Is our pass defense as bad as people say?

#76
#76
It’s a talent issue. Injuries have made the talent issues much worse.

1. Our Dline is good at rushing the passer . . . Having said that . . . No one “scares” an offense with just raw ability. Our Dline is not good at stopping the run.

2. Overall our linebackers are average. AC is a good SEC linebacker. The others are either too slow or inexperienced. As a unit they are very average for SEC play.

3. Our corners would have been best in conference . . . But we lost two starters to injury. What’s missed by many with the loss of Gibson is . . . He was a very good tackler . . . Which leads into the next point . . .

4. This defense does not tackle well overall /
And takes poor angles a lot.

5. The safeties are maybe FCS level talent - certainly not SEC / Power 5 level talent.
The safety play is likely worst or next to worst in the SEC.

All to say . . . We don’t have the jimmies and joes on defense.

This defense does one thing well - create turnovers. If they get 2-3 turnovers and turn those into points / 10-17 points . . .
We will have a chance to beat Bama. If Bama does not have 2-3 turnovers (and UT is plus 2/3 in that category), UT loses this game by 10-17 points. This defense will not stop them outside of turnovers.
 
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#77
#77
Go47 said:
It’s a talent issue. Injuries have made the talent issues much worse.

1. Our Dline is good at rushing the passer . . . Having said that . . . No one “scares” an offense with just raw ability. Our Dline is not good at stopping the run.

2. Overall our linebackers are average. AC is a good SEC linebacker. The others are either too slow or inexperienced. As a unit they are very average for SEC play.

3. Our corners would have been best in conference . . . But we lost two starters to injury. What’s missed by many with the loss of Gibson is . . . He was a very good tackler . . . Which leads into the next point . . .

4. This defense does not tackle well overall /
And takes poor angles a lot.

5. The safeties are maybe FCS level talent - certainly not SEC / Power 5 level talent.
The safety play is likely worst or next to worst in the SEC.

All to say . . . We don’t have the jimmies and joes on defense.

This defense does one thing well - create turnovers. If they get 2-3 turnovers and turn those into points / 10-17 points . . .
We will have a chance to beat Bama. If Bama does not have 2-3 turnovers (and UT is plus 2/3 in that category), UT loses this game by 10-17 points. This defense will not stop them outside of turnovers.
Click to expand...
Good post....And why is our safety recruiting/playing so bad?
 
#80
#80
I don't understand why everyone is talking about Alabama being such a potent offense. If you take out their cupcake 72 point effort, they only average 26 points a game. If you take out Tennessee's cupcake game 71 points, they average over 43 points a game. What am I missing?
 
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#82
#82
volpreacher said:
I don't understand why everyone is talking about Alabama being such a potent offense. If you take out their cupcake 72 point effort, they only average 26 points a game. If you take out Tennessee's cupcake game 71 points, they average over 43 points a game. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
The thing about Alabama and scoring is that they have been winning by getting ahead by a possession then taking the air out of the ball because their defense is pretty dang good. We win by having our defense make havoc plays to cover up their inability to get off the field. The other good, and sometimes bad, thing about our defense is that they are pretty good at making other teams march down the field instead of giving up the homerun balls, or as others put it "bend, don't break". That works if your offense scores quickly, and often. That does not work when you get behind because your offense goes 3 and out leaving your defense on the field for 10+ minutes of game time.

I keep saying this in various responses, but to repeat: the way we win this is if our offense storms out of the gates and gets ahead by two possessions to get Alabama off script. Force them to play catch up and get them out of their dink and dunk rhythm and force Ty Simpson to sit in the pocket waiting for a deep ball to open up. That is where sacks and turnovers will come from on defense.

If we cannot do that, then I think we will fold. Our only reliable winning strategy is to force teams to catch up.
 
#84
#84
Go47 said:
While we are a top team in generating sacks / pressure, it seems we need the outcome to be a sack for a fumble or an interception. The tackles for loss have been rendered meaningless, because we regularly play an extremely poor zone on 3rd and long or even 2nd and long . . . And give up chunk plays /
1st downs. Our pass defense on 3rd and long is indeed awful. We have one good corner (Hood) and one who will be good (Redmond). Our safeties are likely the worst in the conference. Letting Thomas go to another team has really come back to bite us. Our safeties cannot cover or tackle.

