Let's talk Defense

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JPIIGopher

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If you are the D coordinator for the Gophs how are you strategizing for this game? Having watched both USC games, it's clear there will be a major size and speed mismatch for our young and wounded Gophers defense. I'm really curious to see how they respond to last weeks humbling by South Dakota.

A couple of questions:

Who on our team is going to cover Ron Johnson? My gawd, this guy is a freak of an athlete! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owFdFwCCWPo

Will Theret's return have any impact on our pass defense? I've never been that impressed with Theret as a cover guy but he does bring leadership and a sure tackler to our D.

Will our front 4 touch Matt Barkley? Brew has really talked up Garin as a pass rush guy, I haven't seen it yet. He got torched on both TD's run by the QB last week, let's hope he contain the end. I would love for our big guys up front to get some pressure!!!

Are our LB's speedy enough to contain the USC RB's? For the first time this year we face a legit rushing threat. I hope Coop, Rallis, and Tinsley are ready for some of the best backs in america!

The coaches really need to do a better job this week. I'm not expecting us to stop USC by any stretch but let's hold them to FG's and mix in a sack or two. I just want to see guys lined up right and not totally blowing coverages!

I know it was discussed in another thread how silly it was for our cb's to line up 10 yards off of SD's receiver and I agree. But in this game I think it will be necessary. I'm all about keeping everything in front of us and not giving up the big play.
 

I think I would bring a lot of pressure in the form of Cooper and Collado. These two guys can both blitz fast and hit hard. I don't see another way of slowing the SC offense down other than doing a little riverboat gambling.
 

How about Tinsley?

year of the gopher said:
I think I would bring a lot of pressure in the form of Cooper and Collado. These two guys can both blitz fast and hit hard. I don't see another way of slowing the SC offense down other than doing a little riverboat gambling.
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I seem to remember him blitzing very effectively against Iowa. It seems like when we send the corners they never get to the QB in time!
 

I would play the 46 defense against USC. It worked well for the Chicago Bears and it should work just as well for us.
 

I don't see any fix in this short a period unless they want to try something funky like a 2-5. But that sort of a thing slows down the learning curve and probably just gets us exploited in another area. Best to take the lumps and hope our O can keep up.
 


I'm pretty resigned to the fact that we are a major work in progress on defense after watching last weeks debacle. I was buying in to the possibility that our young athletic players would be more ready than this. At this point I just want to see progress week to week. Progress for me this week is lining up correctly, tackling, and holding USC to 31 or less.
 

soft corners

I want to see our d-backs get up on the line of scrimmage, jam the USC receivers, and punish them when they catch those 7 yard slants. We need to start playing a defense that resembles a physical big ten defense.
 

chubbygopher said:
I want to see our d-backs get up on the line of scrimmage, jam the USC receivers, and punish them when they catch those 7 yard slants. We need to start playing a defense that resembles a physical big ten defense.
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do you really think our fresmen db's can jam anyone? I think they change from DB to spectator in a hurry.

We're at a pretty basic level right now. First play in the right postition, next tighten it up, etc.
 

I think that one thing we could do a lot better at is making adjustments to take away what is working for the opposing offenses. It is extremely frustrating to see teams run the same play over and over again and nothing is done to compensate for it.

If they are running the slant play and having great success with it then I want the defensive coordinator talking to his team on the sideline about it and I want them to try to change their defense to take it away. It is extremely embarrassing to see the other team run the same play again and again and we just sit there and watch it happen. Wide open receivers, busted coverages -- I am still having nightmares and I don't have to watch the game films!

Funny thing is - I remember the Husker fans coming on here after Cosgrove was hired saying that he refused to make adjustments so if you found a play that worked, just keep running it because he wouldn't do anything to take it away.
 



and last year we commented every game at how well we made adjustments at half time.

