Defense…

[RedCannon]

I’m a strong believer in defense!
I was really happy with the defensive minded hire as HC,… and I still am.
I really hope to see this side strengthen as the back half of the season is here!

 

[saulpaul21]

Are there stats in plays with over 20 yards given up? We must lead the nation at getting roasted for long gains. Otherwise Rebs look decent.

 

[Bullmastiff 1]

Are there stats in plays with over 20 yards given up? We must lead the nation at getting roasted for long gains. Otherwise Rebs look decent.

On the flipside we are top 30ish in the country in..

3rd down defense.
Sacks.
TFL
Red Zone defense

And top 15 in forced turnovers

The issues in pass coverage are..

1- They still are a little undermanned at CB.

2- They play a fair amount of single high safety. Leaves DBs on an island. Pros are it's helping generate sacks, defend the run, and TFL. Cons if pass rush doesn't get there or QB isn't forced to get rid of ball quick CBs are being asked to cover a long time without much help.

I'd prefer this more aggressive approach vs what we saw under previous DCs where it was death by a 1000 cuts.

They are going to give up some big plays. It might even cost them a game this year.

But the defense they are playing has been getting off the field pretty quick, creating turnovers and handing the offense good field position.

 

[c-reb-run]

Good analysis Bull. Getting burned deep is painful to watch though. Colorado St likes to throw it deep and I expect this to be an issue for us this week. Hopefully we can rock their QB enough times that we can cause him to start throwing some garbage passes.

 

[dcut03]

On the flipside we are top 30ish in the country in..

3rd down defense.
Sacks.
TFL
Red Zone defense

And top 15 in forced turnovers

The issues in pass coverage are..

1- They still are a little undermanned at CB.

2- They play a fair amount of single high safety. Leaves DBs on an island. Pros are it's helping generate sacks, defend the run, and TFL. Cons if pass rush doesn't get there or QB isn't forced to get rid of ball quick CBs are being asked to cover a long time without much help.

I'd prefer this more aggressive approach vs what we saw under previous DCs where it was death by a 1000 cuts.

They are going to give up some big plays. It might even cost them a game this year.

But the defense they are playing has been getting off the field pretty quick, creating turnovers and handing the offense good field position.

What sucks is that when are playing man and get beat, many of those plays we aren't even close to defending the ball once it is thrown.

Sometime you get beat from a perfect throw, and 50/50 balls.

But these are often wide open and uncontested receptions. It would be nice if we could challenge more on these balls.

I agree that it is a personnel weakness, CB is a tough position to play, but being that wide open so often feels like they could be put into position a little bit better.

Which is my way of saying that I hope this can be somewhat fixed, or at least improved this season.

 

[Mojo702]

What sucks is that when are playing man and get beat, many of those plays we aren't even close to defending the ball once it is thrown.

Sometime you get beat from a perfect throw, and 50/50 balls.

But these are often wide open and uncontested receptions. It would be nice if we could challenge more on these balls.

I agree that it is a personnel weakness, CB is a tough position to play, but being that wide open so often feels like they could be put into position a little bit better.

Which is my way of saying that I hope this can be somewhat fixed, or at least improved this season.

I was just getting ready to say the same exact thing. It isn't the lack of pressure forcing our DBs to cover longer. It is just plain not covering your guy. If your cover guy is 5 yards behind the receiver on a 20 yard post, it's coverage not pressure.

 

[Bullmastiff 1]

I was just getting ready to say the same exact thing. It isn't the lack of pressure forcing our DBs to cover longer. It is just plain not covering your guy. If your cover guy is 5 yards behind the receiver on a 20 yard post, it's coverage not pressure.

That's why the first thing I mentioned was them being undermanned at the CB position.

I dont think they are quite where they need to be there yet.

Unless you're suggesting it's a schematic issue?

 

 

[dcut03]

That's why the first thing I mentioned was them being undermanned at the CB position.

I don't think they are quite where they need to be there yet.

Unless you're suggesting it's a schematic issue?

 

It difficult to see from TV and not seeing game film, but perhaps there is some sort of schematic issue.

The reason I believe this, because WRs are running practically free way too often for these deep passes.

Personally I don't think that our CB's are so bad with one on one coverage that they can easily get beat so badly one on one so frequently. Even with blitzes, there should always have a hat on a hat, especially wide outs. But it looks like these guys are practically unguarded

This also feels like a new(ish) problem.

We got beat by Vandy deep, but it was usually to their stud WR and most of those plays were at least contested with a CB close enough. The trick play at UTEP was passable because it was a trick play, but since then we have had dudes running free against us.

Thinking back though, the long pass late the Vandy game that tied the game, we got a good look on the replay our looked like he was playing cover 2 and just let the dude run by him with his eyes on the QB, not the WR. Makes me think that this could still be happening? I wrote it off as a miscommunication, but now it makes me wonder.

So it feels like there is some sort of hole in our coverage on certain plays, which is either schematic or CB running the wrong plays too often.

And to play devils advocate, if the CB are THAT bad to allow wideouts 5 steps on them frequently, then maybe we should have a different approach to play calling. Stop playing press man coverage with single safety help?

Again I'm not one to pile on here. Bull you make great points on the positives of this defense. And so far we have been fine in these games overall.

But, if we could just get to the point when we can actually contest these man coverage situations, I think we just have a much more complete defense. Getting beat by a perfect throw and/or an amazing play by a WR. That you can live with.

 

[dcut03]

Also It seems like we are getting after the QB mostly early in games, but not nearly as much as the game goes on. Conversely those deep bombs we give up also seem to be later in games.

It seems like we show new looks early and then the offense adjusts and we stop being effective. Even with these deep balls , the QB is usually at least pressured or hit. So that's good, but still.

 

[Meister_Rebel]

Also It seems like we are getting after the QB mostly early in games, but not nearly as much as the game goes on. Conversely those deep bombs we give up also seem to be later in games.

It seems like we show new looks early and then the offense adjusts and we stop being effective. Even with these deep balls , the QB is usually at least pressured or hit. So that's good, but still.

Like the last game we seemed to be content with the 3 man rush later in the game. At least mix it up once in a while with a blitz here and there.