Oh, by the way Chuck B better be on the clock

[GoSU96]

too.

At least the offense has improved in how much yardage it is gaining if nothing else.

The defense is down in every category. Not good at all. No matter how much the offense improves he if doesn't get 3rd down and either the run or pass defense fixed a losing season is likely. There isn't one they are doing that they can hang their hat on. Last year was stopping the run and winning favorable 3rd downs. They can't count on any of that right now.

Category 2013 2014
Total Defense 35 63
Rushing Defense 26 46
Pass Defense 61 83
Pass Def 64 115
Scoring Defense 56 71
Sacks 16 28
Tackles For Loss 19 57
3rd Down Defense 16 109

 

[Chip]

That 3rd down # sticks out like a sore thumb. Defense can at least point to some significant losses. There was no one near Bromley's production level. DT is a real hole that you can't blame on Bullough, he inherited that. MLB he was forced to go pretty young.

He has a few guys that appear to be underperforming (Dyshawn Davis, Eskridge). I don't know if that's injury related, coaching related, or what. Those were 2 guys that big things were expected.

I can't get too worked up over FSU having their way. Offense isn't their problem right now.

Defense may be worse, but it has been good enough for us to beat Maryland and Louisville as far as points put on the board by those offenses.

 

[MadNY3]

This is one where I look the other way on the data (except for the holy moly 3rd down stats).

The D has played well enough, be it bend-don't-break, thank-goodness-for-that-turnover or whatever and with some glaring talent gaps due to graduation and injury, they really haven't been that bad. Great, no, and mistackles that frustrate us all, but not sure Chuck is on the clock.

That said...a world where Daoust becomes DC, we get a dedicated ST coach that perhaps can recruit and redistribute McDonald's responsibilities intrigue. If that's where you're headed, it has a lot of merit to this civilian eye.

 

[CusefanATL]

our D seems fine compared to our history and to our offense. at least to my eye.

 

[Upstate]

Much harder schedule. Severe losses from last year. About where most figured the D would be. Par for the course.

 

[Crusty]

As frustrated as I get with our secondary, I want to see what happens from here on out. It has to be very frustrating for the D to be on the field so long and to have no chance of winning if they allow 20 points or more. I am hoping we will be better in the second half.

 

[rrlbees]

Much harder schedule. Severe losses from last year. About where most figured the D would be. Par for the course.

Isn't that overstated? Much harder? Severe losses?

 

[RF2044]

Our schedule is strongly front loaded this year. Will be interesting to see how those ratings shift--assuming they do--over the easier back end.

 

[Orange4]

I think our defense is right where it should be. They are definatley giving our offense opportunities by forcing turnovers even against quality opponents. Our secondary is an area of concern as they have given up big plays and let up too many easy passes. I think our D-line is right where it should be considering who they lost from last year and how young they are, and there is little depth on the line. I think next year will be a breakout year for our defense, even better than usual.

 

[BKCuse]

Bromley singlehandedly moved the needle in basically every category

D hasn't been the reason we're losing games

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Our D is designed to stuff the run and pressure the QB. We do both decently. We just get torched once the ball makes it in to the air.:noidea:

Lesser teams aren't as good at passing, which is why I think when we play teams with average or below talent our D rocks them. Elite teams that can throw the ball don't find much resistance from our defense, especially if we're not knocking down the QB.

 

[Crusty]

Our D is designed to stuff the run and pressure the QB. We do both decently. We just get torched once the ball makes it in to the air.:noidea:

Lesser teams aren't as good at passing, which is why I think when we play teams with average or below talent our D rocks them. Elite teams that can throw the ball don't find much resistance from our defense, especially if we're not knocking down the QB.

Unfortunately, this is exactly correct and it won't get fixed easily. Which is why we need an offense that can score 30+ points.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Unfortunately, this is exactly correct and it won't get fixed easily. Which is why we need an offense that can score 30+ points.

System wise, I think it's exactly the right way to go. You're not going to stop some offenses, but if you can be disruptive often enough that's the ticket.

Of course, you and I both know that I'm a firm believer that team's need to have the expectation that they need 5 or so TDs to win every time out. I'd rather put the burden on the offense to outpace the opponent than on the defense to hold the opponent to a low point total.

 

[Chip]

Unfortunately, this is exactly correct and it won't get fixed easily. Which is why we need an offense that can score 30+ points.

This pretty much sums up every college football team in the modern era, with the exception of a few elites.

And for SU this year, that # we need to score is only 24, to flip our record to 4-2. As long as our offense isn't scoring points for the other team.

 

[SoBristol]

Our defense isn't young -- compared to other teams or compared to past SU teams. We have veterans and upperclassmen in nearly every spot, and we don't play many who aren't -- Franklin is the exception.
Our losses from 2013 -- about average, and less than most seasons. Bromley & Spruil were big losses; the only other losses (good players, but replaced by underclassmen with at least comparable ability) were Jones, Lyn, Anderson, Wilkes.
2014 -- 2015 -- we lose a lot more than that, and get a lot younger than this season, especially in the secondary and at LB.

So, this defense needs to step it up in the back half of the season -- and it should.

 

[chakka3421]

Go - what about time on the field? My gut tells me with the offense being so abysmal our D has been on the field a lot longer than last year. Another telltale sign would be how many 3 an outs have we had this year?

I'm not making excuses but the point is that our D can also a function of our O based upon 3 & outs and time of possession - having Williams stepping up and Raymon back has certainly helped with our pass rush with the whole left by Bromley - I thought the DLine played very well against FSU.

 

[CuseOnly]

too.

At least the offense has improved in how much yardage it is gaining if nothing else.

