RiDLer80
All-American
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 20,296
The last couple of days I've been going back to the 2011 season and watching some of the games on Flash Forward (shout out to lestat) with a focus on our defense. Now, that defense wasn't the most talented, and the numbers show that, but at least it was aggressive-ish.
Now, the "success" of that defense overall may have been helped by the pace of the offense. That season the offense didn't play at the breakneck speed that we've seen the past two seasons and the numbers reflect that.
Total defense rank was 45 allowing 359.92 ypg. Scoring defense was 17 at 20.08 ppg. The team also ranked 48th in country in tackles per loss per game at 6.08 tfl pg.
Now for some rambling:
Sean Spence is really missed. He was so instinctual out there. He could diagnose a play like no player we've had in some time. He could blow up a WR tunnel screen better than anybody I've ever seen. It's a **** shame he played on such ****** teams.
The DL- DTs-Darius Smith, Micanor Regis, Marcus Forston, Ojomo; DEs-Andrew Smith, Chickillo, Marcus Robinson, Vernon (after a long suspension)
That wasn't the most talented DL and it got gashed a lot, but at least we were taking the action to the opposing teams. We weren't getting blown into our LBs laps, but we were still getting gashed. But at least when we were getting worked, we were doing it aggressively. And because of that occasionally we were able to disrupt the timing of an offense in the backfield!
Later in the season I noticed Dorito tried to implement some of his stuff. I remember watching a particular play where he had Vernon stand up at OLB, similar to Green this season, and you could tell he was thinking instead of playing when asked to control the OL. Because of thinking instead of playing Vernon got blown 3-4 yards back. And I know Vernon isn't some weak scrub like we've seen come through here the last 2 years. I remember him as a freshman working Wisconsin OL Gabe Carimi in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Honestly, there were times where Dorito had the right call made and our players just failed to make a play. Players were in good position but just couldn't make the play.
Sometimes we had a player bottled up, but players didn't rally to the ball fast enough and a play was made where it maybe shouldn't have.
Slanting. That team was terrible at slanting. It seemed like a majority of the time we slanted we got gashed. Sometimes is a player getting washed out and sometimes it was a player failing to cover his proper gap.
There were some mind-numbing things that we're used to today. I remember a particular 3rd and 6 in the VT game I believe where he had our corners bail at the snap and Thomas threw for an easy slant and conversion.
Another familiar sight was our base defense in against 3 and even 4 wide sets. I still don't understand this rationale.
Stunting. That team was a terrible stunting team. The couple games I watched the stunts never seemed to work.
Speaking of stunting, some of them were obviously coming looking at our alignment. I'm talking about Forston lined up at end shaded to the inside of the tackle with a DE like Vernon lined up at DT. Every time we aligned with a DT at DE and DE at DT, we ran a stunt. C'mon man!
Another thing I noticed a lot was a 3 man rush that included two tackles and a DE like Chick. Zero pressure. And this came on obvious passing downs like 2nd and 14.
We played a lot of soft coverage that year, but I can't really blame him when our corners were Brandon McGee, Lee Chambers (a converted RB) and Mike Williams (a Wake Forest transfer).
Our safeties weren't much better with JoJo Nicolas, Vaughn Telemaque and AJ Highsmith (Ray Ray was suspended most of that season).
The LBs were our "best" group with Spence, Gaines, DP and Futch.
That defense played better than any other defense we've had under this regime. Maybe it's due to the scheme allowing the front four to be more aggressive, maybe it's because that's the most talent the defensive front has had under Golden. Most likely it's a combination of both.
All I know is that defense forced the action up front and offenses sometimes got behind the chains because of it. It seems like these last two years opposing offenses are always on schedule. Now, in 2011 teams usually converted against us because our secondary was trash and our LBs couldn't cover. The usual issues were there-flats uncovered, TEs dragging wide open.
One more thing. That flip the switch thing the defense does when the opposing offense gets in the redzone is as *** as AIDS. Why not play with that intensity the entire drive?
Anyway, I'm done. If you want to do your own film breakdown please do and add your thoughts. With the way things are unfolding with our DT recruiting, we may be going back to a defense similar to our 2011 defense.
