Maryland Snowflakes: The Defense

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

This will be your thread for thoughts and hot takes about the defense in our game against Maryland. 

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Rasmus

November 6th, 2016 at 8:16 AM ^

I don't remember seeing him, but I wasn't looking. Bush got some good experience. Thought it might be a knee bruise -- not sure why most of these guys don't use knee pads these days.

Joined: 07/02/2009

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ca_prophet

November 5th, 2016 at 10:09 PM ^

One of the screens was well-timed - we blitzed from the offense left relying on Peppers to cover behind, and he ate two releasing linemen with very little activity. Maryland had some wrinkle for Peppers on another screen - essentially driving a lineman into his path, and when he went to whoop that guy the first lineman moved on and let the second lineman hammer him. It's not just screen-away-from-Peppers - the cost of the exotic blitz package is that if the ball gets out, there will be more blockers than we can handle. Peppers compensates to some degree, but he can't get off an OL block if he can't dodge it. Screens are double-edged - Peppers blows them up, but the right screens and we can be had.

Joined: 09/07/2010

MGoPoints: 7027

CR7

November 5th, 2016 at 7:13 PM ^

Didn't look great again. Some real issues getting edged and open field tackling, again. Still maintaining that Durkin's defense was better but maybe this year's defense is indicative of the conference as a whole being improved. Dunno



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Joined: 10/21/2012

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reshp1

November 5th, 2016 at 8:07 PM ^

Exactly, the key to stopping the spread is to generate enough negative plays that the drives stall out. Ceding some yards in between when you throw rock to their paper is worth the trade off it means knocking them off schedule on the next set of downs. Durkin's defense was great at pummeling bad teams but gave up 4-5 yards a play over and over to the better offenses we faced and he didn't seem to have an answer.

Joined: 10/31/2011

MGoPoints: 34177

GoBlueGladstone

November 6th, 2016 at 12:55 PM ^

The only stat that matters. I know that the anxiety is based on "can't do that vs. the Buckeyes" but, scoreboard. Their yardage totals and general non-scoring type thingys are already forgotten. 

Also, MD is a pretty darn good offensive team - keeping them out of the endzone is all that matters. The transitive theory against the remaining teams on our schedule shouldn't really be a focus. 

Joined: 02/02/2011

MGoPoints: 599

Franz Schubert

November 5th, 2016 at 7:16 PM ^

Has played way more 2 deep safety looks the last 2 weeks and it's not working. Where has the ultra aggressive Dr. blitz gone? The defense was dominating and leading the country in many defensive categories but is giving up huge chunks of yards now. If they try to play JT Barrett and the OSU read option without all hands on deck in the box it's going to be ugly. Force Barrett to throw the ball.

Joined: 07/20/2009

MGoPoints: 4453

Esterhaus

November 5th, 2016 at 7:23 PM ^

And Iowa don't mix well. Fire Don Brown and hire Brian Kelly. Also, Jabrill has no interceptions. Fire Don Brown a second time and bring back Brady Hoke along with Brian Kelly. Or something.

Joined: 03/16/2015

MGoPoints: 7733

getsome

November 5th, 2016 at 7:21 PM ^

solid, intense play by the D overall.  great job limiting points (and red zone opportunities for that matter).  and great job getting off the field when needed.

they missed some tackles, lost leverage and contain, and gave up some chunk plays like screens or gedeon vs another RB in coverage (which is fine as im sure brown wont often give osu / samuel those matchups) - all of which tend to be par for the course when playing that type O / scheme, and more than offset by negative plays and sound fundamental ball.  those dudes ceded some yardage but then did a nice job locking in and forcing stops immediately after big plays.

always great to win big yet still have plenty of issues on tape to work to correct.  and of course escaping mostly injury-free (fingers crossed) is always huge.  theyre improving and ascending virtually across the board and thats the goal at this point

Joined: 09/07/2013

MGoPoints: 7385

MotownGoBlue

November 5th, 2016 at 7:28 PM ^

Re: containment and open field tackling. I think McCray is about 80% and Strib just isn't the best tackler we have in the secondary. Wouldn't it be great to have to 2 Peppers and 2 J-Lews? Not real worried though about a few chunk yardage plays here and there because of the DLine rotation. We need them to keep feasting to win the B1G and compete in the playoffs. Oh yeah, and our offense is playing pretty well...we have playmakers everywhere. Throwing the ball down field and confusing the shit out of opposing defenses is a thing of beauty.

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