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I left Buffalo Wild Wings at halftime so I didn't see the second half and would appreciate the answer to this thought and question.

The two pieces to the D, and it's been mentioned frequently on this site, was that the corners were playing 10-15 yards off the ball and we didn't make adjustments at halftime, which seemed apparent by the continued WKY onslaught.

My question is this; were we not blitzing in either half to get the pressure on the apparent Heisman Trophy calibre QB the Hilltoppers have and did we do anything different in the secondary in the second half?

I think the O is going to be great, but if this coaching staff refuses or is unable to make adjustments in the second half we will be seeing totals nearing 100 points in many games, but I fear a .500 record at best as we beat up on the MAC lowlifes.

ZW, I was amazed at the lack of blitzing. I kept screaming at the TV...and that playing off the line 10+ yards needs to go yesterday. That QB just kept throwing screen passes and with our crappy tackling, it was 15-20yards a clip.

I blame some of the poor tackling on the soft coverage. It constantly put our players out of position to defend the screens. You can't blow up a screen from 10 yards back. How often did we see 1, maybe 2 db's get setup behind a screen and have no choice but take a desperate dive around a blocker at the ball carriers ankles? I blame the loss mostly on a lack of adjustments on defense.

This type of defensive scheme will beat up inferior teams as you are basically forcing them to make a play and relying on your offense being more efficient. In the case of WKU the plays were "easy". What is frustrating to me is that (IMHO) this type of D is kind of "juvenile" in nature and in the first half it showed. In the second half it was just stupid. You do not win titles playing like this. No D- no title. I cannot watch this type of pansey ass approach. If you can't man up, line up and play you do not deserve to win. I will not be in the stands watching this type of approach should it continue.

Having said that I give Babers credit. He owned the performance and accepted responsibility. That is what a man does. How the this approach plays out moving forward will tell us much about where we are headed. If we keep up with backs that far off the line- I just cannot watch that crap.

To echo the statements others are making, it was just extremely poor tackling and equally as poor coverage/schemes (or lack thereof). If that performance came from a team that say finished 2-10 last year and had holes all over the place that needed filled, no we still wouldn't be happy with what we saw, but it could've been expected. But to see a championship team come out with as many key pieces as we have returning and put up that kind of performance, especially on defense, was pitiful.

But most pitiful was our game plan defensively as we saw what they were doing and we just didn't mix or change anything up to counter it. Babers came out during camp boasting about how good this defense was, and not only was it exposed, it was thrashed. But a lot of that blame needs to go right to the coaches. Yes there were a lot of missed tackles, but even where those tackle should've been made we were essentially giving space for cakewalks first downs to them. Six of seven passes alone on the opening drive went for first downs. We clearly looked like we were trying to avoid getting beat over the top, and all they did was take everything that we gave them underneath and exploited the hell out of us with it.

If the defense doesn't improve we are going to have to outscore teams to win. But you can't expect us to go out and score 60 points a game week in and week out. Our defense clearly isn't as good as it's been in years past, but it's a hell of a lot better than what we showed and the playcalling needs to be as well.

Thanks for the thoughts…there have been a few posts crediting Babers for taking responsibility - it was the only thing he could do though. We know our guys can tackle, they did last year. We know our guys can create plays. They did last year. There is a lot of blame to go around, but if the coach isn't going to take responsibility for that disastrous effort then ohbejollygoodness we'd be in an even bigger hole than the one we're in now. All that to say, it's the least he could do.

Although I did like his quote that we win as a team and lose as a team and didn't put the blame squarely on the D. Because if that starts happening in the locker room than put a fork in our season cuz we'll be done.

Haven't had a chance to view the tape yet, but I commented several times as to how good WKU's downfield blocking by other WR's, helping clear the way for big gains. Our seats in endzone didn't give us the best angle but I could see a LOT of white jersies knocked down in addition to the obviosly soft coverage and missed tackles.

Class of 61 wrote:Haven't had a chance to view the tape yet, but I commented several times as to how good WKU's downfield blocking by other WR's, helping clear the way for big gains.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I can't remember ever being more impressed by blocking by receivers. Again and again, key blocks by Hilltopper receivers produced yards after a catch by their teammates.

Shifting gears: I tend to agree with BGSU33 that our coaches bear at least some responsibility for not coming up with a way to neutralize what Western Kentucky was doing, particularly on outside screens. But I would also be interested in hearing what people have to say about our defensive backfield. Do we have less experience back there than we realize?

I've been meaning to look into what we lost in the backfield, but I just haven't had the chance. To the extent our DBs are inexperienced, that does shift some of the responsibility away from Babers and his staff. He can only coach with who he has at this point.

Even if that is true, why not at least try something else. You're giving up a first down on 75% of their pass plays anyway. What is it going to hurt to to press or blitz once in awhile just to see how they respond? The only chance we had of getting WKU off the field was if they made an unforced error because we sure as heck were not going to cause a mistake in that defense. The defense he put out there was the exact opposite of what he proclaimed it would be (gambling and aggressive).

Our DB's are NOT inexperienced....Hunter, Jude, Ward and Sutton all have played a number of games over the years. Scheme might have been an issue...execution might have been an issue...experience (with the exception of true frosh Johnson) is not an issue