beerad12man said:
A change in philosophy due to personnel being better. We basically relied on our front 4 all night against max protection, and don't have the pure cover guys to do that if we don't get home, which we didn't. I think we overestimated our fronts ability to get pressure, and over-estimated our coverage against them and came in with a poor gameplan that didn't help those DL and DBs out.
Last year, we knew we needed to go bend but don't break with our youth. We were multiple. Yes, the 3-man front HELPED us as I argued with many how much worse things could have been. The Miami game was exhibit A.
We gave different looks. Were multiple. We sacrificed a little in the run game to give numbers on the back end and keep teams off the scoreboard. It was much harder for teams to sustain drives and hit big plays lasat year than it was for Miami with the approach we came in with Saturday night. FYI, our run defense was always going to be bad with that much youth, but our scheme made it worse, all the while making the total defense better. Just go back and watch the LSU game. We played 4-2-5 19 of 33 snaps in the first half. We dropped guys like Sylla/White in a 3-3-5 look 7 times. When it was obvious passing downs, we brought in M Harris/White/Sylla for edge presence. We did none of that against Miami. It was as if we thought we could man up better this year and it bit us in the ass. Clearly, we can not.
Unlike many on here, I believe Durkin did an okay job in 2022 with the hand he was dealt. Terrible run defense, but total defense and scoring defense was solid, and with the youth we played, those numbers were mostly expected. But Saturday night, he did a horrible job scheming up any kind of help for our DL. Offense was 90% the issue last year. This year, it was basically the exact opposite, where defense was 90% the issue.
We are unsound vs the run not only by alignment but also by assignment and in addition by personnel
The Run:
Go watch how we play counter in this game vs Miami. The end crashes inside and the DB, that he has playing that extra backer position because he refuses to take one of the 6 DBs off the field, squeezes inside the pullers getting cut off as well and by doing that... cuts off the other backers from scraping over the top.... it's bad .... really bad football and the moment we play someone who runs counter, GF, power, dart, wham, and any other power run concept we are going to get ripped.
When he goes with his hyper-light box he has the Mike backer playing both the A and B gap with no "check" backer helping on the weak side B gap with flow away… that is unsound as unsound can be.
In addition to that since he has the backers 2 gaps they are always slow to fill, which is why you see them very often catching guards and not attacking their gap…. Because they have 2 and it's a guessing game.
Vs tightend and tightend/wing he does an Under front kicking the strength away from the tightend or extra gap… that is fine if you have a Sam backer in a 40 (4-3) front or OLB in a 50 (3-4) front….. It's a problem when you have a safety as that extra defender to the front. Even when he goes to his 4 down front he tends to have DBs playing those extra backer positions (like counter vs Miami). I can say with quite a bit of confidence those DBs aren't doing inside drills regularly and learning how to fit up counter, power, dart, etc. So its unsound because of alignment, assignment, and personnel
The pass:
He loves playing match man when he drops 8 (does it in all looks but this is the biggest problem).... OC's love that... they can use the DBs rules against them to get the match up they want and have plenty of time to let those plays develop. When we play zone it looks like we rarely practice it, the players look lost and look as if they are still using match ques in their drops, which again is bad because the OC will recognize that and use it against them. He voids the middle of the field all the time, because in his Match 3 concept he has no middle zone dropper… his extra zone dropper is the Nickel to the strength.. Which is why crossing routes have been a killer against him both years. In addition to that he always plays man concepts to the weak side which is why the "wheel" route (Back out down the sideline) is always open. He will match the Back with the backer. Good example of this is vs Kiffin who did tightend-wing into the boundary and ran a drag/climb/wheel scheme. The drag picks the backer, the climb "grabs" the safety's attention because his rules in match are to match that route… and now you have the Wheel running free.
He is unsound
