#83 in rushing defense. #53 in passing defense. Both blah.
In a league that prides itself as the league of defensive prowess. This Hog D is average at best. They are slow and they don’t play in the right places.
From the first game against La Tech it appeared that what I had hoped would be our strength would turn out to be our Achilles heel, “the back 11”. Now, two years in a row, we now can plainly see that the good D of three years ago was the product of three exceptional defensive players……….recruited by coaches gone by.
If there ever was a Defense that played down, it’s this one. Lauded as being heavy laden with juniors and seniors, returning 9 starters, this D is just porous. And now it’s lost its best tackler for the season.
We’re in for a tough remaining six games in the SEC.
Is that we are too passive. The thought, I’m sure, is that our safeties are so bad that we can’t put them in situations for them to be exploited.
So, we basically rush 4, but don’t even turn those 4–the supposed strength of our defense.
We ask them just to bull rush their guy and play gap control. If we blitz, it’s almost always something vanilla with Brooks Ellis, and he often shows it early and the middle is exposed.
So, my question is why not turn some guys lose and try to create some negative plays for the other team?
We will get popped for some big plays, but we are, already. I’m just sick of playing bend-but don’t break and breaking over and over and over.
I’ve seen the safeties brought tight, played deep. No matter where they play, they must tackle. I don’t think moving them has been the issue. It’s tackling. I like Santos Rameriz the best as far as tackling. He needs to get well. Couldn’t go the last two weeks because of a leg bruise.
We mustn’t forget that injuries have wrecked the secondary. I still don’t believe we win last night with Richardson (projected starter) and Tutt (projected contributor), or if Dean and Pulley hadn’t missed time during camp. But, you have to be full strength against Bama or you’re going to be way overmatched. Losing Greenlaw in the game really hurt, though I did feel Eugene played well for getting thrown in there.