Do you guys think our D can take off?

[ajkreider]

Probably not. However:

If we actually change out personnel in the back 4, then it will make our player tendencies a little more opaque for a couple of weeks. I could see a couple of pics this week.

 

[QuattroCane]

If they don't get it together the kid from Syracuse wil throw for 500 yards

 

[Angry Ibis]

Complimentary football with specials. Don't give up field position and a TD on kickoffs. Don't fall for fake punts. Give #20 and #32 more PT. Set the edge. Play assignment football and keep everything in front of you.

 

[Pimpdaddycane]

I still think our DL and linebackers are a top-15 unit. I’m hopeful Patterson starts on Saturday and Dmari can get back for the playoffs. 9 weeks is a lot of time to improve, get healthy, and make changes to better suit our personnel. Add in the pressure that our Offense puts on the other teams offense to produce, and I’m still very hopeful. If it’s confirmed that Dmari is out the entire season, then that takes about 1/3 of my hope. He, OJ , and Patterson are a great complement to our DL and LBs. I’m in for the entire ride this season. Not looking at anything as half-empty, because we have Cam, a great OL, and great RBs (between the tackles). This wins a lot of big games, and we are ******* due.

 

[LawyerCane]

Hmmm. Let me see, our last three opponents were unranked and scored a total of 117 points against us. The team that lowly FSU held to 9 points scored 38 on us. The proverbial handwriting is on the wall. It will continue to be up to Cam and the offense to continue to pile the points on the board.

 

[LustNCanes]

Need some of this…like 70%….

Wow! What a bunch of nasty DB’s on those squads.
That Carlos Jones pick six was electric!
Reed, Taylor and Buchanon were on a different hemisphere!
Thanks for sharing

 

[grover]

I think our D woes are mostly poor tackling and DB mistakes, not physical limitation. Not saying they're all day 1 talents athletically. But the vast majority of the busted plays are between the ears or arms.

If you agree with me so far, then we definitely can improve tackling with more focus. As fas as DBs, ... DJ Ivey got better, Robert Knowles got better, Michael Jackson got better, Rayshawn Jenkins got better. Lots of examples of kids getting better as they get more reps and coaching. Of course, we also had our fair share of guys who never got better. But our current starters were already selected partly because they take to coaching. So, yeah, more reps and more coaching, and they'll get better.

I also think adding Patterson to the mix will help a lot. Guidry said that should have a calming influence on Harris in his presser yesterday. What I took from that was Harris is feeling way too much pressure and second guessing himself because he thinks it's all on him. So add another "trusted" starter to the rotation, and hopefully Harris feels less like the world is on his shoulders and more that he can play more fast and loose.

I actually think it's better than 50/50 that we start playing more like UF than Cal. FSU and Duke are terrible on offense, that should give us a chance to reset. By then, ZP will be rotating in a lot, and maybe we get Brown back. Fingers crossed. ... To be clear, I don't think we'll be a great defense. But we may be Top 40-50ish if everything comes together, maybe even a little better than that with our front 7 turning up the heat.

 

[obcanes]

Add in the pressure that our Offense puts on the other teams offense to produce, and I’m still very hopeful.

The offense being so potent is part of the problem. The opponents know that we are going to score at will so they have to take high reward plays including going for it on 4th down. No one is going to play "sound" football and field position when Cam can score in 30 seconds and you can find yourself down 21 in a couple of drives.

So opponents throw which is our weakness. No one is going to run it on our D to win a game. Mario built is to stop the run but Dawson & Cam force defenses to pass.

 

[Moonman]

I watch more CFB than probably 90% of the general public. This fanbase suffers from a serious lack of perspective.

Our weakness is obviously our pass D. That's not up for debate. It's obvious. However, we're top 30 in (6.3) yards per attempt which IMO is a good indicator of how well we perform play-to-play. That's better than Georgia (6.56), osu (6.47) and Clemson (6.44).

Cal averaged 12.3 yards per attempt against our D (terrible), but they only completed 12 of 24 passes, and they averaged 2.9 yards per rush against our D. When shut them down on three straight drives in the 4th quarter when our backs were against the wall.

Louisville averaged 6.7 yards per pass attempt against our D, and 5 ypr on ground, but 40% of their rushing yards came on one 43 yard run in the 1st quarter. After that, they averaged 3.1. Here's the thing, they average 8.5 yards per pass attempt and 5.3 yards per rush on the season.

