• The KillerFrogs

Defense

Frogcrates

Active Member
With all of the threads covering the offense (and whether what we saw was the first sign of the apocalypse or a genius ploy of vanilla play calling to throw Purdue off the scent), I have barely seen anything on the defense.

So... thoughts on what you saw on Defense?

Personally, I didn’t see a whole lot of room for concern but I wasn’t blown away either. I know it’s early in the season and the D always takes a few games to gel, but one thing that has been a persistent concern of mine over the past several years (specifically in a post-Bumpas era) is the overall lack of aggression and, to a lesser extent, physicality on D. It’s been less of an issue among the linebacker corps, but more so on the D-line and secondary. We’ve had trouble the past few seasons getting pressure on the quarterback and the lack of containment or leverage on the ends was a real concern against UAPB. In the secondary (not sure how much of this is the result of rule changes), it seems like the overall mentality is to just try to bat the ball away and catch-tackle the receiver versus attacking the ball and punishing the receiver.

Obviously you’re not going to run a whole lot of blitz packages and stunts against UAPB, which is why any lack of pure angry aggression (with hopefully some textbook LHCGMFP discipline along with it) is going to stand out even more as you are just lining up head-on out of a base defense.

Has the D become overtaken by the bend-but-don’t break adaptation that has allowed GMFP to swallow up spread offenses or is the killer instinct still there?

Just curious to get folks’ observations on that other phase of the game.
 

LVH

Active Member
I was not impressed by our defense. Gave them too many easy yards and plays at times. Not aggressive enough.

Watch UCF the other night vs. Florida A&M. Florida A&M looked like a middle school team out there and was extremely flustered by UCF's defense to where it was tough to watch. Then watch our game vs. UAPB. Their offense looked like it belonged on the same field.
 

Eight

Member
i never felt apb really threatened the defense consistently and never felt the outcome of the game was in doubt.

coverage except for the one ball over stewart was what could be expected. thought the play at safety overall was good aside from a few plays.

the area of concern was linebacker play with some of the angles taken, failure to attack and would someone please guard the running back coming out of the backfield.

the linebackers showed some speed, but they have to get much better.

the problem is two are new to the position and one is making the jump from safety in a 2a program to a college linebacker. example is the toss play apb ran on 3rd and 4 where winters ran up under the lead blocker, the back bounced it outside, and winter was able to reverse course and clean up.

he has to take the right angle against better teams, same with some cases where wallow didn't recognize and fill as quickly as needed.

just as duggan at quarterback, the linebackers are going to learn at the speed they learn and there could be some big bumps until they all get up to speed.
 

jake102

Active Member
Not as good as I expected. Hoping a lot of that is playing down to opponent and Blacklock getting back into game shape.

I’m pretty concerned about LB and WS.
 

CountryFrog

Active Member
How can you say we've had trouble pressuring the last few years when we've been at or near the top of the Big 12 on sacks for 3 or 4 years?

As far as this game goes, Stewart got beat deep on a play and we forgot to cover the RB on a play. Both of those things seem to be staples of our defense at least once per game, but other than that they were fine. Certainly not spectacular but fine. LB is going to be an issue all year and we'll see how all the new DE's come along.

I don't think it's worth over analyzing this game as far as the defense goes. We'll see how Purdue goes and can start to draw some conclusions then.
 

notyalc

Active Member
Seems like we're holding guys out during fall camp a little more just to be safe. I understand injuries and all but I think it creates some rust. Blacklock is a good example.
 

Frogcrates

Active Member
How can you say we've had trouble pressuring the last few years when we've been at or near the top of the Big 12 on sacks for 3 or 4 years?
I hear you on this point and feel like there was the exact same debate around this time last year and I honestly don’t have a good answer except to say that while, yes, we are putting up better numbers than other teams on this we are also just not as consistently in the backfield and in QBs’ faces like we always seemed to be in the past. Not sure how much of that to attribute to faster moving offenses or just foggy nostalgia.

