We all know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. What was clear to me yesterday based on watching the defensive performance as well as the body language of the kids is that our guys have completely lost confidence in their ability to get a stop. I've heard CPJ say often during the call in shows or interviews that kids these days "don't lack for confidence", but under these circumstances I'm not sure it's the case and the psyche of our guys may be significantly damaged.
The good news is we have been here before and found our way out of it. The UNC game in 2014 was another defensive low point after 2 straight loses and giving up a ton of points and yardage. After our loss in Chapel Hill in 14' we changed it up. We became significantly more aggressive in our play calling and Gamble moved to SDE after getting little to no production from that position. The results were a much better defense overall, more turnovers, and being much better against the run.
For weeks now we have debated how bad we are against the short pass, why our guys don't play more press man, why we don't blitz more, etc. The thing that few posts are addressing is the fact that we are HORRIBLE against the run this year, particularly in the last few games against ACC competition. We have given up 283 yards rushing against UNC (8.3 p/carry), 254 yards rushing against Duke (6.9 p/carry), and 215 yards rushing against Pitt (5.1 p/carry). That trend line is an alarming stat. We can talk all day about the safety being 20 yards off the LOS on 3rd down, soft coverage, etc. but this is THE stat that is killing us. In years past we have been able to stop the run if need be (2nd half UGA in 14, FSU in 15, etc). This year we are incapable of making the opponent one dimensional. Doing so allows us to bring more pressure from different spots on the field, changing up coverage, etc. We have the defensive equivalent right now of having a two way miss in golf. One shot is a slice and the other is a duck hook.
How about some radical changes to the defense? Without a significant change how do we boost our guys confidence? They look like a defeated bunch. Here are a couple of things we can do:
The good news is we have been here before and found our way out of it. The UNC game in 2014 was another defensive low point after 2 straight loses and giving up a ton of points and yardage. After our loss in Chapel Hill in 14' we changed it up. We became significantly more aggressive in our play calling and Gamble moved to SDE after getting little to no production from that position. The results were a much better defense overall, more turnovers, and being much better against the run.
For weeks now we have debated how bad we are against the short pass, why our guys don't play more press man, why we don't blitz more, etc. The thing that few posts are addressing is the fact that we are HORRIBLE against the run this year, particularly in the last few games against ACC competition. We have given up 283 yards rushing against UNC (8.3 p/carry), 254 yards rushing against Duke (6.9 p/carry), and 215 yards rushing against Pitt (5.1 p/carry). That trend line is an alarming stat. We can talk all day about the safety being 20 yards off the LOS on 3rd down, soft coverage, etc. but this is THE stat that is killing us. In years past we have been able to stop the run if need be (2nd half UGA in 14, FSU in 15, etc). This year we are incapable of making the opponent one dimensional. Doing so allows us to bring more pressure from different spots on the field, changing up coverage, etc. We have the defensive equivalent right now of having a two way miss in golf. One shot is a slice and the other is a duck hook.
How about some radical changes to the defense? Without a significant change how do we boost our guys confidence? They look like a defeated bunch. Here are a couple of things we can do:
- Move Gamble to DE and keep him there
- Play Adams more at DT and use a 4 man rotation between Cerge, Kallon, Adams and Glanton
- Move AJ Gray into the box....or to LB. I know this sounds crazy, but he appears to be our best tackler in space. I think long term he moves to LB regardless. He can put on more size and is already 215. That's light in the seat today, but we aren't getting much production here
- Put our best 4 pass rushers in the game on 3rd and 7+. Gamble, St Amour, Simmons and Freeman. Run line stunts and games. What i see over and over is DEs running straight into the arms of the OT and the DTs running right into the G and C. We run very little line games and it drives me nuts.
