Our 3 man front does not seem very fearsome
Not sure I am sold on our 3 man fronts. We are not getting much pressure on the QB and we were getting killed on runs to the boundary. I don't know if we have not learned enough, personnel is not correct or it's an alignment issue. I know one thing for sure is that outside of Mouton, our backers get caught in the wash a lot. Teo from ND was making plays everywhere, that group seemed much more active side to side. I don't know if the extra man in front allowed them to make plays.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:44 PM ^
and to see some tape. I don't think the D-line played as bad as you might think.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:02 PM ^
September 12th, 2010 at 12:13 AM ^
September 11th, 2010 at 10:46 PM ^
I do feel like we struggle to get solid/consistent pressure in our 3 man rush but they played better than I expected. Right now I am struggling to find anything really wrong. It's just hard to be down after a great game like that.
I agree with A2MIKE - wait for UFR
September 11th, 2010 at 10:47 PM ^
This is a much bigger win then UConn was, lets take some time to enjoy this one before we start dogging anyone. Great game, GO BLUE
September 12th, 2010 at 1:18 AM ^
thanks.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^
I pray it gets better every week. Oh please let it get better!
September 11th, 2010 at 10:49 PM ^
One of the reasons I've enjoyed watching our defense so far is its very fun looking for improvement out of the young kids.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
I was really disappointed with the play that Cam Gordon gave up to Rudolph, of all people? Otherwise, I was satisfied with defensive play and it mostly exceeded my expectations. Will need some work for the rest of the season though.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:45 PM ^
His inexperience really showed on that. It'll be nice to get him some experience the next two weeks without worrying about a mistake being fatal.
September 12th, 2010 at 6:40 AM ^
of all people? Rudolph will be the first TE taken in the draft. He's 6'4 260 and fast as hell. He's a mismatch to anyone.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:36 AM ^
I'll start with the bad news: Gordon was also responsible for the ND TD to Smith at the beginning of the second half. There were two receviers in his area and he went *between* them.
The good news is that he was a receiver until spring practice, this was his second game, and these were technical mistalkes that can be corrected thorugh coaching and film, not a demonstration of lack of speed, strength or athletic ability. By next year he should be solid.
On another point, as Brian pointed out, the CBs played well. Floyd did not do as much as I feared.
September 12th, 2010 at 1:48 AM ^
Yeah! Can't wait for Denard to go four digits on OSU!
September 11th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^
I thought the D line did a fine job. They missed a couple tackles, and I have no expectations of pressure when rushing 3, but they were fine. Martin blew up a couple plays early then seemed to get double teamed the whole time.
That said, I thought the mass of bodies in the secondary was fantastic
September 12th, 2010 at 1:21 AM ^
...that 24 to the so-called offensive genius Brian Kelly. Well, how about that call at the end of the fist half BK? and your reliance on the refs?
Bow down the the king, Rich Rodriguez...who today demonstrated how the spread is supposed to be run.
As for the complainers...for heaven's sake, wait at least for the grading and the UFR before the mountain of complaints.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:51 PM ^
They're just trying to keep everything in front of the secondary and let the offense do its job. The coaches would like to bring a lot more heat, but don't feel comfortable letting tight ends catch 95 yard touchdown passes and causing me to throw my computer and fortunately hit a cushion.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:57 PM ^
and why did the TE get wide open for a 95 yard TD pass?
Because we rush 3 against a max protect and let the QB have ALL DAY to throw from his own goal-line.
We should've rushed 4 and blitzed 2. Send 6 after ND. Their OL could NOT handle our pass rush when we went with 4 down with Roh at DE and Mouton/Gordon coming off the blitz.
Rushing 3, dropping 8 into coverage is EXACTLY how you get gashed through the air.
The only way you stop a passing attack is to kill the QB.
We have solid pass rushers. So use them.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:13 PM ^
Honestly, I'll take 24 points every game and run with it. Sorry, but they've done a great job masking the sucking chest wound that is Michigan's secondary.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:35 AM ^
I think the 24 points was a little deceptive. We were +3 in turnover margin and their starting qb was out for almost the entire first half. Neither of those things are going to happen consistently for us.
September 12th, 2010 at 1:24 AM ^
...that's two weeks in a row positive for turnovers...
September 11th, 2010 at 11:13 PM ^
Cameron Gordon was in position but he made a very, very rookie mistake by back pedaling and misjudging the location of the football.
But by all means, go apply for our defensive coordinator since you know exactly what we should have done.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^
September 12th, 2010 at 9:40 AM ^
Shouldn't there been someone else back there in case something like this happened? Even if Gordon had defended it better, it could have turned into a jump ball. Shouldn't someone else be back there?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:47 PM ^
September 12th, 2010 at 3:26 AM ^
Even rushing 4 on that play instead of three could have made the difference. The QB had too much time. I was going nuts. I found myself complaining before the snap - "please GERG don't rush just 3 - you'll get burned."
