Defensive thoughts

[bigbluewildcat84]

I've just watched the 1st half again and its pretty obvious where the change has been made.

NG- Pringle- He's getting penetration into the back field. I've watched Elam just collide with the OL like a blind man into a wall.

DE-Bell- He's got speed. He getting penetration into the back field more often than Miggens.

DE-Ware- This guy is playing like we always thought he should.

Penetration from the front three had the OL scrambling, which allowed the LB's to shoot the gaps. They where effectively pressuring up the middle which allowed additional pressure from the edges to collapse the pocket.

LB- Seems like the staff thinks a lot of Love, but he has missed a plethora of tackles.

I like the Safety blitz they ran with Edwards.

 

[Beatle Bum]

I liked the way Elam and Pringle played against their line. Allen and Jones seemed to have a swagger about them. I hope Kengera being back gives us depth. Just don't know how he has looked during his suspension.

 

[bigbluewildcat84]

From what I've seen on the replay and defensive stats, my arm chair DC would use the following starting line up

Pos Name Tackles
DE/OLB Ware 17
NG Pringle 12 < Did not play against USM
DT Miggins 15
DE Bell 16
LB Jones 43
LB Love 24
CB Baity 14
S Edwards 31
S McClain 22
CB Westry 13
________________________
Total 207
Current Starts
Middleton- 9 (6 less than Miggins)
Elam- 4 (8 less than Pringle and pringle has played one less game)

 

[NotATroll]

We played alot more 4/3. And got some push up front instead of just occupying OL. Sadly though, I'm afraid this was just because their OL is very bad! I live in SC and that's all I've heard from game 1 is how bad the OL is and they need to fire Sean Elliot.....Pretty much the same boat we're in with our Eliot, Brumbaugh and Schlarman.

 

[NotATroll]

From what I've seen on the replay and defensive stats, my arm chair DC would use the following starting line up

Pos Name Tackles

Defensive thoughts

 

[bigbluewildcat84]

My biggest take away is how much better Pringle looks in the game and on the stat sheet. Pringle has played one less game but has 8 more tackles playing the same exact position.

 

[NotATroll]

My biggest take away is how much better Pringle looks in the game and on the stat sheet. Pringle has played one less game but has 8 more tackles playing the same exact position.

It's very obvious that Elam is a bust! Not sure if he's just not tuff enough or the coaching is bad. One idea is that Elam is in on the 3/4 package more and pringle is in on 4/3.I believe when we run 3/4 they are being asked to stand up the OL and occupy them so LB's can make plays. 4/3 Is the pass rush penetration package. We saw alot more of the 4/3 Saturday which is why we saw the DL in the backfield more.

 

[BigBlueManSouthCentralKY]

I've just watched the 1st half again and its pretty obvious where the change has been made.

NG- Pringle- He's getting penetration into the back field. I've watched Elam just collide with the OL like a blind man into a wall.

DE-Bell- He's got speed. He getting penetration into the back field more often than Miggens.

DE-Ware- This guy is playing like we always thought he should.

Penetration from the front three had the OL scrambling, which allowed the LB's to shoot the gaps. They where effectively pressuring up the middle which allowed additional pressure from the edges to collapse the pocket.

LB- Seems like the staff thinks a lot of Love, but he has missed a plethora of tackles.

I like the Safety blitz they ran with Edwards.

Love is a step slow. Would like to see our fastest best tackling DB moved to a LB so we have two super fast LB's.

 

[bigbluewildcat84]

Love is a step slow. Would like to see our fastest best tackling DB moved to a LB so we have two super fast LB's.

Love has the third most tackles on the team. He should have more but he cant wrap up.
Your secondary players such as Mcclain-22 tackles, Mcwilson-19 tackles and Harmon-17 tackles are all to light to play LB. McWilson is 6/210 pounds. Hes the heaviest of the three. We need Kash Daniels to step up and take over. He's young still but needs the playing time. He's hard nose, big and faster than Love.

 

[catmanC15]

Love is a step slow. Would like to see our fastest best tackling DB moved to a LB so we have two super fast LB's.

My thoughts exactly! Mike Edwards is a tackling machine and lacks a little (being generous) in coverage. I think he would do well bulking up a bit and playing linebacker. If we turned Josh Forrest from a wide receiver to a pretty dang good sec linebacker, surely we can do the same with Edwards.

 

[WildCard]

I was channel flipping during the broadcast and just "watched" it yesterday as well. I pretty much agree with the OP.

Other than Elam (hard to miss due to his "last man down" stance) I don't pay too much attention to "who" but look more at "what". The DL play looked much quicker without Elam. Naturally, this improved quickness starts with Elam being but they may have put more speed at the DT spot as well.

IRT another point in this thread I don't think the Cats were playing "more 4-3" front. I think they were mostly in their basic 3-4 front with the Jack backer (Ware ??) usually playing on the LOS as a stand up DE. They occasionally showed a 4 man front with 2 down linemen and upright ends but seldom (if ever ???) showed a true 4 down look. Always hard to tell from sideline TV angles but they might have been playing more 1 gap techniques which, IMO, allows DLs to play a bit more aggressively in terms of penetration.

