THIS DEFENSE IS HORRIBLE!!!!

[BGSU33]

I saw this over on FalconBlog and actually LOL at his analogy, but sadly, he's exactly right:

So Coach Babers is a positive thinking kind of guy, which is why he so readily accepted John Wagner's post-game premise that BG's defense won the game by forcing a turnover on the final drive when the game was in the balance.

And that's true to a point. But it is a little bit like a surgeon operating on the wrong limb, forgetting to use anesthesia, dropping an instrument into the body, nicking an artery and then performing CPR to save the patient and taking credit for being a life-saver.

.......

What's more he also pointed that WKU, Wisconsin and UMass all had players set school records against us. Think about that for just a minute.....in three games already this season, three schools set school records. As in most in their history. EVER. And we're not playing teams like UTSA who just started a program a few years ago or ODU who took 50 years off. It begs the question, has another team besides BG ever had this happen to them in NCAA history ever?

[Flipper]

[Pete Segaard]

I saw this over on FalconBlog and actually LOL at his analogy, but sadly, he's exactly right:

So Coach Babers is a positive thinking kind of guy, which is why he so readily accepted John Wagner's post-game premise that BG's defense won the game by forcing a turnover on the final drive when the game was in the balance.

And that's true to a point. But it is a little bit like a surgeon operating on the wrong limb, forgetting to use anesthesia, dropping an instrument into the body, nicking an artery and then performing CPR to save the patient and taking credit for being a life-saver.

.......

What's more he also pointed that WKU, Wisconsin and UMass all had players set school records against us. Think about that for just a minute.....in three games already this season, three schools set school records. As in most in their history. EVER. And we're not playing teams like UTSA who just started a program a few years ago or ODU who took 50 years off. It begs the question, has another team besides BG ever had this happen to them in NCAA history ever?

Falconblog also had a nice graphic of the NIU Championship game roster which shows that 14 players from the defense of that game are currently graduated or injured and not playing now. Also mentions that 3 true freshmen and 6 walk-ons played in the game. No wonder the BG defense is not playing as good as last year.

[Dayons_Den]

I saw this over on FalconBlog and actually LOL at his analogy, but sadly, he's exactly right:

So Coach Babers is a positive thinking kind of guy, which is why he so readily accepted John Wagner's post-game premise that BG's defense won the game by forcing a turnover on the final drive when the game was in the balance.

And that's true to a point. But it is a little bit like a surgeon operating on the wrong limb, forgetting to use anesthesia, dropping an instrument into the body, nicking an artery and then performing CPR to save the patient and taking credit for being a life-saver.

.......

What's more he also pointed that WKU, Wisconsin and UMass all had players set school records against us. Think about that for just a minute.....in three games already this season, three schools set school records. As in most in their history. EVER. And we're not playing teams like UTSA who just started a program a few years ago or ODU who took 50 years off. It begs the question, has another team besides BG ever had this happen to them in NCAA history ever?

Falconblog also had a nice graphic of the NIU Championship game roster which shows that 14 players from the defense of that game are currently graduated or injured and not playing now. Also mentions that 3 true freshmen and 6 walk-ons played in the game. No wonder the BG defense is not playing as good as last year.

But the scheme, THE SCHEME!

[kdog27]

I heard we have a bad defense.

[Flipper]

I heard we have a bad defense.

Really? that's the first I've heard about that...

[gspointer]

Discuss it all you want...my point is that it isn't the best yardstick for judging a defense....it's kind of lazy.

I don't think any of this is worth discussing. The stats speak for themselves. We may be the worst defense ever. Flip try and spin it all you want but we suck!

[BGSU33]

I saw this over on FalconBlog and actually LOL at his analogy, but sadly, he's exactly right:

So Coach Babers is a positive thinking kind of guy, which is why he so readily accepted John Wagner's post-game premise that BG's defense won the game by forcing a turnover on the final drive when the game was in the balance.

And that's true to a point. But it is a little bit like a surgeon operating on the wrong limb, forgetting to use anesthesia, dropping an instrument into the body, nicking an artery and then performing CPR to save the patient and taking credit for being a life-saver.

.......

What's more he also pointed that WKU, Wisconsin and UMass all had players set school records against us. Think about that for just a minute.....in three games already this season, three schools set school records. As in most in their history. EVER. And we're not playing teams like UTSA who just started a program a few years ago or ODU who took 50 years off. It begs the question, has another team besides BG ever had this happen to them in NCAA history ever?

Falconblog also had a nice graphic of the NIU Championship game roster which shows that 14 players from the defense of that game are currently graduated or injured and not playing now. Also mentions that 3 true freshmen and 6 walk-ons played in the game. No wonder the BG defense is not playing as good as last year.

We could have returned zero starers from last year's team and we still shouldn't be giving up the numbers we are. If we starting 11 true frosh out there and this was happening it would be one thing. But we're not.

[Globetrotter]

I saw this over on FalconBlog and actually LOL at his analogy, but sadly, he's exactly right:

So Coach Babers is a positive thinking kind of guy, which is why he so readily accepted John Wagner's post-game premise that BG's defense won the game by forcing a turnover on the final drive when the game was in the balance.

