I count 7 players out on defense and at least 2 playing hurt.
Cummins, McCulloch, Floyd, Tillman, Green, Thompson, and Brown out. Overshown hurt. Foster is playing hurt.
Along the D line we are in decent shape.
DL class breakdown looks like this: 4/3/1/6
LB is worse. Our only upperclassman LB is out, and of his 2 freshmen backups one is also out. We are also out a freshman MLB.
LB class breakdown looks like this: 1/0/4/6
DBs were a problem area going into the year. We have one senior and 4 juniors in the secondary, and one of them (Brown) is out.
Green and Thompson are also out, and Foster and Overshown are hurt.
DB class breakdown looks like this: 1/4/8/4
The fact is we are very young (and that is no one on this staff's fault) and we had little margin for injuries, and we've had more than our share.
That doesn't excuse our atrocious play. Much of our problem starts with lack of pressure and blitzing too often, and too ineffectively.
Our LB corps is young and thin, so when runners get to the second level, or routes go shallow middle, our LBs get exposed.
And our secondary is just getting exposed. They have the physical tools, but they're not playing well - especially open field tackling. That's coaching, I believe.