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Horrible Defense

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  • #1

    Horrible Defense

    It seems like for the past six years, the UNI defensive motto has been: "Bend and bend some more and let them get into the red zone and then wait for them to either make a mistake and turn it over or let them score."

    In my opinion, that is crappy defense and it showed against South Dakota. My question is I am wondering if it is the players fault or the the coaches? I think its the coaches and I am also wondering what other defenses we could implement? It has got to change soon or we might just end up going 6-6.

    Any suggestions?
    "If you want to bet against this UNI football team, go ahead. But, I'd be very careful."

    -UNI Head Football Coach Mark Farley
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Horrible Defense

    Fire Ben Jacobson!!!
    Oh wait......

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Horrible Defense

      I am not wanting to fire any of the coaches, I just want to see what else we can do for defense. It's pretty obvious that what we normally do doesn't work.
      "If you want to bet against this UNI football team, go ahead. But, I'd be very careful."

      -UNI Head Football Coach Mark Farley

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Horrible Defense

        The defense has struggled and that is puzzling as Coach Farley is supposedly a defense-guy first.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Horrible Defense

          I'm just sayin.... You sure are high on criticizing coaches.... Especially one who was the Eddie Robinson award winner last year. The last thing I want to get on here and read is more "what if we did this," or "why don't the coaches realize if we did this, it would work." Criticize Jake, because he hasn't proven himself, but this team has used the same defense for the past 6 years, and has had a pretty nice success rate.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Horrible Defense

            Last year UNI led like...everyone in defensive scoring, and were like...impossible to run on. The problem is the soft zone we play.

            When we run this soft cover 2, bringing only the 4 dlinemen after the QB and he has all day to find the holes in our zone.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Horrible Defense

              <Begin Rant> The defense has struggled because of the scheme that Farley has put them in for the last 6 seasons. I'm sorry but "bend but don't break" only works if your offense has Eric Sanders wheeling and dealing in the 4th quarter. The defense is the reason that we have had so many close games during Farley's tenure, and thanks to our offensive players and playcalling we have been fortunate enough to pull most of them out of a hat. You take away 5 or 6 of our magic comebacks during Farley's tenure, and we would be looking at Mike Dunbar or worse (YSU, WKU,SIU,EWU,TSU,SIU,UNH to name 7 off the top of my head). Add to that the games that have come down to the wire for absolutely no reason (UNH 05, SIU 07) I like an exciting game as much as anyone, but I'd much rather dominate on both sides of the ball, ala TA's days at the helm. The North Dakota loss in 06 was due to our "bend but don't break" D. You line those two teams up man for man, and we were better, but they picked our zone apart like it was a video game and we didn't have time to make a magic comeback. Do we honestly not have the defensive personnel to match up man-to-man at least once in a while??? We have an all senior defensive backfield, and Thompson is a very fast outside linebacker. There should be no reason that we can't take away the pass a little better than we have in the past. I mean seriously, EVERY SINGLE DB that plays is a SENIOR. And I'm not necessarily holding them fully accountable, but I'd think with that much experience we would either be able to cover the pass man-to-man OR run the 'bend but don't break' scheme without breaking quite so much... Our offense will be fine this season as the line continues to develop, but I don't know that they are going to be able to pull out some of the miracles that we have witnessed the last 3 or 4 seasons without more help on defense. <End Rant>

              Now that I'm done with that, I still predict a good season, but we are vastly overrated at this early juncture of the season given our question mark about the defense and O-line. A playoff bid is within reach, but IMHO, we are going to have to 'upset' a team or two in conference play. SDSU, NDSU, and SIU are all favorites against us at this point in time, again IMHO. Thankfully, we have two of them at home and SIU has a new coach. I still predict a playoff appearance as of now, but I don't want it to be on the road...

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Horrible Defense

                Farley mentioned three things during his post game comments:

                1. Score inside the 20.
                2. Better pass coverage.
                3. More pressure on the quarterback.

                He spent some time talking about 2 & 3. He was not happy at all and promised improvement in 2 weeks. No comments about changes, except in results. So don't expect lots of blitzes in the future. I don't recall UNI being burned much we do blitz, but he's the coach.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Horrible Defense

                  I think if we only rush 4 down linemen...then we need to run a blitz sooner or later whether it comes from LB, S, or CB. I would think that in itself would get more pressure....additionally Ruffin is a stud he is 6 yards up field before the QB even takes a 3 step drop. The blitz would make sense to come up the middle or from the other side.

                  I still think this is the Best DLine in school history....and maybe the best defense. None of the DBs are a lock down Beamon/Talton/Sapp....but they are good.

                  Essentially any team in the country in the perfect weather comfines of the UNI Dome are going to run 4-5 WR sets....and tell their QB to step up in the pocket....or ruffin will take your head off. That is exactly what USD did.

                  I have said this before....I'd rather play on the road. Its hard to play a 5 WR set outside....and nobody is going to run on us.

                  I think we will get this worked out. Long Run...being exposed by a team you can't beat and a team you can beat almost 10 times out of 10 is what we needed going into a 2 week break before conf play.

                  GO CATS!!!!
                  "We're not an ordinary school," said Fort. "We have tradition. We have a good team year after year. We rebuild, and it doesn't matter who we have coming back."

                  dti

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Horrible Defense

                    13 points....boo hoo.
                    Selling a lot of old UNI stuff here: http://www.panthernation.com/showthread.php?t=65762

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Horrible Defense

                      Originally posted by Rob Weiss View Post
                      13 points....boo hoo.
                      South Dakota shot themselves in the foot a few times. It should have been alot worse. And lets not forget, this is a team that we should easily handle. And that was not even close to what actually happened.
                      UNI FIGHT

                      Originally posted by 9YRPLAN
                      iowa sucks, fran sucks, their schedule sucks, iowa fans suck

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Horrible Defense

                        Blitzing is not the answer. If we cant cover a USD offense with 8 guys in the defensive backfield, what makes you think we could cover them with 6? We would just get burned worse. You can't depend on sacking the quarterback everytime. Better coverage is the answer.
                        UNI FIGHT

                        Originally posted by 9YRPLAN
                        iowa sucks, fran sucks, their schedule sucks, iowa fans suck

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Horrible Defense

                          I think we'll find that SD is a damn good team. I was very impressed with their offense and especially their quarterback.

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Horrible Defense

                            Originally posted by 06panther10 View Post
                            Blitzing is not the answer. If we cant cover a USD offense with 8 guys in the defensive backfield, what makes you think we could cover them with 6? We would just get burned worse. You can't depend on sacking the quarterback everytime. Better coverage is the answer.
                            The kid had too much time to throw. I think u're wrong.
                            "We're not an ordinary school," said Fort. "We have tradition. We have a good team year after year. We rebuild, and it doesn't matter who we have coming back."

                            dti

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Re: Horrible Defense

                              The zone was workable when we had the athletes. Dre Dokes picking off passes and Tanner Varner laying the smack down made up for the 'softness' of the scheme.

                              Let's hope we have a couple recruits/redshirts in the pipeline to give us something to get excited about. Because right now the only occasional excitement I have regarding our secondary is also called anger by some definitions.

                              Comment

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