TxAg76 said:
Alpha Texan said:
TxAg76 said:
Alpha Texan said:
Cajun Ag 86 said:
You have to have a complete team. Not even JFF could win a title by himself. Reed is certainly capable of winning a title with the right team around him.
Okay I agree but I've gotta push back on the term about "by himself." To be VERY CLEAR, Johnny had a really great defense, an elite OL, and a great WR group.
JFF year 1 had a serviceable defense, not great.
A high powered offense can help mask a defense.
JFF year 2 had a sh*t defense.
Big disagree. 2012 wasn't elite but the defense was great. Never gave up 30, both losses coming when opponent was held to 24 or less. We only had 2 close games that year. The defense clinched the game at Bama with an INT. The other close games was Ole Miss, we would've shut them out in the 4th if we hadn't muffed a punt on our 6 yd line to end the 3rd
Gave up 57 to LaTech, barely escaped.
And a "great" defense doesn't give up the points we did to some of those teams in some of those games.
Helps tremendously when an offense jumps out to a big lead and makes the other team be more 1-dimensional .
Didn't say they sucked. They were solid. But we've got different definitions of great, apparently. And that's ok.
The 2012 defense had a very good starting lineup. The only problem is it had zero depth. We only had 14 players that got significant playing time. In the La Tech game, two of the starters (both DBs as I recall) sat it out due to a suspension and the La Tech receiver that got drafted high ate our lunch.
Once that team got rolling, most games started with either the offense scoring, defense getting a stop or vice versa for the first couple of drives to where we got a big lead. Then, the second half consisted of lots of defensive subs going in and they would get shredded and give up lots of yards and points.
Bottom line is you can't look at the overall stats for that defense to talk about the quality of the starting defense.