Why Was Our Defense So Bad Against SC?

#26
#26
But honestly, I wouldn't blame this loss on the defense. We had a chance to either TIE or Get the Lead and failed. 10 plays for 22 yards for 4:44 didn't make much sense. Even if we were able to hold them off at the end our offensive style wouldn't be used to the 1 minute drill.
 
#28
#28
Fwiw we actually turned them over on their last series of the third quarter. The officials just decided to pretend like it didn’t happen and let them keep the ball.
 
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#29
#29
njvols said:
Pruitt didn't mention as excuse, but did say they played well the first 27 or so snaps and not so well the last 30 something snaps. I'm not a coach, but my opinion is that our D got gassed (depth issue) and for first time this year (other than Bama), Pruitt didn't have a good answer for offense scheme another team threw at him...the 2TE stacked on one side power running game. SC had two weeks to scheme for us, and they did it pretty well.
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That happened a lot last year where in the second half our defense got gassed because the offense couldn't make a first down.

As for last week, we controlled time of possession by a lot in the first half, so that shouldn't be as much of a factor.
 
#30
#30
here's why our defense is so awful.

1. extremely poor safety play. our safeties are hitters/ tackles, but they stink in pass coverage and often get caught playing the run. play action KILLS us everytime.......which leads to...........#

2. our guys upfront suck technique-wise. they come off the ball way too high looking for the ball instead of playing assignment first. and they ALL do this very often. this causes them to get pushed off the ball and around very easily. it really doesn't matter what front we're in because their technique is crap....grade A crap. and im gonna assume from the way pruitt talks, they are just being flat out defiant and he's saving the better ones for next yr.

3. youth......this affects our more athletic LBs and CBs. the cbs haven't seen all the tricks wrs do on the collegiate level yet so next yr they will be a lot better. they are showing signs now. as far as the lbs go, sometimes they move too quickly and get out of position by acting instead of re-acting. experience and better play upfront will heal this as well.

4. the want to play man when we need to play zone. planning for the future has started, but it has also hurt. in order to get better, you gotta play and get reps at what u intend to play. zone would help us now, man will help us later. we are going with later

i hope this helps.......
 
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#33
#33
DiderotsGhost said:
That's what terrifies me.

Right now, I see our offense moving in the right direction, and I think we could see a big jump in Year 2. On the defensive side of the ball, however, we're not playing well right now, and it only gets worse next year when a hefty chunk of our D-line are going to be true Freshmen!

Not that this is Pruitt's fault, but if our depth looks bad now with 4 seniors in the 2-deep on the D-line, what does it look like next year?!
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MikeVol44 said:
Pruitt is a man of few words....and he doesn't "drill down" on what he says because he doesn't need to do that--it would embarrass his players and then we would have a thread about how CJP is a "meany" and throws his players under the bus. Instead--we have these kinds of threads. The big eye just don't lie--watch the film and you will find all of your answers...

But Pruitt did say a few things on the Sunday show:

1. We are not winning our 1 on 1 matchups with the opponent's OL....That statement includes our entire front 7.

He specifically said "It's hard to be good defensively when you cannot win your 1 on 1 matchups." He also, later in the show said that we did a very poor job of getting off of blocks. He also said that we cannot allow WRs in motion to produce confusion in us.

2. HE specifically said--"watch the black shirts move/push around the white shirts" And this was happening on USCe's 2nd possession of the game....DEPTH didn't cause this problem!

He pointed out--at least twice--just how far USCe's OL was moving our DL away from the LOS. In first half as well as 2nd half....

Pruitt didn't say the following--but I do:
There aren't any adjustments to be made when you're getting your azz stomped at the LOS. Our Safeties cannot tackle now....bring them down in the box and USCe will throw for 500 yards against us.

As an interesting note--watch the film again and observe how many times our LBs--all of them--are slow to read plays...fail to get off their blocks....and just count the number of times #34 gets pancaked.

3. HE explained--our OL and DL got WHIPPED
4. He explained that we had a few busted coverages....one time he said that there is only one call when we blitz a DB and the offense is in trips formation--and we blew that assignment
Another time our Safety we blew another assignment around the 10 yard line on a corner blitz. Pruitt's words on that blown coverage were "It's easy..." His inference was that the Safety on that side of the D had an easy assignment and blew it.

5. He explained that on another 2nd half TD by USCe--the one where they ran a toss sweep and score easily--that we didn't even line up correctly.

