Vols Rushing D #3 in SEC

#1

WiseOlVol

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#1
At 98 yards/game, Vols trail only Alabama (62) and Georgia (86) among SEC teams.

Is this because we have good DLine talent and a good scheme, or because it's easy to throw on us?

Vols passing D is 3rd from worst in all of FBS at 310 yards/game.

Is there a fix for the horrible pass D or do we just have to sweat it out every week?
 
#2
#2
At 98 yards/game, Vols trail only Alabama (62) and Georgia (86) among SEC teams.

Is this because we have good DLine talent and a good scheme, or because it's easy to throw on us?

Vols passing D is 3rd from worst in all of FBS at 310 yards/game.

Is there a fix for the horrible pass D or do we just have to sweat it out every week?
I’d guess because our run defense is average, at best, but our pass defense is gosh awful. Imo
 
#3
#3
Our run defense is pretty darn good. I mean, you've watched these first four games, right? Pretty stout up front. Easy to understand we're 3rd-best in the SEC behind only the past two reigning national champs.

If we can find the parts we need to fix the back end, the defense is going to be solid.

May take a year or so, we gotta be patient, but the offense isn't the only thing getting better on this team. It's all rising, just some parts faster than others.
 
#4
#4
It’s a combo of things, as usual. Save for that 1st quarter 75 yd TD run by Pitt when Banks ran the wrong way and I guess our Safety was in the bathroom, our RUN FITS have been pretty darn solid this yr.

Two, it’s nice to have some DL depth. Including edge guys, I think we had 13 DL play Defensive snaps vs UF!

And three, if you’re usually leading in games, the other team is throwing the ball to conserve clock. And yeah, our Secondary is the place to attack this D anyway, until we can improve back there.
 
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#6
#6
Seems someone suggested looking at WRs - like the coaches haven't though of that. I wouldn't know who, but when CT gets back, it may be something we see. Mo def need some help back there.
 
#7
#7
At 98 yards/game, Vols trail only Alabama (62) and Georgia (86) among SEC teams.

Is this because we have good DLine talent and a good scheme, or because it's easy to throw on us?

Vols passing D is 3rd from worst in all of FBS at 310 yards/game.

Is there a fix for the horrible pass D or do we just have to sweat it out every week?
I think Garner’s Dline is the strongest unit on defensive. Better talent and more depth than the secondary.
 
#8
#8
At 98 yards/game, Vols trail only Alabama (62) and Georgia (86) among SEC teams.

Is this because we have good DLine talent and a good scheme, or because it's easy to throw on us?

Vols passing D is 3rd from worst in all of FBS at 310 yards/game.

Is there a fix for the horrible pass D or do we just have to sweat it out every week?

both
 
#9
#9
Seems someone suggested looking at WRs - like the coaches haven't though of that. I wouldn't know who, but when CT gets back, it may be something we see. Mo def need some help back there.
I don’t like the idea of a position change during the season. We knew going into the season that the secondary didn’t have talent nor depth.
 
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#15
#15
Interior DL is mostly run stoppers (big but not quick) and not so much pass rushers. So we hold up good against run but can’t create enough of a pass rush with just BY and Baron to make our secondary look better than it is, which is pretty sorry (mostly because our CBs are not good enough to be put on an island and flowers is not the greatest tackler - just launched instead of wrapping up). I have not noticed mccollough make as many “gaffs” as last year as he is lighter and quicker. McDonald is more lb than safety so he’s getting beat on plays where theo wouldn’t have.

In short:
- good defending interior run (and outside with speed of lbs).
- bad at getting to passer without blitzing.
- too many wholes in secondary to make up for lack of pass rush.

Need to do a better job of disguising and mixing coverages/blitzes to make qb reads harder and buy our edge guys another half second or so to get to the qb.
 
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#16
#16
I mean...it's #3 in the SEC and just held Florida to 141 rushing yards (62 of those from their QB).

But OK.
Hope you are right. We will see when we face a good running team. Pitt. Was ok but Akron and Fla. not so much. There’s no need to run when every receiver is running wide open.
 
#17
#17
LSU QB will have a field day throwing the ball if we don’t get better in the back end. Look at his stats, they are as good if not better than HH.
 
#18
#18
Run D is solid but the pass d is so bad it brings the while average down. I’m of the opinion we need to blitz more to help out. Not like our lbs and really much help in coverage so just throw the house at em
 
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#19
#19
We encourage the opponent to pass because we want the ball back quickly. It also increases the probability of turnovers. Don't tell anyone but if you've made it this far reading my post I'll reward you with the knowledge that I'm completely making this up.
 
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#21
#21
funniest thing everyone ripping burrell and now begging for him back.
I'm not!

He has played in 25 career games and doesnt have ONE Int...
Hadden has 3 Ints in the last 5 games.

Burrell can stay right where he is. On the bench.

We need the coaches to play our freshman edge rushers more. Not start them.
But play them much more than they're doing now. It made a difference in the UF game.

Banks and Heupel need to stop being so 1990 on defensive personnel rotation.
 
#22
#22
I think it comes down to talent available, and philosophy as a whole for the talent we have. Coach JH knows the following about this team:
1) Offense will move fast, so defense will be on the field alot
2) Offense will score points, putting pressure on opponent to match scores (shootouts)
3) There is depth and talent at Dline
4) DB's are the weakness

So in my opinion, JH is thinking this as a TEAM philosophy:
We are going to push the pace on offense and score as much as possible, to protect us from the fact we will give up points as well. Rotate Dline and keep hammering up the opponent run game. Make them throw to win. Focus on getting negative plays (TFL's, Sacks) and turnovers to give us more possessions. Damn the yards given up. Focus on stopping the run, long downs and distance, and getting 1-2 turnovers minimum a game. This will hopefully give the offense more possessions than the opponent, and result in more opportunities to score.

Until we get 4 and 5 star talent in the secondary (which I believe will come if we keep putting DB's in the NFL like Alonte and Theo) JH knows the higher odds to win are making teams throw and trying to get negative plays on a few of the drives. If we drop 7 or 8 in coverage, and teams run the ball for 5 yrds a pop, it gives our offense fewer possessions. So JH is running calculated risks that we will do better in the long game as stated in the above paragraph.
 
#24
#24
Our run defense is pretty darn good. I mean, you've watched these first four games, right? Pretty stout up front. Easy to understand we're 3rd-best in the SEC behind only the past two reigning national champs.

If we can find the parts we need to fix the back end, the defense is going to be solid.

May take a year or so, we gotta be patient, but the offense isn't the only thing getting better on this team. It's all rising, just some parts faster than others.
That can only happen when the coaching rises too. These freshman edge rushers are not ready to take bulk of the snaps. They're not ready to be starters, but they can damn sure get home better than the vets right now. Those older guys legs arent as springy and they're more tired from playing so many snaps. Josephs needs to see the field more, period. Pearce needs to get some 3rd down runtime.

Banks was way too conservative in his rotating and scheming. It took him till late in the 4th Qtr to realize that we couldnt get home with just rushing 4. Everytime we did blitz (like the last play Int) we had positive results. Our Lbs and Dbs don't show enough football intelligence to properly run a zone defense. So we have to blitz more and rush the young gunz more.

We should have beat Florida 55-21.
 
#25
#25
the strength of our defense is our DL. Garner has for his guys playing at a pretty high level. He has developed his guys very well. That’s what good coaches do. Our LBs are good at tackling but terrible in pass coverage. We all know how bad the secondary is. So I think it’s a mixture.

Our run defense is really good. But yes it’s very easy to shred our secondary.
 
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