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The Sawvel Defense

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macktheknife

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This board never has a problem with calling out offensive coordinators. Our defense is bad. Finished next to last in the ACC yds/game. UNC had a better defense. Only Syracuse was worse. It's why we lost to Duke. This unit needs to make giant strides if we are going to take another step up. And it's overall. Bad against the rush and the pass. Discuss.
 
I can't go tit for tat statistically on this but it seems our defense has been on the field a lot this year, even when we win.
 
Agreed, defense took a major step back this year. Hopefully it was just a year of adjustments and the group will be better next year. The loss of lee I think was felt as well. Thank goodness for the offensive improvements.
 
our main issue is poor schemes on third down. We cannot get pressure on QB and get picked apart, each and every game. We make the same package substitutions each third down and they generally don't work. Might think about keeping Wendell Dunn in on third down.
 
Diggitydeac said:
I can't go tit for tat statistically on this but it seems our defense has been on the field a lot this year, even when we win.
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Agreed. We have work to do, no doubt, but our TOP seems to be exceedingly low in large part due to our tempo.
 
siff said:
Agreed. We have work to do, no doubt, but our TOP seems to be exceedingly low in large part due to our tempo.
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TOP will be skewed also because the defense cannot stop opponent drives and doesn't get itself off the field. The offense has had a record-setting season, I truly doubt blame can be laid at their feet.
 
Lohengrin said:
TOP will be skewed also because the defense cannot stop opponent drives and doesn't get itself off the field. The offense has had a record-setting season, I truly doubt blame can be laid at their feet.
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Of course, which is why I said we have work to do.
 
Agree with above...This year was a combination of two things

1. Offense really picked up the tempo. This made for short drives and low TOP. The defense really looked winded in the second half of games. See Duke and GaTech as examples
2. Loss of talent and integration of new talent. Lot of improvement in the secondary. Really thin at linebacker.
 
BacktoBack said:
Agree with above...This year was a combination of two things

1. Offense really picked up the tempo. This made for short drives and low TOP. The defense really looked winded in the second half of games. See Duke and GaTech as examples
2. Loss of talent and integration of new talent. Lot of improvement in the secondary. Really thin at linebacker.
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I believe every defensive positional coach except for Cohen was new this year, which I'm sure didn't help. Regardless, the results were not acceptable, and I'm sure the staff recognizes that
 
And if we play Missouri in a bowl game we'd better score 50 if we want to win.
 
Ton of contributing factors to this, one that is not mentioned above is that the talent level at the LB position was way down. LB play had been a WF strength for years, and was the biggest weak spot on the defense this past year. That's why WF signed 4 LBs in the 2017 (the highest rated of the group Jeff Burley - offered by L'ville, State, Miss. State, Ole Miss among others - hurt his knee and was not able to play this past season). The talent level at the LB spots should be much improved next season.
 
Great at getting in the backfield and forcing TFL and hurries, but we play way too soft on receivers
 
Despite the issues, Wake was one of the top teams in the league in tackles for a loss. They also tied for 5th in takeaways. I agree that there were problems with the defense, especially as games progressed, but it was not an abject disaster. TOP was a product of both the offense and defense, but it certainly wore the defense down in the second half of many games. They needed to do a better job in stopping third and fourth down conversions to help with the TOP aspect. Hopefully, there will be continued positive steps next season.
 
We had to have been near the top in TFL, negative plays. And I'm not sure what our +/- in TO margin was. They seemed better than the yards per game they gave up. Bend Don't break.

I think we were weak at one corner spot, and the worse group of LBs we've had in a while. Usually a strength of our D. I think Strnad and Kemp will add some speed next year. They'll need to be very good if we are switching primarily to a nickel. Having Bates fully healthy not only helps pass, but he's a great tackler.

I wonder what the offense 3 and outs looked like compared to the rest of the league. Again, I'd guess near the top, save 2 games. D looked gassed at times, which is on the O.
 
I hate to say it, but our issue was linebackers and depth. I like our corners. A lot. I like our safties. A lot. I think we found a nickel back late in the year that was good and will be better next year.

Grant Dawson, god love him, either makes plays or gets beat. I can see how as a coach he could be a real dilemma. Just when you think he is bad, he makes a couple of plays. But he is very bad at coverage and he can hit the wrong hole or get stuck on filling his gap. Williams was better but had the exact same issue. Our DLine is also very good but I think wore down as the year played out. Zeek Rodney in a nutshell. Started off hot and dynamic and finished up nicked up and just okay.
 
Yards/Game is a bad stat, as fast-paced teams that can score quickly (like Wake did this year) tend to have their defense on the field more and give up more yards per game. Yards/Play is a much better stat and we were middle of the pack in the ACC this year with 5.5 ypp
 
w84it said:
Yards/Game is a bad stat, as fast-paced teams that can score quickly (like Wake did this year) tend to have their defense on the field more and give up more yards per game. Yards/Play is a much better stat and we were middle of the pack in the ACC this year with 5.5 ypp
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I agree. YPG is a bad stat, because of the offense. Scoring fast or three and outs, which we did both of a lot this year.
 
Pilchard said:
Ton of contributing factors to this, one that is not mentioned above is that the talent level at the LB position was way down. LB play had been a WF strength for years, and was the biggest weak spot on the defense this past year. That's why WF signed 4 LBs in the 2017 (the highest rated of the group Jeff Burley - offered by L'ville, State, Miss. State, Ole Miss among others - hurt his knee and was not able to play this past season). The talent level at the LB spots should be much improved next season.
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I think that was our most significant problem along with having to play so many inexperienced DBs. But the secondary play proved to be one of the major positives moving forward.
 
It was insane how bad our defense looked without Bates. He's so good.
 
I'd be curious to hear 94's take here, but it seems like Sawvel wants to change the defense fairly significantly to focus more on the secondary than LB. I wonder if our recruiting reflects this? I think that we will be good again on D, but it might take a year or two to get the right guys in place. I'm optimistic about the prospects of what appears to be an aggressive blitz-heavy scheme.
 
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