Question about AU's defense

[BamaGrad03 146]

I have a good idea how AU will play Ainge. But not so sure how they will handle Schaeffer.

How is AU's speed on the edges? Have Eddins and McClover shown to be fast enough for containment? Will a Linebacker shadow him the whole game similar to how we put Garth on Jones?

I think AU's secondary is good enough to force them to run a little at the QB position. And as bad as that hurt us against the piggies...it also led to 4 sacks.

Also, when Ainge is in, do you guys expect a lot of nickel? Who plays the 5th db spot for AU?

[WarTim 3,456]

The whole "shadow" thing doesn't work. (As witnessed by uat vs Arkansas)

We SHOULD be good enough to play them straight up on defense. They want to run the ball. I believe we will take that away and see what happens.

Time will tell.

[Tigerdog 0]

Didnt Coach Dunn(?) ask Langenfeld to switch to the other side of the line, where, he will be more of a pass rusher instead of run containment due to his speed and agility off the ball?

[AUesquire 1]

Schaefer doesn't worry me as much because of the team speed we have on D. However, even though he's just a freshman, Ainge worries me a lot if we don't put pressure on him. I know the stats will say otherwise, but I'm still not sold on our secondary on the whole. Don't get me wrong, I think they're pretty solid but LSU's receivers were like a 7-11, open all night. They just didn't have anyone to cosistently get em' the ball.

[sportwareagle 0]

personally, if we don't set the tempo and the play of this game early I think it will be a long night regardless of what we do on Defense and which QB is in for UT.

We have to play HUGE early and then win the battle for field position and we should come away with a W.

[TitanTiger 20,472]

I think Langenfeld, McClover, and Eddins have the speed to handle containment on Schaffer. I'm not as versed on how who will play in the nickel, how much we'll use it, and so on. We can't run it too much because I think UT's rushing attack is better than it was last year. We need LBs in there to deal with the run.

If I were to venture a guess, I'd say we will run a 4-3 most of the night with nickel only coming in on obvious passing downs. But what you will see is a lot of pre-snap movement, disguising coverages, on and off blitzing, and so on to try and confuse them.

[jared52 4,354]

I am not "worried" per se about either quarterback. I am just hoping those 20 yard square-in routes aren't open this year like they were last year. UT passed on us like crazy last year. I hope we can stop those mid-deep routes.

[wesfau 0]

I am not "worried" per se about either quarterback.  I am just hoping those 20 yard square-in routes aren't open this year like they were last year.  UT passed on us like crazy last year.  I hope we can stop those mid-deep routes.

106628[/snapback]

OK...one last time.

Everyone who is worried about Clausen's passing stats against our defense last year, listen up.

We had UT in a hole and they were forced to abandon the run. Chizik compensated for the shift in UT's strategy by putting the defense in a soft 2 deep zone. The purpose of this coverage was to prevent the "big" play, force UT to sustain drives for the length of the field, and force a mistake.

Translation: We LET them complete those passes. You "give" the short pass to prevent the deep pass.

Disagree with the merits of the defensive strategy, but don't pretend that Clausen torched our poor unsuspecting secondary.

[AUesquire 1]

Question for those former DB's in the group or those with veritable cornucopia of football knowledge.(Sometimes I even amaze myself)

Why is it that our corners have always seemed to play 10-15 yards off the WR's. Some teams like FSU, Miami etc, have always been in your face on the corners and dare you to beat em'. Is that because of Chizik's philosophy, do we run a zone all the time? Does FSU feel they put a superior athlete out there every time or what?

Looking for insight cause' it's always bugged me to play that far off the receivers. I don't play much DB because...well...I'm 6'4" and 235. Not a big market for DB's my size. Oh yea, I'm also 44, white and real slow. Other than that, I coulda' been somebody.

[ECEstudentUA 9]

Why is it that our corners have always seemed to play 10-15 yards off the WR's.  Some teams like FSU, Miami etc, have always been in your face on the corners and dare you to beat em'.  Is that because of Chizik's philosophy, do we run a zone all the time?  Does FSU feel they put a superior athlete out there every time or what?

They play back because they dont wanna get beat deep. Not saying that they are not fast enough or anything, but thats the reason. They let the linebackers play zone in the middle to cut down on quick 5-10 yard in routes. Alabama plays off the line also, but thats because I dont think we have enough talent to play man to man press coverage.