The defense is down in every category. Not good at all. No matter how much the offense improves he if doesn't get 3rd down and either the run or pass defense fixed a losing season is likely. There isn't one they are doing that they can hang their hat on. Last year was stopping the run and winning favorable 3rd downs. They can't count on any of that right now.

Category 2013 2014
Total Defense 35 63
Rushing Defense 26 46
Pass Defense 61 83
Pass Def 64 115
Scoring Defense 56 71
Sacks 16 28
Tackles For Loss 19 57
3rd Down Defense 16 109

Why didn't you include opponent's time of possession, hard not to figure in that we have been on the field probably 3-4 more posessions and an average of 8 more minutes per game than last year.

Pretty significant, don't you think? Hard for numbers not to be worse when the offense is inept and hangs you out to dry.

Coach Bullough should not in any way be on the clock.

FSU ToP 36:27
Louisville 36:58
ND 33:17
Nova 37:48

CMU - WIN - we had the ball 3 min longer

MD we had the ball longer - Can't believe we lost that game, makes no sense from a statistics perspective

 

[Millhouse]

too.

At least the offense has improved in how much yardage it is gaining if nothing else.

The defense is down in every category. Not good at all. No matter how much the offense improves he if doesn't get 3rd down and either the run or pass defense fixed a losing season is likely. There isn't one they are doing that they can hang their hat on. Last year was stopping the run and winning favorable 3rd downs. They can't count on any of that right now.

Category 2013 2014
Total Defense 35 63
Rushing Defense 26 46
Pass Defense 61 83
Pass Def 64 115
Scoring Defense 56 71
Sacks 16 28
Tackles For Loss 19 57
3rd Down Defense 16 109

EDIT i think that table is all wrong, i'm pretty sure i goofed up the formula. ignore, i'll fix later.

i don't care who we get as the defensive coordinator, results are going to be volatile

took 2013 and 2012 rankings for offense and defense, calculated the differences by team. here are those differences by percentile

year to year, defense is way more volatile than offense. it's pretty crazy to unload a defensive coordinator at a non factory because of some volatility.

spend your money on offense where good coaches can have a persistent difference. go cheap on defense where it's a crap shoot anyway.

it boggles my mind that people (not you) watch college football and think that SU has any hope of a consistent defense year in year out. we didn't get that with pasqualoni who is a defensive coach in the NFL for a hundred years now, why would we expect anyone else to do it?

and i'm very biased against anyone named bullough, his dad ruined my childhood

pay no attention to this, it's all wrong

percentile off def
0.1 -48 -88
0.2 -32 -54
0.3 -16.5 -42.5
0.4 -8 -28
0.5 0 2.5
0.6 8 20
0.7 21 38
0.8 33 69
0.9 47 87

 

[SmilinBob]

The defense has strengths and weaknesses depending on the match up. If the blitzes are picked up they get hurt and if not good things happen. Stop the run and leave space for receivers to catch passes and if it's a good qb he hits them if he has time. Not a lot of change here from seasons past except for talent being dispersed in different positions. I really hope that the defense has some talented young guys coming up because SU does lose Lynch, Davis, Crume, Kelley, Welsh and Reddish plus probably Eskridge.

 

[sufandu]

My expectation was that the defense would be worse this year (I was never as high on our secondary as some were) and the offense would have to pick up the slack. Letting the Villanova QB have his way and giving up the chunk scoring plays to Maryland were frustrating, but the last few games I've felt ok about it. I would still like to see the secondary play better, but, at this point, I think it is what it is. Hopefully the offense can start to turn yards into points and the defense can bend without breaking just enough to get us 4 more wins.

 

[SmilinBob]

My expectation was that the defense would be worse this year (I was never as high on our secondary as some were) and the offense would have to pick up the slack. Letting the Villanova QB have his way and giving up the chunk scoring plays to Maryland were frustrating, but the last few games I've felt ok about it. I would still like to see the secondary play better, but, at this point, I think it is what it is. Hopefully the offense can start to turn yards into points and the defense can bend without breaking just enough to get us 4 more wins.

I agree and I really thought the offense was going to cover for the D this year. Still time to do so.

 

[Scooch]

Outside of the SEC no one in college football cares about defense. Put all the best athletes on O and have some fun.

Seriously, that time of possession data is the smoking gun to me. Our D ain't great but you can't give the other team 5-8 minutes more per game and expect the D to hold up statistically...especially when the O sucks at scoring.

 

[Millhouse]

against teams not in the top 5, they've giving up 331 ypg

i know i know, those teams aren't likely to stay there (one of them has to fall out next week(. but by the time they both fall out, there will have been a bunch more games against normal opponents

i expect that they'll end ranked in the 40s in yards per game

seems pretty weird to be talking about getting rid of anyone on defense

 

[Millhouse]

Outside of the SEC no one in college football cares about defense. Put all the best athletes on O and have some fun.

Seriously, that time of possession data is the smoking gun to me. Our D ain't great but you can't give the other team 5-8 minutes more per game and expect the D to hold up statistically...especially when the O sucks at scoring.

never mind - screwed up

SU is 55th in defensive plays per game. so it's not like they're that unusual in the number of plays they're defending

 

[Chip]

against teams not in the top 5, they've giving up 331 ypg

i know i know, those teams aren't likely to stay there (one of them has to fall out next week(. but by the time they both fall out, there will have been a bunch more games against normal opponents

i expect that they'll end ranked in the 40s in yards per game

seems pretty weird to be talking about getting rid of anyone on defense

They do need to fix that 3rd down stat. I wonder how many of those we give up by blitzing and the opponent running into an unoccupied gap. Seemed like that happened against Louisville quite a bit.

Other than that, this D plays all out, which more often than not works out as long as you mix up your blitzes enough. Focus on the O. We're not getting caught up in any of those 42-60 point shootouts that others are experiencing.