Chinander Defense

I posted this in another thread but just to reinforce the point, here's their big run in the fourth quarter:

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On first down against Wisconsin it's borderline stupid to use Gifford like that. The blocking scheme goes inside, Taylor goes inside, and instead of having possibly your best form tackler there to be in a spot where can impact a run play - any run play - you line him up and use him in a way that is shown over and over to be ineffective.

 
I think we all need to give this bunch and this year's team some more time to get things going a little better before we start throwing things out with the trash.  

Colorado is unbeaten at 5-0.  Maybe their schedule is not all that much but they can't be that bad.

Troy is 5-1.  We had plenty of issues with penalties, field position, almost without a QB, etc.  

Michigan is 5-1.  We expected to lose to them and we still were suffering the QB issues and first road game, penalties, turnovers, etc etc.

Wisconsin is 4-1 and we expected to lose to them and field position and penalties played a huge part in the difference in that game.

Purdue is 2-3.  with perhaps one of the top 15 offenses in the country.  We didn't play well and stayed within a couple scores.  A handful of plays and or penalties go the other way ?

Combined record of our schedule so far:  21-6.   That's pretty dam good for being mostly the 'weaklings' of our schedule.   

There are plenty of things our team is not doing very well at but that is basically what we've been dealing with for a number of years now.  I think, beneath the surface, there are some positives that are not being given due appreciation because of the winless record and the preseason perception that we would be winning atleast three of the first 5 just because we were supposedly playing the weaker part of the schedule.   Michigan pounded us but physically we were out classed.  The other team may have won the games but we were not 'out classed' despite all the errors, penalties, officiating ?s, key injuries, player morale, etc etc etc.   

I just saying, let's see what happens.   I have a positive vibe, amazingly despite the controversy and rumors, et, that this team is about to make the turn upward.   Repetitions and effort will have a cummulative effect IF the team can retain basic confidence and interest.  I haven't seen wholesale 'quit' or discouragement.   Give them to the end of October and perhaps we will begin to see the new schemes and systems and so start to work.  We have a long way to go but I believe there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is NOT an oncoming train!

 
As someone posted above, the defense was atrocious last year, one of the worst. I guess last years terrible defense gets lost in how bad this year has gone in the win column. But with that, I think Chinander's defense really shines and gels with how well the offense does. How well the overall system runs. His defenses are aggressive and the point is to attack, attack, attack, try to make big plays on defense, knowing and having full confidence that if they mess up, such as giving up a big play, the offense will be able to come out and make up for it. So his defenses I think are good, but they need a good offense to really shine. We won't see what this D can do until the entire system is in place and flourishing. 

I just look at his defenses at UCF, gave up big plays, had penalties, but they had an offense that bailed them out. Also even though big plays were given up, they also made big plays, and actually did extremely well vs Auburn in the bowl game. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't he also an assistant defensive coach at Oregon? So he has the Oregon defense that he learned under and they too were about trying to make big plays, knowing if they messed up they'd get bailed out by their offense.

I think it will just take time, just as this entire process of turning things around, but in the end it'll be great.

 
BIG ERN said:
We gave up 36.4 ppg last year and are currently at 39.2 --- I get he took over a bad unit, but I think at times he doesn't put us in good positions against run first pro-style teams. I was impressed with Chin several times last year so it's not like I don't think he can turn it around. Just that it's going to be tough to find a machine like he had in Griffin which impacted that defense so much along with 1st rounder Hughes. 
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Agree, but.........

Im afraid we have already started to forget that last years D ran from tackles like chicks do from Scottyice.

 
BIG ERN said:
To win the B10 we first have to win the West. The top two teams have been Wisconsin (by far) and Iowa...we are 1-7 against Wisconsin since joining the conference. We have lost the last 3 games vs Iowa. I'm not saying we have to become them by any means, but we have to figure a way out to win those games. 
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Not hard to scheme at all.  Load the box and cover the TEs.  Send the house.  Attack the LOS and get in the backfield.  Live on man coverage. 

