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So, our defense is garbage

hayden_horn

By hayden_horn
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USNALonghorn

USNALonghorn 5078

Posted
Posted
37 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Remind me when to come back here when Bama holds them to 17 in a 31-17 win, and A&M hold them to 24, losing 24-10.

I don’t see Bama holding them below 28. There’s a lot of tape out there for a modern OC to look at as far as scoring on Saban goes. 

Lol at the aggy score though.

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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8 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Remind me when to come back here when Bama holds them to 17 in a 31-17 win, and A&M hold them to 24, losing 24-10.

We also had pretty much no film to work with so those better defenses will have a slight advantage to begin with. Combine that with no pass rush and weak corners this is what you get. Regardless of how bad our defense was I wasn’t expecting him to be that good/accurate yet and their WR’s were as good or better than advertised. 

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6th Street

6th Street 6508

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5 hours ago, justhookit said:

We also had pretty much no film to work with so those better defenses will have a slight advantage to begin with. Combine that with no pass rush and weak corners this is what you get. Regardless of how bad our defense was I wasn’t expecting him to be that good/accurate yet and their WR’s were as good or better than advertised. 

No pass rush and weak corners will bode well against OU

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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Posted
21 minutes ago, Steamboat1874 said:

So our d-line has zero sacks and zero QB pressures in the first 2 games.

Can't be good.

Our d line isn’t going to get much of either barring a true freak playing the position because of the alignment we run. 

Herman references this in his press conference with regard to defensive line stats and what a positive impact from our DL looks like. We’re very much a DL occupy blockers and Skinny dudes apply pressure and clean up the mess behind.  

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sith_horn

sith_horn 2407

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Posted (edited)
49 minutes ago, 6th Street said:

No pass rush and weak corners will bode well against OU

Not entirely true about the pass rush. There were several instances of holding and blocks to the back that went uncalled against LSU where the D line would have pressured and possibly sacked. Absolutely right about the corners though. The biggest factor most of the time was how quickly Burrow got the ball out though. I reviewed some of the game, not all of it. There were a few occasions where blitzers could have blocked his pass but they were too intent on getting to him rather than busting the play because they were so close to getting him. Burrow's release is really quick. Once he saw his receiver it was out like that and in sync. TO never adjusted well, but the weak play in the secondary was part of the reason. Blitzing extra guys wasn't working, but neither was giving the corners extra help most of the time. His 3rd and 17 call was an act of desperation. Sterns didn't have a very good game either. TO needs to emphasize fundamentals.

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gmr548

gmr548 16617

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Posted



Not entirely true about the pass rush. There were several instances of holding and blocks to the back that went uncalled against LSU where the D line would have pressured and possibly sacked.


The next flag B12 refs throw for holding on OU will be the first.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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ClubWhatever

ClubWhatever 12159

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1 minute ago, Mossyhorn said:

Herman evaded that whole issue in his presser. Which isn’t surprising. What is surprising, why reporters didn’t ask about blitzes, particularly on 3rd & 17.

He was directly asked if he could do it over again would he still call the 3rd and 17 blitz.  What do you think he said?

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19053

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3 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Our d line isn’t going to get much of either barring a true freak playing the position because of the alignment we run. 

Herman references this in his press conference with regard to defensive line stats and what a positive impact from our DL looks like. We’re very much a DL occupy blockers and Skinny dudes apply pressure and clean up the mess behind.  

Yeah. No one is surprised by this, but we need more LBs.  Our Dime can actually hold up against the run for the most part, but rushing 2 DBs every play just isn't going to work.  If we could base out of Nickel by finding one of Gbenda, Tillman, C. Johnson, or Mitchell who can credibly play the other ILB spot, it would free up Ossai to rush more (Orlando should already be rushing him more anyways) and make it so Shark or the Mac can blitz more and hopefully beat the RB blocking, so that we're less dependent on having a completely free rusher. Shark, especially, is a very good blitzer and could approach Steven Taylor sack levels at UH if he was freed up to do it more often.

BJ Foster is a good blitzer, but our Nickel gets killed if it's either Jones or J. Thompson.  Thompson has still been underwhelming and the thought of him having to play against OSU is not fun. 

