i'm still optimistic about our coaching staff

[RMS25CT]

He was supposed to get safety help but the safety bit on the play action. When defensive assignments are blown it allows for easy scores.

Not disputing this analysis at all but isn't it funny (or sad) that the safety (the defend pass first player) is the one that bit on the RUN that caused the LB (defend run first player) to get beat on the pass. The next time Jerome Junior or any other safety makes a big pass defense play that is not in garbage time will be the first in a very long time.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'm hoping to see some good pass defense against USF.

 

[J187Money]

Not disputing this analysis at all but isn't it funny (or sad) that the safety (the defend pass first player) is the one that bit on the RUN that caused the LB (defend run first player) to get beat on the pass. The next time Jerome Junior or any other safety makes a big pass defense play that is not in garbage time will be the first in a very long time.

Right. But the defense is designed to operate a certain way and everyone has to do their part. I'm just saying that it is too simple to say "it is stupid to line Sio up in the slot"...where he has been playing all year with reasonable success. We have been getting burnt mostly on the outside.

 

[BlueDogs]

I suggest we all have a truce until after USF:

If the Boys win and show solid progess, we lighten up Coach PP and gve him some breathing room for a few games
If the Boys lose, we burn him at the stake (figuratively, of course)

 

[RMS25CT]

Right. But the defense is designed to operate a certain way and everyone has to do their part. I'm just saying that it is too simple to say "it is stupid to line Sio up in the slot"...where he has been playing all year with reasonable success. We have been getting burnt mostly on the outside.

I wasn't disagreeing with anything you said. Like you or someone else pointed out, Sio probably was expecting help over the top, but because Junior can't seem to remember that he plays a pass defense first position, Sio looks like the goat. The next time Junior doesn't bite on play action will be the first time.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I wasn't disagreeing with anything you said. Like you or someone else pointed out, Sio probably was expecting help over the top, but because Junior can't seem to remember that he plays a pass defense first position, Sio looks like the goat. The next time Junior doesn't bite on play action will be the first time.

You've been watching film? Junior was linebacker coming out of high school, and I think he was a pretty good one, but he's not a freshman anymore, and he's been on the field playing safety for a long time now. He's got to change that fundamental that you learn as a kid, because offenses can see it.

Pass defense - read pass first.

I'm not a big fan of taking players out of their natural tendencies they've had as a kid playing the game and asking them to change in college too much, but if you do it, you have to hammer home the fundamentals, and changing a run first defender to a pass first defender, is a big fundamental.

with all that said, I'm hopeful the kid gets it corrected, because he's got talent and the tools.

 

[pepband99]

UConn returned most of their players and is 2-4....

Eh? We lost a starter, in some cases all of them, at many skill positions.

QB
RB
LB
WR

Not saying the cupboard is totally bare, but where would Michigan be without Robinson? WVU without Austin or Smith (or both!)? Temple without Pierce? Sense a theme here?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Two LB's, Two OL's, Two RB's, and Three QB's that started in games last year are gone from teh offensive side of the ball.

Makes me kind of ticked that we've given up nearly a full thousand yards on defense in teh past two weeks, while our offensive is actually moving the ball in a somewhat balanced fashion, even though we had another game on the road against WVU where we couldn't put it across the goal line, we certainly were able to put up TDs' the week before....

and I completely understand the need to point out the basics by others....

Linebackers are run first, defensive backs are pass first defenders.....

I'm looking for the defense to step up to the plate this week, and all three phases to click again for a full 60 minutes this time.

 

[Husky68]

Eh? We lost a starter, in some cases all of them, at many skill positions.

QB
RB
LB
WR

Not saying the cupboard is totally bare, but where would Michigan be without Robinson? WVU without Austin or Smith (or both!)? Temple without Pierce? Sense a theme here?

Perhaps the theme is "why would WV, Mich, Temple per you- WM and Vandy per we saw in person- and soon to find out USF, Cin, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse" all have playmakers at skill positions and Uconn not? Are they allowed to have more than 85 scholarships, keep players more than 5 years, recruit more skill players, etc? The theme is not losing starters its replacing them = poooooooor recruiting. Which BE team would Uconn's QB or RB start on, which team would they even be on the 2 deep? And those are the starters, never mind the 2nd guys.