Is defense a thing of the past in College Football now?
- Thread starter richbrookstomato
- Start date
It's really awful to watch if you appreciate good D, but such is the way of the world now in college football and football overall.
Hell, we had a great defensive title game in 2010/11 with two great offensive teams in Oregon vs. Auburn and two mediocre D's. 22-19. It was a good game.
Hell, we had a great defensive title game in 2010/11 with two great offensive teams in Oregon vs. Auburn and two mediocre D's. 22-19. It was a good game.
With the way the rules are currently, it seems all of the advantage lies with the offense. There's no way a good team should give up 50, 60 or 70 points in a football game, yet it is happening all too often these days. Sure, it is fun to watch in some ways. But defense is an equal part of the game. Right now defense seems like an afterthought. Without it, it just takes something away from the game and makes you feel like you are getting a diluted product. I fear this is going to ultimately destroy football as we know it.
welcome to college football in the 21st century. if you don't have elite athletes on offense and run a HUNH spread system then you are competing in the wrong century. to win you gotta put 30, 40 points on the board with the way the rules have evolved to favor the offense over the defense.
Things go in cycles. Sort of like the steroid era in baseball, where everybody was hitting 50 HRs. But baseball cleaned up its act, and now pitching is just dominant, lots of low scoring games with mega Ks. Thirty HRs is now a big slugging year again, like in the old days.
I predict that they will change the rules to give defenses a bit of a break before too long.
I'm sure I'm in the minority here but a 56-52 game just isn't that fun to watch for me. A 21-17 game would be way more fun to watch, all things being equal. Baylor's QB threw for 550 yards and they still lost. Just seems defense is not a huge priority for some of these teams. The ability to stop the other team from scoring is one of my favorite things in a team. That's why this year's basketball team is so fun to watch. I wasn't old enough to really remember the Mumme years explicitly but I don't think it would be fun for me when the offense scored and knowing they needed about 8 more touchdowns to win.
In my opinion, the NFL will remain way more entertaining to me because even with the rule changes you aren't seeing the scores we've seen throughout the year in college. I don't think the styles ran by Oregon, Baylor and a few other schools will make it into the NFL. I know Chip Kelly has implemented it and has had success so far, but we'll see if it lasts. The wildcat worked in the NFL for a little while and defenses figured it out.
In my opinion, the NFL will remain way more entertaining to me because even with the rule changes you aren't seeing the scores we've seen throughout the year in college. I don't think the styles ran by Oregon, Baylor and a few other schools will make it into the NFL. I know Chip Kelly has implemented it and has had success so far, but we'll see if it lasts. The wildcat worked in the NFL for a little while and defenses figured it out.
I'm afraid defense is headed the way of the dodo bird
There are multiple fan surveys that show it is scoring that the masses want to see....like a giant grass pin-ball machine with a sparkly scoreboard flashing on and off
Even our own program has adopted that mind-set: a flashy offense puts butts in the seats and viewers in front of screens
It's like an epidemic of excess
There are multiple fan surveys that show it is scoring that the masses want to see....like a giant grass pin-ball machine with a sparkly scoreboard flashing on and off
Even our own program has adopted that mind-set: a flashy offense puts butts in the seats and viewers in front of screens
It's like an epidemic of excess
Things go in cycles. Defenses dominated for a while so offenses adjusted and found a weakness in the defensive philosophies at the time. Now offenses are exploiting this and defenses will have to adjust. The problem for Saban is that he slowed this process for Bama by tryinng to change the rules instead of being more like his peers and find a way to take advantage of it. There's nothing wrong with this it is just the consequence of innovation. Nobody should expect the sport to look like it did when they were young forever. Football has been evolving since it was first invented.
The problem for Bama is they are playing defense against teams from 10 years ago rather than what they are seeing today. They have the biggest strongest and most physical defense in football. Unfortunately they aren't very fast. Even OSU's Full back was able to get to the corner against Bama's defense. That's what happens when you have 300 lb DE's and 260 lb LBs. My impression from watching the game is that Bama's defense was slow. Saban will have to adjust if he wants to keep winning titles. We've seen Stoops do so. He is going to a defense that is more compatible with stopping spread offenses.
This goes in cycles. Samething happened in basketball. In the 80's the focus was on big players. All the best teams had at least one 7 footer and usually a couple of them. Twin towers looks were in vogue. Then the 90's came and every one was running and pressing. Centers were more likely to be 6'9" and 220. Now with Cal's team we are back to the bigger line ups again. Same thing is happening with football. As all teams move towards a trend someone bucks the trend and creates a mismatch. That person sets the new trend which will be countered a few years later.
The problem for Bama is they are playing defense against teams from 10 years ago rather than what they are seeing today. They have the biggest strongest and most physical defense in football. Unfortunately they aren't very fast. Even OSU's Full back was able to get to the corner against Bama's defense. That's what happens when you have 300 lb DE's and 260 lb LBs. My impression from watching the game is that Bama's defense was slow. Saban will have to adjust if he wants to keep winning titles. We've seen Stoops do so. He is going to a defense that is more compatible with stopping spread offenses.
This goes in cycles. Samething happened in basketball. In the 80's the focus was on big players. All the best teams had at least one 7 footer and usually a couple of them. Twin towers looks were in vogue. Then the 90's came and every one was running and pressing. Centers were more likely to be 6'9" and 220. Now with Cal's team we are back to the bigger line ups again. Same thing is happening with football. As all teams move towards a trend someone bucks the trend and creates a mismatch. That person sets the new trend which will be countered a few years later.
not really a cycle, but an evolving of the sport. at all levels, the rules have been significantly changed over the last 5, 10 years to make moving the football and scoring easier....while making playing tough hard hitting physical defense more difficult to accomplish.
And with the controversy & concern over concussions, we ain't going back to the days of stacking 8, 9 guys in the box and running fullbacks blocking for tailbacks up the gut. to alleviate all the worry about concussions and hard hits to the head football at the HS, college, nfl level will in the future even more be spread offense passing high scoring games.
If you will ck other post on this board , I have been tooting this horn for a long time...For the biggest majority of the games in college fb today and in the future you can have a good defense , but you better damn well be able to outscore a great majority of the teams you play...30+ ppg is kind of the standard barrier right now , but who knows where it may go...Saban is trying to latch on to the trend with Kiffin , but I don't really think even he is in the ball park of some of the oc around the country
Originally posted by catben:
When Bama gives up 350+ yds in the 1st half it's time to ask what has happened to great defense?
I can remember Nebraska scoring 60 and 70 points back in 1996. Potent offenses have been around for some time. Today a potent offense is important to either outscore the other team or to at least give your defense plenty of time to rest and preferably both. Oregon has a pretty potent offense but they just held FSU to 20 points so they are on to something.
It's really sad when your Head Coach is supposed to be a defensive whiz and he gets taken to school by his former Offensive Coordinator that he FIRED!!!
When your defensive oriented Head Coach can't teach his players how to tackle, you have NO CHANCE of winning any game of significance!!!
Sad day for UK Football and it's LONG-SUFFERING FANS!!!!
When your defensive oriented Head Coach can't teach his players how to tackle, you have NO CHANCE of winning any game of significance!!!
Sad day for UK Football and it's LONG-SUFFERING FANS!!!!