FOOTBALL Defense

[dukewayne]

While there seems to be some disagreement, there are more than a few people frustrated with the performance of the defense.

For starters, I'm really glad MT got the win tonight vs FIU. While overall I saw the defensive performance as frustrating, they do get credit for coming up with the big turnovers at critical points to help seal the victory.

Still, there were large stretches of the game tonight vs FIU where it seemed MT's defense was little more than a speedbump to FIU's offense that was running up and down the field.

With the success of the offense, it is somewhat frustrating to consider just how good MT might be right now if MT's defense was even moderately more successful. By frustrating, I'm generally trying to describe that feeling of being oh so close to being even better than what MT already is this season. I'm talking 1 loss or no losses. So close but so far. You know, like a punch to the gut it feels like in a big basketball game right after the opponent just beats you with a big buzzer beater shot.

 

[dukewayne]

A few thoughts on players: last year's defense wasn't exactly a dominating force, and it had high quality NFL safety, a Canadian Football League safety in Xavier Walker, a superior LB in TT Barber, and a likely NFL draft choice this year in CB Cutrer. The offense has done pretty well, particularly this year. I still don't know of any offensive players that might be getting looks from NFL teams for possible NFL draft picks. I don't know if Mathers one season, impressive as it has been thus far, will be enough to garner NFL draft attention. My point in all this, I don't think it is a lack of reasonable decently talented players on defense that is a problem.

 

[SmithO1906]

Mathers may or may not get drafted but in the very least he will be in somebody's camp come July. Richie and Brent will be in somebody's camp in two years whether it be as draft picks or undrafted free agents. Jeremy Cutrer will be in somebody's camp next July as well. The talent on this team is there. We are up on a team 21-0 before the end of the 1st quarter and we can't put them away. The coaching on the defensive side of the ball atrocious. The first two people Stock needs to look at are Nix and West. It' absolutely ridiculous to think with the numbers that our offense has put up we have had 1 and a half blow outs this year. I really belive we are 6-2 because of the talent we have on the field and not the coaching

 

[dukewayne]

I think this is before tonight's game, but CBS Sports has MT's offense ranked 5th nationally. Incredibly impressive. Arguably one of the main reasons MT has a good number of wins so far this season. On the other hand, the same CBS stats show MT's defense as ranked 85th nationally. That is a pretty sizable discrepancy. Can you imagine if MT's defense was even moderately closer to the high rankings of the offense?

A few more stats of interest for discussion's sake since I'm on the topic:
MT's offense is ranked 2nd in C-USA in total yards a game.
MT's defense is ranked 9th in C-USA in given up yards/game.
FIU's offense - 7th ranked in C-USA in yds/game
FIU averages 382 yds/game; tonight vs MT in terrible weather, FIU's offense had even more yards in the game than MT's highly ranked offense. FIU 517 to MT 466. That comes to FIU amassing 135 more yards of offense vs MT's defense than their average yards in a game. That's quite a step up considering the difficult weather conditions. Clearly, turnovers played a key factor for MT in the victory.

I'm not sure what the exact problems are on defense, but it would be nice to see good improvement so that it doesn't appear that MT is playing the '99 Rams offense each week. With really improved defense to go with MT's exceptional offense, it seems plausible that MT could dominate conference play.

 

[dukewayne]

Mathers may or may not get drafted but in the very least he will be in somebody's camp come July. Richie and Brent will be in somebody's camp in two years whether it be as draft picks or undrafted free agents. Jeremy Cutrer will be in somebody's camp next July as well. The talent on this team is there. We are up on a team 21-0 before the end of the 1st quarter and we can't put them away. The coaching on the defensive side of the ball atrocious. The first two people Stock needs to look at are Nix and West. It' absolutely ridiculous to think with the numbers that our offense has put up we have had 1 and a half blow outs this year. I really belive we are 6-2 because of the talent we have on the field and not the coaching

There seems to be some pretty good talent on the team. I agree.

A little bit of an aside, but mentioning Brent getting a shot at the NFL bring something to mind. I know before the season an article was written on an NFL scout asserting that players like Russell Wilson are starting to change some attitudes around the NFL about QBs and size. To me, Brent Stockstill reminds me of or has similarities to Drew Brees. I think Brent and Drew Brees are about the same size.

