Sentinel Defense Story

[hammb]

Offense wins games; defense wins championships.

Yep...

We've been 37-12 (I think) in the past 4 years, and not one championship

[Falconfreak90]

Not the best news to hear.

Crossley has been in the program for a few years now....what is the problem with grades?????

This isn't the kind of news I wanted to hear.

Hopefully, we have guys step up where needed.

[kdog27]

No surprise to me. Great player, no doubt, but sometimes a gamble at the safety spot will cost you the big one down the field. Once they catch you sleeping, it can go for a homerun. It may look like the corner because they are in the vacinity, but many times not the case.

My take on this is that he was yet another of our defensive players that was not put in the best positions to succeed. Keon is & was a CB. A great CB. A shutdown CB who could cover any WR in this league. Even when he was struggling his sophomore year he was usually in good position, but made some dubious plays when the ball was in the air. His Junior year he corrected that and then towards the end was moved to the safety spot out of necessity because of injuries. While there we found out he was also a very sound tackler.

Now, coach Brandon sees that he's a good tackler and makes the comment that "CBs don't lead your team in tackles" which led to him playing Keon exclusively at safety. That was a major mistake, IMO. Every team in every level of football generally knows that you put your best cover guy at CB. Sure he might be your best safety if you put him there as well, but you STILL put him at CB. You could make an argument that CB is the most important position on a defense, and certainly one of the most difficult to fill adequately. Here we took our best DB, who was without a doubt our best coverman, and made him a Safety, because he was a good tackler and could lead our team in tackles from there. That just flat out doesn't make sense. Besides, if your safeties lead your team in tackles your front 7 just plain isn't doing its job.

Beyond that Keon was only above average at safety. He was a gambler. Why? Because he was a CB, with a CB's mentality. CBs can gamble. Safeties cannot. They have to be the last line of defense and have to be there to make a play; they don't have room to gamble. He also went through the entire year without learning that you cannot expect to strip the ball every time you hit somebody. That works okay on the corner when you're trying to pull it out of a WR's hands who isn't holding the ball correctly; it doesn't work so well when you're trying to pull it out of the hands of the RB who has a full head of steam after burning through your front 7 like a hot knife through swiss cheese.

I voiced my displeasure over the decision to move Keon to Safety this past summer, and my opinion did not change after seeing it for a season. We took a potentially great CB, made him a darn good S, and lived with crappy CB play. It just doesn't make sense.

Wow hammb, very well said. I too thought we lost a great deal using him at safety. It is not his natural position, and because of it he made mistakes there that an average player makes. Of course he was not an average safety, he was a pretty good one, but why have a good safety over an exceptional CB? I guess I am just repeating you at this point and I'm not going say it any better than you just did so I will stop.

[FalconKing]

He also went through the entire year without learning that you cannot expect to strip the ball every time you hit somebody. That works okay on the corner when you're trying to pull it out of a WR's hands who isn't holding the ball correctly; it doesn't work so well when you're trying to pull it out of the hands of the RB who has a full head of steam after burning through your front 7 like a hot knife through swiss cheese.

I don't think Jason Wright received this memo prior to the 2003 Motor City Bowl. Keon popping that ball out of his hands was the difference in the game. I do believe he was playing CB for that particular game, but he still popped it out of a RBs hands that had a hell of a lot of steam. He also had a forced fumble in the 2nd quarter.

The guy was just an absolute ball hawk and is going to be tough to replace as a DB. He really deserves a shot at the next level.

[hammb]

He also went through the entire year without learning that you cannot expect to strip the ball every time you hit somebody. That works okay on the corner when you're trying to pull it out of a WR's hands who isn't holding the ball correctly; it doesn't work so well when you're trying to pull it out of the hands of the RB who has a full head of steam after burning through your front 7 like a hot knife through swiss cheese.

I don't think Jason Wright received this memo prior to the 2003 Motor City Bowl. Keon popping that ball out of his hands was the difference in the game. I do believe he was playing CB for that particular game, but he still popped it out of a RBs hands that had a hell of a lot of steam. He also had a forced fumble in the 2nd quarter.

The guy was just an absolute ball hawk and is going to be tough to replace as a DB. He really deserves a shot at the next level.

Yes, I'll give him credit for that, and it was a great play. However, on that play I seem to recall that Wright carried him for about 10-15 yards as Keon was trying to get that ball out. That was also the only time I can remember him forcing a fumble on a RB downfield like that. That was not the only time I saw a RB get additional yardage as Keon TRIED to strip the ball out. It is a gambling play that is not typical of a safety. A safety tries to make the hit, wrap up, and minimize damage. Forcing turnovers is a result of ballhawking on a pass over the middle or a well timed big hit. The constantly trying to rip the ball out of the RB hands is not a play that a true instinctual safety makes.

