Dear DC:

SFU has a running back. He is little. He wears #1. He is their whole offense. TACKLE HIM !!!!!

Villanove has a quarterback. He is very good. TACKLE HIM !!!!!

there are two major problems with our defense that will be exposed all year and will not change at all unless the coaches do something.

1) when you run a hurry up on O, then offensive possessions are quick and over in a few minutes. so the defense is on the field a lot.

2) the 3-4. it's horrible. bad. stupid. disastrous. whatever you want to call it. it simply does not work in college, especially at the FCS level. you can not find enough big strong guys to hold the line at the front. it exposes the back 8 to making tackles in oodles of space, which we have done a poor job of so far. it is also a horrible D to run against the plethora of spread offenses that are the rage now. most coaches are going to a 4-2-5 to combat this, bringing in an extra DB not a slower extra LB. MM ran this and we have personnel suited for it. The roster is not made for a 3-4. We'll need a couple recruiting classes to get personnel suited for it, but even then, it's just not a good D to run. Get used to seeing our D get gashed for 30+ points a game against any competent team.

Tackling is also a very very big issue. Not gonna win games if we don't tackle properly

I have to admit I was skeptical of the 3-4 when Withers said that was the D he was going to run and agree with Duke Dawg in his analysis. Plug the running lanes up with 4 linemen who can slow things down a bit against a good running team and put some pressure on the QB on pass plays.

and what's the deal with Steele? every time i saw him on the field he was making plays but it didn't seem like he was out there too often.

Can only speculate on Steele but he missed a lot of time and probably they were limiting his snaps.


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(09-15-2014 01:06 PM)formerjmusprinter84 Wrote:  I have to admit I was skeptical of the 3-4 when Withers said that was the D he was going to run and agree with Duke Dawg in his analysis. Plug the running lanes up with 4 linemen who can slow things down a bit against a good running team and put some pressure on the QB on pass plays.

the 3-4 can work in the pros and at a high level in college when you have run stuffing DLineman AND you use your 4 LB's and DB's to disguise pressure.

so far from what I've seen, we do know disguising at all. We just line up and hold our positions. that is an EASY defense to destroy, as we've seen in 3 games.

i've seen this show at UVa with Groh. he had great talent on D, many guys who played in the NFL. but he did not use the 3-4 properly. it was a passive 3-4. if you are going to play that, you MUST be aggressive. Bring LB's up the middle on run blitzes or to rush the passer. put your outside LB"s on the line some. Bring a corner blitz and have that presumably faster outside LB drop back. We have done none of this sort of stuff. if it doesn't change, Nova will hang 50 on us.

I have faith in this guy. I know we've looked horrible so far, but Brandon was highly though of prior to coming here.

http://www.cleveland.com/timstake/index....ordin.html

(09-15-2014 02:41 PM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(09-15-2014 01:06 PM)formerjmusprinter84 Wrote:  I have to admit I was skeptical of the 3-4 when Withers said that was the D he was going to run and agree with Duke Dawg in his analysis. Plug the running lanes up with 4 linemen who can slow things down a bit against a good running team and put some pressure on the QB on pass plays.

the 3-4 can work in the pros and at a high level in college when you have run stuffing DLineman AND you use your 4 LB's and DB's to disguise pressure.

so far from what I've seen, we do know disguising at all. We just line up and hold our positions. that is an EASY defense to destroy, as we've seen in 3 games.

i've seen this show at UVa with Groh. he had great talent on D, many guys who played in the NFL. but he did not use the 3-4 properly. it was a passive 3-4. if you are going to play that, you MUST be aggressive. Bring LB's up the middle on run blitzes or to rush the passer. put your outside LB"s on the line some. Bring a corner blitz and have that presumably faster outside LB drop back. We have done none of this sort of stuff. if it doesn't change, Nova will hang 50 on us.

Villanova has been running a hybrid 3-4 (a 3-3-5) for years and has been pretty successful doing it.

I wasn't the game- was driving Route 66 in IL. Early evening drove through Normal, IL, the home of Ill State U. Stopped at their stadium a few hours after they manhandled EIU 34-15, ironically while the JMU game was still going on. Smallish (13.4 K (doesn't include any temp end zone) capacity but very nice looking brick with no track around stadium.

Anyway, was getting updates from a tailgating compadre during the StFU game telling me we were getting run all over & that our defense looked like a JV team.

Given up rushing:
vs UMD: 285
vs Lehigh: 287
vs StFU: 292

So the level of competition has been going down, but the yardage given up has been going up slightly. Which means the defense has at worst been regressing against the run. At best been showing ZERO improvement. Very troubling sign.

(09-15-2014 05:26 PM)BDKJMU Wrote:  I wasn't the game- was driving Route 66 in IL. Early evening drove through Normal, IL, the home of Ill State U. Stopped at their stadium a few hours after they manhandled EIU 34-15, ironically while the JMU game was still going on. Smallish (13.4 K (doesn't include any temp end zone) capacity but very nice looking brick with no track around stadium.

Anyway, was getting updates from a tailgating compadre during the StFU game telling me we were getting run all over & that our defense looked like a JV team.

Given up rushing:
vs UMD: 285
vs Lehigh: 287
vs StFU: 292

So the level of competition has been going down, but the yardage given up has been going up slightly. Which means the defense has at worst been regressing against the run. At best been showing ZERO improvement. Very troubling sign.

and MD could have run for 500 if they didn't want to work on their passing game. basically you have a new staff trying to run new defense but they don't have the personnel to make it work. it sucks when you consider Withers and staff inherited a decent defense.

Rewatching the St Francis game now. So far we've switched in a good bit of 4-2-5 and some 4-3. Looks like our LB's are caught out of position a good bit, a lot of our players aren't wrapping up when they get there, and we're not getting off our blocks. We bunch up in the middle way too much, so if they ever get outside the tackles there's no one until the safeties. Looks like we started to correct as the game went on.

I will say that thanks to Moreland, it's nice to have already had a defensive score, a couple INT's, and a blocked FG.

As bad as our 3-4 defense is , maybe the offense should start grinding out rushing yards while using the play clock to limit the time our defense is on the field.Just a thought.

(09-17-2014 06:24 PM)Purple Reign Wrote:  As bad as our 3-4 defense is , maybe the offense should start grinding out rushing yards while using the play clock to limit the time our defense is on the field.Just a thought.

But.... PASS MORE???

Pass,run,who cares.Just use the play clock.

To me, we are forgetting just how much Stephon Robertson meant as both a great player and leader on the field last year. There's a tremendous void in our defense this year without him flying around making impact plays, and inspiring those around him to play better. He's sorely missed.