Physical Defense

[ShowSomePride]

If I may, I'd just like to point out that I think our defense was the more physical one on the field Saturday, besides that insane targeting hit. It's just weird to me that Florida walked away with 3 or 4 injuries against us instead of the other way around. Big Dan was man-handling his assignment quite often, A.J. had an absolute throwdown on one of their players, and we completely stuffed their runs up the middle.

Also, I realize some of their turnovers were from their own mistakes, but you can't deny that we lead the league in turnover margin so we must be doing something right. I love how that is going to be a staple of our defense. Now if we can just play containtment...

 

[Vol737]

They played hard and never quit. Offense just left them on the field too long with Peterman's turnovers, ergo, Peterman was left in the game too long. I was looking at our current roster of D players and comparing it to the recruits coming in next year. I think we will be a very good defense two years from now.

 

[theFallGuy]

its amazing looking at our defense from last year how much better we are playing on D. still need more depth and talent

 

[44DivePlay]

Agreed, even taking into consideration Oregon (which that game alone stats have screwed us in defense rankings but not turnovers and discipline), we are a better defense than last year. I think we penetrated better because Florida's offensive line is not that great, but we did better against them than AP and WKU.

Still need a little more speed on the edge for contain or depth of speed etc though. We may have young speed on edge with young depth by next year or year after but unless we have some good JUCO help, going to lose some size on the d line next year, meaning in two years maybe we have speed outside with some experience, decent d line but maybe not great. If recruiting pans out for playmakers on offense and the young lineman waiting in the wings who are a bit smaller but hopefully even more mean get next year for experience we may have a team with some talent, speed, and depth but relatively young in 2 years.

Last year a lot of "O" and no "D," this year, some D and not much O. If we could just be decent or SEC average or above by then in all phases, we are competing till the end in all games and winning a lot more than the last several years of heart rip out

The big difference from the past, hopefully, will be recruiting stays good with speed etc mixed with the discipline (minimal penalties, forcing more turnovers than giving, not letting balls fall in front of you on kick offs, not too many men on the field, etc, etc)

 

[utvolkyle06]

its amazing looking at our defense from last year how much better we are playing on D. still need more depth and talent

It's called the 4/3 instead of the 3/4

 

[imavolfan]

I think the young guys have given us some speed. We were out ran a few times but we looked faster.

 

[livefaith]

If we could only contain the edges. I sincerely do not understand where our containment is on @ 1/2 the plays. Why does AJ have to be the only one chasing people to the sidelines. Where are our corners? B Same as last year.

Without this problem, or D would have won this game for us IMO.

 

[csheaton]

If we could only contain the edges. I sincerely do not understand where our containment is on @ 1/2 the plays. Why does AJ have to be the only one chasing people to the sidelines. Where are our corners? B Same as last year.

Without this problem, or D would have won this game for us IMO.

I think a lot of that is a lack of talent at DE position. Smith looks the part, and might have some pretty decent talent, but I don't think his football IQ is very high. Doesn't play smart at all imo. And the other DE's are just slow. Seems to me that Sapp and Brewer should have been there to help out as well. And yes you are right our corners could give a lot more help in run support, but see
To be playing too far off the ball bc of a lack of speed at the position overall. Foreman, and Sutton look like they could have some pretty good speed though. I liked Swafford and that pick 6 but he looked a little slow as well honestly. And our safeties are just taking horrible angles on a lot of plays. Randolph has looked pretty good this year most of the time, minus a couple plays, but I haven't seen much out of McNeil like I thought I might. It is very frustrating overall.

 

[Joe Vols]

Our D took a huge step from last week. They were not intimidated at all. If this team continues to improve this much from week to week, we have a chance to get that elusive BIG win this year.

 

[Joe Vols]

We played much better on the perimeter against a very fast Florida team. If we played Oregon again this year, the game would be closer. We won't see more speed this year than we saw these last 2 weeks. I think we are going to surprise some folks down the stretch.

