Defensive playcalling

[JTrain]

How does it work this season? Is it Papuchis, Bo, a collaboration or something altogether more complex?

 

I've re-watched the first half so far and almost every time we were willing to try a blitz, or at least a fake blitz or any creative attempt to confuse the freshman QB or generate pressure outside the front four, something positive happened. Even when the blitz wasn't really getting there, the QB saw it and got nervous-- didn't see a wide open receiver or just threw a bad pass. There was one play we got burned (a dime corner blitz, I think, where Compton couldn't get out to cover the halfback swing pass fast enough) but overall the results were good. And yet we mostly stayed in the base defense with the linebacker(s) sitting four yards off the line and let the QB have his way.

 

Not that there was really anything we could do about the 300+ yards rushing, but I definitely believe we could have cut a big chunk out of that 300 passing, and maybe forced an interception or two, or a sack-fumble that could've swung the game in our favor. I think we'll probably see over the course of the season that Hundley isn't anything special-- not a bad QB by any stretch but an athletic freshman with potential that will make a lot of mistakes and poor throws and probably not throw for 300 yards against any of the decent Pac-12 teams.

[chamrocck]

Agree. Hundley is good but we made him look all world. The lack of pressure on the QB is a systemic problem with defense that has been going on now awhile. I have been a supporter of Bo thinking "well, at least we will always be able to play strong defense" and let's let the offense come along. The offense has arrived. TMart is playing much better, this WR corp is pretty darn good, Abdullah did a commendable job in absence of Rex yesterday, O-Line...eh good and bad still. The defense is the weak link on this team lead by an awful D-Line. What is Bo giving us?