I know that I will get hammered for what I'm about to write. But after reading all of the negative comments about our defense over the last day and a half, I felt compelled to offer a more positive perspective on our defense. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying our defense didn't play terribly. I was screaming at the television like all of the rest of you. My comments are more addressed to how I think the defense will perform for the rest of the season.
I feel like our defense has the talent to put together some really solid performances. Will it be able to stop Miami and Notre Dame? I doubt it. There is no way that the defense that we watched will be able to stand up to offenses that good. But we were picked to lose to those guys before we saw the first bad play from this defense. But do they have the ability to keep teams like Virginia, VT, Pitt, Duke and Georgia Tech out of the end zone? I think so. State and Wake Forest? Maybe.
Here's the reason for my optimism. If you examine the game from yesterday, our defense stunk in the first and fourth quarters. But we looked pretty good in the second (after their quick score) and third quarters. Even Chicken Little was saying, "What happened? Is this the same defense?" When we started to fall apart, many of you began to question the talent and the heart of our defense (myself included). But here's my point. We had the talent and heart to shut down a high powered offense that had come out of the box and scored 21 points in a blitzkreig of an attack. We held that high-powered experienced offense, in an electric stadium, on a home field where they rarely lost, to 0 points and barely 100 yards of offense for almost half the game! Think about that. We have the talent and the heart to be a solid defense. We proved it for two quarters.
So, what happened? Why did the wheels fall off the wagon? My contention is that it was a game of inches...the six inches between their ears. In the first quarter, we got intimidated by the crowd, the noise, the hype and the moment. Much the same as we did against VT in the first game last year. And we paid the price, giving up 21 points quickly. The difference is that this time, we got our sea legs and grew a defense. We played some pretty good defense for two quarters.
But then two things happened that changed the momentum. First, we got cocky. Up 21 points, we figured that we had this one in the bag. We let down our guard. And any of us who have played competitive sports knows how hard it is to get the momentum back once it shifts to the other side. Second, we panicked. That little voice in the head said, "Hey, we could lose this one." And when players panic, they begin to second guess themselves. They lose their self confidence, which is so important in pass coverage. They don't want to be the person who makes the next catastrophic error. So, they get tentative.
I can throw in one more thing. And that's the horrible penalty calls. When a defender commits to the tackle and leaves their feet before the quarterback begins their slide (and I know a particularly talented quarterback who has a habit of not sliding), and gets called for a penalty and a possible targeting call, what does it do to the rest of the defenders? Now they are scared to play aggressively because they don't want to get a penalty that results in the big gain and first down for the other team.
What do I feel is the silver lining from this debacle? First, when the momentum begins to shift in a future game, the players can think, "OK. We've been through this before and we still won. Just settle down and play your game." Second, the coaches and team leaders learned a lesson. When the defense started to unravel, they should have set the team down, slapped them up side of the head (Oh wait, coaches can't do that anymore.) and got them back on track. During yesterday's game, the coaches and leaders either didn't do this, or if they did, did a lousy job of it. These are kids, many of them still teenagers. They have shown that they can get rattled. They have to figure out a better way to get the team settled down. Rallying the troops, in military parlance.
Time will tell if I am right or wrong. But I still believe we have a lot of talent. We just have to win the mental game and get that talent displayed for all four quarters, instead of for just two.
I feel like our defense has the talent to put together some really solid performances. Will it be able to stop Miami and Notre Dame? I doubt it. There is no way that the defense that we watched will be able to stand up to offenses that good. But we were picked to lose to those guys before we saw the first bad play from this defense. But do they have the ability to keep teams like Virginia, VT, Pitt, Duke and Georgia Tech out of the end zone? I think so. State and Wake Forest? Maybe.
Here's the reason for my optimism. If you examine the game from yesterday, our defense stunk in the first and fourth quarters. But we looked pretty good in the second (after their quick score) and third quarters. Even Chicken Little was saying, "What happened? Is this the same defense?" When we started to fall apart, many of you began to question the talent and the heart of our defense (myself included). But here's my point. We had the talent and heart to shut down a high powered offense that had come out of the box and scored 21 points in a blitzkreig of an attack. We held that high-powered experienced offense, in an electric stadium, on a home field where they rarely lost, to 0 points and barely 100 yards of offense for almost half the game! Think about that. We have the talent and the heart to be a solid defense. We proved it for two quarters.
So, what happened? Why did the wheels fall off the wagon? My contention is that it was a game of inches...the six inches between their ears. In the first quarter, we got intimidated by the crowd, the noise, the hype and the moment. Much the same as we did against VT in the first game last year. And we paid the price, giving up 21 points quickly. The difference is that this time, we got our sea legs and grew a defense. We played some pretty good defense for two quarters.
But then two things happened that changed the momentum. First, we got cocky. Up 21 points, we figured that we had this one in the bag. We let down our guard. And any of us who have played competitive sports knows how hard it is to get the momentum back once it shifts to the other side. Second, we panicked. That little voice in the head said, "Hey, we could lose this one." And when players panic, they begin to second guess themselves. They lose their self confidence, which is so important in pass coverage. They don't want to be the person who makes the next catastrophic error. So, they get tentative.
I can throw in one more thing. And that's the horrible penalty calls. When a defender commits to the tackle and leaves their feet before the quarterback begins their slide (and I know a particularly talented quarterback who has a habit of not sliding), and gets called for a penalty and a possible targeting call, what does it do to the rest of the defenders? Now they are scared to play aggressively because they don't want to get a penalty that results in the big gain and first down for the other team.
What do I feel is the silver lining from this debacle? First, when the momentum begins to shift in a future game, the players can think, "OK. We've been through this before and we still won. Just settle down and play your game." Second, the coaches and team leaders learned a lesson. When the defense started to unravel, they should have set the team down, slapped them up side of the head (Oh wait, coaches can't do that anymore.) and got them back on track. During yesterday's game, the coaches and leaders either didn't do this, or if they did, did a lousy job of it. These are kids, many of them still teenagers. They have shown that they can get rattled. They have to figure out a better way to get the team settled down. Rallying the troops, in military parlance.
Time will tell if I am right or wrong. But I still believe we have a lot of talent. We just have to win the mental game and get that talent displayed for all four quarters, instead of for just two.
