DE-fense

[Aweart23]

Or lack thereof...

last year with talented senior leaders starting.. Smith, Hogue, Merk, Suter, Bud Tribbey, Mike Holmes

Shafer's defense ranks:

#7 in the nation allowing only 300.3 ypg
#17 in the nation allowing only 19.3 points per game

This year, one senior starter Marinovich (I like him but i don't see him as a leader) a whole bunch of freshman and sophs (Lyn, Anderson, Spruill, Davis, Crume, Bromley, Wilkes, Lynch)

#71 in the nation allowing 391.3 ypg
#72 in the nation allowing 28.1 points per game

Same scheme, same coaches much different result...The talent is there this year on defense, its just young talent. The fresh and sophs that are playing right now will be as good or better than the seniors last year. They need another year or two to mature and gain experience.

Put last years defense on this years team and I think we are 7-4 instead of 5-6. I think we still lose to USC, Rutgers (5 TO's too much), Lousyville (flat on the road after big win) and South Florida (too many dropped TD's)

 

[OrangePA]

Or lack thereof...

last year with talented senior leaders starting.. Smith, Hogue, Merk, Suter, Bud Tribbey, Mike Holmes

Shafer's defense ranks:

#7 in the nation allowing only 300.3 ypg
#17 in the nation allowing only 19.3 points per game

This year, one senior starter Marinovich (I like him but i don't see him as a leader) a whole bunch of freshman and sophs (Lyn, Anderson, Spruill, Davis, Crume, Bromley, Wilkes, Lynch)

#71 in the nation allowing 391.3 ypg
#72 in the nation allowing 28.1 points per game

Same scheme, same coaches much different result...The talent is there this year on defense, its just young talent. The fresh and sophs that are playing right now will be as good or better than the seniors last year. They need another year or two to mature and gain experience.

Put last years defense on this years team and I think we are 7-4 instead of 5-6. I think we still lose to USC, Rutgers (5 TO's too much), Lousyville (flat on the road after big win) and South Florida (too many dropped TD's)

Good post!

 

[MaxwellCuse]

I think we all knew that the defense was going to take a step back this year, but I for one (and I know there were more) were expecting the offense and special teams to make strides forward. That said, I didn't expect to see the defense ranked in the 70s. Very disappointing season so far. Winning at Pitt is very important looking ahead to 2012.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Preseason, everybody said the offense must take a big step forward to be succesful, that has no that happened and therfore the 5-6 record. I think we needed both the offense to be middle of the road and we have not done that.

 

[Aweart23]

Preseason, everybody said the offense must take a big step forward to be succesful, that has no that happened and therfore the 5-6 record. I think we needed both the offense to be middle of the road and we have not done that.

I figured this would come around to the offense eventually.

In reality if the defense was just average..and by average I mean Uconn type average defense (ranked 45 in scoring defense in the country) ...we would be scoring more points per game than we are giving up on defense (yes thats an average I know).

And I am not saying we should accept either a crappy offense or a crappy defense

 

[Fjoinkay]

The defense last year was very good. They were ranked #7 even though the SU offense rarely did them any favors. This year similar production on offense more or less and a much younger defense.

 

[Orangello]

Or lack thereof...

last year with talented senior leaders starting.. Smith, Hogue, Merk, Suter, Bud Tribbey, Mike Holmes

Shafer's defense ranks:

#7 in the nation allowing only 300.3 ypg
#17 in the nation allowing only 19.3 points per game

This year, one senior starter Marinovich (I like him but i don't see him as a leader) a whole bunch of freshman and sophs (Lyn, Anderson, Spruill, Davis, Crume, Bromley, Wilkes, Lynch)

#71 in the nation allowing 391.3 ypg
#72 in the nation allowing 28.1 points per game

Same scheme, same coaches much different result...The talent is there this year on defense, its just young talent. The fresh and sophs that are playing right now will be as good or better than the seniors last year. They need another year or two to mature and gain experience.

Put last years defense on this years team and I think we are 7-4 instead of 5-6. I think we still lose to USC, Rutgers (5 TO's too much), Lousyville (flat on the road after big win) and South Florida (too many dropped TD's)

We seem to have given up a hell of a lot more big plays on D then last year. I don'tt have the statistics on this (cue SWC) but I believe it is a big reason why we are giving up 8.8 more points per game this year than last.

 

[rosconey]

lets be real- our linebackers stink and the dline makes them look like allstars- the total lack of tackling is unreal-

marrone hasnt recruited any better on defense than he has offense

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

There was a good post about Cincinatti's defense last week. They finished in the bottom of the league last year brought the same group back this year and are in the top on defense. This group is young and needs to get bigger, faster and more mature. Also lets not forget how many times special teams has made the defense start with a short field.