I don't want to take anything away from him, he is a great player. He was a darn good safety for us. He could've been an exceptional CB. Would you rather have an exceptional CB or a darn good safety? I'd take the CB every time. I don't fault the player for this, I fault the coaching staff that didn't put him in his true position.

I liked Keon as a safety, but I thought he could've been something special as a CB. He was a better CB than Patton, IMO. As for a shot at the next level, I don't know. I don't think he has the instincts to play safety, nor does he have the athleticism to play CB. He could be a decent Nickel/Dime at the next level, but I wouldn't expect much more. He will likely get a camp invite if he wants, but no way does he get drafted. I wish him well at the next level, but I don't see him making a huge impact on the NFL.

[Flipper]

I think Keon's move to safety was borne out of the desire to get his leadership back there. He doesn't have the greatest topline speed, so maybe the thinking was that he'd be more effective as a safety. If he's going to have a shot in the NFL, it won't be at CB.

I think Patton would have been a much better safety than Keon. Patton did a pretty good job on run support form the corner and he closed well on the ball. He didn't do nearly as well trying to race down the field with the speed guys.

[orangeandbrown]

I thought it was because you could run a guy off every play at CB, but a S was in every play.

[hammb]

I thought it was because you could run a guy off every play at CB, but a S was in every play.

If an offense does that they are essentially taking their #1 WR out of the game. That is your goal as a defense when you put your #1 CB on them.

[BGDrew]

Hopefully Brandon is going away from the mind-set of scoring a bunch of points early and trying to hang on for dear life.

[orangeandbrown]

Hopefully Brandon is going away from the mind-set of scoring a bunch of points early and trying to hang on for dear life.

Well, I hope we abandon HALF of that strategy.

[Tswam]

Keon was our best corner and our best safety. With as much cover 2 as we play, I thought playing Keon at safety made sense (even though I thought he was a better corner). In Keon, you had a safety with coverage skills who was in a position to be a playmaker on every play. Carswell was a big hitter but not good in coverage. I realize bashing Jordan and Mayberry is easy, but I thought our corner play was decent when we had a pass rush.

The key to next season's defense is going to be how the younger players step up.

[orangeandbrown]

You know, I come down with Tswam...I like to get him in on every play, and we play lots of zone, so I thought it was OK. I don't remember any coaches talking about it during the season. Keon was a great player, and we had him trying to make plays. Remember, we don't need field position football.

[BelieveNBG]

Geez...this thread is clueless in some areas. In the end, the decision to move Keon to safety was the best for the team. Was he the best cover corner? I don't know, because I've seen him get burnt even when moved to corner this year. Speed was an issue even on the big play from the Memphis receiver. That was one on one cover and he got beat. Was he a good corner? Yes. Was he the best playmaker? Yes...and the best position to make plays from was the safety spot. The guys that were at corner did their job and covered. As Brandon said, many of those problems were the safety. If the corner takes underneath and the safety doesn't get over top, it's not the corners fault even though they may look burned. The best line up was the 4 guys on the field and I think Brandon and his staff have been doing this long enough to know how to put the best players on the field.

I think TSwam has it right.

[hammb]

The best line up was the 4 guys on the field and I think Brandon and his staff have been doing this long enough to know how to put the best players on the field.

Okay then, what is the problem then?

Our defense sucked. Bad. Sure they could make some stops with a 3 TD lead against the likes of Ball State, but when we needed a stop against a quality opponent we sucked.

It is my opinion that in countless ways our coaching staff failed to put their defensive players in the best situations to succeed. Whether it be with drastically undersized DTs or poor play from the CB/S spots, either way it didn't seem like the players were put in the best situations for their ability level. We don't tackle particularly soundly either.

Somewhere along the line this coaching staff has continually failed on the defensive side of the ball. Either they've failed on the recruiting end by not scouting or being able to get the best possible players to come here. Or they've failed on the teaching end by not molding the talent they get into a good enough unit. Or they failed on the scheming end by creating a scheme that best utilizes our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses.

[Warthog]

Hammb, I think Brandon agrees with you based on this quote: "We've got to change the scheme or get better, more disciplined players back there. Maybe they can't do what we're asking them to do"

You said "failed in recruiting". Brandon says we need better players.
You said "failed in teaching". Brandon says they can't do what we are asking them to do.
You said "failed in scheming". Brandon says we've got to change the scheme.

Could you be more right?