Rather have High Risk/High Reward Defense

So you agree, not bad schemes/play calling as much as blown coverages?

2 Likes

What I saw was busted coverage all over the place, at least on the big plays.
Yes, on some of the 3rd and longs it looked like we were defending the run option and letting the secondary take their guys in man coverage. Give credit to the Rice QB and wide receivers, they knew where the marker was and made good throws and catches.

I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think it’s the scheme.

Hasn’t this been a problem for Egbule before? I mean staying disciplined. I want to say last year he messed up a good bit staying disciplined with the run.

I would just like to say how refreshing it is to be able to talk about actual game day performance again. The offseason is always so long!

5 Likes

They were both absolutely blown coverages.
Not complicated at all.
Re goaline…or any down for that matter…every eligible receiver is accounted for…certainly in man coverage. This isn’t complicated…Egbule just lost focus.
On Sprewell…I couldn’t tell until came back from commercial and they showed all 23 view…Sprewell I guess forgets he’s in zone…

The big plays vs Johnson were not busted…he had coverage but never turned for ball…they could be picks. The one down the middle I slowed down…the WR had turned and looked back for 4 steps and Johnson never turned his head.
Joell Williams missed a jam and got beat bad.
Myers got beat to inside on slant on 3rd and 6…7 yards and 1st down.

Yes. He cost UH a TD vs …??? I’m thinking Tulane …I posted cut ups…run play…we had every hole shut and he decided to start chasing to other side field where we had plenty people…he was edge defender…RB cut it back where he should have been

Manster, what do you think about the technique guys are being taught? This one play really stood out to me because Myers was on his heels and it was an easy pass and catch. I thought he was lined up perfectly to keep the WR in front of him on any slants or outs. Of course with Johnson, he got beat a few times in one on one situations. I actually thought his coverage was great, but he doesn’t look for the ball or know how to use his hands.

Thank you sir. I think you are dead on about it being Tulane. He needs a good chewing and if it doesn’t work next man up.

1 Like

That’s tough…these coaches see these guys and would know what they can and can’t do. The other side is if you play Myers on los… he has turn and run with WR…but he can try take slant away as well.
On one of the plays where Johnson got beat…he contact WR near los and stumbled. That’s how he got behind him. IJ caught up but didn’t turn for ball.
Same with Joell Williams…he half missed on a bump and guy blew past him…he doesn’t have wheels to catch up.
Back to Myers…these guys are taught keys to read…WR hips etc…to give away route. It’s not easy position to play for sure.
In my opinion IJ doesn’t have and still hasn’t developed instincts. He doesn’t turn for ball and he holds a lot on goaline fades…last year too…looks like he panics. He did some things well in zone coverage and broke up a pass. Was overall good versus run…missed tackle on 52 yard run though. He got away with pass interference in 1st quarter…3rd down he never turned and grabbed guy…they didn’t call it

I don’t think anyone hates Gibbs or Orlando. I like them both and think they did as well as they could have under the circumstances at UH. However, they did have some outstanding players to work with. Gibbs was responsible for the players that made 2015 possible.

Our defensive players in 2015 were head and shoulders above the rest of the AAC. I don’t know what happened at TT, but they have not been that good on D, relative to their competition in the B12 (BTW, I don’t count Kansas as competition).

I liked them both because of the agressive styles. Gibbs’ teams were not as good against the run as CTO.

You are correct that Levine and Gibbs left CTO some outstanding talent and CTO being both the D cord as well as the LB coach knew what to do with it. His array of blitz packages was some of the best I have ever seen. Elandon Roberts went from hardly ever playing to super star under CTO, as did a lot of other players.

I like to watch that type of defense and find it exciting even though you can get burned occasionally.

If our offense improves as we think and points are a plenty, then we need to have our defense become more opportunistic because we can afford a blunder. Right now, I don’t see that in Denofrio’s MO.

Just MHO…

1 Like

you aren’t giving Orlando enough credit. Orlando was the main reason Roberts got drafted. He was a nobody when Gibbs was coaching and he started getting known when Orlando became DC. Jackson was a draftable CB when Gibbs was DC. When Orlando became DC he made him a first round pick. He made Bowser draftable as well as Matthew Adams.

1 Like

Completely agree.

You’re saying if D’onofrio doesn’t grow a pair, our defense will get really tired, and worse…hurt.

Count me as a huge fan of Orlando and fan of David Gibbs.

First off, it depends on the offense. If you’re running the air raid, you want high risk. If you’re running the crap we ran last year, you don’t.

Fact is, in this age of 85 scholarship players, you get solid performance out of your defense for 65 plays. Maybe, 72 plays max if you overweight numbers on defense. After that, the kids are spent. High risk tends to get them off the field faster which means fewer plays.

Last season, if you watched the Super Bowl closely, you could see the Falcons (especially DLine) were running out of gas late in the 2nd qtr. NFL roster is 53 players and, maybe, 6 Dlinemen. The Pats used the Air Raid and wore out the pass rush. I don’t think a NFL defense can handle more than 60 plays effectively.

So, if you’re going to go for 85 - 100 plays you need to play the TFL, turnover game and get off the field fast. I’ve watched Dana evolve with his strong DC into a 60/40 run pass to minimize the number of plays.

1 Like

I think you just explained the Memphis debacle.

Coach V
I think I agree with you. I believe you are saying that you don’t want your D to play to risky if your offense isn’t scoring ?
So if you were CMD last year and you won 19-16 over Arizona and watched your offense vs TT…would you think you had a lot of room to take risks? Or would you think, my CBs are new and getting beat deep, my offense can’t score and keeps turning it over…so I better try and keep us in the game?
I mention those games because CMD didn’t start off the year playing soft. He was aggressive vs TT but the heat and being on field due offense turnovers etc eventually led to giving up few big plays.

For all we know, the current coach would like that too. Question is, do we have the defensive talent to implement that? If we tried that last year, were burned all year, gave up 40 points minimum a game and went 3-9, would D’Onforio still have a job?

We have had 3 linebackers and 3 defensive backs drafted since the last game Orlando coached for us. Players are mostly drafted by their combine numbers, not by what they did on the field. Proof of that is Keenum, Ward Jr. and Taylor not getting drafted. Arguably our three biggest impact players over the last 25 years before the Ed Oliver era began.

I think the most important thing is a DC who can make changes in game as the situation dictates.

If teams are marching up and down the field against your “don’t do anything stupid defense” then maybe it’s time to start taking risks. Better to give up the TD in 1 min than 8 min, especially if it’s a tight game or you’re behind.

But on the flip side, I really don’t want to send jailbreak blitzes and get torched when we are up by 10 with a couple minutes left.

3 Likes

Honestly, I have no idea what he was doing last year. I tend to believe the folks from Miami who came to the boards after we hired him. There was a reason he was coaching at a Y

3 Likes