Defense!!!

[JPIIGopher]

I figured the Defense deserved it's own thread after that performance. That's back to back solid performances going to back to last years effort against Illinois. There were a few missed assignments but overall loved the intensity. Hats off to Derrick Wells for making some great individual plays!

 

[Tater]

They did seem competent and had some nice 3 and outs. Better than the Swiss cheese we've seen in the recent past.

I think the D-line could still improve more at shedding blockers and jamming the run.

 

[Coolew01]

They did seem competent and had some nice 3 and outs. Better than the Swiss cheese we've seen in the recent past.

I think the D-line could still improve more at shedding blockers and jamming the run.

I think whole defense could use more practice at shedding blockers

 

[JPIIGopher]

.

I think the D-line could still improve more at shedding blockers and jamming the run.

Absolutely. This D Line is a definite work in progress for stopping the run, however I love that we are getting to the QB. One step at a time.

 

[nsmike]

UNLV's O Line, was supposed to be one of the better ones in the Mountain West Conference, so I think the D Line did really well. The only negative I saw on defense, other than penalties, was Rallis seemed to have trouble shedding blocks.

 

[EE_Gopher]

Has anyone seen the official defensive stats?

 

[upnorthkid]

UNLV's O Line, was supposed to be one of the better ones in the Mountain West Conference, so I think the D Line did really well. The only negative I saw on defense, other than penalties, was Rallis seemed to have trouble shedding blocks.

agreed. he didn't seem able to ever get to the ball, especially near the LOS

 

[mcrow]

The defense has a lot m ore potential to be good than the offense (given the QB).

However, the linebackers were not good lastnight and you almost never heard their names called. Too many CB tackles there in the run game means DL and LBs are not getting it done on the run. Pass defense as a whole was pretty good, pash rush was dominant at times and coverage overall was good.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I thought Reeves played a solid game. He seemed to be near the ball a lot.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

I was unable to watch the game and I'm brand new to this forum. Very excited for the season. Dissapointed the game was close, but glad we won.
Encouraged to hear the defense was better. Maybe UNLV is a little better than we thought before the game?

 

[Sportsfan24]

See I differ greatly in regards to the d-line. As someone who was openly critcal of their play last season (I attributed it mostly to youth); I thought they got a lot of pressure and push.

Admittedly it was against a lower level of competition than they will face once they get to Big Ten play; I still give them credit because in the past we have seen them be non existant against even this level of competition. For the most part they kept the backers clean and THANK GOD we saw db's, particularly the S's playing off the line of scrimmage in pass support. This was made possible because of the play of the d-line.

On a side note:
I was not happy to see Vereen being used in platoon fashion. I'm sure he didn't agree to go from being a starting corner to a platoon player at S?

 

[3399]

I guess I have to disagree regarding the performance of the defense. It was apparent very early that the QB was going to have a rough night throwing the ball and that he is not very mobile. This meant that the Gophers tried to outnumber UNLV at the line of scrimmage because they did not have to respect the pass. Still, Cornett went for over 100 years sand was over 5 yards per carry. Randle also ran well with a good average yards per carry. When they play a team that can throw and they can't cheat at the line of scrimmage, this defense will have games where they give up A LOT of points. If they can't stop the run against UNLV, look out against Big Ten teams. My two cents.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I guess I have to disagree regarding the performance of the defense. It was apparent very early that the QB was going to have a rough night throwing the ball and that he is not very mobile. This meant that the Gophers tried to outnumber UNLV at the line of scrimmage because they did not have to respect the pass. Still, Cornett went for over 100 years sand was over 5 yards per carry. Randle also ran well with a good average yards per carry. When they play a team that can throw and they can't cheat at the line of scrimmage, this defense will have games where they give up A LOT of points. If they can't stop the run against UNLV, look out against Big Ten teams. My two cents.

But I think we did show flashes of shutting down the run. I believe UNLV had just 21 total rushing yards in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Also, overtimes generally favor the offense and that's where they got a good percentage of their rushing yards (48). Through the first four quarters, they had just 111 yards rushing and a 3.8 yards/carry average. Not great by any means, but not too bad either.

