Defensive Improvement This Year

[giddyup]

Look at Steven Krajewski first half stats. Phenomenal. Totally different player. This shows you that the coaches can not make adjustments at the half and get out coaches. Obviously the player doesn’t change… what does. Just some food for thought

Could mean a lot of things. Adjustments are one possibility. Inability to do progressions. Sustained mental focus. Bad throws.

 

[UConnDan97]

Could mean a lot of things. Adjustments are one possibility. Inability to do progressions. Sustained mental focus. Bad throws.

Unlike Rosebud, I was there for every home game.

I've been one of Krajewski's biggest defenders on this board, but the kids missed countless open receivers all game. That included an open receiver in the end zone when he chose to throw to another double-covered receiver 10 yards further to the corner

Yes, the OLine and OC suck and need to take some of the blame. But so does Krajewski...

 

[Rosebud70]

Unlike Rosebud, I was there for every home game.

I've been one of Krajewski's biggest defenders on this board, but the kids missed countless open receivers all game. That included an open receiver in the end zone when he chose to throw to another double-covered receiver 10 yards further to the corner

Yes, the OLine and OC suck and need to take some of the blame. But so does Krajewski...

Not saying he doesn’t. However people are quick to jump on the kid where a lot isn’t going right. I haven’t seen any rushing tds from anyone other than…. Since Wyoming. I feel the first half the run a offense that’s best for Steven Krajewski then go back conservative then he starts taking a beating and rushes throws

 

[ScottVib]

Difference between the numbers in the first half and the second half typically means that what worked early is no longer working (I know duh).. now some of that is on the coaches for not adding more wrinkles to adjust (and more a credit to the opposition for seeing what UConn is doing with clarity and adjusting); but some of that also goes towards the QB. Right now I'd almost play as vanilla as possible as an opposing defense in the first half, let UConn have a little success, because I'd know I could take that away in the second half with a little disguise and have successfully baited the Huskies into trying the same plays and throwing the same routes the rest of the game, giving me the chance to run it up late if necessary.

Where Steven Krajewski can improve is moving through his progressions, he's understandably gunshy from the contact at this point (you can see it with the throws off the backfoot) and he locks in on one receiver forcing the ball there even when the play isn't there to be made. (This is how those sideline routes that get thrown up for grabs and the play made in a 1-on-1 situation turn into incompletions and picks when he starts to do it into double coverage during the second half) Even if he's not able to complete the pass, working through to the secondary receiver forces the defense to start to respect more than one option on the field. The adjustments that defensive coordinators are making are primarily taking away the favored receivers that he locks in on each play. Now the coaches need to adjust to provide different looks, but Steven Krajewski needs to be able to move to the next route, even under duress.

The interceptions he's thrown in the second half have generally been bad decisions with bad ball placement (throwing behind the receiver on a crossing route, or up for grabs on a go), rather than great defensive plays. Many of the interceptions he's thrown are on plays where anyone who's seen more than one UConn game this year, know where he's going to throw the ball because there seem to be only a handful of routes that are potentially targeted each play. (It's one of the reasons I was so excited by the throwback screen to the TE for the score in the first half, it was something we haven't done a lot of. We've run a ton of bubble screen, a few RB screens, but nothing with that element of misdirection)

That's one of the biggest things, I want to see more from the coaches and Steven Krajewski, looking down the progression and making more people on the play a threat.

--

Which (not having enough potential threats on each play) is pretty much UConn's biggest issue on offense. There are two many plays where there is only one, one and a half, threat(s) that need to be accounted for. That gives UConn an exceptionally small margin of opportunity each play. They need more options. The ball moved more with Tyler Phommachanh because he was an additional threat each play, whether it be a zone read or buying time with his athleticism to move through the progression and find a second or third option. UConn needs to find a way to create those additional options to put pressure on a defense with Steven Krajewski at the helm, as we're seeing what happens, even against bad competition (and none of UMass, Yale nor MTSU were strong teams) when you don't have those extra options to force a defense to either account for or to try to guess right.

 

[Husky68]

Difference between the numbers in the first half and the second half typically means that what worked early is no longer working (I know duh).. now some of that is on the coaches for not adding more wrinkles to adjust (and more a credit to the opposition for seeing what UConn is doing with clarity and adjusting); but some of that also goes towards the QB. Right now I'd almost play as vanilla as possible as an opposing defense in the first half, let UConn have a little success, because I'd know I could take that away in the second half with a little disguise and have successfully baited the Huskies into trying the same plays and throwing the same routes the rest of the game, giving me the chance to run it up late if necessary.

Where Steven Krajewski can improve is moving through his progressions, he's understandably gunshy from the contact at this point (you can see it with the throws off the backfoot) and he locks in on one receiver forcing the ball there even when the play isn't there to be made. (This is how those sideline routes that get thrown up for grabs and the play made in a 1-on-1 situation turn into incompletions and picks when he starts to do it into double coverage during the second half) Even if he's not able to complete the pass, working through to the secondary receiver forces the defense to start to respect more than one option on the field. The adjustments that defensive coordinators are making are primarily taking away the favored receivers that he locks in on each play. Now the coaches need to adjust to provide different looks, but Steven Krajewski needs to be able to move to the next route, even under duress.

