Defense real problem

[dwilmont44]

I explained why that is, take out those ten plays, which isn’t realistic, and the defense is excellent If they were cut in half this would be a top 40 defense. 10 plays are skewing the numbers.

OK well those plays happened and will continue to happen because the defense is very bad.

 

[MikeSU02]

We aren’t deep enough to get wrecked by injuries combined with ERob learning on the job (and I’m good with ERob to be clear).

Losing your defensive QB and your CB1 is devastating bc it puts guys in position to have responsibilities that they can’t physically achieve.

We lose guys on the DL which just makes it worse.

I want more pressure bought, but I don’t think ERob trusts our guys to get there with our current personnel outside of calling it once in a while.

Get Wax and Barnes back and that’ll knock guys back into spots they are more equipped to handle.

Hopefully it gets better or good enough to keep winning.

 

[CIL]

Back 7 just seem a little confused. I’m not a big believer that you can sit back in zone and rush 3 in the collegiate game. Waaaay to much to ask of young football players.

NFL defenses know every single route combination that can be thrown again a single look. Different games.

I understand we’ve had a bunch of injuries back there, but I’d like to see us play a little more man a times and add a little more to our blitz packages on obvious passing downs.

 

[SU91]

What happens to Barron if Wax comes back? I think he’s been playing better in the LB position than at Safety/Rover.

 

[CarlsbergMD]

Lack of speed.

Speed doesn't hide the lack of fundamentals regarding tackling and form tackling.

 

[DomeHolmes]

40 yd + busts. 4 runs, 6 passes for 350 yds. 25% of yds allowed on 3% of plays.

SU is 124th out of 134 teams. You are going to give up some, this is way too many, tighten that up and then this can be a good defense.

189 of NCSts 411 yds was on 3 plays.

It wasn’t the reason for the Stanford loss, but it’s a reason UNLV and GT were close games.

Agree, Conception’s long catch was on all out blitz, same with Holy Cross’ first TD. The other six I’d have to look at.

I was OK with concepcion because at least we sent more than three for once and it has to be a perfect play.

Holy cross‘ first TD was a play totally set up by their OC noticing Goulds tendency to watch the quarterback. The quarterback had time to fake the play, (to the tight end) they ran two plays prior, (which Gould bought on) and then throw over his head. When you watch it on tape, you could see an OC’s eyes light up at what he was going to do to us. It was very good coaching on noticing what we did poorly. It was compounded by the fact that they sent another deep receiver that split our safeties. I’m not sure I’ve seen Gould out there since. The problems with our pass rush are compounded by a secondary that is not communicating very well.

 

[DomeHolmes]

What happens to Barron if Wax comes back? I think he’s been playing better in the LB position than at Safety/Rover.

Hopefully against mobile quarterbacks, we can let Diggs go back to the edge rusher on 3rd down, and put one of them as the spy. If you look at the two minute and 33 second mark of the first half, you see easily how Digg is not really the guy for that “spy” position. he has played it well when he takes a step toward the quarterback initially and blows up the play, but not where he hast to read and react.

 

[kcsu]

What happens to Barron if Wax comes back? I think he’s been playing better in the LB position than at Safety/Rover.

Keep Barron at LB
Move McDonald to Edge.

In Red Zone move Barron back to secondary.
Go with McDonald and Wax at LB

 

[Cuse181]

But it was ok for the refs to bail out NCSt. Got it.

So you think the defense on that play was good? Got it

 

[Cuse181]

Blame the victim

Even if the play was called back. Are you okay with the blown coverage just because you got bailed out? That’s like getting a holding call that brings back a touchdown throw and screaming “yeah! Great defense!

 

[rrlbees]

Even if the play was called back. Are you okay with the blown coverage just because you got bailed out? That’s like getting a holding call that brings back a touchdown throw and screaming “yeah! Great defense!

You try too hard.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

We lack elite speed on the back end and don't have a consistent pass rush to mask it. That said hats off to DC Elijah for fixing our run defense after the Ohio game. Presume every concession we're making now has been done to assure we don't just steam rolled on the ground every game

Is it fixed? No game has been as bad as Ohio, but we have been pretty average.

GA Tech averages 5.44 ypc and only got 4.67 (really great job here and by far his best game as DC)
Stanford 3.99 and got 5.41 (really bad job here)
UNLV 5.18 and got 5.08 (pretty much a push, also no Sluka)
NC State 3.45 and got 3.90 (pretty much a push)

Based on who we played, it is basically a push for what those teams averaged.

 

[upperdeck]

40 yd + busts. 4 runs, 6 passes for 350 yds. 25% of yds allowed on 3% of plays.

SU is 124th out of 134 teams. You are going to give up some, this is way too many, tighten that up and then this can be a good defense.

189 of NCSts 411 yds was on 3 plays.

It wasn’t the reason for the Stanford loss, but it’s a reason UNLV and GT were close games.

well Stan had 350 and 75 came on 2 plays as well. Much like UNLV had. Our break downs are pretty ugly to watch at times.

the key is two plays vs 4-5-6 other years ,

 

[upperdeck]

when you are sitting in high cover why does the safety every get caught up? It happens all the time. If he plays it right maybe you give up a 20-30 yd pass if he can't get there in time but not a 75 yd TD. the corner did his job and rolled the WR back to the safety who was gone. it was not a complicated thing. if the safety is in the right spot it probably gets picked.

 

[tep624]

Both calls were BS and benefitted NCSt almost 100 yards and 11 pts. Fact.

Bees - an ineligible receiver being allowed back on the field of play to make a catch of course is not BS. What are you thinking?!?!

 

[NineOneSeven]

The fumbles were a result of great plays without a doubt, but just because you cause a fumble doesn't mean you recover it. We were extremely fortunate to have those 3 turnovers. Relying on having a +3 turnover margin is obviously unsustainable but that was 1000% a huge factor in holding on Saturday.

