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If the team wins another game this year will it be considered a lucky upset or a sign of some defensive improvement?

Or the offense just makes up for the fact that we have no defense. We've relied on that a bunch in the past.

I think it will all depend on how we win the game. If we win a 63-61 shootout, than it is just plain luck.

If we win a 42-17 then we might have made some improvements.

Based on the 6 years we have been playing football, and the fact we have made minimal to no improvements on defense, I wouldn't expect a sudden defensive improvement.

If people really think this defense is just as bad as the FCS versions that gave up 50 points to Georgia Southern and the likes, I don't know what to say. You have to consider the strength of the offenses we are facing. Instead of facing Norfolk State (who we gave up what, 24 points to, we are facing Western Kentucky and other FBS schools)

The transition is hard, especially on the defense that doesn't have a Taylor Heinicke gift. Look at the other teams that have made the transition recently and their defensive rank based on F+/-

Georgia Southern 71
UMASS 114
ODU 124
App State 126
Georgia State 128

ODU is ranked 97th (36 on offense, 124 on defense, 122 on special teams) ; the teams we have left:

@ Vanderbilt 115
FIU 88
La Tech 73
@ FAU 98

As a comparison, these are the past teams on the schedule:

NC State 53
EMU 126
Rice 103
Mid Tenn 81
Marshall 22
UTEP 95
Western Kentucky 77


I think similar to every game but Marshall this year that it will be close and could go either way. La Tech should be the toughest test we have. It wouldn't surprise me if we won or lost all 4; it would surprise me if any of the four aren't close in the 4th quarter.

Our D has been improved. The D has either gotten us back into or given us a chance to win each game.

The Saints won the Super Bowl with the 32nd ranked defense a few years back. The organization spent most of their resources on the QB, RB and OL but the D made timely stops and TO's.

(10-29-2014 09:22 AM)BigBlue23 Wrote:  I think it will all depend on how we win the game. If we win a 63-61 shootout, than it is just plain luck.

If we win a 42-17 then we might have made some improvements.

Based on the 6 years we have been playing football, and the fact we have made minimal to no improvements on defense, I wouldn't expect a sudden defensive improvement.

I know you used the "just luck" phrase because that was how the question was posed in the OP, but IMO having a prolific offense is no more a matter of luck than is having a porous defense. If ODU beats Vanderbilt it will be due to effort rather than luck regardlees of the score.

If we win, it's because our offense was good enough to win and the defense did just enough. Not necessarily luck.

(10-29-2014 10:38 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  If we win, it's because our offense was good enough to win and the defense did just enough. Not necessarily luck.

Love the helmet in your logo!!

(10-29-2014 11:05 AM)Old Dominion Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 10:38 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  If we win, it's because our offense was good enough to win and the defense did just enough. Not necessarily luck.

Love the helmet in your logo!!

LOL. Starting a trend on the CUSA boards. O_U...

(10-29-2014 09:33 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  If people really think this defense is just as bad as the FCS versions that gave up 50 points to Georgia Southern and the likes, I don't know what to say. You have to consider the strength of the offenses we are facing. Instead of facing Norfolk State (who we gave up what, 24 points to, we are facing Western Kentucky and other FBS schools)

The transition is hard, especially on the defense that doesn't have a Taylor Heinicke gift. Look at the other teams that have made the transition recently and their defensive rank based on F+/-

Georgia Southern 71
UMASS 114
ODU 124
App State 126
Georgia State 128

ODU is ranked 97th (36 on offense, 124 on defense, 122 on special teams) ; the teams we have left:

@ Vanderbilt 115
FIU 88
La Tech 73
@ FAU 98

As a comparison, these are the past teams on the schedule:

NC State 53
EMU 126
Rice 103
Mid Tenn 81
Marshall 22
UTEP 95
Western Kentucky 77


I think similar to every game but Marshall this year that it will be close and could go either way. La Tech should be the toughest test we have. It wouldn't surprise me if we won or lost all 4; it would surprise me if any of the four aren't close in the 4th quarter.

Good post

And i can appreciate where we rank so i look at it differently.

Our first year in the CAA, granted we had two extra years to recruit for that same level of competition, gave up an average of 26.88 points per game to conference opponents.

Yes, the competition is far superior to the CAA but the recruits that we have brought in should be far superior to those we had in the CAA. In our CUSA games this year, we are giving up 49.4 points per game. I find it very hard to believe that two years of recruiting can lower our points per game given up by 22.52 points per game!!

I think we have regressed greatly and have developed a dependency of the offense.

(10-29-2014 01:36 PM)BigBlue23 Wrote:  And i can appreciate where we rank so i look at it differently.

Our first year in the CAA, granted we had two extra years to recruit for that same level of competition, gave up an average of 26.88 points per game to conference opponents.

Yes, the competition is far superior to the CAA but the recruits that we have brought in should be far superior to those we had in the CAA. In our CUSA games this year, we are giving up 49.4 points per game. I find it very hard to believe that two years of recruiting can lower our points per game given up by 22.52 points per game!!

I think we have regressed greatly and have developed a dependency of the offense.