 

[gnm53108]

its amazing looking at our defense from last year how much better we are playing on D. still need more depth and talent

Needed this defense last year.

 

[Volhoops]

Sorry don't see better in this defense. Looks the same to me. We let an anemic Florida offense run up 31 points on us making two years in a row we have made a pedestrian Florida offense look great, 37 points last year. Can't hold the edge. AJ needs a haircut and some more speed. I saw AJ get pancaked by the running back. We lack speed and skill in all positions on the defense.

 

[james_govols]

Defense is still def struggling. Safeties were taking bad angles, players missed a lot of tackles, and overall I thought our blitzing was ineffective.

 

[1982Alum]

Our DEs are not containing the run at the corner. I watched Jacques Smith play and he just gets pushed around by who ever is blocking him; tackle or TE or lead back out of the back field. He is not a smart player and has no instincts out there. And he tries to arm tackle instead of drving through the ball acrrier with his shoulders. For its size, our DL still gets pushed around but our real issue is at LB. We just do not have any good LBs out there. AJ tries and I give him credit for his effort, but he is slow and he can't cover RBs coming out of the backfield. No one else has stepped up at LB. We really need to recruit at this position.

 

[LAL-VOL]

J.Smith does not play with good discipline, he should be be keeping his shoulders square to LOS, taking the block on and keeping his outside arm free. Instead he is taking the block head on and unable to get separation. Our Linebackers could be better at scapping down the line and filling inside out, they tend to round and give the running backs cut back lanes. The most frustrating thing is this is the same stuff my sons Middle school team in having troubles with.

 

[Velo Vol]

We let an anemic Florida offense run up 31 points on us making two years in a row we have made a pedestrian Florida offense look great, 37 points last year.

Florida is no Oregon, that's for sure. And they were going with an inexperienced QB.

 

[BlackFox]

If we could only contain the edges. I sincerely do not understand where our containment is on @ 1/2 the plays. Why does AJ have to be the only one chasing people to the sidelines. Where are our corners? B Same as last year.

Without this problem, or D would have won this game for us IMO.

Came here to say that.

Any time they want, a team can just race us to the sideline and turn it up for big yards. The last few years have been 3rd down hell for us.

 

[Chilmonty]

My son plays DE for his high school team and his coach has told him many times, your primary job is containment. Making tackles is secondary to keeping the play from getting to the outside, like FL was able to.


.

 

[DC Vol]

Florida is no Oregon, that's for sure. And they were going with an inexperienced QB.

Do you know what a gameplan is? We got 11 plays against Driscoll, who we planned against.

Getting Murphy instead for most of the game completely changed any blitz packages we drew up against Driscoll.

Our Defense was also time after time put on the ropes by our inept Offense.

 

[csheaton]

Do you know what a gameplan is? We got 11 plays against Driscoll, who we planned against.

Getting Murphy instead for most of the game completely changed any blitz packages we drew up against Driscoll.

Our Defense was also time after time put on the ropes by our inept Offense.

I don't think it really mattered. I think Murphy and Driskel looked to have similar running ability, while Driskel might have been a tad better passer and a little more physical running the ball. Murphy made some nice throws though. But overall they seemed to have similar abilities and it shouldn't have mattered that much imo.

 

[thadolphinman]

For those who think our defense hasn't improved based on the fact Florida scored 31 points, I ask you to go do some research. Look up how many times a team has been given 6 turnovers and hadn't scored more than 30, especially if they had over 40 minutes of possession. If I remember correctly, this defense gave up about the same number of total yards this year as they did rushing yards last year.

We are improving week to week, something I haven't seen a Tennessee team do since 2009. I really feel the defense started to turn the corner in the first half of florida, while the offense began to turn the corner in the second. I bet we come out and beat South Alabama by thirty this week, give Georgia a pretty good game the next, and really look forward to South Carolina were I think we have a great shot.