I agree with most others that the defense is clearly our main issue. Our offense and special teams have some flaws, but the defense is our major problem. I thought our run defense was a bit better than previous years, but our pass defense and ability to control QB scrambles were awful. We handled the QB running issue OK early in the year with Mustapha spying the QB, but once he went down we tried to do it with Smenda and he just isn't fast enough to cover that much space.
Remember back in the Wolford/Hinton/Newman days when Clawson would frequently comment that we're going to need multiple QBs to get through the year? He stopped saying that and stopped running Sam. As others have pointed out, this removed a dimension from our offense that we really need, especially in short yardage situations.
Remember when our offense used to play too fast? It hurt our defense, because we would have lots of quick 3 and outs. We clearly changed that last year, and tried to slow down some, which was overall a good move. However, I think there are times where we still need to be unconventionally aggressive on offense, like when we had the lead yesterday (or the UNC game last year and the year before), and we're being too conservative in those situations. Our offense is clearly better than our defense, so we need to let the offense win the game for us.
A few people have commented that the slow mesh has been "figured out." I disagree - I think our offense is at their best when running the slow mesh. We bog down in clear run or clear pass situations. We play our best offensively in the middle of the game when running the slow mesh, because it keeps the defense guessing so much.
Just one more comment - I didn't know Brasky in real life, just on the boards. But he was always good for a spirited rant on the football team when we struggled. I miss that, and I know his friends and family miss him dearly. He would have given some good insight into our struggles this year, and he would have done so with gusto. RIP Brasky.