I hope Orlando watches a lot of ISU film the next couple weeks. We need to do more of what they do. Their scheme isn't drastically different than ours and we have the personnel for it.  We can't keep blitzing like we did against LSU. It was the definition of insanity.  Our offense is elite this year. All we need the defense to do is stop getting burned to this extent. If we can keep the passing game in front of us while continuing to play well against the run, then teams will at least have to get 10-12 play drives and all we really need is a few stops per game combined with some FGs to win most of our games this year.  

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Goodman

Goodman 3273

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Posted

In year 3, this is the 3rd season TO has failed to recognize his personnel to start a season. Inexcusable to not know what your teams strengths and weaknesses are including personnel. 

He’s made a living at trying to copy Aranda, it was asked of him when he got to Utah st.  I’m just not convinced he is the right mind to teach or call plays vs. our level of competition.

His LB unit is the weak link. #23 blitz on 3rd and 17 was below average. He avoided contact with the rb vs running his ass back into the pocket to not allow Joe room to step up.

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CurlyDumps

CurlyDumps 4485

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4 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Lol wut

2015 defense: "This is Mack's fault, we're young and inexperienced, growing pains, give them time to improve."

2019 defense: "This is Charlie's fault, we're young and inexperienced, growing pains, give them time to improve."

We can keep telling ourselves Orlando is "miles ahead" of Diaz and Charlie/Vance's shitshows.  Meanwhile, his defense looks completely lost against spread passing attacks for the second straight season, and he just handed out another career day to an opposing QB. 

Hopefully I'm going full chicken little here and look really stupid a few weeks from now.   But am I crazy for noticing similarities between Orlando's third year, Diaz's third year, and Charlie/Vance's third year?  Maybe I'm doing that thing humans do - seeing a pattern where there isn't one. Maybe Orlando just faced one of the greatest college offenses of all time. Maybe I am an idiot and OP is wrong and we'll be fine. 

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USNALonghorn

USNALonghorn 5078

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5 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

2015 defense: "This is Mack's fault, we're young and inexperienced, growing pains, give them time to improve."

2019 defense: "This is Charlie's fault, we're young and inexperienced, growing pains, give them time to improve."

We can keep telling ourselves Orlando is "miles ahead" of Diaz and Charlie/Vance's shitshows.  Meanwhile, his defense looks completely lost against spread passing attacks for the second straight season, and he just handed out another career day to an opposing QB. 

Hopefully I'm going full chicken little here and look really stupid a few weeks from now.   But am I crazy for noticing similarities between Orlando's third year, Diaz's third year, and Charlie/Vance's third year?  Maybe I'm doing that thing humans do - seeing a pattern where there isn't one. Maybe Orlando just faced one of the greatest college offenses of all time. Maybe I am an idiot and OP is wrong and we'll be fine. 

There are compelling arguments for both sides of this debate. We just have to see how the season plays out. If our young defenders demonstrate improvement over the course of the season and LSU keeps lighting up scoreboards, we can chill with the TO hate. Conversely, if we continue to give up 40+ and LSU gets shut down in conference play, then fire up the banner plane.

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sith_horn

sith_horn 2407

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46 minutes ago, Mossyhorn said:

Herman evaded that whole issue in his presser. Which isn’t surprising. What is surprising, why reporters didn’t ask about blitzes, particularly on 3rd & 17

 

42 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

He was directly asked if he could do it over again would he still call the 3rd and 17 blitz.  What do you think he said?

It doesn't matter what his answer was. Having watched enough Herman post-game pressers, his typical MO is to not admit wrongdoing. It doesn't mean he would do it again the same way, or that he doesn't know he and/or TO were wrong. I think he does this for a few reasons, but one is that he isn't going to hang his staff or players out to dry. He'd rather they fix problems internally than admit wrong doing publicly which the press will seldom reward him for anyways. Having said that, I think a flaw of Herman's is that he can be stubborn at times which could be a potential downfall for him. His eventual success at Texas will in large part hinge on his ability to overcome his ego and engage in some critical introspection to fix some flaws going forward at times.

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pacman

pacman 7374

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23 minutes ago, Goodman said:

 

His LB unit is the weak link. #23 blitz on 3rd and 17 was below average. He avoided contact with the rb vs running his ass back into the pocket to not allow Joe room to step up.

