In the end they gave up 21.8 points per game which was good for 34th. I won’t get into offense rankings
CMD did a good job this year. Not amazing or great, but not terrible… good. We lost our best pass rusher in years (Bowser), a 4 year starter at LB (Taylor), a multi year starter at DE (Malveaux), your 2 good starting corners (the Wilsons) and a guy who would’ve started at Nose for any other AAC team (Singleton). Unless you’re Bama or the bluest of the blue blood you won’t be insulated from losing guys to graduation. Despite those losses we didn’t regress overall from last year. Yardage stats don’t mean sheet if those yards don’t turn into points. That’s the name of the game folks: points.
Memphis tore us to shreds both of CTO’s years here. Navy and SMU tore us up bad last year with CTO too. Does that mean CTO was bad? Heck no. Basically nothing some of this staff (and specifically CMD) will do is enough for some of you on here and I guess that’s your prerogative. Just be more honest about it. There are legitimate criticisms of this staff from the 2017 season, but very little of it should fall on the defense.
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I agree to an extent, and I’m not being completely dismissive of stats. However, they are not the only way to judge how good a coach is. I could repost my predictions on how we were going to obliterate USF due to how their gameplan playing into the strength of our defense. Looking at their stat sheet(season averages) is what gave the “experts” the wrong idea about who would win that game. Did USF’s OC notice that beforehand and adjust? Or did USF’s OC allow his offense to be exploited? The latter proved true. My argument for like the 50th time is CMD has glaring flaws with his scheme that can,have, and will be exploited. Football is about match-ups,and adjustments. If I’m a DC that has to scheme against a Louisville 2016 offense that appeared unstoppable on the stat sheet, but when I turn on film and notice that their offensive line is vulnerable to blitzes, I can either exploit that, or allow my flaws as a DC to lose the game. A good DC will gameplan, make adjustments and prove a stat sheet obsolete.
Talent? We are more talented on offense than defense this year? If we are going to use talent as excuses, then we should have shown the OC the same amount of grace. If we want to talk about talent, Tulsa, and Tulane say hello. On the opposite end, OU and FSU were still more talented than us the past couple of years and that wasn’t an excuse to fold. CMD is no better than CBJ. We’ll find out sooner than later if he’s retained.
I was talking about the players as a team. Coaching has to be evaluated on much more than stats.
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Agreed. My mistake.
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Although I am supportive of CMD, I didn’t advocate for CBJ to be fired etc. I certainly questioned a few play calls but I don’t blame him for QBs throwing into double coverage or center not being able snap ball etc. The offense under performed, but I’m someone who likes to look at reasons and I put a lot more credence in player performance than most apparently. No Coach teaches throwing into double coverage, but we had 3 QBs do it and it resulted in turnovers that had a big impact on several games. To me that’s more decision making than coaching error. Or players trying to hard to make a big play when not there. The offense also played very bad defenses by many measures.
If we had King all year…we will never know.
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Yea, we’d never know, but I am of the variety that assumes we’d have a better record. For two reasons. One, he’d have more reps, and would have been a lot more polished to close the year. Two, he’d be able to mask a lot of offensive deficiencies like GWJr. did. I wasn’t sure going in that King would be the answer. I was wrong. He’s here to stay, we just need to get that O-line to be more consistent. It’s interesting going forward to see what the offense does next year without our leading receivers coming back.
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Agree that all "schemes"have flaws and can be exploited. CMD chose to give up underneath passes and avoid big plays this year. IMO because he realized his corners were a liability. I say this after watching the Arizona and TT games in depth. CTO was more aggressive but that doesn’t mean his defense had no flaws and couldn’t be exploited…I offer the following example from 2016 Memphis game…
Ok…so this is 2nd play from scrimmage 2016…also notice that CBs are NOT pressing.
So Ferguson fakes inside handoff and runs toward LOS and looks like quick pass to WR in flat, however
Its a pass over the top for a TD…the OC apparently found a flaw in CTO defense while game planning and exploited it on 2nd play of game. looks like CTO rushed 6 and played “Quarters Coverage” behind it, not 100% sure. If so, Winchester can’t let deep receiver go until he’s sure ball not going to him. So a player decision ultimately decided this play, but CTO aggressive scheme opens it self up to these type plays. Also safety Kahlil thinks ball going to flat but wrong. If both players do their jobs, Ferg will dump to flat and defense will need to make a tackle, could be solid gain but not 66 yard TD. In 2017 memphis never ran this play…why? Because CMD plays a sound scheme that takes less chances and it wouldn’t work most likely. So all schemes have flaws and offenses will eventually find them. CMD scheme had flaws as well.
In 2016 Memphis took advantage of CTO aggressiveness early and in my opinion messed UH and CTO up for much of the game…I say this because I rewatched it and CTO was uncharacteristically not aggressive in this game and D gave up 48 points.
In 2017 Memphis decided to take what UH gave them in 1st half and it backfired resulting in a 17-0 UH lead. In the 2nd half, they decided to throw deep into UH coverage regardless if CMD played man, Cover 2 or even Cover 3. I would guess partly because they were behind and didn’t have time for time consuming drives and knowing that there own defense was weak and would allow more points.
And the weak(my opinion) pass coverage which CMD tried to camouflage got exploited. He’s the DC and has to take responsibility for that but many of the big plays memphis had in 2nd half were due to player coverage issues imo…several pass interference calls in man and allowing receivers behind them in zone and not making play on ball in air. When ferguson finally made a mistake, we dropped it.
This is why I say in the end its about points allowed…nobody plays same defense, all give up yards in some way or another and all have weaknesses. And players have a lot to do with their success or lack thereof imo
DisclaimerI think CTO great DC…just not perfect…None are
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I think this is true that the scheme was actually best for us since the secondary was our weakness and we didn’t have many playmakers at LB like previous years. If Orlando tried to play the same schemes as last season with the 2017 Cougars, it would have been bad. Some people just can’t get that through their head and continue to ignore the 4 NFL players and Steven Taylor that we lost.
The only problem I see is that D’Onofrio is known for playing like this so will he change it up if we do see a boost in talent? That will be the real test.
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CTO and CMD should not be mentioned in the same breath. This is getting ridiculous. CMD has repeatedly made that poor decision to play soft and rush a few. The 2016 Memphis game hurt, but it does not hold a candle to the dumpster fire decisions CMD had this year. That was also Cover 3, and CMD has run a lot of Cover 2 Man, with 10 yard cushions; that’s a bad comparison. Talk to me after the Fresno State game. [quote=“FortWorthCoog, post:70, topic:10241”]
The only problem I see is that D’Onofrio is known for playing like this so will he change it up if we do see a boost in talent? That will be the real test.
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Talent like comparable with what he had at Miami? That talent he never made adjustments with? He’s very vanilla and is starting to look lazy. He probably won’t adjust. I refuse to believe the strength of this defense only has one player (Ed Oliver). Vanilla bend don’t break defenses, only work sometimes, so let’s expect to win, “sometimes” in 2018.
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