Scheme was awful. Tackling was atrocious. The defensive line is not aggressive enough. Zero pass rush whatsoever. Why can't we blitz? That last tackle attempt by Gilbert summed it all up. We are soft.

My opinion is we have too many 280lb + defensive tackles. Having all these 5* are great but lining them up 4 wide without speed rushers on the outside does not work.

I hate to single anybody out, but Gilbert attempted the "look Mom, no hands" tackling technique twice that I saw. I only played football for 4-5 years in middle and high school. But I was taught how to wrap up when tackling during the first year, and I never forgot. I just.... smh

dp

If they were as good as advertised it would work. They just aren't. They're billed as 5*, but reality is revealing they are 3 and 4* performers.

Not terrible, we're pretty solid on the dline, just not elite. Maybe a couple of the guys will become 5* performers as they mature, if they give a ****.

Zero edge rush ability. That's why we need to bring a corner blitz every now and then. Our big d line can stuff the run but they are going to shred us all season if we can't pressure the QB.

jaxisback said:

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If they were as good as advertised it would work. They just aren't. They're billed as 5*, but reality is revealing they are 3 and 4* performers.

Not terrible, we're pretty solid on the dline, just not elite. Maybe a couple of the guys will become 5* performers as they mature, if they give a ****.

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I reject this diagnosis. They aren't being developed and coached well. There is just no way we see guys like Harold Perkins or Anthony Hill completely dominate as freshmen while our guys are "not as good as advertised". Every single team in the country wanted these guys, it isn't just coincidence that we happened to land ONLY busts.

They're not "busts", they're just not elite.

I could turn your logic around. Doesn't seem to matter which coaches we bring in, they still play average.

Bear in mind, I'm not absolving the coaching, it's bad.

Urkin is so bad we need NFL Pro Bowlers across the board to have an average defense.

Reed McDonald 92 said:

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I hate to single anybody out, but Gilbert attempted the "look Mom, no hands" tackling technique twice that I saw. I only played football for 4-5 years in middle and high school. But I was taught how to wrap up when tackling during the first year, and I never forgot. I just.... smh

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Won't make highlight reels that way.

jaxisback said:

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They're not "busts", they're just not elite.

I could turn your logic around. Doesn't seem to matter which coaches we bring in, they still play average.

Bear in mind, I'm not absolving the coaching, it's bad.

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It does matter though. How can you say it doesn't matter?

Look at what happened when Elko took over beginning in 2018.

• 2017: We allowed 30.7 ppg -> 87th ranked scoring defense out of 130 D1 teams
• 2018: 25 ppg -> 47/130 (Elko year 1)
• 2019: 22.5 ppg -> 39/130 (Elko year 2)

Those rosters, specifically from 2017 to 2018, were largely the same. Hell, Elko got Daylon Mack (a former 5* DT who was a BUST his first 3 years here) drafted in the 5th round after a strong senior season.

Coaching absolutely matters. Further, good coaching is almost always apparent immediately, which is why Durkin should have been fired last season.

I've never seen a good team that could not tackle well. Should be easy to correct but probably won't…

NOBODY tackles well anymore because they don't tackle much in practice. We ARE ESPECIALLY BAD at tackling and have VERY LITTLE PASS RUSH.

Mack was not a bust. He had flashes as a freshman but just had inconsistent play until senior year.

Off_The_Wood said:

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jaxisback said:

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If they were as good as advertised it would work. They just aren't. They're billed as 5*, but reality is revealing they are 3 and 4* performers.

Not terrible, we're pretty solid on the dline, just not elite. Maybe a couple of the guys will become 5* performers as they mature, if they give a ****.

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I reject this diagnosis. They aren't being developed and coached well. There is just no way we see guys like Harold Perkins or Anthony Hill completely dominate as freshmen while our guys are "not as good as advertised". Every single team in the country wanted these guys, it isn't just coincidence that we happened to land ONLY busts.

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This guy gets it.

We don't have a true edge pass rusher that is twitchy and can give an OT trouble. We can't do anything about the guys we have on this current roster. However, we do have enough overall Defensive talent to create more problems than we are creating. Durkin has to be more creative in his scheming for pass rush on passing downs, its really that simple. If the 3 to 4 linemen aren't getting to the QB then he has to get a LB/Safety/Corner in the mix with 5 or even 6 coming. He has to disguise his looks better, and be willing to send 5/6 from different positions on the field to keep the Oline and QB off balance. That has simply not happened yet. If he is not capable of being creative with 5/6, especially on 3rd down, then he has to go..... It's that simple.

AND, our secondary has to cover a little better and tackle A LOT better....

Reed McDonald 92 said:

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I hate to single anybody out, but Gilbert attempted the "look Mom, no hands" tackling technique twice that I saw. I only played football for 4-5 years in middle and high school. But I was taught how to wrap up when tackling during the first year, and I never forgot. I just.... smh

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Yep, it isn't as if wrapping up is something that takes years and years of training or coaching, it isn't a difficult concept either. Maybe they think the technique they employ looks cool, don't know.