This is all I am saying.

 

Poor DC or not, I won't say but every game they struggle the linebackers have been largely to blame. Their drops in pass coverage were beyond poor, no awareness to the WRs around them and very little depth on their drops.

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Goodman

Goodman 3273

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Posted (edited)
14 minutes ago, pacman said:

This is all I am saying.

 

Poor DC or not, I won't say but every game they struggle the linebackers have been largely to blame. Their drops in pass coverage were beyond poor, no awareness to the WRs around them and very little depth on their drops.

Coach and TO need a Greg Robinson telling TO what and how to do it. To not get TO help after last year is a mistake on Coach. I did not know TO's story until the national media highlighted it last week, he is running a system that is not his. He is doing his best to copy the mind of Aranda and that is why he is not a good teacher of the scheme, relying on the practice Scipio highlights.

He should know what his players can and can't do, he needed to know that #23 was not going to sacrifice his body when a rb attempted to chip him on 3rd and 17. 

TO has a long way to go to earn trust from the fanbase.

Edited by Goodman
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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19053

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36 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

2015 defense: "This is Mack's fault, we're young and inexperienced, growing pains, give them time to improve."

2019 defense: "This is Charlie's fault, we're young and inexperienced, growing pains, give them time to improve."

We can keep telling ourselves Orlando is "miles ahead" of Diaz and Charlie/Vance's shitshows.  Meanwhile, his defense looks completely lost against spread passing attacks for the second straight season, and he just handed out another career day to an opposing QB. 

Hopefully I'm going full chicken little here and look really stupid a few weeks from now.   But am I crazy for noticing similarities between Orlando's third year, Diaz's third year, and Charlie/Vance's third year?  Maybe I'm doing that thing humans do - seeing a pattern where there isn't one. Maybe Orlando just faced one of the greatest college offenses of all time. Maybe I am an idiot and OP is wrong and we'll be fine. 

I'm obviously not there yet based on my posting history in this thread, but it's not out of the question.  I think Orlando has a more consistent history of good defenses, but it is concerning to say the least. 

Our defense was so good in 2017, even against air raid teams, like OU and OSU.  The argument that Orlando has to take other coaches' players because he can't develop his own doesn't hold water with that defense. You can't tell me Orlando was relying on the fundamentals or team defense taught by Charlie/Vance those last two years. Maybe Orlando's system has been figured out. It's happened to other DCs in our conference.  We were terrible against pretty much every good air raid team last year (WVU, OSU, Tech. I'd call our two performances against OU a mixed bag and while TCU is an air raid team,  their QB deficiencies nullified them in 2018)  while having quality performances against teams that couldn't spread us out like air raid offenses (UGA, ISU, KSU).  

The part that muddies the water for me is that Orlando had the right personnel for his system in 2017, especially the 3 most important positions in his defense: CB you can leave on an island (Hill), stud NT (Poona), 2 fast LBs who can blitz, drop, fly to the ball (Malik and GJ).  If Orlando can leave one CB on an island a good amount, and use his NT/LBs to cover the box with 5-6 defenders depending on offensive, personnel, then he can do more with his blitzes and mixing coverage to really confuse the QBs while still being good in the run game, like he did in 2017. 

Since then, he hasn't had any of those key personnel, and he's been forced to start a lot of youth and inexperience.  I definitely think he should be able to do better with what he has, but he'll get close to having a lot of the ideal personnel for his system in 2020 (Green developing as CB is the main question for 2020, IMO).  So the question for me is, does he need the right personnel for his system and then he's back to his 2015 - 2017 performances, because if so, we'll have that from 2020 on and could be really good. Or is it that he's been figured out and we'll marginally improve with better personnel but still fundamentally break down against good spread teams? I'm not really sure what the answer is, but if Orlando would simplify his scheme and have consistent improvement in our defense for the rest of the year, even if we're never that good this year, then I'd feel a lot better about it. If we keep getting burned like we did against LSU and against spreads last year, then it would be hard not declare a need to move on even if the personnel will improve in 2020.

