I defended the D all year, but yesterday re-inforced some issues that should atleast be improved by now. We play to the level of our competition defensively in the patty-cake games. We seemingly had not game planned at all for Troy. Daniel Gray was the only db that appeared interested in playing fast and hitting someone, however he let himself become undisciplined and turned that into a liability. Our db's all year, sans NC State, have been tentative, undisciplined, slow, and not at all physical. Our front 7 have been fairly solid, but yesterday was inexcusable. Unless they were using Troy to gameplan Missouri and they have magically figured out everything that doesn't work, Sal had better help them find some inspiration going forward.
Our special teams, offensive line, running backs, defensive line, linebackers have all improved from last year, some substantially. There is no excuse for the product our DB's are putting out there, we are having to compromise our whole scheme for their poor execution and general lack of effort and it's killed us all season, culminating in yesterday's disaster. DB's were our biggest liability under Wilcox and I know the older guys were not the most talented recruits and they were either recruited or brought in from JUCO to serve as warm bodies. However, if they haven't commited themselves to improvement over past 2-3 years, young guys need to use that as inspiration to step their game up.
Also, in SEC games going forward, we need more consistent QB play. We can't have the number of 3 & outs we've been averaging as that has killed our D. Even if we have to punt, get 2-3 first downs, get the d some rest, and use some clock in the process. Can't win in the SEC with 50% completions.
