653 Yards Aside.....I Think There Is Hope for the Defense

I keep thinking back to 1997. We had a solid defense that shut down Peyton Manning...that said we couldn't stop Corby Jones and Missouri. We've seen the offense have lousy games. Just so long as the defense and offense don't both have a crap game on the same day...

 
1) Talent -- this is not likely to change. The fundamentals, and other stuff, they might get cleaned up to a degree. It's possible some personnel changes will yield a breakout player. However, I don't think our talent level is as atrocious as the numbers reflect. It's limited, with some upside, but not terrible.

2) Scheme - this can be corrected, and yield great results. UCLA identified a few route patterns we couldn't defend and ran them a zillion times for huge yardage.

 
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This is ultimately our biggest problem. Our defensive rushing statistics over the last few years in yards per carry...

2009 - 2.9

2010 - 3.9

2011 - 4.0

2012 - 4.8 (through three games)
So, tell us again, what point is there in comparing our rushing defense average in three games versus an entire season's worth of games?

 
"1) Talent -- this is not likely to change. The fundamentals, and other stuff, they might get cleaned up to a degree. It's possible some personnel changes will yield a breakout player. However, I don't think our talent level is as atrocious as the numbers reflect. It's limited, with some upside, but not terrible."

I disagree. Talent can be improved by getting some of the slower upper classmen off the field, and we are starting to see that.

 
"So, tell us again, what point is there in comparing our rushing defense average in three games versus an entire season's worth of games? "

If our rushing stats are worse after 3 games than all of last year that is very alarming. The non-conference stats should be the better than the conference games.

 
matthew_m_g said:
Enhance89 said:
This is ultimately our biggest problem. Our defensive rushing statistics over the last few years in yards per carry...

2009 - 2.9

2010 - 3.9

2011 - 4.0

2012 - 4.8 (through three games)
So, tell us again, what point is there in comparing our rushing defense average in three games versus an entire season's worth of games?
Through 3 Games:

2009: 3.3

2010: 3.5

2011: 3.9

I had to do some digging on the NCAA's website to find the archived stats, then going game by game, I took the total number of rushing attempts thru 3 games and divided that by the net total yards gain per rush thru 3 games.

http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/rankings?doWhat=archive&sportCode=MFB

 
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matthew_m_g said:
Enhance89 said:
This is ultimately our biggest problem. Our defensive rushing statistics over the last few years in yards per carry...

2009 - 2.9

2010 - 3.9

2011 - 4.0

2012 - 4.8 (through three games)
So, tell us again, what point is there in comparing our rushing defense average in three games versus an entire season's worth of games?
Through 3 Games:

2009: 3.3

2010: 3.5

2011: 3.9

I had to do some digging on the NCAA's website to find the archived stats, then going game by game, I took the total number of rushing attempts thru 3 games and divided that by the net total yards gain per rush thru 3 games.

http://web1.ncaa.org...e&sportCode=MFB
Here we go:

Final national ranking in regards to rushing yards for teams played in the first 3 games:

2009: Average ranking - 53 (Florida Atlantic - 64, Arkansas St - 83, VaTech - 13)

2010: Average ranking - 65 (Western Kentucky - 46, Idaho - 114, Washington - 36)

2011: Average ranking - 72 (Chattanooga - 87*, Fresno St - 74, Washington - 56) *Rushed for 1588 yards on the season which would have put them 87th among FBS teams and who cares amongst FCS teams.

2012: Average ranking - 38 (Southern Miss - 86, UCLA - 5, Arkansas St - 24) Sothern Miss has only played 2 games.

The rushing defense was pretty amazing in 2009 based on what they did to VaTech. Clearly that defense was better than what has been on the field this year and the past 2, I wonder if they had a player that was just a beast playing then, guess we'll never know.

Is it that they've played better rushing teams or is the rushing defense worse? Think its still too early to tell.

 
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