The defense is not to blame for this loss

#1
ConantheVolbarian

ConantheVolbarian

What is best in life? Winning by fiddy!
Joined
Sep 27, 2015
Messages
1,266
Likes
3,050
#1
I've heard a lot of bickering about the defense and rumblings that Shoop is a bust, but lets come back to reality. This defense has been decimated by injuries, fact. They have had to keep the team in games while the offense sleep walks through the first half of games, fact.Today, the defense put up a good fight in the first half while the offense repeatedly went 3 and out. They also forced turnovers, forced Alabama to punt a number of times, set up our only TD, and only gave up 14 points to the #1 team in the country in the first half. Yes, they got gassed in the second half of the game and got blown off the field, but that is on the O. They never picked up the slack and the defense finally got exhausted. This loss is not on the Defense. The Offense is to blame for today's blowout.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 11 people
#3
#3
Longsufferingvol said:
I've heard a lot of bickering about the defense and rumblings that Shoop is a bust, but lets come back to reality. This defense has been decimated by injuries, fact. They have had to keep the team in games while the offense sleep walks through the first half of games, fact.Today, the defense put up a good fight in the first half while the offense repeatedly went 3 and out. They also forced turnovers, forced Alabama to punt a number of times, set up our only TD, and only gave up 14 points to the #1 team in the country in the first half. Yes, they got gassed in the second half of the game and got blown off the field, but that is on the O. They never picked up the slack and the defense finally got exhausted. This loss is not on the Defense. The Offense is to blame for today's blowout.
Click to expand...

This is absolutely spot on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#8
#8
I was afraid that the gash runs last week at end of game w/ TaM would be foreshadow of this game. Bama loaded 3 deep and we fought pretty well first half on D. Can't leave them on the field w/ 3 and outs. Know we're banged up everywhere. Truly appreciate Dobbs warrior mentality, leadership, running ability, etc...but just wonder if wouldn't make sense to try Dormandy on some passing situations. Dobbs passes looked bad today, and first throw Dormandy makes is on the money back shoulder longest of day. Do think it's going to be tough to run the table w/o another loss. Gotta get somewhat healthy. Also, the play early w/ Hurd and Kamara were in the backfield where Hurd blocked for Kamara worked, and didn't go back to it the whole game...makes me wonder. If we're healthy, think could have made it closer...but if Dobbs has no time it doesn't work. Bad plays on first down put us in bad position to convert first down. Just doesn't work for Dobbs and offensive line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#10
#10
Longsufferingvol said:
I've heard a lot of bickering about the defense and rumblings that Shoop is a bust, but lets come back to reality. This defense has been decimated by injuries, fact. They have had to keep the team in games while the offense sleep walks through the first half of games, fact.Today, the defense put up a good fight in the first half while the offense repeatedly went 3 and out. They also forced turnovers, forced Alabama to punt a number of times, set up our only TD, and only gave up 14 points to the #1 team in the country in the first half. Yes, they got gassed in the second half of the game and got blown off the field, but that is on the O. They never picked up the slack and the defense finally got exhausted. This loss is not on the Defense. The Offense is to blame for today's blowout.
Click to expand...
They weren't the reason we lost last week either, at least they have an excuse having 3 of their top 4 out, the O is terrible and they have none
 
#12
#12
Longsufferingvol said:
I've heard a lot of bickering about the defense and rumblings that Shoop is a bust, but lets come back to reality. This defense has been decimated by injuries, fact. They have had to keep the team in games while the offense sleep walks through the first half of games, fact.Today, the defense put up a good fight in the first half while the offense repeatedly went 3 and out. They also forced turnovers, forced Alabama to punt a number of times, set up our only TD, and only gave up 14 points to the #1 team in the country in the first half. Yes, they got gassed in the second half of the game and got blown off the field, but that is on the O. They never picked up the slack and the defense finally got exhausted. This loss is not on the Defense. The Offense is to blame for today's blowout.
Click to expand...
Who said Shoop is a bust?
 
#14
#14
GVol1966 said:
They weren't the reason we lost last week either, at least they have an excuse having 3 of their top 4 out, the O is terrible and they have none
Click to expand...

So we had every one of our starters on the OL completey healthy? I must have missed that.
 
#15
#15
illinoisvolfan1 said:
I'm thankful we are in the east division. The only team in the west we could beat is Mississippi State.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, you are probably not wrong. 2 of the 7 have already beaten us. I wouldn't want to bet that we could beat Ole Miss, Arkansas, LSU, or Auburn. It is possible, but none would be an easy task.
 
#16
#16
volfannbama said:
Who said Shoop is a bust?
Click to expand...

Many UT fans put an extreme amount of expectations on Shoop when he was hired. Almost unreal ones. Then Shoop comes out and says nobody is going to run on this defense. So using those things as criteria, Shoop would be considered a bust to those people.
 