Our problem is enexperience.
 

chubbygopher said:
I want to see our d-backs get up on the line of scrimmage, jam the USC receivers, and punish them when they catch those 7 yard slants. We need to start playing a defense that resembles a physical big ten defense.
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That is putting an unbelievable amount of pressure on our front 4 and on those guys. Go youtube Rob Johnson and tell me who on our team could ever jam him at the line and not be embarrased? The answer is..no one.

For me, it really comes down to first and foremost stopping the run. That sounds incredibly dangerous with the way our secondary has been playing. However, it's your only prayer against USC. They will come out and try to establish the run. OUr only hope defensively is to do exactly what Virginia did. They committed to slowing down the run and hoped to get them in decent 3rd down situations and hope they aren't efficient.

The idea that we can press them and bully them around the field is outlandish. I think we'll need to mix in some run blitzes and hope that our DLIne gets a nice push.
 

JPIIGopher said:
I seem to remember him blitzing very effectively against Iowa. It seems like when we send the corners they never get to the QB in time!
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We had better cover guys last year making it possible to blitz more effectively. Last week it was obvious that we couldn't cover anyone making the blitz a horrible idea.

SD was really good at picking-up our lame attempts at the blitz and torched us. This year will most likely be more like the Mason years when he realized we just couldn't utilize a blitzing scheme.

Somone already mentioned this, but we just don't have the players who can jam the receivers at the line. Those players will end-up chasing all day. Maybe this can change over the season??

IMO of course..
 

South Dakota's whole offense was screens, slants, and bootlegs. They had no yards offensively from their running backs and rarely threw downfield. I doubt that this will be the case with USC. They will have a much more diverse offense. I think adjustments will be the key.
 



Honestly our best bet on D for this game is to hope they try the same things SD and MTSU did.
Theret could come up big if they challenge him and try to test his reads. Hopefully Manuel and the LB's did some serious film study this week.

We are not going to shut this O down whatsoever, think Cal last year. They are too fast and too athletic, but if they test us and we can get a few turnovers, we can give our O a chance to win the game for us.
 

With these defensive players you have to play the Glen Mason style Defense. Base sets - almost no blitzes, don't give up the big play, and hope USC makes a mistake or penalty at some point on their drives.
 

Schnoodler said:
and last year we commented every game at how well we made adjustments at half time.

Our problem is enexperience.
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Careful. Statements like this are bound to result in someone pulling up a thread from last October where somebody said the Gopher defensive coaches don't do good adjustments... in post 74 of a 200 post thread.
 



This is one reason I do not like the scrimmages and spring game to pit the #1 against the #2's. Murray W. used to split up maroon with #1 O and #2 D and whites with #1 D and #2 O. That way they are used to playing the best you have, and not a false sense of "boy are we doing well". In practice, I assume( thats dangerous) that they both go against the scout teams mostly. Real games are a shock!
 

I think they were allowed more practices back then. They didn't need the spring game to build cohesiveness.
 

The Gophs need to mix it up without confusion amongst themselves. That in itself may be problematic. But here goes.

I would double up their top WR with Cover 2 type look with the DB pressing and the S deep 1/3. Then I'd put #4 on the TE to take away the middle 1/3. Give Collado at least one shot at a well disguised corner blitz.

Most D's focus on stopping the run first but I envision SC coming out throwing. We need to ready for that.

So a pass rush is a must. I'd put #51 and/or #26 in the mix with the DT's and strong side DE doing some stunts, twists, etc. Edwards or Jacobs gets screen and draw responsibility. Willhite's main task is to get a pass rush.

The offense GP must have at least 6-8 deep patterns ready to go as well.

Anyway......
 

We struggled last year against an ok Cal team that was superior athletically against our Senior Heavy Defense...

Against our much younger Defense I just hope USC isn't as good as USD Offensively...
 

Simple solution. We have a conceal and carry law in Minnesota. Have a legislative special session tomorrow to allow the home team to carry (and use) firearms against the visiting team. I assure you that after a night at the firing range, the Gophers could easily stop the Trojans.
 

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