I could go on, but the bottom line is we're not that bad on D. We need to tackle better and get to the QB. We can do both of those things. So yes I think our D can take off.

 

[Gransapo]

Patterson, Alderman, and Aguirre need more snaps.

 

[grover]

Patterson, Alderman, and Aguirre need more snaps.

Agree on Patterson and Aguirre. Feels like Alderman is underperforming. But maybe he has the Carpenter, Brown, Martinez problem of just needing more time to gel with the team. Are you hearing/seeing something that suggests he's ready to step up?

 

[Moonman]

... I don't think we'll be a great defense. But we may be Top 40-50ish if everything comes together ...

We're already a top 40 defense.

We're top 10 against the run, #21 in total defense, #12 on 3rd down and #23 in pass efficiency D.

 

[NJshoreCane]

Hmmm. Let me see, our last three opponents were unranked and scored a total of 117 points against us. The team that lowly FSU held to 9 points scored 38 on us. The proverbial handwriting is on the wall. It will continue to be up to Cam and the offense to continue to pile the points on the board.

Odd ball stat of the day.
Cal had 40 less yards and half as many first downs against us vs against FSU.
That’s all fine and dandy if you don’t look at yards per play.

Over the next 2 weeks we’ll hear that our D has been playing much better. I’m not buying it.
FSU and Duke are 132nd and 83rd in scoring.

King will be back at QB next month for GT.
That’s when the fun starts again.

 

[NicKane]

With Ruben back and the back end getting experience, do you think our D can take off or are we just LSU 2019 and going to win it with the O?
How about Simeon pushing Cam for the Scat Packs too? Funny ****.

With more zaquan in the lineup and less Harris and Brown hopefully coming back after the bye week, I believe we can definitely get better on defense.

 

[NJshoreCane]

We're already a top 40 defense.

We're top 10 against the run, #21 in total defense, #12 on 3rd down and #23 in pass efficiency D.

Vs P4, yards per play.
6.11 ypp puts us at 66th.
Actually better than I thought, but not good.

 

[Squid Bumciorek]

With Ruben back and the back end getting experience, do you think our D can take off or are we just LSU 2019 and going to win it with the O?
How about Simeon pushing Cam for the Scat Packs too? Funny ****.

UM will score more points that FSU. We will win by 2 TDs, but I think the D is what it is and will give up a ton of points to a bad offense. **** shame that staff didn't do more to fix it in the offseason. Miami didn't need to rob a bank and pay for the top DBs in the country. Just getting some average players would have been to put UM in the national title game.

 

[jrock2332]

We can certainly play better, but we don’t have the talent at LB and in the secondary to be a top 20 defense. We have to recruit both spots much better.

We have talent at backer we don't have depth at s or cb. I would rather go with the inexperienced guys versus the experienced guys who play like they are inexperienced. The js in the secondary are . I really don't want to think how worst they would be if we didn't get pressure on qbs

 

[grover]

Vs P4, yards per play.
6.11 ypp puts us at 66th.
Actually better than I thought, but not good.

Agree, I don't think we should be counting FAMU results,. or even Ball State and USF. Now that we're in conference play and our opponents have a lot of film on our players, they either get better or get smoked. My expectation is they'll get better but not enough to be a top 30 defense.

 

[JamesQuall]

We're already a top 40 defense.

We're top 10 against the run, #21 in total defense, #12 on 3rd down and #23 in pass efficiency D.

Here are our stats vs ACC teams:

Scoring defense - 121st
YPG allowed -- 84th
YPP allowed -- 110th
Passer Rating allowed -- 84th
YPA allowed -- 75th
Passing YPG allowed -- 106th
Yards per rush allowed -- 101st
3rd downs allowed -- 61st

Definitely not a top 40 defense. Actually nowhere close to one. I wish we were, that would make watching these games a lot less stressful

 

[JHallCanes]

Here are our stats vs ACC teams:

Scoring defense - 121st
YPG allowed -- 84th
YPP allowed -- 110th
Passer Rating allowed -- 84th
YPA allowed -- 75th
Passing YPG allowed -- 106th
Yards per rush allowed -- 101st
3rd downs allowed -- 61st

Definitely not a top 40 defense. Actually nowhere close to one. I wish we were, that would make watching these games a lot less stressful

Good news is we’ve got the next two weeks to get right

Bad news is if we can’t get right against these two teams then we are gonna age several years before 2025