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Breaking Down the Aggie Defense (Warning: Long)

2,022 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 9 yr ago by Codeno
Codeno
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Welcome to my breakdown of the Aggie defense. As you may or may not know, I started back on week 1 breaking down the Aggie offense. Many of you asked for defensive stats as well but at that time I didn't have the time to do both sides of the ball.

Since it's the bye week I figured I would give it a go and see how things turned out. I'm going to try to churn these breakdowns out as quickly as possible and hopefully catch up by the Auburn game. Again, I am relying heavily on Bob Sturm's ideas on how to look at the defense from a different perspective. I enjoy his take on breaking down the Cowboys and I thought this would help us see how the Aggies are doing against their opponents. Here's a link to Bob's blog for all you Cowboy fans: [url] http://sturminator.blogspot.com/2014/09/marinelli-report-week-1-vs-49ers.html[/url]

WEEK 1 VS SOUTH CAROLINA DEFENSIVE NUMBERS



We will start out by looking at the general stats as I do with the offense. I think we were all very impressed after the game at South Carolina. Although we didn't play outstanding we certainly saw a lot of areas of improvement in certain areas. Other areas were still a concern and as the season has progressed, well, I think you know where I'm heading. One caveat to these numbers: They won't match up exactly to the box score. I wanted to give the true numbers as to how many pass and run plays were called and not include QB scrambles in the "run play" category.

We basically shut down their run game, which was supposed to be a strength of the Gamecocks. We gave up zero "explosive" plays (detailed later) from the run game and held them to 3 yards per carry (including sacks).

The secondary made more than a few coverage errors and we were burned for a few long touchdowns. We also committed 3 penalties (defensive holding/pass interference) that kept their offense moving. This will prove to be another recurring theme with the defense.

SPLASH PLAYS

I'm going to borrow Bob's blurb on splash plays for this opening post. For the subsequent weeks I won't post the entire quote, as it is wordy. To me, this section will shed a lot of light on who is making plays that don't always show up in the box score but make a significant impact on the game. Just a heads up, Myles Garrett is a monster and I'm scared to think what our defense would look like if he wasn't on our team.

Now for Bob's take on splash plays:
quote:
What is a splash play? Well, for purposes of this blog I believe a splash play will include the following: A sack, a pressure that forces a bad throw, and big hit on the QB, and a batted ball that may lead to an interception opportunity. Again, you can see how this leads to subjectivity, but a subjective breakdown is better than no breakdown at all, I have decided. In addition, a splash play will include tackles for loss, a big hit for a short gain, or a stop which is an open field tackle where a player is pulled down on 3rd down short of the marker because of an exceptional effort from a defender. An interception is clearly a splash play, but so is a defended pass that required a great effort. A major hit in the secondary could be a splash play, but I believe that the outcome of the play will determine that. Sorry, defensive backs, but standing over a guy who just caught a 15 yard pass because you think you hit him hard will not generally pass the test on this blog. So, stop doing it.

I am trying to be careful about handing out too many splash plays per game. I am trying to be picky, but too extreme in either direction. When I log a splash play, I will put time of the game on the chart so that if you want to review the same game and challenge my ruling, you are welcome to do so. Also, if multiple players deserve recognition on a single play, we will try to see that as well.

Basically, we are trying to assign a value to making plays on the defense. We don't want to just see sacks and interceptions. We want to see broader definitions of splash plays to assign credit to those who help the Cowboys get off the field in important situations. These rankings will not deduct for negative plays at this point. There are simply too many occasions where we are guessing, and for now, I want to avoid that for this particular idea.

A splash play is a play that makes a major difference in the game. And by keeping it all season long, we will see which defenders are play makers and which are simply warm bodies. We already have our thoughts on both categories, but let's see if we can dig a bit deeper and actually have numbers to back up our claims.

SPLASHES VS SOUTH CAROLINA



2014 SEASON TOTALS

I'll update this section as the weeks pass, but since it's the first week refer to the chart above.

PASS RUSH / BLITZING REPORT

This segment of the defensive study is simply to find out how well the Aggies are doing at getting pressure on the opposing QB.

EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED (+20 Yards)



SACKS AND INTERCEPTIONS



PERFORMANCE AGAINST THE BLITZ

Each week we calculate how opposing quarterbacks fare against the Aggie blitz. Consider this the raw data behind the passing chart.

It was pretty feast or famine on the blitz as we had success when we sent an extra man or two, but we also were burned for two touchdowns. Thompson wasn't a mobile quarterback so when we did get pressure he was never able to elude the pass rush a run for yardage.



BLITZ REPORT

Each week we monitor how often the Aggies send pressure on passing plays. Because I'm strapped for time and I'm playing catch up, I kept this simple and used the term blitz to refer to sending more than 4 pass
rushers on a specific play. Obviously this won't include zone blitzes where we rush 3 linemen and have a linebacker rush while one defensive linemen drops back in coverage. Maybe later in the season I can include those as well but for now this will have to work.

TEAM - # BLITZ - # PASS ATTS - % TOTAL

South Carolina - 11/47 23%



The chart above shows how many guys we sent on each down. We stayed pretty simple but still managed to blitz almost a quarter of the time. This is also the only game so far that we rushed 2 and dropped 9 into coverage, which I thought was interesting.

SUMMARY

I think we can all agree that the performance we saw in week one was fairly unexpected. Our two true freshman played great games considering the opponent and the fact we were opening the college football season. Many others played great but we also saw what appeared to be our best linebacker, AJ Hillard, go down for the season with an injury.

The coverage breakdowns were unsettling and proved to foreshadow things to come but all in all I thought the Aggies passed their first big test of the season. Later in the season I will try to break down plays like I do forthe offense but for right now my main concern will be getting these reports out as quickly as possible. I hope you enjoyed my look into the defense and I'll keep the posts coming as fast as I can write them.

P.S. Please feel free to comment and offer suggestions. You won't hurt my feelings. I'm more worried about settling debates with facts rather than arguing with opinions. I'm also not going to call out certain players
because I feel like that happens enough already.

KilleenAg
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Adding this one to the watch list. What I'm most intrigued with, and I think you nailed it in your post, is looking at some of the more objective things on the defensive side of the ball and not so much a name-calling thread. It will end up being a pleasant change of pace on here. I look forward to future additions to this post, and hopefully it doesn't get derailed like other threads do!
Lukeno
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12thGauge
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NavyAg92
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Thanks, Codeno. Great thread as usual.
MarkPro
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Well done. I enjoy your analysis.
fletch01
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Interesting read.
FriendlyAg
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Analytics, you have em.
jim 78
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Good job but I thought you were going to break it down for the season at this point. It's not pretty.
512Ag
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The easiest way to break down our defense is to put any opposing offense on the field.
Hiyo!
Emilio Fantastico
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At first, I was thinking this was about the Bama game and you had switched from offense to defense since there was no offense in that game. Lol

Again, great thread
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Codeno
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WEEK 2 VS LAMAR DEFENSIVE NUMBERS



SPLASH PLAYS

See my original post for the description of splash plays.

SPLASHES VS LAMAR

Myles dominates the Lamar offensive line and begins to pull away from the other Aggie defenders. He
will soon leave little doubt that he is the best player on the field if he hasn't done so already. A lot of back ups logged significant playing time which led to a ton of new names on the list.



2014 SEASON TOTALS



PASS RUSH / BLITZING REPORT


This segment of the defensive study is simply to find out how well the Aggies are doing at getting pressure on the opposing QB.

EXPLOSIVE PLAYS ALLOWED (+20 Yards)


SACKS AND INTERCEPTIONS


PERFORMANCE AGAINST THE BLITZ

Each week we calculate how opposing quarterbacks fare against the Aggie blitz. Consider this the raw data behind the passing chart.



BLITZ REPORT

Each week we monitor how often the Aggies send pressure on passing plays. Because I'm strapped for time and I'm playing catch up, I kept this simple and used the term blitz to refer to sending more than 4 pass
rushers on a specific play. Obviously this won't include zone blitzes where we rush 3 linemen and have a linebacker rush while one defensive linemen drops back in coverage. Maybe later in the season I can include those as well but for now this will have to work.

TEAM - # BLITZ - # PASS ATTS - % TOTAL
South Carolina - 11/47 23%
Lamar - 8/44 18%
TOTAL 19/91 - 21%

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