how do you feel about our D vs Pitt

[blazers]

I was looking at boxscores from Penn St and Okla State, and it appears we did similar to them in terms of yards per carry, yards per pass.

That was a pretty crafty offense and they were a few decent passes away from being dominant enough that our 4th quarter explosion wouldn't have mattered.

I felt like we got zero pressure on passing downs, but I feel like there is only so much you can do versus that offense. Mammoth OL and hard-running RBs, with some really tricky misdirection stuff via the full back one-way, the speed-back the other and conner or the QB up the middle. Reminds me of GaTech in that they are going to get lots of yards almost no matter what you do unless 10/11 guys manhandle the guy in front of them. Putting 8 in the box didn't help.

 

[blazers]

This ui did something funny. Anyway, to continue, putting 8 in the box didn't help. I feel there isn't a ton the DL can do vs the jet sweep especially so much misdirection and movement, it makes assignment-ball hard. They certainly didn't help apply much pressure on passing downs, but at times were tough up the middle, esp when it counted.

LBs were often following the wrong man entirely. Jonathan Smith was the only backup who played, but he looked not so good. And he looks slower than the other LBs.

For the most part I liked the play of our secondary. Des gave a weak effort on one of the TD runs, but he also gave an awesome effort on pitt's final offensive play of the game.

 

[WoadBlue]

You make good points. The Pitt offense, even without a true top rate WR, is a hoss. And the way it is good hurts what we have on D the most. So perhaps we do have a glass half full on D, rather than 2/3rds empty as it seemed until the final 3 series.

 

[lerario]

I thought we actually did a respectable job containing Connor and their traditional running game between the tackles. The Jet Sweep just killed us. And a lot of times it seems like we had guys in position to make tackles at the LOS or for short gains, but were either half a step slow or just couldn't wrap up and all of a sudden it's an 8-10 yard play. We didn't really get tested through the air so not a whole lot to say there.

The biggest issue continues to be 3rd down conversions. They ran 73 plays and held the ball for more than 2/3 of the game because they went 10-17 on 3rd down. And that includes us stopping them on their last four attempts, so at the end of the 3rd quarter they were 10-13 on third down. That's just bad. We held them to a respectable 5.77 yds per play (we averaged 6.93 for comparison), but just couldn't get off the field on 3rd down. Some of that is the fact that their average distance to go on those plays was probably only 4 or 5 yards, but still, guys have to step up and make a play when we have the opportunity to force a punt. We finally started doing that in the 4th Q but it has to happen more often for the defense to show any significant improvement.

Edit - So I just checked the play by play because this was itching at me. Excluding the 3rd and 36th in the first quarter because of a bad snap, on Pitt's first twelve 3rd downs their average distance to go was only 3.5 yards and they converted 10/12 with only two of those longer than 4 yards (14, 7). One of the stops was a 3rd and 1 that they then converted on 4th down. On the last four, the average was 6 yards (all passes) and they went 0/4.

 

[blazers]

not enough time these days, but i'd love to see how Clemson or someone with a really stout D fairs vs Pitt's jet sweep. In run plays, I wonder if their DL would be just as non-impactful... i'm guessing it would. But on the pass-plays i'm guessing we'd see a diff.

I agree about the half-step slow. Guys aren't trying to arm-tackle, they're slightly out of position due to speed, bad angle, getting faked, or just having trouble vs a speedster like #10 with your only help being cut-blocked.

Sure would be nice to have someone like Ejuan Price - Heck, Spain, Hood and the TE are having nightmares about that guy.

 

[WoadBlue]

not enough time these days, but i'd love to see how Clemson or someone with a really stout D fairs vs Pitt's jet sweep. In run plays, I wonder if their DL would be just as non-impactful... i'm guessing it would. But on the pass-plays i'm guessing we'd see a diff.

I agree about the half-step slow. Guys aren't trying to arm-tackle, they're slightly out of position due to speed, bad angle, getting faked, or just having trouble vs a speedster like #10 with your only help being cut-blocked.

Sure would be nice to have someone like Ejuan Price - Heck, Spain, Hood and the TE are having nightmares about that guy.

It's just about being too slow, unless that is meant in a broad sense. We have guys who get slowed down a good deal by blocks, which means they cannot be where they should when they should.

Everything goes back to fundamentals. If we beat blocks better, we get to more tackling spots on time and thus prevent a number of big plays against us.

 

[Archer2]

Edit - So I just checked the play by play because this was itching at me. Excluding the 3rd and 36th in the first quarter because of a bad snap, on Pitt's first twelve 3rd downs their average distance to go was only 3.5 yards and they converted 10/12 with only two of those longer than 4 yards (14, 7). One of the stops was a 3rd and 1 that they then converted on 4th down. On the last four, the average was 6 yards (all passes) and they went 0/4.

And that is the key for any defense, putting the offense into 3rd and long situations. We gave up too many 5-6 yard rushes on 1st down, resulting in too many 3rd and short situations.

Our defense is what it is, just not very good against the run. And the jet sweep absolutely kills us. I'm afraid we'll see it a lot this weekend.

 

[blazers]

I recall a bunch of their 3rd down conversions in the first qtr being passes

 

[gteeitup]

thought they were prepared early, got winded toward the middle, and thanks to some sustained drives by the offense, gained some air and some toughness.

i think linebackers overall as a unit are really bad...smith stands out as a positive, but he's not always in the right position...not trying to rip a kid, but i don't get holcomb starting unless he just kills it in film, practice, and knows where to be, but he just can't make plays...where are copeland and jsmith?

if we cannot get pressure with four or five, this defense will continue to struggle, imo.

 

[blazers]

Copeland was concussed when he and Nazair collided. Jonathan Smith is slow. He has lots of accolades from reporters, and looks like a sturdy kid, but aside from hitting a gap with power I haven't seen much from him. His eyes were in the wrong place on one play, then he looked very slow trying to get toward the sideline on another.

Maybe Dom Ross will add weight. They're all young, new to this system....

Shakeel is a natural LB, and Schoettmer was very solid, good enough to make a team for awhile.