September 11th, 2010 at 10:51 PM ^
I thought our defensive front did a nice job, but they were 3 on 5...so it's kinda hard to break through. I do recall one blitz in the second half, and it worked. Not sure why we held back on the pressure, but the front guys did a solid job.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
I'd say we did pretty good considering its 7 vs 3 in the trenches.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
before the game started we would have to win in the TO's and we did but the kicking game is atrocious! Calling all soccer players! HELppppppp! We have got to find someone that can kick the ball.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
at home. (I know this will seem like a non-sequitur, but suddenly the record doesn't look nearly so unfavorable as it once did. This team is going to get better and better.)
September 11th, 2010 at 10:53 PM ^
September 11th, 2010 at 10:56 PM ^
It got better when we moved Roh down as a rush DE.
Not sure if that's going to be a permanent look, or just something we do on obvious passing downs. Swap out Banks/Sagesse for Roh.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:58 PM ^
September 11th, 2010 at 11:00 PM ^
I think with the backup QBs in it was fine but then putting the more talented guy in against it and bad things happen.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:01 PM ^
i agree you can't expect too much when 5 are blocking 3. for a 3 man front, they can get some pressure.
but what this means is that with an empty backfield, we have 8 players guarding 5 receivers, yet Crist threw for 277 yards. there is still room to improve, but the defense has been playing better than most people expected. i'm optimistic for the future.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:13 PM ^
then lets drink the version that does not make us hallucinate and loose touch with some obviouse pass rushing deficiencies. whether they be talent related or scheme related we are not getting good push up front. awesome to get the win while we work out some of the bugs though. GO BLUE!
September 11th, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
I think we needed to make sure to have eight in coverage, so the three man rushes were just a one time thing and we probably won't see that very frequently in the future.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:09 PM ^
that it is a 3 man front, so any sort of push is meant to bring a double team not a sack/TFL. Our backers may not be playing great, but Mouton I thought was outstanding (except for the whole wrap up Allen for a loss instead he gets a first play). Also, Ezeh appeared to be not as lost. I didn't see much out of Herron who I think was in, and Roh made at least two TFLs that I can remember. Also, the dline did get pressure, maybe not a sack, but pressure, which in a 3 man front is all we can expect. I felt they actually did a better job this game, against a more diverse offense. What killed us this game is the same as what killed us in the 2nd half of the UConn game, which I think were counters and traps w/pulling guards up the middle. How we defeat that in a 3 man front I don't know.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:31 PM ^
Moutan has been phenomenal so far this year. He fills the hole and brings the wood.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:34 PM ^
Wasn't that the tagline for a famous porn film of the '70s?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:34 PM ^
is what she said.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:12 PM ^
It's just that when you rush only three guys against 5 blockers you frequently get zero pressure on the QB, which sometimes results in 95 yard TD passes to tight ends. (Ya listening to me, Gerg?)
Also ND's o-line is extra huge.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:21 PM ^
You just created back-to-back negative threads on this glorious day. Either get drunk and celebrate this win, or go away until next week.
September 11th, 2010 at 11:22 PM ^
Considering the number of uncalled holds on the ND O-line, I think our D-line had a decent day.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:12 AM ^
the dline were able to collapse the pocket, but it seemed like they were always facing away from the quarterback, or just could never get a hold of him. it seemed like there were times when roh was in position to make a play, but wasnt always aware of where he was in relation to the quarterback. and by the time he would spin around and zero in, crist would be just releasing the football.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:13 AM ^
we had 3 takeaways. Id say the Dline had something to do with that.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:51 AM ^
would you? i feel like on all three of the interceptions the qb's had a lot of time. two of them were just dumb throws where they stared down the recievers. the third was a tipped pass
September 12th, 2010 at 1:56 AM ^
Disagree. I thought Mouton's interception was a great job of reading the QB's eyes and Mouton did an EXCELLENT job of getting into the right position and holding his ground as a full speed ND receiver crashed into him at the point of ball-in-hand impact.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:40 AM ^
We had quite a few Pass blocks that helped force some 4 and outs.. I was impressed with the pressure early on, but once ND had momentum we couldn't do shit..
September 12th, 2010 at 12:47 AM ^
let's be serious, richrod doesn't sit on the side-lines thinking "man i love it when dayne crist has an hour to throw the ball". he is thinking "gee given the apocalyptic secondary situation I have, i'd much rather give up 8 yard under routes than 70 yard bombs over the top of my ridiculously inexperienced secondary. let's rush 3, pray, and then hope denard can put up 500 yards of offense"