BG Defense Exposed?

Rollo83 · Post by **Rollo83** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:45 pm

The biggest thing that worries me about today's game is that all future MAC opponents this year will have the game tape to breakdown and see how to attack our defense. I truly believe that some of the offenses in the MAC are going to present more of a challenge to our defense than Minnesota and Michigan State did.

Teams like Kent and Miami will sprad you out and run an offense much more like Boston College rather than a Big Ten team that lines up and tries to pound you. Granted, a MAC team probably won't run it as well as a top 5 team in the nation will like the Eagles did today.

I watched Kent and Miami today and Edleman and Rodobaugh will test our defense big time. I also watched the CMU/Ball State game...and CMU is who we are likely to get in a MAC Championship game. That scares me as well.

I think this will prove to be a great learning experience for Tyler, and help him get better. Remember, this was only his 5th game starting at QB in his career.

I liked what I saw from Bullock and still can't see why he isn't the everydown running back? We even caugtht the ball out of the backfield today. At least he has a chance to break a tackle. Geter needs too much space to make a play IMO.

Falcon137 · Post by **Falcon137** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:54 pm

I can't say whether the rest of the MAC can exploit BG the way BC did today. Obviously no one in the MAC has those types of players. Our D will be able to put pressure on the QB and be able to get penetration. Having a blueprint to beat BG is great but these teams will have to execute, I dont see anyone in the MAC exposing us like BC did today.

Rollo83 · Post by **Rollo83** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:57 pm

I also think the late season road game at Eastern Michigan and Buffalo look a lot tougher after today's games.

MACMAN · Post by **MACMAN** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:59 pm

no way...they just got totally deflated.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:06 pm

Our defensive philosophy baffles me sometimes. We have the atheletes in the back 7 to do some aggressive things on that side of the ball. Press coverage, corner/safety blitzes and the like. Smith and Lewis can hang better than most on an island. And yet we play a terribly vanilla, fraidy-cat style of defense more often than not.

It's very frustrating to watch us get picked apart and not really do anything about it.

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:13 pm

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:Our defensive philosophy baffles me sometimes. We have the atheletes in the back 7 to do some aggressive things on that side of the ball. Press coverage, corner/safety blitzes and the like. Smith and Lewis can hang better than most on an island. And yet we play a terribly vanilla, fraidy-cat style of defense more often than not.

It's very frustrating to watch us get picked apart and not really do anything about it.

Unfortunately, for us to be able to bring a good blitz we need awesome DT's that can move an OL around and get constant pressure. I'm afraid we had not chance of that vs BC's OL today. We were just too small and low on bodies to pull off any blitzes. In fact , I can't recall us ever calling a blitz vs a BCS opponent and it actually working.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:42 pm

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:Our defensive philosophy baffles me sometimes. We have the atheletes in the back 7 to do some aggressive things on that side of the ball. Press coverage, corner/safety blitzes and the like. Smith and Lewis can hang better than most on an island. And yet we play a terribly vanilla, fraidy-cat style of defense more often than not.

It's very frustrating to watch us get picked apart and not really do anything about it.

Agreed. Today's defensive gameplan made no sense whatsoever. We sat back with 7 in coverage and tried to rush 4 (we never got any pressure). Our coverage scheme was VERY soft, never getting up on the line to challenge receivers off the ball.

Essentially the gameplan appeared to be to sit back and not allow any big plays, at the expense of leaving anything under 10 yards wide open throughout the day.

This gameplan can work if you're going against an erratice QB who is prone to gamble and make mistakes. They may force some throws and you'll get some turnovers. This sort of gameplan against a Heisman hopeful? Ill advised to say the least.

It likely made no difference today. BC was nearly perfect on offense, and we were the opposite. Still, this is a prevailing strategy that makes no sense to me.