I don't feel like we have greatly regressed. I feel like we are about 75% done with our first year of a full schedule of big time football. We will continue to get bigger faster and stronger. Some of us realized the offensive line would struggle even before the season started. Add to that the loss of receivers. Injured place kicker and a pretty banged up defense as of the bye week. Things are not so bad.

(10-29-2014 01:36 PM)BigBlue23 Wrote:  And i can appreciate where we rank so i look at it differently.

Our first year in the CAA, granted we had two extra years to recruit for that same level of competition, gave up an average of 26.88 points per game to conference opponents.

Yes, the competition is far superior to the CAA but the recruits that we have brought in should be far superior to those we had in the CAA. In our CUSA games this year, we are giving up 49.4 points per game. I find it very hard to believe that two years of recruiting can lower our points per game given up by 22.52 points per game!!

I think we have regressed greatly and have developed a dependency of the offense.

Our system as a whole worked better against the CAA because it was new to that league. We had a now efficient offense than any other CAA teams and he more possessions we generated gave us more opportunity to outscore someone.

What we as fans are realizing is that Everyone runs the spread and knows how to defend it at this level.

(10-29-2014 02:23 PM)ODUR8R Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 01:36 PM)BigBlue23 Wrote:  And i can appreciate where we rank so i look at it differently.

Our first year in the CAA, granted we had two extra years to recruit for that same level of competition, gave up an average of 26.88 points per game to conference opponents.

Yes, the competition is far superior to the CAA but the recruits that we have brought in should be far superior to those we had in the CAA. In our CUSA games this year, we are giving up 49.4 points per game. I find it very hard to believe that two years of recruiting can lower our points per game given up by 22.52 points per game!!

I think we have regressed greatly and have developed a dependency of the offense.

Our system as a whole worked better against the CAA because it was new to that league. We had a now efficient offense than any other CAA teams and he more possessions we generated gave us more opportunity to outscore someone.

What we as fans are realizing is that Everyone runs the spread and knows how to defend it at this level.

That is a good point. Also if you would look at ODU's most recent 2 deep you would see 14 of the 22 spots taken by players from either the 2013 or 2014 classes. Of those 8 are either true or redshirt freshman seeing their first action this season, the other 6 are JUCO's (5 starters.) That is almost 2/3 of our defensive 2 deep which is going up against teams which more than likely have very few freshman or redshirt freshman in their 2 deep. The difference in quality of play between any athlete from their 1st year of competition to their 3rd and 4th year is vast. While our defense is better quality-wise as a whole than it was in 2012, it is facing far superior offenses than it ever did in the CAA, so the comparison of ODU's current defense to it's 2012 defense is not fair based on level of competition.

ODU also has at least 15 defensive players from those two classes who have either been redshirted or have not yet seen significant playing time 6 of them are 3 star quality. This all points to what some of us have been saying; it is a process and ODU is playing catch up. Next seasons defensive roster will look very different than this years, but it will still be relatively inexperienced.

(10-29-2014 01:36 PM)BigBlue23 Wrote:  And i can appreciate where we rank so i look at it differently.

Our first year in the CAA, granted we had two extra years to recruit for that same level of competition, gave up an average of 26.88 points per game to conference opponents.

Yes, the competition is far superior to the CAA but the recruits that we have brought in should be far superior to those we had in the CAA. In our CUSA games this year, we are giving up 49.4 points per game. I find it very hard to believe that two years of recruiting can lower our points per game given up by 22.52 points per game!!

I think we have regressed greatly and have developed a dependency of the offense.

The recruits are better, but they are true freshman or redshirting.

(10-29-2014 02:23 PM)ODUR8R Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 01:36 PM)BigBlue23 Wrote:  And i can appreciate where we rank so i look at it differently.

Our first year in the CAA, granted we had two extra years to recruit for that same level of competition, gave up an average of 26.88 points per game to conference opponents.

Yes, the competition is far superior to the CAA but the recruits that we have brought in should be far superior to those we had in the CAA. In our CUSA games this year, we are giving up 49.4 points per game. I find it very hard to believe that two years of recruiting can lower our points per game given up by 22.52 points per game!!

I think we have regressed greatly and have developed a dependency of the offense.

Our system as a whole worked better against the CAA because it was new to that league. We had a now efficient offense than any other CAA teams and he more possessions we generated gave us more opportunity to outscore someone.

What we as fans are realizing is that Everyone runs the spread and knows how to defend it at this level.

Teams aren't defending our spread very well thought. F +/- has our offense as the 36th best offense in the country. We are gaining 6.5 yards per play vs. teams that give up 5.99 per play. The only defense to play well vs. us is Marshall and they are dominating everyone they play.

Giles- what's the context of the data? The bulk of our offense comes as we are trailing and trying to catchup. I'd be interested to know how we perform when the game is actually close.

(10-29-2014 05:30 PM)ODUR8R Wrote:  Giles- what's the context of the data? The bulk of our offense comes as we are trailing and trying to catchup. I'd be interested to know how we perform when the game is actually close.

It's accounted for.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/feiplus