As far as tackling, Bravian Rogers missed a huge 3rd down tackle in the 4th that set them up for a TD. He literally tackled air.

They are playing how they are coached. It is the scheme. It shut down Jimbo when he was defeated at ole miss so he actually thinks it is genius. He thinks only a genius shut could shut him down. He is not humble enough to admit his mistake and Fire Durkin. That along with his guaranteed money will prevent him from correcting a mistake everyone can see. So much talent wasted by these coaches.

Well, they're not too bad, they only gave up 77 yards rushing. Not much of a pass rush but we need some blitzing LBs. I would say scheme, that involves blitzing LBs.

In fairness, sometimes the ball carriers are very fast, powerful and twitchy and quite difficult to tackle depending on the angles and positions etc. Credit goes to the ball carriers talent !

Magpie said:

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Well, they're not too bad, thy only gave up 77 yards rushing. Not much of a pass rush but we need some blitzing LBs. I would say scheme that involves blitzing LBs.

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How about some stunts or angles, etc by the down lineman? It's nothing but bull rushes and a match to see who is stronger.

Pathetic.

Its coaching. These guys are 5* talents, but do not develop good techniqur or practices. Lack of use of hands on pass rush, coaching. Wrap up - coaching. Even E. Stewart on offense getting up field is coaching.

Elko did more with less because the emphasis on tackling and fundamentals was there.

bigdaddygriffin said:

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We don't have a true edge pass rusher that is twitchy and can give an OT trouble. We can't do anything about the guys we have on this current roster. However, we do have enough overall Defensive talent to create more problems than we are creating. Durkin has to be more creative in his scheming for pass rush on passing downs, its really that simple. If the 3 to 4 linemen aren't getting to the QB then he has to get a LB/Safety/Corner in the mix with 5 or even 6 coming. He has to disguise his looks better, and be willing to send 5/6 from different positions on the field to keep the Oline and QB off balance. That has simply not happened yet. If he is not capable of being creative with 5/6, especially on 3rd down, then he has to go..... It's that simple.

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The question is WHY don't we have any good edge rushers? Why? Recruiting must suck.

Multiple times in yesterdays game thread I wrote to WRAP UP tackle. That is fundamental tackling. I can't stand watching a defender try to hit a ball carrier hard enough to knock them down. Many times a hard hit will ricochet the ball carrier a different angle but he will continue running. Wrap your arms around the ball carrier then drag his ass down.

Go get Aaron Glenn

You may reject it. Consider this, bad coaches have high performing units all the time WHEN the talent is elite. John Chablis is an example, when LSU had elite athletes his defenses were outstanding, here, not so much. Same with Kingsbury and Sumlin on the offensive side. Not great coaches, but with Johnny, Evan's and Mike Sherman's offensive line, they were fantastic.

Our defensive coaching is terrible, but it's not like Durkin has never had a good defense when his talent is far superior to his opponent. How do you think he became ahead coach in the first place.

We have a multi-fold problem. The elite talent isn't showing up and the defensive staff is dreadful.

SirDeofWood said:

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Zero edge rush ability. That's why we need to bring a corner blitz every now and then. Our big d line can stuff the run but they are going to shred us all season if we can't pressure the QB.

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This

The fundamentals just looked
off and this was
exacerbated by a poor scheme against Miami. Too many YAC.

Magpie said:

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Well, they're not too bad, they only gave up 77 yards rushing. Not much of a pass rush but we need some blitzing LBs. I would say scheme, that involves blitzing LBs.

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If memory serves, the "Blitz Brothers" and many more of our historically best pass rushers were LBs, hybrids, or tweeners. It's really pretty simple. If 4 DLs aren't pressuring the QB, gotta add blitzers until it gets done.

We keep saying we don't have any edge rushers but I haven't seen anything new to prove that. We say 26 is too slow so try him on the edge and see what he can do. Try to find our Micah Parsons. We just keep trying the same thing over and over.

jaxisback said:

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If they were as good as advertised it would work. They just aren't. They're billed as 5*, but reality is revealing they are 3 and 4* performers.

Not terrible, we're pretty solid on the dline, just not elite. Maybe a couple of the guys will become 5* performers as they mature, if they give a ****.

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this is true

and what I've been posting for a while.

where is the Myles Garrett-equivalent among all these 5-star d-linemen?

true 5-stars dominate along the line of scrimmage

DJ Durkin's bend but don't break defense that allowed just 21.17 points per game last year imploded yesterday. Our defense allowed 451 total yards (374 passing and 77 rushing) and 41 points, and that is unacceptable. Our pass rush has been weak, but our secondary struggled in pass coverage and missed too many tackles.

our problems start and end with DJ "Disney" Durkin.
I've never seen a worse-coached team of equal talent.