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Can Clawson Ever Have a Quality D?

Per SP+, we dropped from #80 to #100 on D after last week. Unfortunately our D (by numbers, adjusted for competition) has been worse than last year, which seems impossible and also doesn’t align with what my eyes are seeing. I guess it’s hard to argue the defense is much better given that, yet somehow I’m still encouraged.

Players are in the right spots this year. Last year in multiple games guys would either run through the line, scramble, or make a catch and there wouldn’t be a defender in the picture. Not the case now.

We are putting up enough resistance to cause 3rd downs. So our opponents are having to work to move the ball. We just aren’t getting off the field still.

Why? My gut says talent, depth, etc still aren’t there. We make choices on where to recruit, and the depth appears better on offense, which I’m good with given the results.
  • undersized pretty much everywhere.
  • very little pash rush.
  • Our LB unit still doesn’t make nearly enough plays.
  • secondary is better, but once the starters go down, we still see a massive drop off. The Davis and Carson injuries stand out — and the same happened when guys got hurt last year against UNC and it hurt us in ensuing games.
 
Haros said:
Per SP+, we dropped from #80 to #100 on D after last week. Unfortunately our D (by numbers, adjusted for competition) has been worse than last year, which seems impossible and also doesn’t align with what my eyes are seeing. I guess it’s hard to argue the defense is much better given that, yet somehow I’m still encouraged.

Players are in the right spots this year. Last year in multiple games guys would either run through the line, scramble, or make a catch and there wouldn’t be a defender in the picture. Not the case now.

We are putting up enough resistance to cause 3rd downs. So our opponents are having to work to move the ball. We just aren’t getting off the field still.

Why? My gut says talent, depth, etc still aren’t there. We make choices on where to recruit, and the depth appears better on offense, which I’m good with given the results.
  • undersized pretty much everywhere.
  • very little pash rush.
  • Our LB unit still doesn’t make nearly enough plays.
  • secondary is better, but once the starters go down, we still see a massive drop off. The Davis and Carson injuries stand out — and the same happened when guys got hurt last year against UNC and it hurt us in ensuing games.
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We seem to be absolutely snakebitten with injuries in the secondary, every year. With that said, I don't think our secondary has been that bad really. Run defense is still the issue, just like the past several seasons, and the thing that kills me to watch is that our linebackers, as a group, are painfully slow, especially laterally.

Up until the Clemson game we were actually stopping teams on third down at a great clip. Against Clemson it was their best offensive option all day long. Get in third and long and heave it downfield to a receiver who was one on one. It worked every single time (or at least if felt like it did).

I'm not sure there is much the coaches can do with the scheme right now to be honest. The lack of speed at linebacker really limits what we can do.
 
In my opinion the defense is world's better this year than it was last year.
 
I think we need a couple of more games against decent opponents to really get a good idea of whether and how much and the defense has progressed. FSU on a day with decent weather might have been a good measuring stick.

Also, Army is not very good this year, but if they hang 35 on us, we'll know the defense has not really improved.
 
BiffTannen said:
I think we need a couple of more games against decent opponents to really get a good idea of whether and how much and the defense has progressed. FSU on a day with decent weather might have been a good measuring stick.

Also, Army is not very good this year, but if they hang 35 on us, we'll know the defense has not really improved.
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35 would be an incredible improvement over the 56 we gave up last year!
 
BiffTannen said:
I think we need a couple of more games against decent opponents to really get a good idea of whether and how much and the defense has progressed. FSU on a day with decent weather might have been a good measuring stick.

Also, Army is not very good this year, but if they hang 35 on us, we'll know the defense has not really improved.
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Army’s offense has been really good and their defense has been awful. We may see somewhat of a repeat from last year. Hopefully less stressful.
 
I mean one thing I don't think people appreciate is that the ACC has a lot of very talented offenses that are hard to really keep down over the course of an entire game.
 
Our D line seems pretty nasty. Fast off the snap, and gets a really good push even just rushing 3-4... Take away 3 long runs, and they've been pretty good against the run compared to past years.
 
Our secondary struggles. Front is great against the run. Find a way to put pressure on quarterback and this defense would be 10x better.
 
Like anyone else, Clawson needs a healthy D to increase the chances of having a Quality D.
 
the linebackers stand out the most to me as area of need. visibly too slow, leading to many plays that shoulda been 1-2 yarders going for 7-10. our defense looks better this year in my opinion -- we get stops here and there. last year it was either force a turnover or they're gonna score
 
I posted if Lambert can improve the D during the remainder of the schedule, then we had a shot at the title game. If not, we'd be in danger of a .500 season.

Yesterday we saw improvement. Holding teams to 300-400 range of total O is where we need to be. 500, and we will tend to lose.

BTW, Duke is looking like a contender for their divison.
 
rawarr said:
the linebackers stand out the most to me as area of need. visibly too slow, leading to many plays that shoulda been 1-2 yarders going for 7-10. our defense looks better this year in my opinion -- we get stops here and there. last year it was either force a turnover or they're gonna score
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Good thing we hired a new experienced LB coach and a DB with a LB background. Give the ‘crootin a few years with them.
80deacon said:
I posted if Lambert can improve the D during the remainder of the schedule, then we had a shot at the title game. If not, we'd be in danger of a .500 season.

Yesterday we saw improvement. Holding teams to 300-400 range of total O is where we need to be. 500, and we will tend to lose.

BTW, Duke is looking like a contender for their divison.
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To be fair, Grover Cleveland would be a contender in the Coastal.
 
D a little slow to get up but stood strong, good penetration, lasted until the finish
 
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