The biggest thing I look at is did we get better, and I think we looked better overall compared to last year. We put pressure on the QB all night. We created 3 turnovers. That didn't happen last year, even against teams like New Mexico St. Hopefully it will continue over the course of the season.

 

[mcrow]

I guess I have to disagree regarding the performance of the defense. It was apparent very early that the QB was going to have a rough night throwing the ball and that he is not very mobile. This meant that the Gophers tried to outnumber UNLV at the line of scrimmage because they did not have to respect the pass. Still, Cornett went for over 100 years sand was over 5 yards per carry. Randle also ran well with a good average yards per carry. When they play a team that can throw and they can't cheat at the line of scrimmage, this defense will have games where they give up A LOT of points. If they can't stop the run against UNLV, look out against Big Ten teams. My two cents.

Yes, unlike most people here, you and I realize that you have to take any successes n last night's game with a grain of salt given you are not seeing a very good offense beyond the running game which looked decent. Their passing game was turrible, so while it was good to see the Gophers do well against the pass and OK against the run it's not like were playing a B1G level team.

I think the game to watch in the non-conference schedule is the Western Michigan game. I think WM is going to have a good team this year, if they get past Illinois and the Gophers they might run the table. So, IMO, if the Gophers can be WM (pending how they look VS Illinois) that would bode well for the rest of the season. These first two games the Gophers should really win and win easily.

 

[EE_Gopher]

The defense is better. 2010 was the worst. The 2010 defense would give up long touchdowns where the opponent would jog into the enzone untouched. The screen pass against South Dakota was probably the worst thing I've ever seen. I had been concerned about the inexperience at safety yesterday, but they did quite well (3 int's).

 

[Gophers507]

“The hits wore me down,” Sherry said. “I haven’t been hit in two years. The first ones kind of woke me up and in the second half I started to feel it.”

YES

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

I guess I have to disagree regarding the performance of the defense. It was apparent very early that the QB was going to have a rough night throwing the ball and that he is not very mobile. This meant that the Gophers tried to outnumber UNLV at the line of scrimmage because they did not have to respect the pass. Still, Cornett went for over 100 years sand was over 5 yards per carry. Randle also ran well with a good average yards per carry. When they play a team that can throw and they can't cheat at the line of scrimmage, this defense will have games where they give up A LOT of points. If they can't stop the run against UNLV, look out against Big Ten teams. My two cents.

Cornett gashed them for more than I would have liked, no doubt about it.

But it's certainly not like he pounded the defense all night. 42 of those yards came on one scoring drive in the quarter, with another 18 coming on ONE TD run in OT, 30 total in OT. Holding their primary ball-carrier to 60-some yards up until 5 minutes left in regulation isn't a horrible defensive showing, considering UNLV will largely be a RUNNING team this year.

I couldn't have been much happier with the defense (other than the late hit penalties). Steady pressure all night, they pounded him when they got the chance, batted down balls, 3 INT, a number of 3-and-outs.

With more 3rd down conversions by the Gopher offense, UNLV should have had fewer possessions and the Gophers still held UNLV to barely 200 yards in regulation, on their home turf. That's pretty stout.

 

[mcrow]

Cornett gashed them for more than I would have liked, no doubt about it.

But it's certainly not like he pounded the defense all night. 42 of those yards came on one scoring drive in the quarter, with another 18 coming on ONE TD run in OT, 30 total in OT. Holding their primary ball-carrier to 60-some yards up until 5 minutes left in regulation isn't a horrible defensive showing, considering UNLV will largely be a RUNNING team this year.

I couldn't have been much happier with the defense (other than the late hit penalties). Steady pressure all night, they pounded him when they got the chance, batted down balls, 3 INT, a number of 3-and-outs.

With more 3rd down conversions by the Gopher offense, UNLV should have had fewer possessions and the Gophers still held UNLV to barely 200 yards in regulation, on their home turf. That's pretty stout.

According to a preview I read a UNLV's OL is supposed to better than Boise St's so it might be that we did well to hold them to what we did. We'll just have to wait and see how they run the ball against other teams but I feel like they could have done better.

 

[mplsbadger]

Cornett gashed them for more than I would have liked, no doubt about it.