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Burt Macklin said:

Yeah. No one is surprised by this, but we need more LBs.  Our Dime can actually hold up against the run for the most part, but rushing 2 DBs every play just isn't going to work.  If we could base out of Nickel by finding one of Gbenda, Tillman, C. Johnson, or Mitchell who can credibly play the other ILB spot, it would free up Ossai to rush more (Orlando should already be rushing him more anyways) and make it so Shark or the Mac can blitz more and hopefully beat the RB blocking, so that we're less dependent on having a completely free rusher. Shark, especially, is a very good blitzer and could approach Steven Taylor sack levels at UH if he was freed up to do it more often.

BJ Foster is a good blitzer, but our Nickel gets killed if it's either Jones or J. Thompson.  Thompson has still been underwhelming and the thought of him having to play against OSU is not fun. 

I hope Orlando watches a lot of ISU film the next couple weeks. We need to do more of what they do. Their scheme isn't drastically different than ours and we have the personnel for it.  We can't keep blitzing like we did against LSU. It was the definition of insanity.  Our offense is elite this year. All we need the defense to do is stop getting burned to this extent. If we can keep the passing game in front of us while continuing to play well against the run, then teams will at least have to get 10-12 play drives and all we really need is a few stops per game combined with some FGs to win most of our games this year.  

We tried the ISU 3/8 cloud last year for about half a season before it was ditched in favor or Orlando’s more aggressive system. If there is a system. And that bothers me a bit. Why are we trying to force something else on our DC. Doesn’t he have a base philosophy from which we can adapt and derive a viable defense each season?

ISU’s defense gives Herman trouble as an OC by his own admission, but that’s no reason to force it on the DC. 

Lets be honest, we f’ing stumbled into the Lightening package in 2017. Once we found the people to run it our defense was quite good. Before and after it’s been a mixed bag with no shortage general spread administered beatings. 

With regard to your LB comment it’s been noted that Orlando picks his 3-4 guys at that position each year, and it’s seldom that anyone else sees the field. Thats fine and dandy when you’ve got proven studs, but less so when you’re seeking them. 

Orlando has some bad habits with regard to that, his random blitz generator and identifying his best personnel on a year to year basis. Part of that is Herman's best 11 philosophy which is flawed in my opinion, and the other part is our infatuation with practice warriors which I also think is flawed. They’re both defensible philosophies on the surface, but I want the best personnel package and game day players on the field against live competition. And that’s not necessarily your best 11 defenders or mid week practicers. 

I suspect strongly that Brown and  Overshown will assert themselves near the LOS with BJ’s absence, and we’ll maybe figure out to let our safeties spend more time being safeties instead of box enforcers while asking our box enforcers to be safeties. Wild shit like that. 

Edited by Bobby_Batronic
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utee94

utee94 15869

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Posted
35 minutes ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

What would Saban do...defensively?  Bama is gonna have to stop LSU as well....and I see LSU putting some points on the board.

I imagine he's going to have his defenders fake a bunch of cramps to slow down LSU when they're running uptempo.  And it will work.  And then all of the LSU fans will seem shocked that anyone would do such a thing.

 

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Nowhichski said:

Joe Burrow was really really good all game. Hard to stop when, despite pressure, he’s hitting awesome, fast receivers in stride 85% of the time. We’ll be seeing him on Sundays. 

Ya know...maybe. 

He had one really good game. I’ll buy in if he approximates 80% of that production on a game by game basis for the remainder of the season.  But frankly, slow down on that stuff. He’s been an entirely average QB before Saturday night. Now suddenly he’s a Heisman contender and Sunday player? Get back to me in 6 weeks on that. 

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19053

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16 minutes ago, pacman said:

This is all I am saying.

 

Poor DC or not, I won't say but every game they struggle the linebackers have been largely to blame. Their drops in pass coverage were beyond poor, no awareness to the WRs around them and very little depth on their drops.

I haven't re-watched since I watched it at the stadium, but I actually didn't see this. Things definitely fell apart towards the end of the game, but for most of the game, especially the first half, I thought both Ossai and Shark were reasonably solid dropping in zone and playing in space, especially considering both are 240+ and not known to be coverage LBs. 

14 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Graham has been a JAG so far.

He's been worse than a JAG. He's been an absolute liability and needs to be benched. 

6 minutes ago, Goodman said:

Coach and TO need a Greg Robinson telling TO what and how to do it. To not get TO help after last year is a mistake on Coach. I did not know TO's story until the national media highlighted it last week, he is running a system that is not his. He is doing his best to copy the mind of Aranda and that is why he is not a good teacher of the scheme, relying on the practice Scipio highlights.