SC offense is bad, really bad. But, all in all, I was more impressed with the front 7's ability to get to the ball more than any other game this year. JMO.

Peace

 

[BlueRaider22]

"And now defensive thoughts.....by Jack Handy..."

There's a reason why they got more penetration with this last game. I mentioned in a few threads over the last few wks that I had a conversation with a recent UK DL. He mentioned that they keep trying to play 2-gap across the entire DL....and guys just weren't getting it. He thought they should run strictly 1-gap schemes making it more simple for the front 7. Well, in many cases that's what they did. They didn't do it every time.....nor was every DL all one way or the other on any given play......but they did simplify the front 7 with some single gapping and it showed.

And for what it's worth I don't think they ever made Elam a 1-gap when he was in there. Although he wasn't hugely impressive when he played it likely made him look worse to the untrained eye.

 

[reflaine]

"And now defensive thoughts.....by Jack Handy..."

There's a reason why they got more penetration with this last game. I mentioned in a few threads over the last few wks that I had a conversation with a recent UK DL. He mentioned that they keep trying to play 2-gap across the entire DL....and guys just weren't getting it. He thought they should run strictly 1-gap schemes making it more simple for the front 7. Well, in many cases that's what they did. They didn't do it every time.....nor was every DL all one way or the other on any given play......but they did simplify the front 7 with some single gapping and it showed.

And for what it's worth I don't think they ever made Elam a 1-gap when he was in there. Although he wasn't hugely impressive when he played it likely made him look worse to the untrained eye.[/QUOTE
Elam did run the one gap on one play I noticed. Believe it was a third and one second quarter. He actually got penteration, forced the back back inside where love hit him but he fell forward for the first down.

 

[WildCard]

"And now defensive thoughts.....by Jack Handy..."

There's a reason why they got more penetration with this last game. I mentioned in a few threads over the last few wks that I had a conversation with a recent UK DL. He mentioned that they keep trying to play 2-gap across the entire DL....and guys just weren't getting it. He thought they should run strictly 1-gap schemes making it more simple for the front 7. Well, in many cases that's what they did. They didn't do it every time.....nor was every DL all one way or the other on any given play......but they did simplify the front 7 with some single gapping and it showed.

And for what it's worth I don't think they ever made Elam a 1-gap when he was in there. Although he wasn't hugely impressive when he played it likely made him look worse to the untrained eye.

Interesting...I must have missed that. I don't necessarily think 2 gap play is more "complex" to play but it does require physical superiority at all 2 gap alignments.

Anyway, many folks on this board have been caught up in the notion that the #1 role of the NT is to "command a double team" block. Just not so. The fact is today's offensive schemes seldom us a true D/T block, especially on a NT who is rather easily isolated from the point of attack.

Back in the day, many 5 man line defenses actually carried 2 entirely different NTs (called them NGs back then) on the roster. The classic big space eater guy and a smaller quicker slanting guy.

The notion of playing all 3 DLs in even techniques (i.e., 4-0-4) goes back to the old 5-2 Slant schemes which actually required more foot quickness by the DLs. All 3 DLs were slanting 1 way or the other to muddle the blocking rules. As much as anything, slanting lines were the main reason the now very popular zone blocking schemes have basically replaced "man" or "rule" blocking.

Peace

 

[JW PRPcoach]

You just stole my thunder WC! Ha
Good points - was going to mention the switch, even in 3 down sets, from "evens" to "odds", which as WC mentioned, is lining up in the o-line gaps and trying to penetrate.
Even Elam got through a couple of times.
I hope we stick with this going forward

 

[BlueRaider22]

Interesting...I must have missed that. I don't necessarily think 2 gap play is more "complex" to play but it does require physical superiority at all 2 gap alignments.

Anyway, many folks on this board have been caught up in the notion that the #1 role of the NT is to "command a double team" block. Just not so. The fact is today's offensive schemes seldom us a true D/T block, especially on a NT who is rather easily isolated from the point of attack.

Back in the day, many 5 man line defenses actually carried 2 entirely different NTs (called them NGs back then) on the roster. The classic big space eater guy and a smaller quicker slanting guy.

The notion of playing all 3 DLs in even techniques (i.e., 4-0-4) goes back to the old 5-2 Slant schemes which actually required more foot quickness by the DLs. All 3 DLs were slanting 1 way or the other to muddle the blocking rules. As much as anything, slanting lines were the main reason the now very popular zone blocking schemes have basically replaced "man" or "rule" blocking.

Peace

At first I didn't realize what I was seeing. I mainly just saw a few of the DL explode into gaps and get some penetration. Thanks to DVR I went back and checked alignment and shading. There was 1-gap play and subsequent quicker LB filling into the open gaps. Now, this certainly wasn't the case with the entire game. But it was certainly more than what we have been playing.

I agree that 2-gap isn't really more complicated. I guess that was a misuse of wordage. Without mastery of technique.....or dominance as you say.....play of the front 7 is often slower and less aggressive.