Defense 2013

[dirtysouthpony]

I think the criticism of the defense today is a bit harsh. We held a top tier AAC team to 28 points. This has been our best game of the year from a points allowed perspective. I'm watching Alabama get worked the LSU offense. Just like Johnny Paycheck did earlier this year. (I think Johnny had 500 yds. Of offense in that game. Is Bama a bad defense? What team is playing "good" defense right now? Our biggest problem is red zone scoring.

[WildHorse]

Agreed. We struggled on third downs, but overall, our defense did some good things, and it was encouraging to see some young backups contributing: Zelt Minor (who is going to be a beast), Nick Reed, Andy McClenehan, Gareth Riley Ayres, Shaquille Randolph (played pretty well today), Ajee Montes ... I think our defense will be pretty good next year, despite the loss of Rambo, Pope, Asker, etc.

[Big Hoss]

We are going to sorely miss Acker. I think he's as close to a shutdown corner as we've had in my dozen years as a STH.

[JasonB]

I actually disagree on this one.

Tuberville made a really good adjustment. The only way we were stopping them on any drives was mistakes and negative plays - penalties, turnovers, or we would get a big sack.

So, they adjusted, and went to a really conservative scheme in order to eliminate the negative plays, and we could not stop them.

Randolph has really struggled this year. And Sanders is just horrible in coverage. When he lines up on the same side of the field as Parks, the QB doesn't even bother to look at the Acker side of the field. They just cut the field in half and make easy decisions.

That said, the defense has way too much talent to consistently allow this number of points.

[CenTXpony]

Their OL dominated our DL... plus we couldn't stop a swing pass to save our life. I felt Cincy played very conservatively and still moved the ball. Had they not ran it so much they could have put up more than 40.

[dirtysouthpony]

I'm not saying that the defense was without fault today. They did what our defense did last year. 28 points is a good game for our defense. Our coverage problems are the main issue on defense. D line player pretty good. I liked the deeper rotations today. Ajee looks like he might be a difference maker and Zelt is going to be big time. Tuberville is a defensive coach with an SEC mindset. They definitely imposed their will in the second half.

[SMU_Alumni11]

Yeah as I'm fine with 28 points from the enemy, they shouldn't be able to push us back 5 yards every play. I mean you have to change it up somehow. When I saw their offensive line was more dominant than our defensive one, I knew the game was over when we got behind...

[jpe747]

It was obvious to me that our defense played better...but...they couldn't stop the opponent when they needed to. They particularly couldn't stop the run. The defense stayed on the field much too long - not allowing SMU's offense to take their shots. Gilbert looked good...the receivers looked good - with few exceptions. Had we stopped them and gotten the ball back and scored we would have won. Had we kicked field goals we would have won. Had we made one more drive (that we didn't) we would have won. Had we made a first down instead of having to kick a field goal, we would have won.

"If 'if and buts' were candy and nuts, we would all have a Merry Christmas." - Dandy Don Meredith.

[Lebanese4Life]

they shouldve scored 35. Took a knee near the goal line at the end of the game

[PonySnob]

Moral victories were great back in 1989.........

[gostangs]

We have been stockpiling moral victories for years. Where do we go to trade them in for gifts and prizes?

[feelthehorsepower]

They ran the ball down our throats and wore down our defense...Tuberville knows that we cannot defend the run and we lack depth to play a full game on defense. They did the same thing TCU did to us on the second half and just killed us on the ground and ate up the clock. We were doing that very well on the first half though, 7-0 in the first quarter and we had possession most of the game...

[feelthehorsepower]

Moral victories were great back in 1989.........

I am tired of these moral victories already...Rutgers, now Cincy! Enough! It's about damn time we start winning, period!

[PonyKai]

We gave up over 450 yards of offense.

We gave up four touchdown dirves over 50 yards.

We allowed CIN to march down the field over 7+ minutes, chewing up 96 yards in the third quarter.

A sack of potatoes in place of Chris Parks would have been more effective. The WR would have maybe tripped over it once or twice.

We could not ever stop the run, even when we absolutely, positively, 150% knew it was coming.

We gave up a 20 yard run on 1st and 20 on the last drive of the game when we absolutely couldn't.

We gave up the 4th and 1 run for a 1st down even though Stevie Wonder knew they were going to run the ball to end the game.

In the last 10 minutes of the game, there was absolutely no adjustment in defensive scheme to address the run deficiencies.

Chris Parks was abused so badly yesterday it stopped being funny, even morbidly.


But no, we had a great defensive game.

[blackoutpony]

Stlouy is right. I'm not so sure why y'all think our defense played well. It's not like Cincinnati is Oregon.

But I guess that's what you get with an undersized lime that mason was so adamant would be really good this year. A wise coordinator adjusts the scheme to fit the profile of the players you have. I have so far seen very little, if any of that.