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Our defense is bizarre

DTP said:
Also Duke took advantage of Kiko in man way too often for Guidry to keep hanging him out like that. They would flow all their receivers to one side and release the back or tight end to the other side with nobody there besides Kiko to cover in space. It’s just way too simple to scheme against our defense
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Right…And he takes a lot of flack on here (some of it deserved), but there isn't many LB in the game that can get to the perimeter that quick from where he's starting
 

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S.CarolinaCane said:
The 27 sacks for 11th rank is the one that pops out to me, because I feel like our DL, and pass rush in general, is really lacking through the last 4 or 5 games.
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Agree, but it seems teams are not holding onto the ball that long. We play our safeties so deep seems like you can run slants all day long on us. Never seen a team (like Manny), give up the middle as much as we do?
 
Cylo said:
I think Louisville the only team that trashed that defense in the 2nd half...I think since they did have a kick off for a TD and a fumble that was an easy TD too...neither was the defense fault. Every time we go into halftime, I have confidence the defense will play better but its the first half that's a true stress test
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did Louisville score of the fake punt .
 
Coach Macho said:
My biggest concern is that we look like a Chinese fire drill at times. Can't line-up in time, kids looking confused, offensive guys wide open, etc.

If we were just getting beat physically I would say it's strictly a talent issue, but that's not always the case. We're misaligned and getting out-schemed a lot.

On one Duke touchdown we had 2 defenders running free at the QB and nobody in the flats. Easy score.

On another TD we were playing man versus a bunch formation, which is asking for trouble. WR runs a whip route from the bunch (man beater) and it's an easy score. Even at the HS level, we don't stay in man coverage versus bunch sets, we check out of it.

Offenses are motioning and our making our Nickel chase across the field then snapping the ball, leaving us out-leveraged and misaligned for easy completions.

Our determination to stay in Quarters coverage is being schemed against us IMO. When that fails our response is to go to Cover-1 Man. OC'S know this and our scheming for it IMO.

They're manipulating the 💩 out of us.
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Alignment issues, bad angles, and bad tackling, you clear this up, you have a top 20 defense. Seems our defensive philosophy is to be tricky, and not fundamentally sound. It's like a bball coach that has 50 plays, but his team can't make layups.
 
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mirasuegui said:
With last year offense, teams could play it closer to the vest. This offense is so dynamic, that teams need to match it, so dam be punting on 4th down.
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well they dont respect our D. i dont either. i would never punt on anything from 3-4 yards on. its automatic. even when we get guys in the backfield, they seem to still push forward for a few
 
mirasuegui said:
Alignment issues, bad angles, and bad tackling, you clear this up, you have a top 20 defense. Seems our defensive philosophy is to be tricky, and not fundamentally sound. It's like a bball coach that has 50 plays, but his team can't make layups.
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its been 9 games. theyre not clearing it up. this is a poorly coached defense
 
What is the deal with Alston? Any hope of him coming back?

The lack of production at DE is not ideal with a back seven that can't stop anyone.

Mesidor is our twitchiest DL and should replace Baron opposite Bain in the starting lineup.

Mesidor can line up inside on obvious passing downs but we've got enough talent and depth at DT.
 
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DMoney said:
Stats are important because they put things in context. Our fans don't watch every game from every team, so the eye test is limited.

In this case, the stats support what everyone agrees on- the defense isn't playing anywhere close to good enough to accomplish the team's goals.
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We have been 1-0 every week. Adjustments are made at halftime and we have shut teams down in the 2nd half. We need to play more zone or do a better job of disguising coverages.
 
Mr. Dynasty1 said:
If you could, what would you suggest to Guidry to do instead
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Get away from this Cover-4 obsession.
Utilize more symmetrical coverages (i.e. Cover-3).
Symmetrical coverages leave you with a flat defender on both sides of the formation, so shifts and motions don't effect your alignment. You won't look like a Chinese fire drill. You also won't have LB's chasing/covering RB's to the outside. (it would be a DB instead)

Cover-3 Match gives you all the benefits of Cover-1 except 3-match isn't susceptible to motions, rub routes and man beaters like Cover-1 is.

Cover-4 is a situational coverage IMO, it's not something you want to live in. It's too easy to manipulate. And coverage percentages in the NFL and NCAA display this as well, as Cover-4 is the 3rd most used coverage behind Cover-3 and Cover-1. Nobody is living in it.
 
johnumcanes said:
We have been 1-0 every week. Adjustments are made at halftime and we have shut teams down in the 2nd half. We need to play more zone or do a better job of disguising coverages.
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were not playing great offenses so far and the only one we played, we didnt shut down.
 
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Coach Macho said:
Get away from this Cover-4 obsession.
Utilize more symmetrical coverages (i.e. Cover-3).
Symmetrical coverages leave you with a flat defender on both sides of the formation, so shifts and motions don't effect your alignment. You won't look like a Chinese fire drill. You also won't have LB's chasing/covering RB's to the outside. (it would be a DB instead)

Cover-3 Match gives you all the benefits of Cover-1 except 3-match isn't susceptible to motions, rub routes and man beaters like Cover-1 is.

