A post isn’t 100% directed at you because I quoted something you posted. Sorry you felt it was, that was why I didn’t quote you saying anything else. You are still wrong that giving a WR a cushion means an automatic 5 yard completion, which is what I quoted, “automatic first down” with two throws, “at least 5 yards” for each Bowman completion with cushion.
What many others are saying just act like it is an easy thing to press all game long and that will magically work. No team ever does that and they know that certain guys will get beat most times they press. Mixing up the defense is what is lacking and putting a guy in a situation where they can use the best of their abilities.
If you were implying I am a CMD sympathizer with your line in the post quoting me, then you obviously aren’t paying attention to what I have been posting.
Ok now I see what you’re saying. That’s not what I meant, however. By me saying “at least” I’m saying it’s available given we can’t can’t cover down or tackle ya know? The receiver will either catch the ball, break a tackle, and beat his man up the sideline, or catch the ball, and be running through someone’s zone.
I agree it’s not easy, but I also will say that the majority of the play designs on defense that resulted in completions and points (regardless of missed tackles) were combo-man-zone looks. That’s not mixing it up. There’s no other way to slice it. If you go back and look at the Tulane game last year, and tech game this year, there are glaring similarities. The QB was permitted to move the ball due to CMD NOT mixing it up. The next issue is using personnel as an excuse for lack of variety (Brian Johnson sends his regards).
CMD is not limited because he lacks personnel, he’s limited because he can’t find what we do well as a defense. It’s not up to these players to be perfect, they just need to be effective and that’s on the coaches (CMD) . Heck Rice has more inferior personnel across the board than us, but when that play action set in we were toast a number of times. As a matter of fact a large part of the game (shall we revisit the panic during the game board?).
That’s coaching. Teams with coaches who can’t adjust (during the game, or over the course of the season) end up losing, and the coaches get fired (I hope). Making excuses for allowing a team to score 63 points with a freshman QB, all the while the defensive blunder was predicated on flaws from a previous season, is absurd. Teams miss tackles and have injuries all the time. It rarely equates to 63 points given up. It’s a lot more complicated than that. We’ll revisit this after we play Norvell, Fritz, and the bowl game.
Have any of our corners played pure bump and run since D’Onofrio has been here? I swear I haven’t seen one jam at the LOS yet. I could definitely be wrong about that though.
I haven’t seen it. They played closer to the LOS vs Rice and AU until we got burned a few times then it was back to the 7-8 yard cushion. Of course that “cushion” turns into a big gain when we miss the tackle.
I think we all agree our DBs can’t do that. They aren’t swiveling fast enough and are two steps behind the receiver as a result. Then the WR is oned missed tackle from taking it to the house, or being wide open in the end zone on red zone plays.
Grant Stuard was a track star in high school. He ran a 22s 200m and ran 3rd leg on one of the best 4 X100m relay teams in the state. He is explosive. The closing speed he had during the Rice game was impressive. He is raw and inexperienced though. That is his problem.
We’ll look good against more teams than that. Memphis will be the real struggle. USF will be closer than any of us hoped; probably ECU too.
It’s still early, but the conference teams are super hard to predict right now. No one has really played anyone yet, except SMU who has lost all 3 of their games convincingly. Cincy beat UCLA, but turns out UCLA is terrible. Their other 2 wins are against Miami (OH) and Alabama A&M. ECU lost to an FCS team then beat UNC, but turns out UNC is terrible. Temple lost to FCS and MAC teams, then beat Maryland, who beat Texas, who beat USC handily but barely scraped by Tulsa. Tulsa played UT within 7 points in Austin, then loses by 9 to Arkansas State. Memphis lost to the one decent team they have played this year (Navy). USF is 3-0 with two P5 wins, but those P5s are Illinois and Georgia Tech. Not exactly world beaters.
It seems like the only relatively sure things in this conference this year are that UCF will be good (although not sure how good since they haven’t played anyone yet either) and Tulane, SMU, UConn, Tulsa and ECU will likely be bad. Until UCF beats a decent team handily, like I think they should, I’m not willing to concede the conference. It’s really difficult to tell how we will do because of our defensive woes, but DK hasn’t been prone to turnovers and mistakes this year, so I feel confident we can outscore anyone in our conference even with a bad defense, except for UCF, which remains to be determined. I think if we struggle against ECU, it will be because we were looking ahead to Navy.
