Did you notice SMU vs UCONN pass receiving separation

[mcs333]

It seemed like every pass UCONN receivers caught the DB was right on the receiver while SMU receiver caught many of their receptions with the DB 2-3 yards away. Our DB's play so soft in coverage.

 

[whaler11]

Pick your poison. Death by a thousand cuts or just have your head taken off by machete.

 

[SubbaBub]

This is by design and probably necessary the year after you lose two NFL CB's. Randy played this bend but don't break style for years. But difference in recevier separation was clearly noticeable.

 

[ktuck911]

If we gotta play 5 to 8 yards OFF THE opponents WRs in 2nd and 3rd and short situations then we shouldn't be playing. That's gift wrapping 1st downs for the opponent. It also gives the opposing teams WRs a chance to get YAC (which they did to us on several occasions.. this, to me, was our demise in yesterday's game)... AWFUL job by our CBs yesterday...

 

[Jerry27]

If we gotta play 5 to 8 yards OFF THE opponents WRs in 2nd and 3rd and short situations then we shouldn't be playing. That's gift wrapping 1st downs for the opponent. It also gives the opposing teams WRs a chance to get YAC (which they did to us on several occasions.. this, to me, was our demise in yesterday's game)... AWFUL job by our CBs yesterday...

Problem is it's not simply confined to yesterday, even with experienced cb's we often play off the wr's it's what they are taught and the scheme in place. It has been an issue for a long time.

 

[ktuck911]

Problem is it's not simply confined to yesterday, even with experienced cb's we often play off the wr's it's what they are taught and the scheme in place. It has been an issue for a long time.

Good point but we need more PHYSICALITY at CB... our guys weren't aggressively going for the tackle.. Instead the allowed the WRs to stiff arm the hell out of them all day long on the short out patterns...

 

[rich1122]

A pass rush would allow closer coverage. We are about last in sacks made and last in sacks allowed. Say no more.

 

[RioDog]

Good point but we need more PHYSICALITY at CB... our guys weren't aggressively going for the tackle.. Instead the allowed the WRs to stiff arm the hell out of them all day long on the short out patterns...

Agreed. Question on rules applying to stiff arms: Is it legal to specifically target the defenders head/helmet? The SMU recceivers were doing that a lot yesterday, almost liked they were trained to target the head and face. One big YAC play for them the receiver actually face-masked the defender, but there was no call. Whats up with that? Any insight would be appreciated.

For clarity let me say I love a runner who can use the stiff arm effectively. I remember in a game against Cincy Donald Brown put on a stiff-arm clinic. I recall one play where he stiff-armed the same guy twice on the same play, knocking him to the round at least once. But I wonder about legality of targeting defenders' face and head. Thank you, that is all.

 

[Doggie Style]

Pick your poison. Death by a thousand cuts or just have your head taken off by machete.

This season, we must have selected both options!!

 

[UconnFamily]

If we gotta play 5 to 8 yards OFF THE opponents WRs in 2nd and 3rd and short situations then we shouldn't be playing. That's gift wrapping 1st downs for the opponent. It also gives the opposing teams WRs a chance to get YAC (which they did to us on several occasions.. this, to me, was our demise in yesterday's game)... AWFUL job by our CBs yesterday...

Is this the style of defense HH likes to play? since he's been the DC his DB's has been giving WR's a lot of cushion. I'm not liking this style of defense at all. If HH is going to stay I think he should stick to DL coach if not he needs to be canned.

 

[Jerry27]

A pass rush would allow closer coverage. We are about last in sacks made and last in sacks allowed. Say no more.

You could say the inverse as well, if these guys get up on their man and disrupt the routes and delay these quick pass patterns then the D line will have a few valuable seconds more to get to the QB. D line was as active as I've seen them all season yesterday and countless times just missed getting to the QB an extra second or two may have changed that drastically. As far as the WR blowing by the guy if he's too close what would the difference have been really? they dinked and dunked all day with the cushion they were given and no one made a change.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It seemed like every pass UCONN receivers caught the DB was right on the receiver while SMU receiver caught many of their receptions with the DB 2-3 yards away. Our DB's play so soft in coverage.

2-3 yards? What game were you watching? I saw 6-10 yard cushions on almost everything.

When I was in HS (mid 1970's) we would run a basic umbrella (shell coverage), keeping everything in front of us, using the fundamental philosophy that if the opponent needed to connect on a number of passes to move the ball downfield it would at some point fail as there were too many places where a mistake could be made. In the FCIAC 35 years ago this approach was not a bad idea (Steve Young came along a couple of years later and he was an option QB who primarily ran at that time). In today's college football a HS defense from three and a half decades ago is worthless. Case in point is the drive to end the first half. We pretty much told them "you'll have receivers open on every play, work your way down the field at your convenience".