The interceptions he's thrown in the second half have generally been bad decisions with bad ball placement (throwing behind the receiver on a crossing route, or up for grabs on a go), rather than great defensive plays. Many of the interceptions he's thrown are on plays where anyone who's seen more than one UConn game this year, know where he's going to throw the ball because there seem to be only a handful of routes that are potentially targeted each play. (It's one of the reasons I was so excited by the throwback screen to the TE for the score in the first half, it was something we haven't done a lot of. We've run a ton of bubble screen, a few RB screens, but nothing with that element of misdirection)

That's one of the biggest things, I want to see more from the coaches and Steven Krajewski, looking down the progression and making more people on the play a threat.

--

Which (not having enough potential threats on each play) is pretty much UConn's biggest issue on offense. There are two many plays where there is only one, one and a half, threat(s) that need to be accounted for. That gives UConn an exceptionally small margin of opportunity each play. They need more options. The ball moved more with Tyler Phommachanh because he was an additional threat each play, whether it be a zone read or buying time with his athleticism to move through the progression and find a second or third option. UConn needs to find a way to create those additional options to put pressure on a defense with Steven Krajewski at the helm, as we're seeing what happens, even against bad competition (and none of UMass, Yale nor MTSU were strong teams) when you don't have those extra options to force a defense to either account for or to try to guess right.

Agree, Steven Krajewski was easy pickings for MTSU defenders as far as applying pressure and the UConn defense could not catch, never mind tackle the MTSU QB. Quite a different impact on each opponents defense, not the least of which was 3 and outs vs. lot of made 3rd downs.
Have given up on coaches coming up with helpful offense scheme after saw the 1st 3 plays of the game all to Mensah for 3 and out.

 

[gioff2323]

When you can not make plays on their side of the ball, the D will fail. I like the young kids up front, but they need more time. Since we won’t bring the house, we force mediocre DBs to play better than they are capable of doing.

How this turned into a Steven Krajewski thread is interesting. I’m in the camp of “ I’ve seen enough; season’s lost, so can we try someone else. Leon? I miss little P - he added some excitement to what has otherwise been an embarrassing perf across the board

 

[ktuck911]

Any defensive improvements we've had gets hindered by the offense.. Way too many 3 and outs in less than 2 minutes it seems.. That will wear any defense down....

 

[Sprague03]

Still think this is a young D too but glad it’s not historically bad again. Hoping the upperclassmen next year don’t transfer and we are still in this perpetual cycle of playing young DBs

 

[noeynox]

They had some good moments on the field yesterday. 2 Ints, turnover on downs, tackled the best i recall seeing. The offense however, oy.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

They weren’t bad yesterday! No help from the O at all and really made Clemson grind out for their points. And don’t come at me with no 3rd or 4th string BS. The 3rd string at Clemson are still 4stars

 

[Palatine]

tackled the best i recall seeing.

This. Odd it happened against some of the most talented players they have faced. Very interested to see if they maintain it against UCF.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[noeynox]

This. Odd it happened against some of the most talented players they have faced. Very interested to see if they maintain it against UCF.

Here is the Jim Mora the dad,

“I watched the first half,” Jim E. Mora. “Here’s my impression. One, I think the defense was respectable. Respectable. I thought the offense was bad. Real bad. To play at the major college level and the teams they’ve got to play, they’ve got to get better. A lot better.”

 

[noeynox]

Young players, who didn't play last year, having played almost a whole year and coming off a 2 week bye. Could be behind the improved tackling effort.

 

[SubbaBub]

Best defense UConn has had in years.

I was one of those fans who said at the beginning of the year, I wanted a UConn defense which was good enough for the opponents to have to use their first string players all game and actually be running their offense all 4 qtrs. Fresno, Purdue and Army most definitely did not fall in to that category. The rest of the games have been competitive.

Back in 2018 UConn had empirically one of the three worst defenses in the history of college football. PPG were a shade over 50, yards per play was over 8.5 and teams averaged over 610 yards per game. And this was with most teams starting the second half with second or third string players and just running out the clock.

2019 saw some improvements. PPG was down to 40 ppg, yards per play down to 7.0 and yards per game was about 445 yards. Again, almost every game saw teams playing second string by early second half and using the fourth quarter to run out the clock.

2020. Bye year.

2021. PPG down to 35. Yards per play at 5.8 and yards per game at 433.

Is there's year's team defense good? No. It's between below average and bad. Compared to the previous two seasons, it's been fantastic.

Offense has gotten progressively worse as defense has improved, but the regression on offense has been less than the improvement on defense. 2018's team scored about 22 ppg and was a -28 in points differential. 2019 scored about 20 ppg and was a -21 in point differential. This year's team is down to 16.6 ppg and is a -19 points differential.

Not sure what any of this means. Just noticed on the UConn football page you could select stats for the 2018-2021 seasons rather easily.

We've moved to occasionally giving up huge plays from giving up huge plays at will and from getting beat badly on generic plays to mostly holding up. Still need to get off the field on 3rd down more often but at least we are making it to 3rd down more often. We used to rarely get there before giving up a long TD.

Job #1 for the D is to learn how to disguise pre-snap reads. The comment from the Wyoming QB was eye-opening and shouldn't have been allowed to happen.