Ong big difference in the D now

[upperdeck]

in the beginning we were chasing plays all over the field. guys were getting deep and home run plays left and right.. yesterday and even last last week there were plays made but many of them you have to give some credit for the offense. there were guys in position on some of those passes and just really good throws and catches. the same plays that we want our guys to make.

we did very well on 1-2 down. the killer part in the 3rd down conversions were how many they made on plays that were not thrown far enough and we just didnt make the tackles. positioning has improved by 100%

You can really see the difference on the bubble screen where bigger more physical playing DBs takle on the tackle and we get 3-5 yds and our smaller DBs try to hold on for 8-12..

guys are in so much better position to make the plays now but just can hold up at the point of attack.

we have no pass rush, but you can really see how much the coaches are having to deal with limitations on how we rotate in DBs for certain plays. we have Dbs that can deal with some of the running formations and some with the passing and we have to mix and match all game. that cant be ignored and goes way beyond nickel dime packages.

we are playing with almost our entire DB and Dline groups dinged up, no one can over come that.

 

[Chip]

That's true. I kept thinking yesterday this D does so many things better than earlier in the year, but then those 3rd downs were just killing them. Many of which on missed tackles. But having a team on the field that much, and having that much youth who hasn't had enough time in the weight room yet, you're going to have missed tackles.

I'm not down on Ward right now. Could he blitz more, probably. Too many 3 man fronts given the personnel, probably. But I think our players are, for the most part, in the right place to make a play.

 

[GoSU96]

The defense is much better than the beginning of the year.

 

[Crusty]

While I agree that there are fewer missed assignments and poor leverage, we got gutted over and over again on screen passes and the middle was constantly open on third and long. Our scheme certainly tends to give those plays, but not every time.
How much real improvement is hard to say. Results from game-to-game can be more about match-ups than anything else. One constant seems to be that we have no pass rush against anybody. (Same goes for the O Line - we can't run block anybody).

Everybody is dinged up at this time of year so that simply speaks to lack of depth. I fear that while our guys are young, they have a long way to go to get a pass rush. We may not improve that much through experience and might need additional talent to get to where we need to be.

While we will certainly improve, we might need a couple of years of good recruiting classes to be truly competitive.

 

[CarolinaCuse]

The defense is noticeably better than at the beginning of the year. HCDB's comments about being consistently good ring very true. The D is getting much better and making plays at a great clip than they were in the first half of the schedule. Injuries and a lack players ready to contribute on the depth chart are really hurting the team right now.

 

[TheCusian]

in the beginning we were chasing plays all over the field. guys were getting deep and home run plays left and right.. yesterday and even last last week there were plays made but many of them you have to give some credit for the offense. there were guys in position on some of those passes and just really good throws and catches. the same plays that we want our guys to make.

we did very well on 1-2 down. the killer part in the 3rd down conversions were how many they made on plays that were not thrown far enough and we just didnt make the tackles. positioning has improved by 100%

You can really see the difference on the bubble screen where bigger more physical playing DBs takle on the tackle and we get 3-5 yds and our smaller DBs try to hold on for 8-12..

guys are in so much better position to make the plays now but just can hold up at the point of attack.

we have no pass rush, but you can really see how much the coaches are having to deal with limitations on how we rotate in DBs for certain plays. we have Dbs that can deal with some of the running formations and some with the passing and we have to mix and match all game. that cant be ignored and goes way beyond nickel dime packages.

we are playing with almost our entire DB and Dline groups dinged up, no one can over come that.

It's all Wards fault! Fire him!

(Am I doing this right?)

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I thought our D game plan/scheme was a joke the 1st half. I am not sure that Bama's players would have made much a difference. The 2nd half coaching/scheme was good but the players couldn't make plays.