He should know what his players can and can't do, he needed to know that #23 was not going to sacrifice his body when a rb attempted to chip him on 3rd and 17. 

TO has a long ways to go to earn trust from the fanbase.

What are you talking about?  Orlando has been a DC for like 15 years now. He switched from a 4-3 to a 3-4 in 2011 at FIU because he thought it would better combat the increasingly popular spread offenses. This was before he ever got near Aranda. And saying he's "copying" Aranda is a mischaracterization.  He never even coached at the same place as Aranda.  Their connection is that they're both part of the Gary Anderson tree, which is where they both fully formed their current systems.  But this idea that Orlando ran a totally different defense and then just scrapped it for the playbook Aranda left sitting on the desk at Utah State as if he's just playing Madden DC and nothing more is absurd. This system is Orlando's system. He's been teaching a lot of these concepts for over 15 years, and he has adapted over time and taken things from different stops, just like every other coach in the history of football has. 

Orlando has a long history of being a solid DC, whether he was running a 4-3 or a 3-4.  S&P defense ranks for Orlando:

UConn: 24, 55, 25, 24, 53, 42.  FIU: 61, 93.  Utah State: 18, 16. UH: 69, 27. UT: 14, 44.

FEI ranks for Orlando's defenses: 

Starts 2007:   23, 10, 60, 40.  FIU: 41, 69.  Utah State:  10, 22.  UH: 30, 19. UT: 7, 44. 

Side note: I included both because FEI is based primarily on scoring rate, while S&P+ focuses more on efficiency/explosiveness. Orlando seems to value killing drives/ bend but don't break over limiting opponent yardage, and I think S&P+ tends to underrate his defenses somewhat because they value different things. 

 I'm not saying Orlando is a great DC, but he's shown himself to be a solid DC for many, many years. He obviously has his issues (identifying ideal personnel and play calling for some) and he may not work out at UT in the long run, but this whole idea that Orlando's entire defense isn't his and all he does is call a series of plays on his play sheet is completely hyperbolic. He showed up at UT, installed his system and taught the team fundamentals that were entirely missing under Strong.   If anything, Orlando's biggest issue is overcoaching  and trying to always dial up the perfect play call, but that doesn't mean he doesn't understand his own defensive system.

There's no way a guy who doesn't understand the system or is just using a grab bag of blitz calls could field a top 30 defense 7/12 years per FEI or be in the top 27 7/14 years per S&P+.  

 

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19053

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22 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

We tried the ISU 3/8 cloud last year for about half a season before it was ditched in favor or Orlando’s more aggressive system. If there is a system. And that bothers me a bit. Why are we trying to force something else on our DC. Doesn’t he have a base philosophy from which we can adapt and derive a viable defense each season?

ISU’s defense gives Herman trouble as an OC by his own admission, but that’s no reason to force it on the DC. 

I liked our defense with the 3/8 cloud last year better, and I like it better for this year, especially when the goal this year should be mitigating a defense with holes while our O puts up 40.  Also, that system isn't that different from our own, so it's not like asking Orlando to run an entirely different defense. They have a lot of similarities, with the biggest difference being that ISU's system limits big plays, while Orlando goes for negative plays while understanding he'll give up some big plays.  When we have talented personnel, I think Orlando's system works, but he needs to recognize when he doesn't have the ideal personnel and aim for limiting big plays and extending drives to lower the drive success rate, instead of trying to kill every drive with the perfect play. What I'm talking about is more a change in aggression, rather than asking him to run someone else's defense entirely. 

24 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Lets be honest, we f’ing stumbled into the Lightening package in 2017. Once we found the people to run it our defense was quite good. Before and after it’s been a mixed bag with no shortage general spread administered beatings. 

We didn't stumble into it. Orlando liked what ISU did on defense to us and adopted some of those concepts. It worked really well. Again, this is something every coach does, and it didn't require him to fundamentally change his defense. For the most part, all it was was switching out the B-backer (we didn't have a good one) for the Joker.  It was not a mixed bag for the rest of 2017, when we had better personnel. It was a resounding success. 