As far as this game goes, Stewart got beat deep on a play and we forgot to cover the RB on a play. Both of those things seem to be staples of our defense at least once per game, but other than that they were fine. Certainly not spectacular but fine. LB is going to be an issue all year and we'll see how all the new DE's come along.

I don't think it's worth over analyzing this game as far as the defense goes. We'll see how Purdue goes and can start to draw some conclusions then.

Looking forward to seeing the D settle in, but also keep hoping for it to take it to the “offenses [ Finebaum ] their pants when seeing what Gary throws at them”-level

Defense looked fine. You want aggression and passion from your defense (and offense for that matter) play someone with a chance to beat you.
Most of the defensive guys I’ve ever known never seemed to think like that. On the contrary, they always looked at weak offenses like a free meal and got giddy over the chance to pound on someone with impunity. Then again, a lot of the defensive guys I knew had some issues.
 

netty2424

Full Member
Blacklocks also playing 30lbs lighter. Good or bad, I don’t know. TBD I guess.

Might be a requirement given the injury to play lighter moving forward. And yes, Aaron Donald is 285, but Blacklock was virtually unstoppable at 330.

Hopefully he’s able to use his quickness to offset the weight leverage.
 

Froggish

Active Member
I rewatched the game and in the first half every decent gain APB Had was on the right side..LVZ was there and played really poorly..he was out of position, took bad angles, and was really bad almost the whole first half. He looked just like a guy who had never worked at LB..I thought we’d be alright at LB but now I’m not sure...Def line didn’t get pressure but APB really only through quick routs.

Gaines looked a little like he was rusty as well..I think we’ll get better but we have to figure out the LB thing
 

CountryFrog

Active Member
I rewatched the game and in the first half every decent gain APB Had was on the right side..LVZ was there and played really poorly..he was out of position, took bad angles, and was really bad almost the whole first half. He looked just like a guy who had never worked at LB..I thought we’d be alright at LB but now I’m not sure...Def line didn’t get pressure but APB really only through quick routs.

Gaines looked a little like he was rusty as well..I think we’ll get better but we have to figure out the LB thing
Unfortunately I don't think we're going to figure out the LB thing this year. I hope I'm wrong but I've just accepted that it will be a weak spot that the rest of the defense will have to overcome.
 

Froggish

Active Member
Unfortunately I don't think we're going to figure out the LB thing this year. I hope I'm wrong but I've just accepted that it will be a weak spot that the rest of the defense will have to overcome.

I actually thought the 3 series or so in the first half that Winters was better than LVZ and Cooper played better then Ross..Seems like we did a whole lot of stunting ourselves out of plays.

Oddly enough, Rewatching the first half made me feel better about the offense and worse about the defense..
 

Eight

Member
I actually thought the 3 series or so in the first half that Winters was better than LVZ and Cooper played better then Ross..Seems like we did a whole lot of stunting ourselves out of plays.

Oddly enough, Rewatching the first half made me feel better about the offense and worse about the defense..

the concerns i have about the defense are dependent upon players maturing at a position and a rate we just haven't seen before at tcu in a good 10 years or so plus.
 

Froggish

Active Member
the concerns i have about the defense are dependent upon players maturing at a position and a rate we just haven't seen before at tcu in a good 10 years or so plus.

Probably accurate...There’s no doubt in my mind that Wallow and Vernon are going to lead this team in tackles and that’s a bit concerning as most of what they are going to get is going to be at the second level..

If it were me I’d really consider trying Workman at the SLB and moving Wallow back to his WLB spot. You can always bring LZV in on 3rd downs
 
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Diehard

Moderator
Defense looked fine. You want aggression and passion from your defense (and offense for that matter) play someone with a chance to beat you.
THIS! How excited / motivated is a team that has heard all year that we shouldn't be playing such a cupcake and it would be 50- 60 point rout. Just not much to get amped up about......That said, we still sucked on O.
 
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