Coaches coach and players play.....and ultimately our Defensive players played very poorly. ALL OF 'EM.
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This was meant to be a general reply ... but I see us being better next year at LB and in the defensive backfield, but I honestly don't know what we are going to do for a d- line. Maybe somebody will send us some 5th yr seniors from somewhere. And yes - we will be really good on offense next year.
 
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#34
#34
DiderotsGhost said:
Not sure if it's worth it's own thread or not, but it's a question I'm still asking 2 days later. I'd be interested to hear some opinions.

Our defense was undeniably awful the entire 2nd half; and it really started around the end of the 2nd Quarter. South Carolina ran for 224 yards on 40 carries, or about 5.6 ypc; that stat is likely much worse if you look at only the 2nd half. South Carolina's overall offensive efficiency was insanely good after we took a 14-3 lead. If you exclude the game-ending series, they scored on all 4 of their last 4 possessions (total of 24 points).

Yet, I look at our defense and we have some playmakers. Shy Tuttle had the big INT. Daniel Bituli made a few huge plays (one of which was wrongly not awarded to him). Same deal with DK Jr.

So why were we so awful? Is it simply a lack of depth? Our guys are getting worn out and we have no depth to replace them? Alabama and Georgia can play 2 and 3 deep, which is one reason why their defenses are so effective. You look at our defense and that's not the case. On D-line, there's a pretty quick drop-off from the starters to the 2nd string, and even bigger dropoff to the 3rd string.

Or do we not even have enough guys in the starting lineup who play well?

Or could it be that some of these guys just don't fit well in Pruitt's scheme? The transition to the 3-4 from the 4-3 can be rough. Are some of our guys not a great fit in this defense?

What are your thoughts, VolNation?
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Because we played Bama last week, and Auburn the week before, and they had a week off?
 
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#36
#36
Name one player on our defense that is a lock for the NFL draft (eligible of course)?
 
#37
#37
Dougie_D said:
But honestly, I wouldn't blame this loss on the defense. We had a chance to either TIE or Get the Lead and failed. 10 plays for 22 yards for 4:44 didn't make much sense. Even if we were able to hold them off at the end our offensive style wouldn't be used to the 1 minute drill.
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Wow. Ok so the defense had nothing to do with the loss? Ok. So lets say on the last drive, we score a TD to go up by 4. What indivation was there that the defense could stop SC from scoring again?
 
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#39
#39
Simple answer the defense man for man was getting beat. No need to complicate it they ran the ball down our throats. That's not coaching that's players getting pushed off the ball.
 
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#43
#43
Read option and RPO ( Bentley's legs hurt us and put the fear in us ), the threat of read option and RPO, tempo, missed assignments, beat one on one. jmo
 
#44
#44
Tennessee had the 5th worst run defense in D1 last year. Can’t fix that until a higher quality of player enters the program. The dlinemen are undersized and the linebacks are slow. No defensive guru could make a miracle out of this team. Just have to compete and weather the storm until better players enter the program.
 
#46
#46
I agree with almost everything said here but we still win the football game IMHO if No. 15 and No. 1 don't get unsportsman like penalties. The first one gives SCAR great field position and helps allow them to answer our score after the Jennings TD catch and the second one kills a drive that most likely would have resulted in a TD but instead ended in a FG....getting the fumble call at the goal line would have helped as well. :p
 
#48
#48
Volfan76 said:
It wasn't depth...they were completely unprepared for the hurry up offense. There were receivers running free all over the place.
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Oh My Goodness..... Gamecocks was snapping the ball faster than Auburn (surprisingly) ... while our defense was arguing on which play was being called (coaches and players TOTALLY CONFUSED).
 
#49
#49
thegasman54 said:
Because we came off a murderers row finished up w the best bama team in its history. All w a roster w depth issues AND just lost one of its best players ( kongbo for the mouth breathers)in a position of need.

Oh and usc was coming off a bye ..

So a worst case scenario that we managed to lead for 80% of the game. But you bitching little girls continue w your uneducated temper tantrum
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Methinks you just performed a reality check on VN. Spot on.
 
#50
#50
thegasman54 said:
Because we came off a murderers row finished up w the best bama team in its history. All w a roster w depth issues AND just lost one of its best players ( kongbo for the mouth breathers)in a position of need.

Oh and usc was coming off a bye ..

So a worst case scenario that we managed to lead for 80% of the game. But you bitching little girls continue w your uneducated temper tantrum
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The reason we lost was no pressure on QB and TKJr. did not play like he is capable of playing. SC passing game was the difference in the game.
 
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