 

[mtfblue]

Walker is not playing in the cfl, he is coaching at Duluth high in GA. I was in coaching class with him in August. So only one player at the next level on last year's defense

 

[blueraiderJT]

Look, I also think this is a product of a Tony Franklin offense. It's not that they are just bad, there is a reason too. TF typically rushes possessions and runs off lots of plays. If we score fast, it's great but the D doesn't rest at all.

We scored 21 points in a rapid fire method last night. I think our D wasn't able to get ready to adjust to what McGough was able to start doing or rest between series either.

We have to outscrore folks to win games and I think we said that at the start of the season. We had also been on the road 2 weeks straight with an emotional win. Everything leads to something else is all I'm saying.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I don't think Dale played either at Safety

 

[SCRaider01]

My take is that if you "bend but don't break" 80 yards down the field, you've still broken. Red zone defense we've got covered because there's no where left to bend to. When the game was on the line, the defense went after the football and got the turnovers. There are enough games to address this but it starts at the top.

 

[D-winns]

We need to take a lesson from Dabo Sweeny's "D" last night.
When the game was on the line and everybody in the world knew FS was going to throw the ball (with a dual threat QB by the way), Dabo chose to rush 5 and 6 and play man-to-man in the secondary. This caused 2 sacks and 2 hurried BAD passes.
As for stopping the run game, our LB's are just young.
Looking at this years commitments, we are again already "O" heavy. I think I only saw 5 "D" commitments out of 14, that's only 1/3. I understand the need for so many receivers, but we need to recruit more "D" so as to develop more depth allowing us to be better when we score so fast.
Why has BAMA consistently won "DEFENCE"!!!
We have to change our philosophy on "D" and get out or the bend don't break format.

All said GREAT WIN, keep rolling!
GO BLUE RAIDERS
Dwinns

 

[blueraiderJT]

Bama's offense is hog the clock and dominate the time of possession. When you do that, your D has more latitude and they are rested. Also Bama has depth. We don't. Our O is a lot faster in tempo which shoves our D out there a lot more than they should be. We become a shootout team which we are.

 

[dukewayne]

Whatever the case, better to develop and improve at 6-2 than to try to improve at 2-6!

 

[sWiley]

Bama's offense is hog the clock and dominate the time of possession. When you do that, your D has more latitude and they are rested. Also Bama has depth. We don't. Our O is a lot faster in tempo which shoves our D out there a lot more than they should be. We become a shootout team which we are.

I disagree about the your comments about our offense being fast. Despite running an air raid style, our offense runs incredibly slow at times. Tony Franklin is not obsessed with tempo. He's obsessed with getting the right play called and it's not uncommon at all for us to snap it with less 5 seconds left on the play clock. There are possessions that end up being very short in terms of minutes off that clock, but that's because we make so many big plays and have home run threats in Richie James and I-train.

There are times when we go tempo, there are times when we go slow. We do whatever we think is best to our advantage. It is what makes our offense so masterful and so hard to defend. It's extremely unpredictable in terms of play calling and tempo.

In terms of how that translates over to our defense, I'd be willing to bet our defense doesn't see any more snaps than the opponents average.

 

[AustinLewis]

I disagree about the your comments about our offense being fast. Despite running an air raid style, our offense runs incredibly slow at times. Tony Franklin is not obsessed with tempo. He's obsessed with getting the right play called and it's not uncommon at all for us to snap it with less 5 seconds left on the play clock. There are possessions that end up being very short in terms of minutes off that clock, but that's because we make so many big plays and have home run threats in Richie James and I-train.

There are times when we go tempo, there are times when we go slow. We do whatever we think is best to our advantage. It is what makes our offense so masterful and so hard to defend. It's extremely unpredictable in terms of play calling and tempo.

In terms of how that translates over to our defense, I'd be willing to bet our defense doesn't see any more snaps than the opponents average.

Franklin is a master of tempo. Take the FIU for example : He goes NASCAR (high tempo) for the first three drives and then slows the tempo down for most of the game. When they needed a final TD to try to put the game away, he goes NASCAR again and Stock hits James for the TD.