 
Undone said:
I posted this in another thread but just to reinforce the point, here's their big run in the fourth quarter:

View attachment 13859

On first down against Wisconsin it's borderline stupid to use Gifford like that. The blocking scheme goes inside, Taylor goes inside, and instead of having possibly your best form tackler there to be in a spot where can impact a run play - any run play - you line him up and use him in a way that is shown over and over to be ineffective.
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Eh ... I guess I don't see an issue here.  That's not exactly a "power" set.  Gifford is EMOL on the weak side.  We have 6/7 guys in the box (depending on how you feel about the guy opposite Gifford) against 11 personnel (effectively) but 8 guys are in tight and a 9th is pretty close.

I think we're lined up pretty well here.

 
Mavric said:
Eh ... I guess I don't see an issue here.  That's not exactly a "power" set.  Gifford is EMOL on the weak side.  We have 6/7 guys in the box (depending on how you feel about the guy opposite Gifford) against 11 personnel (effectively) but 8 guys are in tight and a 9th is pretty close.

I think we're lined up pretty well here.
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I don't think I used the words "power set," not that I want to nitpick over that. But at any rate, in my opinion our formation was better against Colorado and we played better against the run against Colorado. 

If we line up a certain way over and over and get 450+ yards hung on us, do we go the Bo Pelini route and just say over and over that our guys "just aren't executing?" I'm asking in earnest. 

 
Undone said:
I don't think I used the words "power set," not that I want to nitpick over that. But at any rate, in my opinion our formation was better against Colorado and we played better against the run against Colorado. 

If we line up a certain way over and over and get 450+ yards hung on us, do we go the Bo Pelini route and just say over and over that our guys "just aren't executing?" I'm asking in earnest. 
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Sorry, I wasn't intending to quote you on "power".  Just that we're in our base personnel because they are in a pretty base personnel package - as opposed to a "power" set with extra TEs/FB.

I don't think we gave up all 450 yards rushing against this set or this personnel.  I said earlier I think we could use some different personnel packages in certain situations, this just doesn't happen to be one of them.  And if they ran inside, I believe that would be running right towards Barry is IS our best tackler so I think we had our best tackler lined up in the right spot.  

I think we can improve with more experience (this year) and different personnel (future years).  I also think that spread teams just generally don't do as well against power running teams because it's difficult to simulate that in practice.  But you just have to be good enough to a point that you can get more stops than we did and use the similar - but reciprocal - advantage that you have on offense to score more points yourself.

 
Husker_Bohunk said:
Was last years class the first one to have defenders recruited for the 3-4? If so, we might have to wait a couple of years for the defense to accumulate the players it needs to operate successfully.
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Out of our current 2-deep LB corps (ie 8 LBs total), only Caleb Tannor was recruited after Banker was fired and we switched to a 3-4. Avery Roberts was our only 4* LB out of the 2017 and 2018 classes, and he's at Oregon State now. We do currently have a commit from 4* ILB Nick Henrich out of Omaha for the 2019 class, but obviously that doesn't help much here and now.

 
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The one thing I don't understand is how the defense looked so aggressive during the Colorado game and so much like a Diaco defense since then.  It looks like 4 guys rushing and getting attached to the O-line like in tecmo bowl.  What happened to all the blitzes we saw in the first game. 

 
What would be the avg ranking for our first five opponents if they didn’t play us? Maybe the remaining opponents aren’t worried about their YPP since they know it will get a bump after playing us. :bang

 
STL Husker said:
The one thing I don't understand is how the defense looked so aggressive during the Colorado game and so much like a Diaco defense since then.  It looks like 4 guys rushing and getting attached to the O-line like in tecmo bowl.  What happened to all the blitzes we saw in the first game. 
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I think they dumbed down the defense in order to get the other issues (dumb penalties, missed tackles, blown coverage's) resolved.  Once those other issues are resolved we might see that defense again.  

Also, no need to blitz when the opponents are running the ball down our throats.  

 
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Husker_Bohunk said:
So we're probably realistically looking at 2 to 3 years before our linebacking corp gets up to speed.

I might need some whiskey along the way.
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It'll be at least 2-3 years before we have a great linebackers across the board, but I think they can be solid next year. Next year ILB will be Barry and Honas with a year of experience in the defense, and a rotation of Miller, Weinmaster (also with another year of S&C and growth in the defense), and a couple really talented recruits makes me feel a lot better inside. Outside is still a question for sure, but we've got the bodies - someone just needs to step up. That being said I don't think there is a game changer at LB on the current roster, and that's what might take time.

 
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