And that's true to a point. But it is a little bit like a surgeon operating on the wrong limb, forgetting to use anesthesia, dropping an instrument into the body, nicking an artery and then performing CPR to save the patient and taking credit for being a life-saver.

.......

What's more he also pointed that WKU, Wisconsin and UMass all had players set school records against us. Think about that for just a minute.....in three games already this season, three schools set school records. As in most in their history. EVER. And we're not playing teams like UTSA who just started a program a few years ago or ODU who took 50 years off. It begs the question, has another team besides BG ever had this happen to them in NCAA history ever?

Falconblog also had a nice graphic of the NIU Championship game roster which shows that 14 players from the defense of that game are currently graduated or injured and not playing now. Also mentions that 3 true freshmen and 6 walk-ons played in the game. No wonder the BG defense is not playing as good as last year.

We could have returned zero starers from last year's team and we still shouldn't be giving up the numbers we are. If we starting 11 true frosh out there and this was happening it would be one thing. But we're not.

100% true. The defense literally can't get any worse. It's the worst defense in the ncaa in two years.

[ohiosportsdad]

For anyone defending this defense or the coaches with comments like...it's a young group, lots of injuries, not many from the 2 deep left from last year, etc. think about these facts. In at least 3 of 5 games this year, at least one player on the opposing offense has set at least one school or conference record against this defense. In those schools or conference histories...againt all of the young, newly coached, injured, or repaired defenses... No one was ever able to accomplish as much as those teams did against BG. If that happens once in a season by a really gifted player, then fine. But 3 of 5 games? And it is also helpful to remember that the kids on defense were recruited a year before Clawson and staff knew they would be moving on for sure. In others words, they thought they could continue playing good defense with these guys. Also keep in mind that Coach Babers said it was the best defense he has been around, and it was able to generally shut down our offense in most practices and scrimmages in the early going.

I have no idea what the problem is or what the answer is, but I do know the coaches are changing things every week to some degree and getting the same results. Without major improvement, this defense could go down as the worst in conference history. Regardless of how the offense plays, terrible defense makes games hard to stomach.

[Falco_peregrinusana]

I think this BG team reminds me of an uptempo Brandon team.... lots of big plays, turnovers. Even those teams would give up 24 points to bad teams. The idea of playing 100 plays a game will wear out an opponent's defense, but it will also wear out your own. In the course of a season, your defense will play the equivalent of 16-18 games worth of plays. Perhaps we will see the number of injuries on our own team spike in a couple more weeks.
This BG team will be an exciting team, and I think we will win 6 MAC games. However, I see a lot of games going down to the wire against less than stellar foes.

[ziggy17]

100% agree.

Babers is in way over his head. In a few months, he has set the program back years. He is and was a failed experiment. We will be lucky to win four games. Toledo will beat us for the fifth straight time.

Okay. Let's just shut down the program too while we're at it...

[footballguy51]

For anyone defending this defense or the coaches with comments like...it's a young group, lots of injuries, not many from the 2 deep left from last year, etc. think about these facts. In at least 3 of 5 games this year, at least one player on the opposing offense has set at least one school or conference record against this defense. In those schools or conference histories...againt all of the young, newly coached, injured, or repaired defenses... No one was ever able to accomplish as much as those teams did against BG. If that happens once in a season by a really gifted player, then fine. But 3 of 5 games? And it is also helpful to remember that the kids on defense were recruited a year before Clawson and staff knew they would be moving on for sure. In others words, they thought they could continue playing good defense with these guys. Also keep in mind that Coach Babers said it was the best defense he has been around, and it was able to generally shut down our offense in most practices and scrimmages in the early going.

I have no idea what the problem is or what the answer is, but I do know the coaches are changing things every week to some degree and getting the same results. Without major improvement, this defense could go down as the worst in conference history. Regardless of how the offense plays, terrible defense makes games hard to stomach.

I am glad somebody seems to understand this. People like to say we changed the offense, so our defense will struggle to make stops. Also, we have a lot of injuries, so that hurts, too. And yes, it does. BUT, we should not be the worst defense in the nation over the past 2 years when you have teams like Miami, Eastern Michigan, and Idaho getting destroyed constantly.

People also say these games are exciting. I admit, the Indiana game was exciting. But, when you have a repeat of that game but it's against UMass, it's not quite as exciting. In fact, I was watching that game and shaking my head in disbelief at the fact that we had to play neck-and-neck against that team that could only manage 2 wins over the past 2 years. I expect us having to go blow-for-blow against an Indiana or against conference foes like TSUN and NIU, not against UMass. Will we also be trading touchdowns with WMU and Kent this year? That'll be a sad day.

[Schadenfreude]

Youth and injuries have hurt the defense, according to John Wagner.

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/424598" target="_blank

[Sprowsl]

Didn't Babers say that this was the best defense that he has ever been around? Sounds like horrible coaching to me.