But it's certainly not like he pounded the defense all night. 42 of those yards came on one scoring drive in the quarter, with another 18 coming on ONE TD run in OT, 30 total in OT. Holding their primary ball-carrier to 60-some yards up until 5 minutes left in regulation isn't a horrible defensive showing, considering UNLV will largely be a RUNNING team this year.

I couldn't have been much happier with the defense (other than the late hit penalties). Steady pressure all night, they pounded him when they got the chance, batted down balls, 3 INT, a number of 3-and-outs.

With more 3rd down conversions by the Gopher offense, UNLV should have had fewer possessions and the Gophers still held UNLV to barely 200 yards in regulation, on their home turf. That's pretty stout.

+1. The offensive stat line for UNLV was much worse last night during regulation than a year ago at Camp Randall.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

According to Kill and Cooper/Rallis on the Sports Huddle, the defensive game plan was centered around the Pistol formation and UNLV didn't use it much, if at all. Kill said that Huack went back to "Montana" days, something they weren't prepared for. Makes the defensive performance even more impressive.

 

[husker70]

The defense is better. 2010 was the worst. The 2010 defense would give up long touchdowns where the opponent would jog into the enzone untouched. The screen pass against South Dakota was probably the worst thing I've ever seen. I had been concerned about the inexperience at safety yesterday, but they did quite well (3 int's).

No you need to go back further to find The Worst Gopher Defense. With help from Eric Thrall's definitive web site, that honor goes to the 1983 team. Yes the team that gave up 84 to Nebraska, but also gave up 69 to Ohio State, 38 to Indiana, 56 to Wisconsin, 50 to Illinois, 58 to Michigan, and 61 to Iowa. That year they gave up 518 points for and average in 11 games of 47 points a game. That was the worst, and I was there to witness it.

 

[ryanlee1]

I thought the defense looked really good-lots of pressure on qb, tackled well, and coverage was good.

 

[nsmike]

No you need to go back further to find The Worst Gopher Defense. With help from Eric Thrall's definitive web site, that honor goes to the 1983 team. Yes the team that gave up 84 to Nebraska, but also gave up 69 to Ohio State, 38 to Indiana, 56 to Wisconsin, 50 to Illinois, 58 to Michigan, and 61 to Iowa. That year they gave up 518 points for and average in 11 games of 47 points a game. That was the worst, and I was there to witness it.

Please I've tried to bury that nightmare!

 

[John Galt]

Keep this in mind regarding the defense. Claeys philosophy is to have quick D-linemen that can get up the field and make plays in the backfield. He will error on the side of getting pressure on the QB at all costs, which will no doubt leave some space for RBs if they get past the line of scrimmage. This isn't Kevin Cosgrove's defense where the D-linemen are being asked to occupy a blocker so a LB can make the tackle.

 

[mkAz]

I was happy with the defense, granted UNLV's QB was making his first start but they returned their entire OL from last year and Cornett looks to be a pretty solid RB. All in all, I thought they played well. My main concern on defense was honestly how they'd replace Kim Royston and I thought that Derrick Wells play alleviated that concern.

 

[jovs]

Wilhite got pressure on the quarterback at times, haven't seen that the last couple of years much from the defensive line, hope he can do it against B1G competion.

 

[EE_Gopher]

Please I've tried to bury that nightmare!

1983 was my junior year. 1982 had prepared the fan base for what was to come. Still the shock of walking out out of that South Dakota game was something different...

 

[WhyNotNow?]

I thought the pressure was much better an agree Wilhite looked good. Hope we can keep that up and see QB pressures sacks on a regular basis.

 

[Dr.Don]

I thought the pressure was much better an agree Wilhite looked good. Hope we can keep that up and see QB pressures sacks on a regular basis.

We will pass that astute comment to Coach Kill, as I am sure he has never thought of that.

 

[GopherOhana]

According to Kill and Cooper/Rallis on the Sports Huddle, the defensive game plan was centered around the Pistol formation and UNLV didn't use it much, if at all. Kill said that Huack went back to "Montana" days, something they weren't prepared for. Makes the defensive performance even more impressive.

this is what i was thinking. if the defense was this good when game planning for a different offensive scheme then it seems JFK and the other coaches have moved the players to a higher level of fundamentals. really liking how this team is progressing