Bad Defense or Changing Game?

[4Q Basket Case]

Evolution of offenses, aided greatly by liberalization of rules on OL downfield and restrictions on pass defense, mean that defenses along the lines of 2009, 2011, and 2014 will never happen again. At least, not until rules change, which I don’t see happening.

That said, we can be a lot better, especially at safety. Way too many mental errors. As Saban has said, “We don’t have any defenses that let a receiver be 10 yards from the nearest defender. So when you see that, it means somebody made a mistake.”

We’ve had too many of those situations in the first two games.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

I miss Pruitt

 

[BamaMoon]

Great thread! Good arguments from both sides.

My non-expert opinion is it has something to do with both. There's no question offenses are more prolific and harder to defend, which obviously means the defenses are going to struggle more and occasionally there will be a blown coverage.

I think if we could just shore up the defensive communication to keep the blown coverages from happening we'll be just fine. We can give up a garbage TD against most teams but get into the playoffs when the competition is closer to equal and we can't afford to give teams 7-14 points on defensive busts.

 

[BamaMoon]

I miss Pruitt

Me too but the only way he's coming back to T-town is as a HC in the future.

He's doing a fantastic job of putting out that dumpster fire up there. He's doing it just like CNS. Buiding/recruiting talent and then coaching them up.

 

[REBELZED]

I think it is also important to look around the country. It's not like the other top 5-10 teams are holding their opponents to 10 ppg over the course of the season (Clemson may be an exception due to the completely inept offenses they face). More often than not, 16-18 ppg allowed is good enough for a top 10 defense.

LSU's defense last year was ranked # 27 and allowed 21.2 ppg. Didn't seem to slow them down much on the way to a dominant season and a title.

I think the game and the winning formula have just changed, much to the dismay of fans of defense (like myself)...

 

[CraigD]

I miss Pruitt, too.

As for the Georgia angle, I don't think their team has the right makeup to beat Bama if both teams play well. I think UGA's strengths (ball control, play action passing, pound it down your throat) are things our defense can reasonably handle / stop on several drives over the course of a game. Our offense is, or appears to be at this point, prolific enough to score on most any defense -- even an excellent one like Georgia's.

I think a well-played matchup of UGA vs. Bama favors Bama. If Bama makes mistakes or plays poorly, Georgia is certainly a very dangerous team.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

The defense is FAAAAAR from "bad". Anyone who broad brush labels this defense bad is simply being lazy and not actually watching the game. The main issue I see is we're facing more high powered offenses week to week than in years past and the room for error is much smaller.

Cornerbacks, Safeties and LB's are having to deal with more offenses who run plays designed to attack all parts of the field. Go back and look at the aTm game. If we eliminate literally two to three defensive plays in that game they aren't even in position to score and have to punt. Then take away the fluke batted ball INT and you're talking about a 52-7 game. It's like going from sprinting on a piece of plywood to now having to sprint on a balance beam. That's how the game has changed from a defensive perspective.

 

[TraskiTideFan]

The defense has actually played better than expected for the most part. You couldn't help but get excited watching the D-Line shift to adjust with the motion and the play call on the field. That did not happen very often at all last season and that has a lot to do with having Moses back to make the call. We have had shutdown corners and safeties the last 5 years and teams have put up scores on us. But the score at the end of the game is the one that matters the most. We have had 2 pretty good warm up games to make up for lack of a Spring and the group has surprisingly gel'd pretty well considering. As long as the growing pains are over with for the coming games it is going to be a great rest of the season to watch.

And on a side note - one thing is for certain, after the UGA loss by the Barn, ALL Gus will be focused on for the rest of the year is game-planning for the Iron Bowl for job security.

 

[UAH]

Me too but the only way he's coming back to T-town is as a HC in the future.

He's doing a fantastic job of putting out that dumpster fire up there. He's doing it just like CNS. Buiding/recruiting talent and then coaching them up.

Josh Pate the SEC guy on 247 sports said this week that Jeremy was one of the very best coaches in the business in recognizing and communicating to his teams on the field what to expect from the opposing team. He believes that he is making considerable progress, faster than expected, in improving the talent base on the team. They appeared to have an outstanding offensive game plan last week against Missouri and would expect for them to give Georgia all they want in Athens this week. No easy walk over for anyone.

 

[TideEngineer08]

UGA will not be able to score enough points to keep up with Bama, not with there old style offense. UGA’s defense will probably keep us in the high 30s, maybe low 40s but, that’s plenty to take them down. I’m not scared of their offense. Some people are acting like Auburn is some juggernaut that UGA was able to contain but, AU’s offense is weak and their defense is not as good as it was in years past. Auburn only lead Kentucky by 2 into the fourth quarter before Kentucky imploded, Auburn is not as good as they are being portrayed by some. I think UT is going to give UGA fits this weekend.

