Worried about our defense

#1
barney

barney

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#1
Just thinking about the game on Saturday, I think we may have had things backwards with our team this year. Georgia is not going to be the best offense we face this year, not even close. Yet we gave up 46 points and 500 yards.

This football team can't stop the run. I was worried about it against Syracuse, and now I'm even more worried. 198 yards on 55 carries for 3.6 average per carry. We sacked the quarterback 3 times and had 6 tackles for a loss. You take away the lost yardage from sacks and the average per carry probably creeps up to 4 yards per carry. That is not good. That means a defense can run the ball 3 times and convert, which is exactly what Georgia did numerous times in the second half. Its why our defense can't get off the field on third and fourth down. Running on 3rd or 4th and short is a very high percentage play for our opponents based on what I've seen so far this year.

I'm not sure what has gone wrong with our front 7 this year, but I saw a lot of defensive lineman standing up, playing too high and trying to tackle high or arm tackle. I saw linebackers out of position in their run fits, edge players unable to contain outside runs and poor tackling technique everywhere, including from returning starters on our defense.

Our safeties are undersized, can't deliver a hit and can't tackle. I think some of the portal losses at the safety position were far more significant than we realized. We've got a corner playing at safety and it absolutely shows. Maybe things get better if McCoy and/or Gibson get back healthy, but I'm afraid that if we cannot find better safety play, we are going to drop more games that we should have won. Mississippi State and Arkansas are absolute trap games for us. Maybe we beat them both in a track meet but I think we are going to have major issues on the defensive side of the football unless we can get healthy or show serious improvement at all three levels of the defense.
 
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#2
#2
barney said:
Just thinking about the game on Saturday, I think we may have had things backwards with our team this year. Georgia is not going to be the best offense we face this year, not even close. Yet we gave up 46 points and 500 yards.

This football team can't stop the run. I was worried about it against Syracuse, and now I'm even more worried. 198 yards on 55 carries for 3.6 average per carry. We sacked the quarterback 3 times and had 6 tackles for a loss. You take away the lost yardage from sacks and the average per carry probably creeps up to 4 yards per carry. That is not good. That means a defense can run the ball 3 times and convert, which is exactly what Georgia did numerous times in the second half. Its why our defense can't get off the field on third and fourth down. Running on 3rd or 4th and short is a very high percentage play for our opponents based on what I've seen so far this year.

I'm not sure what has gone wrong with our front 7 this year, but I saw a lot of defensive lineman standing up, playing too high and trying to tackle high or arm tackle. I saw linebackers out of position in their run fits, edge players unable to contain outside runs and poor tackling technique everywhere, including from returning starters on our defense.

Our safeties are undersized, can't deliver a hit and can't tackle. I think some of the portal losses at the safety position were far more significant than we realized. We've got a corner playing at safety and it absolutely shows. Maybe things get better if McCoy and/or Gibson get back healthy, but I'm afraid that if we cannot find better safety play, we are going to drop more games that we should have won. Mississippi State and Arkansas are absolute trap games for us. Maybe we beat them both in a track meet but I think we are going to have major issues on the defensive side of the football unless we can get healthy or show serious improvement at all three levels of the defense.
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UGA gave up 41 points nobody is worried about their D. Winning cures everything even if you back into a win.
 
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#3
#3
sechamp2012 said:
UGA gave up 41 points nobody is worried about their D. Winning cures everything even if you back into a win.
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True. We were a missed field goal away from winning despite the problems on defense. But we also could have won the football game if we had gotten a stop on Georgia's final scoring drive or the 2 point conversion. Bad safety play killed us on the 2 point play. I don't think the problems with the front 7 aren't unfixable with coaching, but think safety play is more a personnel issue than just bad technique.
 
#5
#5
You aren't going to win many games at all giving up 502 yards to good teams. Yes they gave up 41 points but they won. Huge difference.

I said after the Syracuse game we were in trouble with our defense. We best hope for a defensive miracle....But I done see it. Playing man killed us against UGA....but...If we'd played zone which we aren't good at with little pass rush and just average LB play.....UGAs TE would still be catching and scoring. When you can't play either you are in trouble against good offenses.

We will look good against UAB....and hopefully Miss State. We can puff out our chests then. Banks lives on on those also ran teams.
 
