This will be the best defensive game of the year

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Rosemountian

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NON-SPREAD

As much as people hate to admit the spread works, the best defensive game of the year so far was against USC (taking into account that the Defense was never on the field against MTSU). They picked up half of their yards on two plays (long pass, long run). The common factor between USC and WI is that neither run the spread. When you have a young defense that gets confused easily, non-spread teams are much easier to play. The fact that Wisconsin is going to line it up and pound us into submission bodes well. At least we will line up correctly. Not a ton of things you can do out of Wisconsin's formations. Not saying it'll be a great defensive performance by any means, but it will be the best of the year.
 

Our cornerbacks have to creep up on the WRs though. That killed us against NW. Can't give guys 7-yard outs all day (and then miss the tackle). Can't we get any LBs in the passing lanes? Seemed Lawrence did that a few times last year. I don't think we've made a QB check-down all year. The primary route always seems to be there.
 

How are you going to quantify this upcoming 'great defensive performance'? Total yards allowed? Points scored?

I'll be more than happy if we can hold Wisconsin's TOP down to normal levels (30-35 minutes) and the score under 30. We do that, we have a chance.
 

50PoundHead said:
Our cornerbacks have to creep up on the WRs though. That killed us against NW. Can't give guys 7-yard outs all day (and then miss the tackle). Can't we get any LBs in the passing lanes? Seemed Lawrence did that a few times last year. I don't think we've made a QB check-down all year. The primary route always seems to be there.
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They don't throw a ton of 3step stuff. They are play action and 5 or 7 step stuff. Play action is what I'd be most worried about.
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
How are you going to quantify this upcoming 'great defensive performance'? Total yards allowed? Points scored?

I'll be more than happy if we can hold Wisconsin's TOP down to normal levels (30-35 minutes) and the score under 30. We do that, we have a chance.
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I didn't say it will be a great defensive performance. I said it'd be the best of the year so far. I will quantify it by counting how many times we are still getting our alignment set on the snap of the ball. If it is less than 15 times, I will say it is the best performance of the year. (We were still getting aligned correctly at the snap 16 times in the USC game, and in the other games we haven't been as good as that).
 


Rosemountian said:
I didn't say it will be a great defensive performance. I said it'd be the best of the year so far. I will quantify it by counting how many times we are still getting our alignment set on the snap of the ball. If it is less than 15 times, I will say it is the best performance of the year. (We were still getting aligned correctly at the snap 16 times in the USC game, and in the other games we haven't been as good as that).
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My bad - I meant how would you be quantifying this 'best defensive performance'.

Alignment is definitely important, but smart, disciplined, athletic play can make up for lining up slightly out of position. I'm more concerned with post-snap play than pre-snap, but that's just me.
 

I think the key will be 3rd down conversation rate. Can they get a stop when they need to get a stop. Can we get the stops needed to get a one or two score lead?
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
My bad - I meant how would you be quantifying this 'best defensive performance'.

Alignment is definitely important, but smart, disciplined, athletic play can make up for lining up slightly out of position. I'm more concerned with post-snap play than pre-snap, but that's just me.
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You are correct that talent can overcome being out of position a little bit.

2 problems:
1) They don't have the talent to overcome lining up incorrectly a little bit
2) How far they are from lining up correctly is not remotely close to "a little bit"

I will worry about post snap play once post snap play is relevant. At this point, there are many plays where they are not even giving themselves a chance.
 

Hoping to the football gods that Anthony Jacobs learned how to squeeze down the tackle and take on the trapping blockers from the whuppin he took last year.
Formula for stopping the wisky running game:
Squeeze the tackle down, shed, and penetrate into the backfield, take on the trap/fullback, shed, tackle for loss.
If the D line can do this we win, LB's clean up runs and any backs/TE's leaking out on playaction, safeties and corners play the deep pass and clean up any run alleys.
 



Ole said:
Hoping to the football gods that Anthony Jacobs learned how to squeeze down the tackle and take on the trapping blockers from the whuppin he took last year.
Formula for stopping the wisky running game:
Squeeze the tackle down, shed, and penetrate into the backfield, take on the trap/fullback, shed, tackle for loss.
If the D line can do this we win, LB's clean up runs and any backs/TE's leaking out on playaction, safeties and corners play the deep pass and clean up any run alleys.
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nicely done!
 

so after all this is the greatest defense in years talk now a just lining up properly at least 15 times is considered an achievement.

yes quite impressive!
 

Rosemountian said:
NON-SPREAD

As much as people hate to admit the spread works, the best defensive game of the year so far was against USC (taking into account that the Defense was never on the field against MTSU). They picked up half of their yards on two plays (long pass, long run). The common factor between USC and WI is that neither run the spread. When you have a young defense that gets confused easily, non-spread teams are much easier to play. The fact that Wisconsin is going to line it up and pound us into submission bodes well. At least we will line up correctly. Not a ton of things you can do out of Wisconsin's formations. Not saying it'll be a great defensive performance by any means, but it will be the best of the year.
Click to expand...

That Northern Illinois spread attack was pretty tough to stop.
 

Ole said:
Hoping to the football gods that Anthony Jacobs learned how to squeeze down the tackle and take on the trapping blockers from the whuppin he took last year.
Formula for stopping the wisky running game:
Squeeze the tackle down, shed, and penetrate into the backfield, take on the trap/fullback, shed, tackle for loss.
If the D line can do this we win, LB's clean up runs and any backs/TE's leaking out on playaction, safeties and corners play the deep pass and clean up any run alleys.
Click to expand...

Real Football Talk Seal of Approval
 



scools12 said:
so after all this is the greatest defense in years talk now a just lining up properly at least 15 times is considered an achievement.

yes quite impressive!
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No, not lining up correctly 15 times.
Lining up incorrectly less than 15 times. ;)
 

josh087 said:
That Northern Illinois spread attack was pretty tough to stop.
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If you are the coach of a dumb football team, you would rather play a team that packs it into the box as opposed to a team that has guys all over the place. The motions really throw teams off. I had not really thought about the fact that Wisconsin flops their TE's a lot, so it may be a rough week after all.
 

Rosemountian said:
If you are the coach of a dumb football team, you would rather play a team that packs it into the box as opposed to a team that has guys all over the place. The motions really throw teams off. I had not really thought about the fact that Wisconsin flops their TE's a lot, so it may be a rough week after all.
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I see what you're trying to say. Basically your point is that since the Badgers feature the power run game, there is less liklihood that the Gophers are going to give up a big play TD. And since they are less likely to give up a big play, it is more likely they can stay close to the Badgers. And it makes sense.

Unfortunately this defense is vulnerable to the pass, the run, the QB, the RBs, etc. It really doesn't matter what play Wisconsin runs because we will not be able to stop them, just like we haven't stopped anyone all year despite the type of offense they run.
 


Plus this team will huddle up and come to the line. No-huddles have really hurt us also.
 

I agree with everything in this thread. Two big points:

1) Our defensive coaches like to sub a lot. Teams like NW and NIU don't allow you to do that. Thus, guys like Jewhan Edwards either don't play much or play way too much. Wisconsin is a different animal.

2) One thing we do have up front is some size. Edwards and Kirksey are good players...I'll argue that all day. After watching the first few weeks, I'm not sure about the ability of some of the other guys, but at least Jacobs, Hageman, and KGM are big bodies who aren't likely to get physically dominated for long stretches.

I won't argue the point that we're shaky at LB and DB right now, which ultimately will probably lead to some big plays (both in the run and pass game), but I do like our D's chances of playing at least relatively well tomorrow.
 

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