2011 Flash Forward video link: http://www.youtube.com/user/CanesFlashForward/search?query=2011
Now, the "success" of that defense overall may have been helped by the pace of the offense. That season the offense didn't play at the breakneck speed that we've seen the past two seasons and the numbers reflect that.
Total defense rank was 45 allowing 359.92 ypg. Scoring defense was 17 at 20.08 ppg. The team also ranked 48th in country in tackles per loss per game at 6.08 tfl pg.
Now for some rambling:
Sean Spence is really missed. He was so instinctual out there. He could diagnose a play like no player we've had in some time. He could blow up a WR tunnel screen better than anybody I've ever seen. It's a **** shame he played on such ****** teams.
The DL- DTs-Darius Smith, Micanor Regis, Marcus Forston, Ojomo; DEs-Andrew Smith, Chickillo, Marcus Robinson, Vernon (after a long suspension)
That wasn't the most talented DL and it got gashed a lot, but at least we were taking the action to the opposing teams. We weren't getting blown into our LBs laps, but we were still getting gashed. But at least when we were getting worked, we were doing it aggressively. And because of that occasionally we were able to disrupt the timing of an offense in the backfield!
Later in the season I noticed Dorito tried to implement some of his stuff. I remember watching a particular play where he had Vernon stand up at OLB, similar to Green this season, and you could tell he was thinking instead of playing when asked to control the OL. Because of thinking instead of playing Vernon got blown 3-4 yards back. And I know Vernon isn't some weak scrub like we've seen come through here the last 2 years. I remember him as a freshman working Wisconsin OL Gabe Carimi in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Honestly, there were times where Dorito had the right call made and our players just failed to make a play. Players were in good position but just couldn't make the play.
Sometimes we had a player bottled up, but players didn't rally to the ball fast enough and a play was made where it maybe shouldn't have.
Slanting. That team was terrible at slanting. It seemed like a majority of the time we slanted we got gashed. Sometimes is a player getting washed out and sometimes it was a player failing to cover his proper gap.
There were some mind-numbing things that we're used to today. I remember a particular 3rd and 6 in the VT game I believe where he had our corners bail at the snap and Thomas threw for an easy slant and conversion.
Another familiar sight was our base defense in against 3 and even 4 wide sets. I still don't understand this rationale.
Stunting. That team was a terrible stunting team. The couple games I watched the stunts never seemed to work.
Speaking of stunting, some of them were obviously coming looking at our alignment. I'm talking about Forston lined up at end shaded to the inside of the tackle with a DE like Vernon lined up at DT. Every time we aligned with a DT at DE and DE at DT, we ran a stunt. C'mon man!
Another thing I noticed a lot was a 3 man rush that included two tackles and a DE like Chick. Zero pressure. And this came on obvious passing downs like 2nd and 14.
We played a lot of soft coverage that year, but I can't really blame him when our corners were Brandon McGee, Lee Chambers (a converted RB) and Mike Williams (a Wake Forest transfer).
Our safeties weren't much better with JoJo Nicolas, Vaughn Telemaque and AJ Highsmith (Ray Ray was suspended most of that season).
The LBs were our "best" group with Spence, Gaines, DP and Futch.
That defense played better than any other defense we've had under this regime. Maybe it's due to the scheme allowing the front four to be more aggressive, maybe it's because that's the most talent the defensive front has had under Golden. Most likely it's a combination of both.
All I know is that defense forced the action up front and offenses sometimes got behind the chains because of it. It seems like these last two years opposing offenses are always on schedule. Now, in 2011 teams usually converted against us because our secondary was trash and our LBs couldn't cover. The usual issues were there-flats uncovered, TEs dragging wide open.
One more thing. That flip the switch thing the defense does when the opposing offense gets in the redzone is as *** as AIDS. Why not play with that intensity the entire drive?
Anyway, I'm done. If you want to do your own film breakdown please do and add your thoughts. With the way things are unfolding with our DT recruiting, we may be going back to a defense similar to our 2011 defense.
2011 Flash Forward video link: http://www.youtube.com/user/CanesFlashForward/search?query=2011
![crossover22[]_[]](https://data.canesinsight.com/avatars/m/2/2075.jpg?1518149361){kind=avatar}