Who would have thought . . . Will Brooks was this much better as a walk on than any safety we have?

Bottom line - we either sack Simpson and create a fumble we recover / cause him to throw an interception . . . Or he carves us up like a Halloween pumpkin.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to toss this out there that we are:

#17 in the country in turnovers gained

#2 in the country in fumbles recovered

www.ncaa.com

NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.
www.ncaa.com www.ncaa.com
www.ncaa.com

NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.
www.ncaa.com www.ncaa.com
 
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#85
#85
Diving deeper into the stats, while our pass defense certainly isn't great, too much is being focused on a yards allowed per game stat. Afterall we allow opponents 77.2 plays per game (135th/136 teams in college football) and 35.8 passing attempts (124th/136 teams). But on an average of yards per pass attempt that is 7.2 yards per attemot which is 77th in the country.

Compare that to Bama who is 1st in Passing Yards Allowed (135 ypg) but also 1st in passing attempts defended per game (22 attempt per game). This averages out to 6.13 yards which puts them around 30th in the country on a per play basis.
 
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#87
#87
Heupel's Offseason Beard said:
Just wanted to toss this out there that we are:

#17 in the country in turnovers gained

#2 in the country in fumbles recovered

www.ncaa.com

NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.
www.ncaa.com www.ncaa.com
www.ncaa.com

NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.
www.ncaa.com www.ncaa.com
Click to expand...
We are good at creating turnovers . . . And that’s the path to a win.
 
#89
#89
The numbers on the pass defense is only that bad because UAB passed all over our terrible back ups. And Gunner Stockton played the game of his life. Green at Arky killed us through the air much more last season. We kept him in check for the most part last weekend as far as passing goes. The true test will be this weekend with Horton lined up across Ty, and Ryan Williams vs our star’s in the slot. But I think we pressure Ty and that true freshman RT all game long. We have three NFL edge rushers, and two more bonified draft picks in West and Hobbs.
 
#91
#91
When we do cover well on 3rd and long, the QB's have picked up the 1st downs with their legs. That is what frustrates me to no end! We cover but can't contain, or we contain and can't cover. Rarely do both well.
 
#92
#92
Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va said:
The thing about Alabama and scoring is that they have been winning by getting ahead by a possession then taking the air out of the ball because their defense is pretty dang good. We win by having our defense make havoc plays to cover up their inability to get off the field. The other good, and sometimes bad, thing about our defense is that they are pretty good at making other teams march down the field instead of giving up the homerun balls, or as others put it "bend, don't break". That works if your offense scores quickly, and often. That does not work when you get behind because your offense goes 3 and out leaving your defense on the field for 10+ minutes of game time.

I keep saying this in various responses, but to repeat: the way we win this is if our offense storms out of the gates and gets ahead by two possessions to get Alabama off script. Force them to play catch up and get them out of their dink and dunk rhythm and force Ty Simpson to sit in the pocket waiting for a deep ball to open up. That is where sacks and turnovers will come from on defense.

If we cannot do that, then I think we will fold. Our only reliable winning strategy is to force teams to catch up.
Click to expand...
Yes this sums up AL's offensive strategy. Their per game scoring avg is misleading because of the ball control O they play and they are very good at it. Get ahead of us early and its turn out the lights and go home.
 
#93
#93
I think our linebacking core is worse. I think they don't help out the secondary. Some of the big pass plays come against a player that is covered by a LB as well (TE or RB for example).

Secondary isn't good at all but I would say the middle is worse. Defensive Line is good (might be even better than last year).
 
#94
#94
volbound1700 said:
I think our linebacking core is worse. I think they don't help out the secondary. Some of the big pass plays come against a player that is covered by a LB as well (TE or RB for example).

Secondary isn't good at all but I would say the middle is worse. Defensive Line is good (might be even better than last year).
Click to expand...
If we don’t stop the run, we lose the ball game. If we stop the run, we win the ball game
 
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