The big plays after we've had a good scoring drive is a big issue. It's almost a focus problem. If they drive down and answer props to them, but giving up 60-75 yard plays almost immediately after is exactly what you do not want to happen.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Teams we've played offensive ypp rank:

Ohio 38
GT 25
Stanford 131 (out of 134)
UNLV 27
NC St 77

Teams we are still to face rank:

Pitt 24
VT 57
BC 104
Cal 82
UConn 63
Miami 2

Based on this super scientific method I'd say losses to Pitt and Miami and wins over BC and Cal with VT and UConn as coin flips.

If you take out FCS games...

Miami 1st
Pitt 18th
GA Tech 42nd
UConn 50th
Ohio 60th
UNLV 61st
Cal 63rd
VA Tech 67th
NC State 103rd
BC 108th
Stanford 122nd

Our D is tied for 75th. That is pretty bad given who we have played. Ironically GA Tech was our best game on D and they are the best O that we have played. Great job by our DC there.

Going forward I would say UConn and Ohio are similar. Cal and VA Tech are similar to UNLV. BC is similar to NC State and Stanford. Pitt and Miami are going to give us something we have not even seen thus far.

For the last two they are the only real passing teams we face all year. Will be interesting to see how well we do.

YPG
Miami 1st
Pitt 14th
Cal 37th
NC State 70th
GA Tech 74th
UConn 85th
VA Tech 97th
BC 106th (tie)
UNLV 112th
Ohio 113th
Stanford 126th

The fact that we are 83rd nationally in YPG going up against 70, 74, 112, 113, 126 doesn't give me confidence going forward. The good news is we still have 85, 97, 106 left.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Keep Barron at LB
Move McDonald to Edge.

In Red Zone move Barron back to secondary.
Go with McDonald and Wax at LB

Keep McDonald for designed plays. He is too slow to read and react with his lack of foot speed.

 

[ImperialOrange]

Is it fixed? No game has been as bad as Ohio, but we have been pretty average.

GA Tech averages 5.44 ypc and only got 4.67 (really great job here and by far his best game as DC)
Stanford 3.99 and got 5.41 (really bad job here)
UNLV 5.18 and got 5.08 (pretty much a push, also no Sluka)
NC State 3.45 and got 3.90 (pretty much a push)

Based on who we played, it is basically a push for what those teams averaged.

Stats can be misleading... for the most part it is improved. For 2-3 plays every game where we forget how to tackle and give up 70 yards on a carry... not so much. Skews averages but better to track a guy down at your 20 vs getting gashed for 8-12 per carry and marched on like Ohio did where our linebackers all got caught in the wash and our safeties didn't run fit worth a damn

 

[billsin01]

40 yd + busts. 4 runs, 6 passes for 350 yds. 25% of yds allowed on 3% of plays.

SU is 124th out of 134 teams. You are going to give up some, this is way too many, tighten that up and then this can be a good defense.

189 of NCSts 411 yds was on 3 plays.

It wasn’t the reason for the Stanford loss, but it’s a reason UNLV and GT were close games.

A bad defense is a bad defense. Sometimes it happens. I can live with it. But what I think made it worse on Saturday night in particular is that A) they actually played pretty well for much of the game; and B) that the whole point of rushing three is to prevent the big plays ... but we not only gave up big plays, there were several chunk plays NC State simply missed either due to a young qb/poor execution or because we were called for a penalty.

Happy with what Fran and Co. have done here, but this defense remains a significant concern.

 

[billsin01]

What happens to Barron if Wax comes back? I think he’s been playing better in the LB position than at Safety/Rover.

Keep Barron at LB
Move McDonald to Edge.

In Red Zone move Barron back to secondary.
Go with McDonald and Wax at LB

Yeah, Barron has to stay at LB. He's a completely different player there, at least in terms of what I'm watching. I've never been super impressed with him at safety, but he's jumped off the screen at times at LB. Have to find a way to keep him there.

 

[billsin01]

Is it fixed? No game has been as bad as Ohio, but we have been pretty average.

GA Tech averages 5.44 ypc and only got 4.67 (really great job here and by far his best game as DC)
Stanford 3.99 and got 5.41 (really bad job here)
UNLV 5.18 and got 5.08 (pretty much a push, also no Sluka)
NC State 3.45 and got 3.90 (pretty much a push)

Based on who we played, it is basically a push for what those teams averaged.

Yeah and we still don't look like we communicate well nor do we appear to have a great grasp of what we're doing (and that's all aside from poor tackling). There were a couple of times we had two high safeties and we didn't get over to cover a deep throw on a go route. That can't happen -- it's pretty much the reason you're playing two centerfielders.

 

[AngryOtto]

What happens to Barron if Wax comes back? I think he’s been playing better in the LB position than at Safety/Rover.

Think we go to a 3 3 5 look dropping one of the LBs down on most plays. Probably Wax to get more pressure on the qb.

 

[kingtidge]

Almost 100 of their yards were due to horrific calls by an incompetent ACC crew who tried to gift them the game in the 4th quarter. Wash rinse repeat.

My brother was at the game and said that boatloads on NC St fans blamed the refs for losing them the game... The back-to-back illegal shift calls in the 4th being the BS and difference.

 

[billsin01]

You try too hard.

come on, man. Really? This is a trend all season long and the dude was OB with one foot. Should have been called back but we are giving up yards in chunks non-stop. Against State, it's particularly egregious because we go up 24-7 with 10+ mins left in the game. Our entire goal at that point is to make NC State earn points if they are going to score. We proceeded to give up a 75-yarder and a 72-yarder. It's pretty inexcusable to allow one big play like that ... it's essentially mind-boggling to give up two.