27 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

With regard to your LB comment it’s been noted that Orlando picks his 3-4 guys at that position each year, and it’s seldom that anyone else sees the field. Thats fine and dandy when you’ve got proven studs, but less so when you’re seeking them. 

Orlando has some bad habits with regard to that, his random blitz generator and identifying his best personnel on a year to year basis. Part of that is Herman's best 11 philosophy which is flawed in my opinion, and the other part is our infatuation with practice warriors which I also think is flawed. They’re both defensible philosophies on the surface, but I want the best personnel package and game day players on the field against live competition. And that’s not necessarily your best 11 defenders or mid week practicers. 

I suspect strongly that Brown and  Overshown will assert themselves near the LOS with BJ’s absence, and we’ll maybe figure out to let our safeties spend more time being safeties instead of box enforcers while asking our box enforcers to be safeties. Wild shit like that. 

I agree with all this. We need to rush Ossai way more instead of blitzing safeties, even if it tips our hand a bit more in terms of coverage and assignments pre-snap.  We'll still have a bunch of versatile DBs on the field that can mix up coverages.  This is what I've been saying re overcoaching. Orlando's trying to completely baffle the QB every play, which just won't happen, and in trying to do so, he's putting our players in less than ideal situations.   

Orlando struggles to identify his ideal personnel coming out of the offseason.  Figuring that out and what players translate from practice to games can be tricky, but Orlando needs to be quicker to recognize this. 

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pacman

pacman 7374

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Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

especially considering both are 240+ and not known to be coverage LBs. 

 

 

i will freely admit that I am not tolerant of this caveat. we play in the big 12. cover your area as a LB'er well or get off the field.

Edited by pacman
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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19053

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Posted
4 minutes ago, pacman said:

i will freely admit that I am not tolerant of this caveat. we play in the big 12. cover your area as a LB'er well or get off the field.

Ossai and McCulloch have done a pretty decent job both games from what I’ve seen. They get to their spots and move with defenders in their zone pretty well. 

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Bobby_Batronic

Bobby_Batronic 1994

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

I liked our defense with the 3/8 cloud last year better, and I like it better for this year, especially when the goal this year should be mitigating a defense with holes while our O puts up 40.  Also, that system isn't that different from our own, so it's not like asking Orlando to run an entirely different defense. They have a lot of similarities, with the biggest difference being that ISU's system limits big plays, while Orlando goes for negative plays while understanding he'll give up some big plays.  When we have talented personnel, I think Orlando's system works, but he needs to recognize when he doesn't have the ideal personnel and aim for limiting big plays and extending drives to lower the drive success rate, instead of trying to kill every drive with the perfect play. What I'm talking about is more a change in aggression, rather than asking him to run someone else's defense entirely. 

We didn't stumble into it. Orlando liked what ISU did on defense to us and adopted some of those concepts. It worked really well. Again, this is something every coach does, and it didn't require him to fundamentally change his defense. For the most part, all it was was switching out the B-backer (we didn't have a good one) for the Joker.  It was not a mixed bag for the rest of 2017, when we had better personnel. It was a resounding success. 

I agree with all this. We need to rush Ossai way more instead of blitzing safeties, even if it tips our hand a bit more in terms of coverage and assignments pre-snap.  We'll still have a bunch of versatile DBs on the field that can mix up coverages.  This is what I've been saying re overcoaching. Orlando's trying to completely baffle the QB every play, which just won't happen, and in trying to do so, he's putting our players in less than ideal situations.   

Orlando struggles to identify his ideal personnel coming out of the offseason.  Figuring that out and what players translate from practice to games can be tricky, but Orlando needs to be quicker to recognize this. 

A couple of things. I completely agree with the notion that we just need to force offenses to execute at a high level for extended periods of time to score, and just try to keep them under 30. Our offense will score on all comers, and should possibly be better next year.

But....that’s really not Orlando’s nature. And I’m not sure he can help himself. 

With regard to the Lightening package you misunderstand me.  It’s not the scheme that I was referring to. We had an epiphany with Hall at Joker, and suddenly our defense was a total bitch for everyone for the remainder of the year.  But, we definitely didn’t identify that during fall practice. It’s what I mean by falling into it. 

Up to that point, and for much of 2018 we were pretty average.

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