I believe the Auburn game was more about Auburn's complete ineptitude on offense than Georgia's all powerful defense. Don't get me wrong... they may still have the best defense in the league. I just think we can hang at least 35 on them on an off day.

 

[BamaMoon]

Josh Pate the SEC guy on 247 sports said this week that Jeremy was one of the very best coaches in the business in recognizing and communicating to his teams on the field what to expect from the opposing team. He believes that he is making considerable progress, faster than expected, in improving the talent base on the team. They appeared to have an outstanding offensive game plan last week against Missouri and would expect for them to give Georgia all they want in Athens this week. No easy walk over for anyone.

If we had to replace CNS right now, he'd be my pick. He's done a lot in a short time there.

 

[TideEngineer08]

Josh Pate the SEC guy on 247 sports said this week that Jeremy was one of the very best coaches in the business in recognizing and communicating to his teams on the field what to expect from the opposing team. He believes that he is making considerable progress, faster than expected, in improving the talent base on the team. They appeared to have an outstanding offensive game plan last week against Missouri and would expect for them to give Georgia all they want in Athens this week. No easy walk over for anyone.

My hatred of Kirby and Georgia has grown so much that I will derive a great deal of humor from a Tennessee win this weekend, despite what that means for Tennessee.

If we had to replace CNS right now, he'd be my pick. He's done a lot in a short time there.

Seconded. I'm hoping the timelines work out just right but Pruitt may be on a fast track.

 

[crimsonaudio]

LSU's defense last year was ranked # 27 and allowed 21.2 ppg. Didn't seem to slow them down much on the way to a dominant season and a title.

I think the game and the winning formula have just changed, much to the dismay of fans of defense (like myself)...

Keep in mind if Bama's D was only *slightly* better last year they're undefeated heading into the playoffs.

 

[gtgilbert]

Plus, is UGA really a deep ball threat? If that is our biggest weakness, I'm not sure UGA is built to fully exploit it.

The weakness isn't really the pure deep threat. It's the middle/intermediate areas between the S and LBs picking up RBs and TEs where they have to make sure they are aligned. unfortunately, those plays have turned into very long plays due to coverage busts. With the RBs UGA has they would be very able to exploit this if we don't either get the busts figured out or make adjustments to the way we scheme that type of play.

 

[Akazo]

It would also be interesting to know how many possessions the other teams had during our "dominant" D years compared to more recent. We are scoring so often that other teams get more chances... more chances, more points. I ain't complainin'...

 

[tidefanbeezer]

I think its 2 things: offenses have improved and become more explosive and our defense is still trying to gel. We have a number of new starters and starters that missed chunks of last season due to injury. The covid off season didn't give them enough reps together.

I presume that as they get more reps together, you will see this defense get better.

 

[gtgilbert]

My hatred of Kirby and Georgia has grown so much that I will derive a great deal of humor from a Tennessee win this weekend, despite what that means for Tennessee.



Seconded. I'm hoping the timelines work out just right but Pruitt may be on a fast track.

that kinda makes me twitch. As much as I respect Pruitt, and dislike Kirby, it's still the pumpkin-puke-orange UT hillbillies. I'd honestly not be upset if they never, ever won another conference game. 0 for forever would be totally fine...

 

[jjv0004]

I personally think it is scheme (coaching) and overall lack of 1st round talent/difference makers. However, I will remind everyone that the 2015 team that won it all against Clemson (45-40) gave up 550 yards in the national championship with Kirby Smart as the DC and players like, A'Shawn Robinson, Jonathan Allen, Dalvin Tomlinson, Da'Shawn Hand, Daron Payne, Jarran Reed, Reggie Ragland, Rashaan Evans, Reuben Foster, Shaun Dion Hamilton, Marlon Humphrey, Tony Brown, Eddie Jackson, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cyrus Jones. I think literally every one of those guys is currently in the NFL and multiple were 1st rounders. I would kill for those guys to be on this defense in 2020.

 

[TideEngineer08]

that kinda makes me twitch. As much as I respect Pruitt, and dislike Kirby, it's still the pumpkin-puke-orange UT hillbillies. I'd honestly not be upset if they never, ever won another conference game. 0 for forever would be totally fine...

Oh I still hate Tennessee. It would just be really difficult for me to decide who I hate more today, since Mr. Bowl Cut took his mask off.

 

[CoachJeff]

I personally think it is scheme (coaching) and overall lack of 1st round talent/difference makers.

This Alabama defense has about half a dozen first rounders on it. There's plenty of talent.