or 11 possessions, we are going to be okay.

If you are urging patience, I am with you. I'm not ready to panic yet.

 

[jeffgt14]

Another interesting comparison;
Umass at UF:141 yards passing, 46 yds rush on 35 attempts
Umass at BC: 145 yards passing, -23 yards rush on 33 attempts.

BC defense appears pretty stout again.

Your excellent transitive properties of football analysis could earn you a spot on the College Football Playoff Committee.

 

[grandpa jacket]

you know that is silly. If we go 8-4 this year (lets say) and it was in-spite of our D like it has been consistently in the past, and he fires Ted, and hires another guy...Paul is safe. He just went 8-4....

Pauls job becomes unsafe if the overall record is poor, combined with a new AD etc....but its not tied to a DC who is not performing well.

just FYI, UGA has rotated DC's like a revolving door...programs do that...so no fear for me to change again if Paul feels the need

Just who do you propose we hire that will stay here and give continuity. If and its a big IF someone was here 2 years and had a lights out defense, he would be outta here in a New York minute to a factory.

 

[JorgeJonas]

If you are urging patience, I am with you. I'm not ready to panic yet.

Yeah, I think that's my point. And that includes the 70 or so yard touchdown, which is an outlier (though, of course, it still counted). It's impossible to make a declaration about the state of the defense so far, but if that's your inclination, then the conclusion isn't that it's terrible, but that it's been pretty good.