#17
#17
illinoisvolfan1 said:
I'm thankful we are in the east division. The only team in the west we could beat is Mississippi State.
Click to expand...
Did you watch that Miss St BYU game on Friday? Miss St played Tough and should have won. They were jobbed by the refs in the end. Miss St aint no pushover.
 
Last edited:
#18
#18
Defense has been getting gashed via the run and/or consistently beaten over the top all season long, before the injuries started piling up.

80 points and about 1,200 yards given up the last 2 games. You're right, Shoop has our defense clicking.

You can say what you want, but the defense contributed every bit as much as the offense to that awful loss today. Both units were equally bad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#19
#19
This was a pathetic effort by both sides of the ball today. Team not where it should be, injuries or not. Offense horrible, Dobbs horrible, DeBord totally inept as he usually is. Kiffen made Shoup look like a high school coach and not a very good one at that. This is on CBJ and if he doesn't fix it when this season is over, then that will tell us all we need to know about his resilancy and resolve. Time to forget this whipping and move on. Bama just a much better team!
 
#21
#21
BigOrangeTrain said:
Many UT fans put an extreme amount of expectations on Shoop when he was hired. Almost unreal ones. Then Shoop comes out and says nobody is going to run on this defense. So using those things as criteria, Shoop would be considered a bust to those people.
Click to expand...

Wasn't unreasonable to expect that Shoop should come in and improve a defense that was previously coordinated by a guy who was fired for not getting the job done. I was one of the biggest cheerleaders for Shoop and was thrilled when Butch hired him.

But I gotta say, after watching our defense from game one get continually gashed up the middle, not being able to set the edge, get continually beaten on the perimeter, be consistently beaten over the top while everyone one of our DBs clearly doesn't even try to locate the football .... all while giving up more yards and more points than last year's defense and still not being able to create turnovers.......yeah, I'm disappointed in the overall job he's done thus far. We were a very porous defense before the key injuries and now we're just plain bad. There's virtually nothing you can point to with how this defense is performing that suggests he's had a positive impact since being hired.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#22
#22
Need to face the fact that it's Alabama...and then the rest of the SEC until Saban leaves. We won't touch them for a while...injuries or not.
 
#23
#23
KBVol said:
Wasn't unreasonable to expect that Shoop should come in and improve a defense that was previously coordinated by a guy who was fired for not getting the job done. I was one of the biggest cheerleaders for Shoop and was thrilled when Butch hired him.

But I gotta say, after watching our defense from game one get continually gashed up the middle, not being able to set the edge, get continually beaten on the perimeter, be consistently beaten over the top while everyone one of our DBs clearly doesn't even try to locate the football .... all while giving up more yards and more points than last year's defense and still not being able to create turnovers.......yeah, I'm disappointed in the overall job he's done thus far. We were a very porous defense before the key injuries and now we're just plain bad. There's virtually nothing you can point to with how this defense is performing that suggests he's had a positive impact since being hired.
Click to expand...

Agreed. We are no better now than under Jancek.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#24
#24
Longsufferingvol said:
I've heard a lot of bickering about the defense and rumblings that Shoop is a bust, but lets come back to reality. This defense has been decimated by injuries, fact. They have had to keep the team in games while the offense sleep walks through the first half of games, fact.Today, the defense put up a good fight in the first half while the offense repeatedly went 3 and out. They also forced turnovers, forced Alabama to punt a number of times, set up our only TD, and only gave up 14 points to the #1 team in the country in the first half. Yes, they got gassed in the second half of the game and got blown off the field, but that is on the O. They never picked up the slack and the defense finally got exhausted. This loss is not on the Defense. The Offense is to blame for today's blowout.
Click to expand...

I could have sworn that I saw Hurts running around the end whenever he wanted. I'm also pretty sure that AL connected with a few passes without any opposition, and they even dropped at least a couple with nobody around that could have made it even worse. AL backs seemed to cross the first down marker frequently. Vereen looked slow and lost - like a completely halfhearted effort - of course, maybe he was just over-matched.

Yes, the defense for most of the game did look better than the offense, but that's not saying much - just look at the yards AL racked up. There simply isn't enough depth to make up for the injuries - on either side. If the team had two Barnetts to really keep offenses busy, it could be a whole different game.
 
#25
#25
The defense basically gave us our only touchdown today and with the inept offensive play calling where our gameplan was 3 and outs all day long it's no wonder the defense was gassed by the 3rd qtr. I'm thoroughly convinced that Debord doesn't have a playbook, he has a playpage. What we witnessed today was the product of effective coaching from the Gumps and the result of ineffective coaching for the Vols. And the real rip of it is we are stuck with what we have for at least another 3 years.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.
Advertisement



Back
Top