D'onofrio Is The Key

[Notsince1985]

And Coach D's "bullshyt prevent D" still held them to 23 points after Morris threw 4 INT, so yeah, in the end it worked, and yeah, I'm going to go with his judgement over a freaking internet fan. Of course he makes mistakes, of course he's not perfect, but it's real easy on a message board to sit back and say, "well that didn't work, so obviously this would have." Maybe what you (or whoever is complaining) wanted to do would have been even worse. Maybe they would have scored 40 points, and not just 6 after halftime. Maybe we would have bent...and broke.

You make a fair argument, I know exactly what Donofrio is about, what his philosophy is, and what he is trying to do. We're 6-0
and our defense is vastly improved from last year. Our defense made plays to win the game cannot deny that so I give DOnofrio his due.

I simply dont like the bend but dont break philosophy on defense.

I don't love it either, and it is frustrating. I think it would look a lot better if we had better personnel too. We still don't have the DL, especially the DTs to run what they want to run. His defense needs a pressure from the DL, especially a disruptive DT, which we really don't have. It still might not be the defense I'd ideally run, but I think it'll be ranked a lot higher, and look a lot better overall, and not give up as many yards with at least 1-2 more recruiting classes.

 

[Notsince1985]

People saying coach D knows D more than we do or so dumb....you would think he would. At the same time its not us he should be worried about but oppossing OCs. I mean you would think

Someone please translate this

Its simple, I meant "are dumb"....not "or dumb". Dumb people saying people coach D, knows D as in defense, more than we do....we as in fans....is a dumb statement. I mean you would think he would. His job is to out think and outcoach opposing OCs, its Not to know more about defense than fans. Get it, got it? good

Takes a big man to "neg" someone because they made a dumb comment themselves.

Just returning the favor

Almost fair enough, except I just said, you "negged" me, but whatever.

 

[sebastian91]

However, it seems as if your willing to accept 400 yards of passing to a mediocre offense with a mediocre QB (even Ncarolina is fed up with him), a bunch of JAG receivers, a great TE, and a bunch of freshman on the Oline as long as we win.

I'm willing to accept 1500 yds passing to GT if it means we win. You should, too.

 

[sebastian91]

Some of you are using the thread to bash coach d but he has done a solid job so far this year. My point was to mix things up a little more starting vs wake and espicially fsu. Golden mentioned he did not like giving up that many yards either and they were going to work on some things.

Contrary to porsters here, the D has been 'mixed up' quite a bit.

 

[CanesAreAble]

Some of you are using the thread to bash coach d but he has done a solid job so far this year. My point was to mix things up a little more starting vs wake and espicially fsu. Golden mentioned he did not like giving up that many yards either and they were going to work on some things.

Contrary to porsters here, the D has been 'mixed up' quite a bit.

Exactly.

People just aren't paying attention.

 

[BrianF]

To the OP, I dont think you can say VT easily controlled both of those games vs UNC (27 - 17, a close game) and Ga Tech (17 - 10, the game was close all 60 min), yes we should be dominant in these games but when you have a QB that only practiced approximately 4 day or so in a week and a half period, the mechanics are going to be off which showed in his 4 int (He will bounce back with practice). The D did a great job with UNC potent offensive weapons, to minimize UNC rushing game (2.9 yards/carry), minus a future top TE draft pick playing a **** of a game - Golden addressed this in his post game wrap up with his concern of covering the TE.

Our defense is still a top 50 even a top 20 D. http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/22

They are the true heroes so far and Coach D has done a 180 with showing them hard work and discipline make you a great defense.

It cant get any worse.

TL;DR = 6 - 0, lets move on and keep winning.

 

[Consigliere]

Some of you are using the thread to bash coach d but he has done a solid job so far this year. My point was to mix things up a little more starting vs wake and espicially fsu. Golden mentioned he did not like giving up that many yards either and they were going to work on some things.

Contrary to porsters here, the D has been 'mixed up' quite a bit.

Exactly.

People just aren't paying attention.

I think people noticed mistakes with UNC. There were a few big plays with Ebron that could have been stopped for decent gains instead of a TD and another 31 yard reception.

Also, the passing TD to Q. Davis was a breakdown in our secondary. This was a mix up.

 

[jakeman1]

Whatever bag of tricks D'Onofrio has to confuse Winston, he needs to be pulling them out now. Winston will pick the defense apart if he tries to sit back and play soft.