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#8
#8
sechamp2012 said:
UGA gave up 41 points nobody is worried about their D. Winning cures everything even if you back into a win.
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That would be a great response and comparison if Georgia didn't have a track record of fielding championship caliber defenses compare that to Banks who has a track record of fielding questionable defenses
 
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#9
#9
Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way—SCORE.

Protect our kickers, our QB, our lead and our ball game.

Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
 
#10
#10
Our d-line looked really gassed at times. They were on the field a good bit, but I was surprised to see them look that gassed compared to the o-line. Maybe UGA rotated more given the depth.
 
#11
#11
Bloodrunsorange27 said:
Thin at DT and two starting corners out really hurt us. If we can get McCoy back and a couple of our DTs, we can be solid on the back end and much more physical up front
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I think part of our success on defense last year is we were able to man up on receivers one on one and rotate one of the safeties down to help with run support.

Jakobe Thomas graded a 79 pff w/ Miami this weekend and I just feel like letting that guy walk was a huge mistake.
 
#12
#12
TikiVol said:
Our d-line looked really gassed at times. They were on the field a good bit, but I was surprised to see them look that gassed compared to the o-line. Maybe UGA rotated more given the depth.
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It takes a lot more energy to play on the defensive line than it does on the offensive line
 
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#14
#14
I think we're not as bad as indicated, though need much improvement. Kirby was flat out dogmatic on his willingness to stick w/ the run, and he knew he had the guys to execute...and probably found an offensive identity. Three games into the season (small sample size), UGA is ranked 34th in rushing, KY is 29th, and there are no other 2025 opponents currently ranked in the top 50. Besides the need to improve, probably the best thing for our rushing defense is that we keep putting points on the board. Probably no other team is going to have the discipline or horses to power their way back from two touchdowns behind on the ground...though candidly, we did provide a blueprint.
 
#15
#15
walkenvol said:
What do the numbers say - we’re missing 36% of our starting Defense right now to injuries. What team isn’t going to have some problems?
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There was one drive where Georgia threw one pass and scored on essentially just handing the ball off, on the two point conversion, arguably the most important play defensively for the whole game they looked absolutely lost. They looked lost on quite a few plays which is a direct reflection of the defensive coordinator. His schemes are rarely effective against even competent offensive teams and his blitzes are largely ineffective and poorly disguised. The amount of back peddling Vol fans do to defend a guy who isn't very good at his job is puzzling
 
#16
#16
This season is giving a lot of 2004 vibes. The biggest difference so far is the missed FG in a big situation. Let’s see how it plays out.
 
#17
#17
landscapingvol said:
There was one drive where Georgia threw one pass and scored on essentially just handing the ball off, on the two point conversion, arguably the most important play defensively for the whole game they looked absolutely lost. They looked lost on quite a few plays which is a direct reflection of the defensive coordinator. His schemes are rarely effective against even competent offensive teams and his blitzes are largely ineffective and poorly disguised. The amount of back peddling Vol fans do to defend a guy who isn't very good at his job is puzzling
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nope my argument is that its a personnel problem. Maybe due to injury, maybe due to talent disparities. But reality is that we couldn't limit their run game with six in the box so it was a choose your poison kind of game. Maybe that gets a little better once we get more guys healthy up front and at the corner sport. Or maybe we are plagued by injuries all year and that side of the ball is liability all season that costs us more games that we should be winning. Idk.

I do know I want to see some different guys get looks at linebacker and safety next week against UAB. Lets give some of these young talented guys a look. Telander and Carter aren't fast enough I don't think and if #15 weighs 200 pounds, I weigh 300 pounds.
 
#18
#18
Tnphil said:
You aren't going to win many games at all giving up 502 yards to good teams. Yes they gave up 41 points but they won. Huge difference.

I said after the Syracuse game we were in trouble with our defense. We best hope for a defensive miracle....But I done see it. Playing man killed us against UGA....but...If we'd played zone which we aren't good at with little pass rush and just average LB play.....UGAs TE would still be catching and scoring. When you can't play either you are in trouble against good offenses.

We will look good against UAB....and hopefully Miss State. We can puff out our chests then. Banks lives on on those also ran teams.
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Gunner Stockton had an 84% completion rate with us playing man to man and only 38% completion rate when we played zone.

Gunner Stockton rushing had 13 rushing attempts for only 38 yds-- a 2 yard average.

Syracuse's Steve Angeli leads the nation in passing. We kept him under 300 yds and he only had 1 TD and an interception.

Our defense is now ranked 105th nationally.

No opinions here. Just throwing out stats.
 
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