Saint Boseph
Five-Star Recruit
Of course the defense is the one giving up the points. My conjecture is that from surface observations, the defense, more often than not this season, has been put in a bad position by the offense. And dissecting it further, the offensive line seems to be the biggest culprit, as I'm pretty sure most of our turnovers have been due to crazy pressure on TM (Ohio state seems like the best example). Gilbert in the first Wisco game and the Ohio State DE were schooling Sirles and hammering Taylor (happened against Idaho State once and last year plenty against South Carolina) which caused fumbles and interceptions in our own territory. We've put up great offensive stats but we still have had horrible average starting field position. With a defense as fragile as we have, I'm just saying we should work around this and not put them in such a terrible position for failure. I saw plenty of instances where Taylor got nailed and it wasn't his fault. I also realize the running backs also missed their fair share of blocks. In ideal world, our defense would be so stout, on par with 09, that no matter where they start out at, they stuff the opposing O. Unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world and it would be wise to recognize our limitations and adjust accordingly. I understand that is much easier said than done.knapplc said:The only reason that offense was quick-scoring was because the defense was porous as a sieve.
I'll agree that the offense has problems and I'll agree that the line specifically could/should be better. But when we're talking "problems this team has," defense is the first and foremost problem, every time.
The absurdity of this thread title warranted a response. There's simply no way to make an assertion like this and not have it laughed off the table.
Edit: Most of my criticisms are towards the O-lines pass blocking as that's where I think Taylor get's pressured into throwing INT's and gets sacked and fumbles. If we're top ten in the country in rushing with some relatively unheralded guys, I cannot take that credit away from them. The O-line's run blocking has been stellar. But when we are in obvious passing situations, the blitzes always seem to confuse us or the D-lineman flat out beat the husker O-line on their pass rush. I think we'll get some good running yards on UGA. I just fear what J. Jones and Ogletree will bring on a pass rush, and I legitimately think there is a concern that they hammer TM so much he gets injured.
Last edited by a moderator: