4th and 9 Defensive Call

[djcon57]

6 of 8 completes and a 7th was dropped. Do not know on yards.

We have no context of the 8 plays, but we know for a fact we blitzed on the previous play on 3rd and 9. It was an incomplete pass due to the pressure.

 

[mark79]

His defense gave up one offensive TD in the game. It's not like they allowed 50. You don't like the call, totally legit.

We can disagree on parsing through one quote five days after the game on its true intentions.

Let's slow down on crushing the defense. They lost their best player week 1 and a key DT after week 2. They held Stanford to one offensive TD and handled Georgia Tech's rushing offense better than any other team has so far. They're not awful.

A voice of reason. It’s been pretty hard to find on this board after one loss. Sheesh.

 

[Pyle]

A voice of reason. It’s been pretty hard to find on this board after one loss. Sheesh.

Bigger picture, the wins weren't stellar on defense. I'll say it again, we are in the bottom 1/3 of the country in total defense and rushing defense. Jump off a bridge? No. Offense good enough to mask deficiencies? Maybe. Bowl game? Hopefully. Recruiting able to fix the issues? Should Be! But can we stop blowing smoke up the D/DCs behind? Because they aren't even average at this point in the season.

 

[tep624]

One offensive TD that was only made possible by an insane NFL caliber highlight catch.

Yes that was actually pretty good coverage on that TD catch.

 

[Millhouse]

The article take-away.

Stanford ended up making the lowest percentage play they could've made considering all the stats in that article (which was very well written). Sometimes that actually happens.

How is that the lowest percentage play they could've made?

One thing we know about around here are low percentage plays. That wasn't it

 

[Bayside44]

How is that the lowest percentage play they could've made?

One thing we know about around here are low percentage plays. That wasn't it

QBs downfield accuracy has been bad in season and in the game, 0/6 in the game and 4/22 for the season.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

I watched that play at least 22 times. Broadcasters calling for pressure and double on 13. Barron showed blitz and then looked like he was spying qb or watching for a pass to RB who stayed in to block...noone.
By showing blitz he was late dropping and totally taken out of play, he shouldve been deeper and at least had a chance on the ball underneath. In that situation either blitz hard or give help on their best receiver.
Also, Coach called TO and totally RIPPED Lewis, im guessîng for not being on 13. Ripping on a player like that in that situation could work or backfire. Whatever it wasnt on Lewis, his defense was fine on that play...and most.
...when taking field after TO Barron went back to talk to a coach, Im thinking LB Wright. Like he was unsure, he was last/late on field.
After play FB looked so shocked, like oh my bad. Its on him and I still love him...as a coach.

 

[David321]

ERob's doubling down is conflating a bad call to something even more concerning at this point.

 

[DonutHole]

I am still totally confused. I watched Fran's post game and everything still doesn't make any sense. In all the years I have watched football I have never seen such a strange coaching call one that I or them couldn't justify with reason. This isn't a season-is-over thread just trying to talk out the defensive call and trying to make sense of it. I know there are some coaches on here so hopefully they can shine some light.

Went back and watched the final drive, we made good adjustments and started to bring pressure up the middle with a blitz with decent success, which made the final call even more strange.

The decision to not bring pressure and coverage is fine and that can be explained even if I disagree with it since we were having more success blitzing up the middle on that drive.

#13 is a national player and will be playing on Sunday and is the one person on Stanford that you must account for. So if you are playing coverage why is coverage not rolled up on him? Could have played a man over coverage so our DB could have played underneath him with a safety over top. To make the decision to play coverage knowing we can't get pressure it is inexcusable to leave #13 single covered.

Overall the defense has played well seems to be a bend don't break style where they want to keep everything in front but keep them out of the endzone but I just can't mentally understand that last call. In no situation does the call-to-play coverage and single #13 while only rushing 3 make any sense to me.

What am I missing?

Nothing. You hit the nail on the head. The 4th and 9 defensive call was odd. The linebackers all pulled back when they should have rushed the passer. Gave the QB time to make the long pass. Truth is, we lost the game in the first quarter. Extra week off, overconfident? Who knows. Stanford was ranked low but they have produced great athletes over the years. Let's see how they do against Florida State.

 

[anomander]

Syracuse football DC Elijah Robinson on 4th-and-9 defense: ‘I wouldn’t go back and change anything’

Robinson said he

www.syracuse.com

He's losing my support fast.

Nothing like learning from a mistake. Blitzing on that play is like going for it on 4th down. There QB was erratic all game and they had a big WR who is one of the best in the nation at making tough catches. It was a perfect pass and catch. I just keep thinking if we got the slightest bit of pressure the pass could have been a couple inches off and we deflect it or goes out of bounds. That play has killed me all week and really took a lot of the excitement out of the season. Win there and we are easily 5-0 playing an over rated NC ST. Early wins keep things interesting. Not to mention there are not many years we have won more than 2 ACC games. We could have been 2-0 after week 3. Instead we lose a game nobody had us losing at the start of the season.

 

[AAM62]

sat can’t come soon enough so this can all stop. Time to move on now…

 

[AAM62]

Nothing like learning from a mistake. Blitzing on that play is like going for it on 4th down. There QB was erratic all game and they had a big WR who is one of the best in the nation at making tough catches. It was a perfect pass and catch. I just keep thinking if we got the slightest bit of pressure the pass could have been a couple inches off and we deflect it or goes out of bounds. That play has killed me all week and really took a lot of the excitement out of the season. Win there and we are easily 5-0 playing an over rated NC ST. Early wins keep things interesting. Not to mention there are not many years we have won more than 2 ACC games. We could have been 2-0 after week 3. Instead we lose a game nobody had us losing at the start of the season.

Couple more wins and you’ll be right back, pal. If it killed you all week then the loss didn’t kill your enthusiasm.

 

[Cusefan69]

sat can’t come soon enough so this can all stop. Time to move on now…

 

[kingtidge]

Disagree. This is a hardheaded guy literally saying he wouldn't change the call.

Fran said all the right things to defend Lewis. And I don't recall much fan outrage directed at Lewis to begin with.

Robinson is being obtuse. It's maddening, but typical.

What I don't get is Fran goes into the presser, says the bad call was on him and he put the kid in the bad situation... He takes full responsibility...

And now Robinson comes out and says it was right call and he'd do it again??

Forget the meatheaded-ness of the response... he just contradicted his HC publicly, said it was his call and he'd do it again, after his HC took the knife for him on it publicly.

This is strange in a not-so-good way. Fran can't be happy about this.