Pass Rush

[Indi1006]

Non-existent. Bottecelli made one great move but otherwise it's about as bad as it can get. Post the Karon Riley era I think more than anything else that we've lacked, and there is a lot of things to choose from, pass rush has been our biggest failure year-after-year. It's really difficult to win without one. I thought the D played pretty darn well today, but for making big plays on third down and that was one part Claeys and his horrible play calling and one part pass rush. Our guys stuck their noses up there pretty good on the running plays.

 

[gopherinpain]

Willie Vandesteeg was pretty good. Shede was non-existent again. No way he makes an impact at the next level.

 

[46Gophers]

Willie Vandesteeg was pretty good. Shede was non-existent again. No way he makes an impact at the next level.

Hageman is arguably the biggest disappointment this year. Not anywhere nearly as disruptive as was expected and no pass rush. I saw a few times today when Botticelli was the one being double-teamed and not Hageman. Very disappointing start to the season!

 

[WillieBurton]

Hageman is arguably the biggest disappointment this year. Not anywhere nearly as disruptive as was expected and no pass rush. I saw a few times today when Botticelli was the one being double-teamed and not Hageman. Very disappointing start to the season!

Were you at the game or did you just watch it on tv? If you were there, you would have seen that Hageman played well today. The whole interior d-line played well, in fact. They were not the problem. And if you want to judge him against other players who are supposedly pro prospects, Ra'Shede went head-to-head against consensus top-10 NFL prospect Taylor Lewan only two times (I was watching for this) and beat him both times. But sacks are a team effort and you need coverage, too. If our d-backs covered just a little better - and Gardner had to hold the ball just a beat longer - we could have had a few sacks today. Woulda coulda shoulda. Oh well, on to Northwestern!

 

[El Amin Fan]

Were you at the game or did you just watch it on tv? If you were there, you would have seen that Hageman played well today. The whole interior d-line played well, in fact. They were not the problem. And if you want to judge him against other players who are supposedly pro prospects, Ra'Shede went head-to-head against consensus top-10 NFL prospect Taylor Lewan only two times (I was watching for this) and beat him both times. But sacks are a team effort and you need coverage, too. If our d-backs covered just a little better - and Gardner had to hold the ball just a beat longer - we could have had a few sacks today. Woulda coulda shoulda. Oh well, on to Northwestern!

+1. Good post.

 

[Indi1006]

Were you at the game or did you just watch it on tv? If you were there, you would have seen that Hageman played well today. The whole interior d-line played well, in fact. They were not the problem. And if you want to judge him against other players who are supposedly pro prospects, Ra'Shede went head-to-head against consensus top-10 NFL prospect Taylor Lewan only two times (I was watching for this) and beat him both times. But sacks are a team effort and you need coverage, too. If our d-backs covered just a little better - and Gardner had to hold the ball just a beat longer - we could have had a few sacks today. Woulda coulda shoulda. Oh well, on to Northwestern!

Crazy post. The fellas up front played the run solid but the pass rush was very sub par.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Hageman had a fantastic game today.

It's hard to get a huge pass rush from him in games like today because our DTs need to stay in their gaps so much because of Gardner's athleticism, but Hageman had a really good game today.

The rest of our DL was awful (Botticelli did have a nice play) and our LBs were awful when blitzing. They did blitz, they just got picked up every single time. Our playcalling wasn't too vanilla, we just couldn't beat anyone.

It's also part of playing against athletic QBs. It makes it a little more difficult to rush the passer, even for good defenses. Northwestern really didn't get any push on Miller because everyone had to be so lane disciplined. There is no excuse for our complete lack of a pass rush today, especially from our DEs, but our DTs played pretty well today (stuffed the run and and didn't let Gardner get upfield on them too often). You can't ask for much more than that from them.

 

[gopherdudepart2]

I agree with the assessment that we only get pressure from our DT position

Were you at the game or did you just watch it on tv? If you were there, you would have seen that Hageman played well today. The whole interior d-line played well, in fact. They were not the problem. And if you want to judge him against other players who are supposedly pro prospects, Ra'Shede went head-to-head against consensus top-10 NFL prospect Taylor Lewan only two times (I was watching for this) and beat him both times. But sacks are a team effort and you need coverage, too."

My biggest complaint about the Gopher defense will continue to be the philosphy of the coaching of the defensive ends especially the strong side. We take wide splits in our Gap coverage, use a lot of poor technique(not even good speed rush angles) and we consistently don't see them honor run gap coverage much or even attempt to fill or close off there rush angles and cover down the line to keep the QB in the pocket. Until they either change that or add some more gap responsibility to the ends the linebackers are going to be left out to dry if they cannot beat there blocks one on one.(That said linebackers were eff'ing up yesterday stepping around and outside of blockers again taking themselves out of the play)
#98 and #55 have ability but they have been taking themselves out of a lot of plays by consistently looping around or even going the wrong way. They consistently try to beat there man outside on a speed rush and use very wide rush angles to try and accomplish there goals.(When is the last time you saw an end use a spin move and try to beat a guy back inside?) This is a very diffucult propisition to get to the QB when there getting rid of the ball in 3 to 7 seconds. 1 push by the left tackle with the hand and your even further outside of your lane and consistently you lose 1 to 1.5 seconds. This is simple geomtry guys and called beating yourself like a drum. To me the Michigan line got away with a ridiculous amount of fouls and penalty's the coaches should even send a complaint to the Big10 head of officiating. Gardner had forever and a day back there and he is elusive out of the pocket. That said the Michigan O line was doing more than laying hands( a lot of grab a$$,(literal) Jersery grabbing, hooking the body, and chicken wings and arm bars a lot of blatant holding went un-called) Michigan get's calls in there house no doubt about it,
but yesterday there was an inordinate amount of holding that warranted more than just a few holding calls from that officiating crew.

I agree and think that Botticelli, Hageman(with the exception of the play where he ran the wrong direction and past the QB) and Roland Johnson all had good football games yesterday, we were only getting pressure with the interior of the defensive line.
Our strongside defensive end #55 leaves a lot to be desired in technique, yeah he was going up against Lewan but he takes himself out of a lot of plays with those extremely wide rushing angles and the big loop around plays he attempts all of the time. Vacating the strong side gap as often as we do over there is having a significant impact on the Gophers linebackers ability to come up and fill especially when there expected to play in drop coverage so much.

"But sacks are a team effort and you need coverage, too." This just doesn't apply to the secondary but the linebackers too.

This is an important point, ever since we lost Boddy-Calhoun and with Shabazz going down our corner back position has taken a significant hit in there ability to cover and provide nickle and dime coverage. This might even get to the point where they have to move Thompson or Vareen back to corner
to shore things up because it looks like Travis and some of the other young saftys can handle stepping up and playing more. With the Injury bug hitting, the Gophers are getting thin at the corner back spot.

 

[WillieBurton]

I agree that we are probably going to have to move a safety to corner, especially if Wells doesn't heal up soon. When Balthazar was getting beaten so much yesterday after Wells went down, it looked like they moved Cedric Thompson to corner for a series, with Antonio Johnson and Vereen at safety and Murray at the other corner. We seem to have a few guys with real potential at safety, but at corner we are hurting. I really like the potential of Demarius Travis, too. He can bring the wood and that is something we can use.