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

[Rollo83]

Report on Day 2 of camp.

While I'd like to believe our offense is unstopable I think it's more of an indication that our defense still has problems. I don't care how many points we score, unless we can stop someone the MAC Championship will remain an allusive carrot.

I know its early but hope I am wrong.

http://bgsufalcons.cstv.com/sports/m-fo ... 08aae.html

[Zom]

It rather sounds like the starting position is Sheehan's to lose right now. Are any of the other QB's getting any air time?

[VDub26Falcon]

I sure hope not...Sheehan seems to be exuding with confidence so far this camp and I don't see anything slowing him down. After a great season last year, I'm sure he wants nothing but improvement from himself and the team. I can't get a lot from just reading the camp reports but I feel like this team is eyeing a MAC Championship and anything else is an underachivement.

[Rollo83]

I have every reason to believe that our offense will be good and capable of winning a MAC championship.

But you just know that somewhere along the year, our offense is going to sputter a little and the defense is going to have to stop somebody and win a game or two for us. That scares me. I have yet to see a Brandon team play any semblance of a defense. With a thin d-line and undersized linebackers I am not sure we can expect much improvement. Guys like Stanley and Barrow sure would have helped.

[bgsufalcon24]

Report on Day 2 of camp.

While I'd like to believe our offense is unstopable I think it's more of an indication that our defense still has problems. I don't care how many points we score, unless we can stop someone the MAC Championship will remain an allusive carrot.

I know its early but hope I am wrong.

http://bgsufalcons.cstv.com/sports/m-fo ... 08aae.html

Well, looking at the recent history of the conference, the team with the best offense usually wins the title. Central Michigan did in 2006 and 2007, Toledo in 2004, Miami in 2003, etc. The only really anomaly to this was Akron in 2005, but I attribute that more to the fact that 2005 was the suckiest year ever in terms of overall MAC talent.

As good as our offense is, if our defense is only serviceable (ie: holding teams to about 4 touchdowns a game or less) that's all we need.

[VDub26Falcon]

As good as our offense is, if our defense is only serviceable (ie: holding teams to about 4 touchdowns a game or less) that's all we need.

Doesn't that really depend on the quality of the defense we are going up against? We can't give up 28 to a team who's only going to let us score 24. That's my main concern. Our defense is going to have to step up in certain games and I just hope they can!

[Falconfreak90]

I sure hope not...Sheehan seems to be exuding with confidence so far this camp and I don't see anything slowing him down. After a great season last year, I'm sure he wants nothing but improvement from himself and the team. I can't get a lot from just reading the camp reports but I feel like this team is eyeing a MAC Championship and anything else is an underachivement.

+1. The way Tyler has been talking, he seems LASER focused.

MAC Championship or bust in 2008...that's the way I see it. 1992 was some time ago and it's time we got another title under our belts.

554 hours....

[bgsufalcon24]

As good as our offense is, if our defense is only serviceable (ie: holding teams to about 4 touchdowns a game or less) that's all we need.

Doesn't that really depend on the quality of the defense we are going up against? We can't give up 28 to a team who's only going to let us score 24. That's my main concern. Our defense is going to have to step up in certain games and I just hope they can!

Well, how many teams are we going to play that will allow us under 20 points in a game? On paper, it appears Pittsburgh might be one, and Wyoming might be another. That's about it. I don't see anybody in the MAC holding us under 20-24 unless if the offense has a hideously bad day (a la Miami in 2007 where we only scored 14 points). After Miami, Ohio was our next lowest output of the year, with 27. Not surprisingly, those were our two losses in conference. The offense screwed up the Miami game and IMO, there was nothing the defense could do about it. Now the Ohio game might be a prominent example where if the defense could have done anything to stop Ohio's running attack, we could have won. Really I'd pin the loss more on special teams though, those 2 fumbled punts by Charles killed us.

You bring up a good point about the defense having to step up against certain teams, but if we lose to Pittsburgh 17-14, I'm blaming the offense, not the defense.

[hammb]

To answer the title of this post, yes usually the defense should be ahead of the offense at this time in camp. I'm inclined to believe that some of this might be marginalized by A) having all our offensive skill players back from last year, and B) Our defense is trying to regroup from a tumultuous offseason. Still, the defense should be ahead of the offense at this point.

However, given that I think our offense will be pretty good and our defense will likely be horrifically bad? This doesn't really surprise me at all at this point in camp...the defensive unit needs to make major strides. Yeah, I know the offense usually wins the MAC, but you need to have a defense that can at least get the occasional stop or turnover...we haven't had that in recent memory.

[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.

[hammb]

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

You could say that the defense dominated the spring game, but I think all but the most insanely optimistic observer would have to agree that it was more a case of pathetic offense than dominating defense. The offensive unit was trying to piece together 2 starting OLs with a couple guys injured and having graduated 3 of their best.

Pretty sure a random fan could've generated some pass rush in the spring game because most of our OL looked just lost the entire day.

[moneymaker02]

i think tyler has the confidence now because he is THE guy. last year he had gluad breathing down his neck all season and when he transferred i think it was a big relief for him because i think glaud showed when he got the chance that he could have been pretty good. now sheehan knows its his job and isnt going to loose the job just by having a bad game.

[hammb]

i think tyler has the confidence now because he is THE guy. last year he had gluad breathing down his neck all season and when he transferred i think it was a big relief for him because i think glaud showed when he got the chance that he could have been pretty good. now sheehan knows its his job and isnt going to loose the job just by having a bad game.

There is definitely something to be said for that. IMO, Tyler is the key to this season. He had a pretty good year for a true sophomore. Now he needs to back that up by making the type of leap forward you would expect from a Junior coming off a year of starting every game. We need him to be consistently very good if we're going to win this year...the playmakers are around him, he just needs to get them the ball so they can make plays.

[Rollo83]

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.

[BGSU33]

Here's a take by Ryan from camp that touches on the topic at hand:


http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /644005106