Isn't the Defense Usually ahead of the Offense Early On?

[Falcon137]

Where does that article insinuate that the O was so much better than the D?

O had 2 big plays and scored a couple times in red zone O it looks like.
And the D had 2 defensive TD and an interception.

In the end it's BG playing BG. Didn't the D dominate the spring game? No worries 2 days into practice.

You're kidding, right?

Parks takes a swing pass and runs through our D for 40 yards and the score. Then he takes another catch and runs 35 yards for another score. Then two different running backs rip off consecutive 15-yard TD runs.

That sounds all too familar. Our tackling has been a problem for some time. You don't need to be in camp for a month to know how to tackle.

The turnovers the D got are almost expected on the first day of wearing pads and real contact.

I would say tackling would be a problem considering it was the first day in full pads...but thats just me, I wouldn't expect great tackling day one.

[VDub26Falcon]

I gotta go with Rollo on this one 137...these guys have been playing football for how long now? 8, 9, maybe 10 years? I don't care what day of camp it is, by now, as soon as you put pads on you should remember how to tackle. There is no reason the D should be giving up plays like that...the offense should be the one struggling, if anyone is going to struggle.

[hammb]

It’s hard to gauge the defense when they’re not tackling,

While there is certainly a joke to be made here about not tackling for years, don't forget this guys. I'm sure the offense is taking it to the defense, but poor tackling is probably not the reason why. Teams don't tackle that much in camp.

I still think our defense will be lousy. And you could certainly argue that our guys NEED practice tackling. As Ryan mentions in this article, not only is our defense not that great when the starting 11 are on the field we have next to nothing behind most of them for depth.

[Flipper]

The defense isn't nearly as bad as you portray it to be...sure they had some really bad outings last year, particularly in the first half of the season, but down the stretch (witht the exception of the GMAC bowl) they played well against Buffalo, EMU, Akron and Toledo.

Losing the depth on the DL and at LB may be a concern for this year, but to say the defense was completely inept last year just isn't accurate

[hammb]

The defense isn't nearly as bad as you portray it to be...sure they had some really bad outings last year, particularly in the first half of the season, but down the stretch (witht the exception of the GMAC bowl) they played well against Buffalo, EMU, Akron and Toledo.

Losing the depth on the DL and at LB may be a concern for this year, but to say the defense was completely inept last year just isn't accurate

The Toledo game was a great effort against a pretty good offense. The others though? Meh, lots of teams shut down Buffalo, EMU, and Akron...they all 3 ranked in the bottom 1/3 in the NCAA offensively last year.

If we start to see more efforts like the one we saw against UT, maybe I'll start to lay off them, but right now that looks like an anomaly to me. It was an emotionally charged game, on our home turf, against our arch rival who had our number over the last 3 years. Yeah, they can get up and put together a game every once in awhile, but they are still not a group that you can depend on.

We've had too many games over the past few years where our defense completely laid eggs and it's cost us chances at conference titles. Now we've lost pretty much all depth on the front 7. I think our DBs are pretty good, but good DBs are worthless when your front 7 is weak, and I think our front 7 is going to be pretty bad. They've been sub par for years, and now have no depth...I fail to see how they'll be any better this year.

I'd very much love to be proven wrong here, but from what I've seen so far, I don't have much reason to be optimistic about that unit.

[bgsufalcon24]

The defense isn't nearly as bad as you portray it to be...sure they had some really bad outings last year, particularly in the first half of the season, but down the stretch (witht the exception of the GMAC bowl) they played well against Buffalo, EMU, Akron and Toledo.

I'll give you 3 of those four. The defense was ABYSMAL against EMU. Pierre Walker (who the hell??) had about 175 yards and 2 scores on the ground, and they racked up 30 points against us. The only reason we won was because the offense scored 38.

[MarkL]

The defense isn't nearly as bad as you portray it to be...sure they had some really bad outings last year, particularly in the first half of the season, but down the stretch (witht the exception of the GMAC bowl) they played well against Buffalo, EMU, Akron and Toledo.

I'll give you 3 of those four. The defense was ABYSMAL against EMU. Pierre Walker (who the hell??) had about 175 yards and 2 scores on the ground, and they racked up 30 points against us. The only reason we won was because the offense scored 38.

Dude, EMU's offense came on strong late last year and Pierre Walker came on very strong too. And how many points did EMU hang on CMU? If I had more time right now, I'd look up some stats on his last few games rushing and EMU's last few offensive scores but I don't currently have time ... if somebody else wants to, please do so

[cw08]

It's still EMU. It took a late-game drive to beat them. That's not good. Their QB was running on us as well.

[JoeFalcon]

EMU beat Western Michigan and Central Michigan last year and only lost by 11 at the Big House against Michigan.

I'll take a win against a dangerous opponent on the road any day, any time. Maybe we could get picky about style points if it was 2002 or 2003, but not anymore.