 

[Pennmed Canefan]

I still don't get why anyone thinks a coach likes "bend but dont break." What would make anyone think we hate it and he likes it? No coordinator or coach likes giving up yards. But if you're talking about Miami vs Fsu (for instance), it's the way we have to play that game. We need timely turnovers and to hold them on the redzone. There's no defensive scheme in existence that's going to allow our players to stifle their's. They'd have to suffer mass injuries or lose fingers to not move the ball on us. Coaches dont have the luxury of theory only reality--and reality is that we have to accept that the ball is going to move and direct ourselves at keeping the score manageable.

 

[sebastian91]

I still don't get why anyone thinks a coach likes "bend but dont break." What would make anyone think we hate it and he likes it? No coordinator or coach likes giving up yards. But if you're talking about Miami vs Fsu (for instance), it's the way we have to play that game. We need timely turnovers and to hold them on the redzone. There's no defensive scheme in existence that's going to allow our players to stifle their's. They'd have to suffer mass injuries or lose fingers to not move the ball on us. Coaches dont have the luxury of theory only reality--and reality is that we have to accept that the ball is going to move and direct ourselves at keeping the score manageable.

Don't confuse the simpletons with logic and reality.

 

[rok]

If we play a bend but don't break style against FSU we'll get beat 63-0. If we allow Winston to sit in the pocket he'll pick us apart. He'll pick us apart no matter what because he's great, but our only hope is to make things difficult for him by bringing pressure and allowing our CBs to play aggressively.

Of course, given our history under the current regime, we'll invariably be pulling our hair out and asking why the **** we're being so passive on 11/2. I can already feel my blood boiling.

 

[MIA42178]

Did it ever occur to you guys that we play the way we do is BECAUSE we don't have a pass rush?

We were much more aggressive against Florida because our D-line was beating their D-line and they didn't have alot of weapons to beat us.

If we blitz more and play man against crossing routes like everyone wants, that opens up opportunities for QB's to scramble and for players to cover much longer man to man making us more vulnerable.

You can't fix things those things without being able to pressure the quarterback.

The quicker you guys get off the coaches backs and realize this isn't a quick fix, the less stressful your lives will be.

Umm we do have a pass rush.... When we have the right players in...(McCord, AQM, Gilbert) The problem is most of the Game were playing Chick and Shayon.. Did you even watch the game ?they were killing us in crossing routes and we were playing zones... There is a reason why some defensive coordinators are better than others.... T

While you are right, the problem with that is the it makes our DL play predictable and offenses will adjust. Yes Gilbert, AQM and McCord will create a pass rush but they are a liability in the run game. Chick and Green are stout against the run but not very good pass rushers, with Green being almost non-exsistent. So all in all the only time you want the pass rushers in are on obvious pass downs which is mostly 3rd and long, the other downs if they wanna pass they can and will have plenty of time unless we blitz. Until McCord and AQM can play every down, we will continue to have problems with this....

Which is why I wish Gilbert was ready to start opposite Chick

 

[Biscuits]

The main problem with this team right now isn't on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[Pennmed Canefan]

If we play a bend but don't break style against FSU we'll get beat 63-0. If we allow Winston to sit in the pocket he'll pick us apart. He'll pick us apart no matter what because he's great, but our only hope is to make things difficult for him by bringing pressure and allowing our CBs to play aggressively.

Of course, given our history under the current regime, we'll invariably be pulling our hair out and asking why the **** we're being so passive on 11/2. I can already feel my blood boiling.

I disagree with you. I think that he's going to pick us apart no matter what because he's really good and we haven't shown the ability to stop a competent pass offense in quite some time especially on the road. I think that the only thing blitzing him heavily is going to do is potentially turn modest gains into touchdowns. Our key to stopping this team is going to be red zone stops and turnovers. Stopping the run will be paramount because we have to limit at least one dimension. We'll have to mix our coverages to try to disturb his rhythm and certainly we'll blitz here and there but blitzing won't be some cure-all. Once Fisher gets hip to the fact that we're bringing a lot of pressure he's going to identify the mismatches in the middle of the field (they are there in abundance) and crush us.

There's no scheme that's going to prevent "bending." We can blitz all day--you think that'll stop these guys from moving the ball (ie us bending)?

 

[jakeman1]

I just want Winston confused as much as possible by the defense.