Cover-4 is a situational coverage IMO, it's not something you want to live in. It's too easy to manipulate. And coverage percentages in the NFL and NCAA display this as well, as Cover-4 is the 3rd most used coverage behind Cover-3 and Cover-1. Nobody is living in it.
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Exactly what I was thinking. Cover everybody
 
rascon said:
2nd half is when teams revert back to their film allowing us to stop them.

1st half opposing teams give us new looks we haven’t seen and we answer with man and boom, explosive play.

There are a lot of good analysis in the rewatch game thread.
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We need to stop stunting the DL on downs where a run is possible. We get no gap integrity and get gashed when caught
 
Against ACC opponents:

Quarter 1: 28 points
Quarter 2: 62 points
Quarter 3: 24 points
Quarter 4: 34 points

This removes the pick 6 from Cam against Cal and the kickoff return against Louisville. You could make an argument to reduce 7 from the 4th quarter when FSU scored in garbage time against the second team.

Guidry needs to figure out the second quarter. If we normalized it to the rest we'd be gaining a TD a game. That's the difference between giving up 27 ppg against ACC teams and 20 ppg. Here's the points given up by the defense, by team, in quarters 1, 3, and 4:

VT: 17
Cal: 14
Louisville: 21
FSU: 7
Duke: 17

This is not great but if the second quarter looked like these I'd feel WAY better about this team.
 
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I think it was Roman on OBB that said Cristobal needs to have a “Come to Jesus” moment with Guidry, like Saban used to when his staff was not performing as expected. I truly hope he does.

I think scheme and coaching is a bigger problem than talent. It’s incredibly obvious- why is UM always better on defense in the second half? It’s because the opponents start running the plays that Guidry saw on tape (Guidry himself said this) and the defense recognizes the formations. If it’s truly a talent issue, there shouldn’t be such an improvement in the 2nd half of games. The D almost always gets smoked in the first half, giving up 21+, then usually in the second half they might give up 10 or less.

Do we get new players at halftime every game ? Of course not. What happens is they start lining up correctly, are less confused, etc

If I was capable of crying, I would shed a tear for UM somehow having a defense worse than it was in the Al Golden years in our one legit shot in 20+ years to make make a run at the title.

Coincidentally, fans said the same things about our roster when DNo was the DC. Fans said Folden built his D with a bunch of slow, overrated Big10 type recruits and it would take years to fix. The very next year, Diaz turned a similar roster (with the notable exception of 3 true freshmen LBs) into the #12 defense, giving up 18.5 ppg. Even if you say, “Well, they still gave up lots of points to offenses with a pulse” it’s irrelevant. Against teams with bad offenses, that D locked them down. Didnt have to worry about teams like Duke or Cal dropping 35 on us. It’s amazing what can happen when you don’t have a DC who has his players give the opponent a 10 yard cushion on the goal line. And like the change that happened from DNo to Diaz, I think a more competent DC makes this exact same roster into at least an average defense.

Long story short- this is largely a Guidry problem. He is seems incapable of dealing with formations/plays that aren’t on film, and the players end up looking much, much worse than they actually are.
 
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Squid Bumciorek said:
I think it was Roman on OBB that said Cristobal needs to have a “Come to Jesus” moment with Guidry, like Saban used to when his staff was not performing as expected. I truly hope he does.

I think scheme and coaching is a bigger problem than talent. It’s incredibly obvious- why is UM always better on defense in the second half? It’s because the opponents start running the plays that Guidry saw on tape (Guidry himself said this) and the defense recognizes the formations. If it’s truly a talent issue, there shouldn’t be such an improvement in the 2nd half of games. The D almost always gets smoked in the first half, giving up 21+, then usually in the second half they might give up 10 or less.

Do we get new players at halftime every game ? Of course not. What happens is they start lining up correctly, are less confused, etc

If I was capable of crying, I would shed a tear for UM somehow having a defense worse than it was in the Al Golden years in our one legit shot in 20+ years to make make a run at the title.

Coincidentally, fans said the same things about our roster when DNo was the DC. Fans said Folden built his D with a bunch of slow, overrated Big10 type recruits and it would take years to fix. The very next year, Diaz turned that same roster into the #12 defense, giving up 18.5 ppg. Even if you say, “Well, they still gave up lots of points to offenses with a pulse” it’s irrelevant. Against teams with bad offenses, that D locked them down. Didnt have to worry about teams like Duke or Cal dropping 35 on us. It’s amazing what can happen when you don’t have a DC who has his players give the opponent a 10 yard cushion on the goal line. And like the change that happened from DNo to Diaz, I think a more competent DC makes this exact same roster into at least an average defense.

Long story short- this is largely a Guidry problem. He is seems incapable of dealing with formations/plays that aren’t on film, and the players end up looking much, much worse than they actually are.
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hes not a p5 coach.
 
hoops156 said:
hes not a p5 coach.
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I think you are right. Honestly. He is part of problem even if its a talent issue because he continues to play kids that don’t belong on field. Also I’m tired of his defense sucking every week yet he comes into press conference smiling and attacking like a know it all. Dawson will criticize kids or admit things didn’t work. Guidry smiled and acts like he shut people out.
 
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