Give me your opinion on why the defense sucks

[opcatzen]

Bad corners? No passrush?

[Texan4KSU]

Its designed to bend and not break. We have no intimidation factor or aggression like our defenses in the late 90s and early 2000s. Watching Mississippi state and A@M game and that bulldog defense plays to inflict pain and take desire out of the offense. A good defense takes a certain mindset and nasty approach to the game. Think Butkus, Lott,Singletary, to name a few

[stlcatfan]

Its designed to bend and not break. We have no intimidation factor or aggression like our defenses in the late 90s and early 2000s. Watching Mississippi state and A@M game and that bulldog defense plays to inflict pain and take desire out of the offense. A good defense takes a certain mindset and nasty approach to the game. Think Butkus, Lott,Singletary, to name a few

This is what I miss about our defense. We used to be this aggressive. Now we just kind of let the other team's offense come at us. It is so easy for an opposing offense to run quick out routes and slants against us when our CBs play 8-10 yards off of the LOS. As others have said, it also makes it hard to have an effective pass rush when the QB can get rid of the ball in 2-3 seconds.

[opcatzen]

Do we ever get corners or safeties drafted into the NFL? That could explain it.

[Tbonespop]

It's simply a terrible scheme, period. There's a reason why there is a saying "prevent defenses do nothing but prevent teams from winning". It may have been relatively innovative back in 2009 when defenses didn't know the best way to slow down the up tempo spread offenses. It marginally worked (to limit points, but not yards) when it first was implemented. Now offenses have evolved again and it is simply ineffective. Offenses know to just take what is there and focus on executing. The defenses are evolving again after the offenses evolved. You now see successful defenses in the B12 like Texas, TCU, and ISU running a Deep Cover 2 man underneath coverage scheme. It just makes more sense. You don't have to play PRESS man coverage, you can play man coverage 3-5 yards off the LOS and still not get beat deep. If a CB can't give a 5 yard cushion and still not get beat deep on a route more than 2-3 times a season, they shouldn't be on the field.

Snyder recently came out in public and stated the toughest position to play on the defense is the nickel back position. The reason this is the case is, they are always defending against elite athletes in space. This is very true. The hardest thing to do on the field is to defend and tackle elite athletes in open space. We knowingly put our DB players into a position of having to make plays against players in space. It's extremely difficult, far more difficult than playing press man coverage.

The DL and secondary have together to be successful. What's the point in a DL player getting pressure if the QB has an easy hot read and can get the ball out in under 2 seconds? You can't get to the QB even if there is a blown assignment. You might was well play 3 down linemen and drop 8 into coverage. Now, there are times when it makes more sense to play cover 4 (quarters), just don't drop the CBs too far off the LOS. For example, against OU and Mayfield it makes more sense. The reason is the DL shouldn't be trying to pressure the QB when the team is OU or OSU and it's Mayfield or Rudolph at QB. The DL should be playing containment and each DLmen is maintaining a 2 gap assignment to make sure Mayfield or Rudolph doesn't escape the pocket and roll out, this is where they can be most dangerous. Forcing them to stand in the pocket and throw a pass in the throwing lanes while we drop 7 players back into coverage is a much better strategy. You don't have to play 7-10 yards off, but playing 3-5, or 5-7 yards off makes sense. Everyone is going to drop back into coverage anyway.

But against teams like Texas, ISU, Kansas, TCU, and now Baylor you don't simply need to drop back into deep zone coverages and give them yards. They aren't playing with TEMPO. It's the TEMPO that garners playing +7 yards off, not the spread or even the quality of WRs. Tempo wears out our CBs and thus they would get tired out while the offense just trots out another fresh WR to run routes.

We play some cover 2 man and cover 1 at times, so it's not anything new and it's easy to implement. The secondary knows how to play it because we do it now, we just don't do it very often but we most certainly could. It's all philosophical and it's 70% Snyder and 30% Hayes. Hayes could have the CBs player closer to the LOS and still play quarters coverage. It's Snyder's philosophy to play quarters coverage most of the time to defend the spreads. But in the end, it's just a terrible scheme in my opinion and we refuse to evolve and adapt to evolving and adapting offensive strategies. Simple adjustments would fix the problem and with the exception of Kirby (who should be replaced with Sullivan), the defense has the talent to be very good if we play the right scheme. It's the coaching holding them back.

[kswildcat]

Excellent post. I agree completely! The last paragraph explains why we continue do what we do in spite of failures.

[Tbonespop]

Do we ever get corners or safeties drafted into the NFL? That could explain it.

In Snyder 2.0?

Dante Barnett (Broncos), Randall Evans (Eagles, Chargers), Stephen Harrison (can't remember which team), Tysyn Hartman (Chiefs), Nigel Malone (Colts, Steelers, Broncos - practice squad player), Ty Zimmerman (Saints), Joshua Moore (Bears), Allen Chapman (Colts)

Looks to me like we've had a few decent players in the secondary in Snyder 2.0, good enough to play something other than 7-10 yards off the LOS.

[Texan4KSU]

I, like most hate a despise our scheme and philosophy on defense. We play a passive not an aggressive defense which seems alien to me. We hope the offense makes enough mistakes to stop a drive instead of forcing them into errors. There was a time when offenses did not look forward to playing us. We were aggressive and passionate on defense. I think we have the players to get after it on defense. That's the most frustrating part.

[DeereCatFan]

LIne up and jam the receivers at the line or play closer at least and give a little contact before the 5 yard downfield (flagging area). Blitz more often. No pressure QB has all day most of the time. Put quicker LB's on the field - also good for blitzing. I would have blitzed a ton with this new KU QB. Shake him up. A few hits on the QB and they start getting happy feet. There was no pass rush this KU game and he had all day to pick the DB's apart. I think Reed is a very good DB IMO, Shelley maybe alright too. But starting them out with a 10 yard cushion is nuts.

[Jax]

I posted this elsewhere on this forum in week 3, that the LBs would be our weakest link. They are good against run offenses but not quick enough to cover WRs and RBs running shallow and wheel routes. The DBs are required to pull double duty in having to react quickly in coming up to assist.

As I said after the Vandy game, this will be our downfall against teams like TTU, OSU and WVU.