Our defense
- Thread starter gary2
- Start date
In the OT, Toledo mostly scored easily.
We were out schemed badly.
We are almost always out schemed playing defense.
We play off the outs. We give up the deep middle.
The only time we have any advantage is if we have a decent lead and can make our opponent one dimensional.
Then,our blitz package displays some degree of sophistication. That all we have. Period.
That is not enough.
We were out schemed badly.
We are almost always out schemed playing defense.
We play off the outs. We give up the deep middle.
The only time we have any advantage is if we have a decent lead and can make our opponent one dimensional.
Then,our blitz package displays some degree of sophistication. That all we have. Period.
That is not enough.
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Agree. I think it can be explained by saying this is one of the worst defenses we have had under Duzz. Uncharacteristic lack of pressure led to receivers open everywhere. Plus we have had quite a few d-backs make the league from prior defenses. I don't see any upper level defensive backs out there this year. Linebackers were OK but not great in coverage.
Narduzzi’s defense is always outmatched by any OC that puts a simple “trips” formation to one side of the field.
Because he sticks to his beloved “Quarters” coverage (the only thing he knows) placing a third eligible receiver to one side of the field puts his scheme in a bind.
Three eligible receivers against Quarters matches a DB, a safety, and an OLB against those three receivers. Not necessarily man to man and that is where the defense gets confused a lot. I have watched the confusion for years from the North End Zone.
I have watched opposing OC’s send the two outside receivers on “in cutting” routes where our safety and DB initially follow them and the inside receiver flows to the sideline where they have plenty of space to catch a ball because the DB is trying to recover.
Next you get the outside receiver coming on a crossing route after the two inside guys have outside routes. This makes the OLB flat footed because he is waiting for a receiver running at full speed to enter his zone.
There are tons of other ways OC’s exploit the base defense as well. It gets even worse when the OLB blitzes or bites on play action and leaves two guys to cover three. That is where the lovely “seam route” touchdowns come from. Throw in a RB on a wheel route or some other route out of the backfield and it gets even worse.
Watch for yourself. Whenever an OC absolutely has to have a conversion with a pass play, they will invariably overload one side of the field.
Bottom line, this defensive scheme gives receivers a lot of space to operate and if the pressure doesn’t get home it is game over against any decent QB. You need to have athletes at safety and DB that can get off blocks, close gaps when necessary, and tackle (or push a guy out of bounds) when they get there. We don’t have those athletes right now.
H2P
Because he sticks to his beloved “Quarters” coverage (the only thing he knows) placing a third eligible receiver to one side of the field puts his scheme in a bind.
Three eligible receivers against Quarters matches a DB, a safety, and an OLB against those three receivers. Not necessarily man to man and that is where the defense gets confused a lot. I have watched the confusion for years from the North End Zone.
I have watched opposing OC’s send the two outside receivers on “in cutting” routes where our safety and DB initially follow them and the inside receiver flows to the sideline where they have plenty of space to catch a ball because the DB is trying to recover.
Next you get the outside receiver coming on a crossing route after the two inside guys have outside routes. This makes the OLB flat footed because he is waiting for a receiver running at full speed to enter his zone.
There are tons of other ways OC’s exploit the base defense as well. It gets even worse when the OLB blitzes or bites on play action and leaves two guys to cover three. That is where the lovely “seam route” touchdowns come from. Throw in a RB on a wheel route or some other route out of the backfield and it gets even worse.
Watch for yourself. Whenever an OC absolutely has to have a conversion with a pass play, they will invariably overload one side of the field.
Bottom line, this defensive scheme gives receivers a lot of space to operate and if the pressure doesn’t get home it is game over against any decent QB. You need to have athletes at safety and DB that can get off blocks, close gaps when necessary, and tackle (or push a guy out of bounds) when they get there. We don’t have those athletes right now.
H2P
Because we have a head coach that is unwilling to change. Maybe because he is stubborn, or maybe he doesn't have the knowledge to teach new concepts or doesn't trust his players to learn them.
Because it is all he knows. When he can get pressure from his d-line it kind of works because it can lead to mistakes from a QB. However, we have seen good QBs still eat up this scheme even when they are pressured.
Lots of people on this board have talked about how he was successful when he went up against old style running Big 10 offenses. That is what Quarters is best at. It does great against balanced offensive formations but as soon as a formation gets heavily loaded to one side the advantage clearly goes to the offense.
He is a dinosaur. He finally went to the “Delta” package a few years ago, but that seems to be only on third down and it just replaces a LB with a safety. The defensive formation doesn’t change. The other downs he is rolling the dice.
Edit on my last paragraph: To be fair, the Delta package will also replace a D-lineman with an additional Linebacker. We saw that a lot in 2021 with Petrishen. That would change the formation. That doesn’t change the fact that on the first two downs the base defense can absolutely get exploited all over the field.
H2P
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He has been willing to change on offense.
Maybe it is time to do the same on defense. We need to be less predictable when the game is competitive.
I wish we could just change the staff, but, Heather has insured that won't happen for a while yet.
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