Bottom line is that the front seven did their job until the end of the game when they couldn’t do it anymore because it was so damn tired. Several times the front seven would put them third and long and the secondary would leave the wide receivers wide open or they would blow multiple tackles letting them go for so many yards after catch.
I’m not wanting to start a discussion about CMD here because that’s going on multiple other threads. I only want to discuss the fact that our secondary is absolutely horrible.
Bottom line is that the secondary cost us this game. Not only because they could not tackle, they couldn’t cover, and they couldn’t even turn their head to locate where the ball was coming from. It looked as if they had no skill set whatsoever and it was apparent very early that this came down to whoever scored last.
My hats off to the front seven because they did their job the majority of the game. At the end they were just too tired to keep bailing the secondary out. I feel sorry for those guys and I specially feel sorry for Ed Oliver. I’ve never seen him come off the field that many times it was because he was tired of carrying the secondary that kept on wasting every opportunity to defense gave them.
Case in point is when we had them back towards the goal line after two holding penalties and we still gave up a first down because we didn’t cover their receivers and couldn’t tackle.
The sad thing is that this will be used for the rest of the season for all these other teams to exploit how horrible we are in the secondary. This quarterback was not that good and we made him look all world.
As far as I’m concerned the secondary just cost is a perfect season. I know I know about perfect season stuff, but how many teams can average 45 points a game and still lose? If the secondary had of done their job and even got half of the 3 and outs when they should have we would not be having this discussion.
If the front seven were used differently and more efficiently then he secondary wouldn’t have had to be so much better. When ed is triple teamed we can’t put pressure on the qb? Starting a blitz from ten yards away doesn’t help the secondary.
People have brought it up on other threads but we have no home grown high school recruited talent at CB. And no converting a WR doesn’t count. So we went the grad transfer route in the secondary sacrificing scholarships and that risk has not panned out so far.
I hope this puts to rest the incorrect theory that P5 transfers are going to come in and dominate the AAC. This isn’t the Sun Belt.
Agree with much of what you said…except that has cost us a perfect season…I’m all about high expectations but I’m not sure that was as realistic as many here believe/thought.
How many points did Baylor average with RG3 and Petty…any perfect seasons?
Oh I agree that there was no guarantee and that is based on emotion and should not be under a post titled Fact.
However I feel like with the offense we have we had a good shot or better shot than we have had since 2011. So I should say potential instead of being so definitive.
Would agree that this year was as good a chance as have had recently but it’s alot of wishful thinking by fans. UCF success certainly helped fan the fire.
Frost probably wishing he stayed after losing to Troy yesterday. It goes to show that a coach showing up doesn’t just guarantee winning. To be fair Frost lost his QB and played a walk-on yesterday but he didn’t make any miracle happen vs Troy.
Taggart supposed be genius and FSU is embarrassing.
??? Kadarian and Javian Smith are local guys. Joeal Williams played some corner (the one time I saw a guy with tight coverage), and he’s from Hightower. DJ Small is from Dickinson. I don’t care where they’re from. But I do agree that while one can obviously question D’Onofrio, what stood out to me more than anything else was just how poorly the secondary played. Playing off guys is something a lot of defenses do, especially when they don’t have William Jackson and DJ Hayden at corner. But if you do that you need to come up and sting the receiver, hopefully separate him from the ball, when he catches it. That happened ONCE yesterday. Most of the time the corners looked like Keystone Kops, coming up and falling down before making contact, and when they did make contact they’d typically get a PI penalty. It just looked to me like their receivers outclassed our DBs, not that coaching couldn’t have done something to make that situation a bit better.
johnson 100% realizes when the ball was thrown, he could have 100% undercut the route and jumped in front of the WR, but he chose to get behind the WR and try and use 1 hand to try and deflect it and if he was in the open field try tackle…this is technique
similar with alex myers, both time the announcers caught it, myers 100% knew where the ball was going, in 2 specific plays one was a big hit that the WR dropped, the other was a hit that was still caught for the first down… i get the 1st one was a big hit, but if we know where the ball is going why arent we going for the ball
we made the freshmen look like payton manning but he was telegraphing all his passes like all freshmen do…
IJ first thought/instinct is to hold…he does it every time. You can’t defend a ball or better yet catch it if your holding the receiver. He had one against Rice in EZ. One vs Zona on first series that somehow thank god they didn’t call. Had 2 yesterday.
Good question and a trick one ie “Who’s on first?”
In regards to our defense I’ll go with our secondary. The salmon is the meat of the defense or the defensive front seven and they are the backbone of the defense and main part of the meal. The crab crusting is a support or additive to the salmon and in our case the secondary has to react and support with the defensive line can’t do which is cover the wide receivers.
The chef has to prepare the meal and knows that the crab is not that good and has to depend on the salmon to impress the customer. In our case CMD has to hope that the defensive front seven can make up for the crappy secondary that we have. So ultimately we have to put it on the secondary or the bad crap. Hopefully we can recruit better secondary or get better crab next time.
I think they are all competitive. For instance IJ doesn’t give up. He will often run down a big play from other side of field. Myers is tough kid. Plays run and tackles.
But they don’t cover well. Watkins was close a few times but you know what close gets you
Well said all around. I don’t want it to sound as if they were quitting, but outmatched. They all had their moments but that’s the problem is that they were just moments. Reminds us how good we had it when William Jackson III was here.
Here is the point though. This is all technique and scheme teaching as much and maybe more so than talent. In the Johnson example, has he been taught position so much that he is worried about position than going for the ball?
I will take it to another level.
We have not had anyone teaching our guys to look and to go for the ball since Spavital and Gibbs left.
Remember Turnover Tuesday. Initially drove Orlando & Herman nuts.
In 2015, our Peach Bowl team the secondary were all Seniors except Brandon Wilson and all taught by G & S.
In 2016, our interception numbers went down, and the only people who were doing interceptions were Howard Wilson, Garrett Davis, & Steve Taylor. Again G&S players.
In 2017, interceptions were led by Garrett Davis. G&S player
In 2018, interceptions led by Garrett Davis. G&S player
Still feel with better coaching the secondary has the talent to be solid.
I need to rewatched the game. After 1Q we gave their 6’5" receivers a free run off the LOS.
It is VERY difficult to cover a big WR on a short post in man coverage when he gets a free release. QB and WR practice that timing all day. And the short crossing route is one of the easiest to throw.
Vas her ran that all day.
If you get your hands into his chest at the LOS at least you disrupt the timing making it a harder throw.
That rout and the 7-yard out route killed us all day long.
CMD did nothing to change it. They were not going deep. They were going pitch and catch and run on routes 7-10 yards.
CMD really puts these kids in a tough position. Then does nothing to change when they are getting beat.
