Different scheme...so this is pretty a irrelevant as a reference point
Here is what we want to become
http://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2010/4/9/1412079/football-101-the-ravens-hybrid
Guys like Hoilett, Terry, McCord, and Matt Thomas are fits for the hybrid LB role
Guys like Briscoe and Bostwick are good for that hybrid D-Lineman
The problem is that we have NO ONE who legitimately fits either role. Like the 3-4, we are asking 3 guys to play 2-gap which is why Chick is struggling so mightily.
We have bad players and are running a scheme that doesn't fit the bad players which is the ultimate toxic poison.
We are building right now, but it is CRUCIAL that we remain steadfast. D and Golden know this and are willing to suffer through the beatdowns as a result. We are developing and recruiting the guys who will make this defense work. I just hope that D gets enough time to see this through.
Here's the problem with this scenario....assuming we get those guys they will be freshman, so there's a built in excuse next year...year after they everyone will say they are still young....so really we are three years away, which will be D'Onfrio's fifth. I'm sorry, a good D coordinator takes what he has and makes it work. You don't force your scheme on the wrong personale.
This is where I come off as well. I don't want to see these guys be really good because they don't have the talent/experience to be really good. But at some point I'd like to see *something* that tells us that we're at least getting better. We're playing a lot of guys who have been in this system for 2 years and a lot of them should be making some kind of leap with a year under their belt. Yet every game and every snap looks like the first--run plays for 5+ yards to stay on schedule or WIDE OPEN guys in the passing game. A lot of confusion for us, no confusion for them, and no disruption EVER. If we're totally reliant on players, then next year we'll get some DL and talk about how they are freshmen and aren't good--because they will be freshmen and won't be good. Freshmen are almost never really good. Presumably the back 7 will play a lot like it plays at the END of this year--the summer won't be THAT meaningful. So at some point by the END of this year, we have to see something. If I don't see something by the end of this year, I won't expect anything new next year. We played this game last offseason--everybody forgot what the end of last year looked like and talked themselves into us being decent with new names. I could never talk myself into that, and we look just as bad and actually worse obviously.
Hmmmm.
Eddie Johnson has been really good in year 2 after a redshirt season
Gionni Paul has made improvements.
Thomas Finnie has made improvements.
Brandon McGee is SOOOO far ahead of the player he was last year.
Now that we have that out of the way. The improvement needs to come in the defensive line. The defensive lines struggles aint about technique. It ain't about skill either. THEY AREN'T STRONG ENOUGH. I really don't understand why people don't get that. There is NOTHING they can do about that right now. If your DT's can't keep from being pushed back 5 yards in Game 1, that's probably how it's going to be in game 12. We aren't good enough right there.
With NC State. There are 3 plays that probably covered about 175 yards of passing. ALL OF WHICH, the corners were in position to make a play. Brandon McGee slipped, Thomas Finnie can't play the ball in the air, and Antonio Crawford was a victim of Offensive P.I.
What do you want D to do there? How about the 45 yards given up after Gionni Paul missed a tackle?
There are plays like this ROUTINELY...and y'all wanna blame the coach. Sorry, but that's the easy way out and the path that requires the least amount of thought