[BamaGrad03 146]

Why is it that our corners have always seemed to play 10-15 yards off the WR's.  Some teams like FSU, Miami etc, have always been in your face on the corners and dare you to beat em'.  Is that because of Chizik's philosophy, do we run a zone all the time?  Does FSU feel they put a superior athlete out there every time or what?

They play back because they dont wanna get beat deep. Not saying that they are not fast enough or anything, but thats the reason. They let the linebackers play zone in the middle to cut down on quick 5-10 yard in routes. Alabama plays off the line also, but thats because I dont think we have enough talent to play man to man press coverage.

106643[/snapback]

Ummm have you watched a bama game this year? We've been playing a ton of man. How else do you explain all the blitz packages?

[jared52 4,354]

Translation: We LET them complete those passes.  You "give" the short pass to prevent the deep pass.

Uh, 20 yards isn't short. If it was 5-8 I would have been ok with it.

[wesfau 0]

Translation: We LET them complete those passes.  You "give" the short pass to prevent the deep pass.

Uh, 20 yards isn't short. If it was 5-8 I would have been ok with it.

106661[/snapback]

Passing Att-Cmp-Int Yds TD Long Sack

-------------------------------------------------

Casey Clausen 47- 30- 1 355 2 29 5

Totals... 47- 30- 1 355 2 29 5

Long pass 29 yds.

Their avg play from scrimmage went for 5.6 yards. He completed 30 passes. We weren't routinely giving up the long ball.

[AURainman 6]

To answer your question BG. I think we are stacked 2 deep at end with enough speed and talent. However, McClover and Marquis Gunn have shown significant signs of their youth in overcommitting to the run and allowing cuts back across the field. Thats why LaMo got so many rushing yards. We would stop them 3 yards deep but they would break containment on the weak side.

Short answer. SPEED. check. EXPERIENCE. check. SMART-DEEP-EXPERIENCE. no check. We will learn a lot about our defense tomorrow night.

[mcgufcm 4,096]

the safeties played a poor game last year regardless of a soft cover 2 to not. you're never "giving" yardage. you're just specifically taking away one thing that makes it easier to get yards somewhere else. they were slow on rotation all night. it's the last time i've seen them play that poorly so i have a feeling chizik wasn't excited about his unit making a game of it.

as for this year, we have 3 corners with starting experience and a fourth who has looked pretty good as a nickel and dime back (zach gilbert). so in a nickel situation we'll play rosegreen, herring, rogers, pitts, and hobbs in the slot. dime, you add gilbert. i like our nickel package b/c you have 4 guys (one more than normal) that can cover man to man which gives us more freedom to blitz. we've looked good in that set this year, but i expect to come out in a 4-3 to establish a run defense. if we take an early lead, you'll see more nickel b/c they'll get away from the run.

as for our coverage, we just don't play a lot of bump and run in the secondary. that's the difference. we make teams nickel and dime us by playing off. sometimes, it's really frustrating to watch, but chizik does a good job of knowing when to switch out of that a press the receivers a little (usually around between our 40-30 yard line). i like the way we line up b/c it's really hard to get a read on what coverage we're in or who's blitzing. junior gives us a lot of flexibility b/c of his coverage skills too. i'm looking forward to this matchup b/c i played a lil db and i love watching good ones.

[tombigbeetiger 223]

expect the "in your face" style play a lot tommorrow night....chinzik learned to coach defense from bill oliver when they were at clemson....the secondary will have to step it up against phat phil and his phoghounds....the opportunity for some big plays will be there.....look for pressure,pressure and more pressure coming from some new blitz packages to rattle the freshman....look for the phoghounds to play it safe with short quick throws.....this game is the ultimate game to start the trip to the dancehall to get to dance in the big dance with all the pretty girls

[AUesquire 1]

Dang, Bigbee. You need to start your own magazine for predicting ball games. You've got the jargon down pat. Phil and his phoghounds.

I like that.

[JTTIGER 0]

I don't think that we have had the speed at the corners to play press-man coverage. FSU, Miami and LSU have tremendous speed at the corner postion. We have gone with the more physical/hard-hitting type. This is my thought on the 15 yd. cushion.

[Shug2003 1]

AU's defense may be aggressive, but they are small! They better be ready to attack the offense with gusto or we have had the grease! Hopefully, we will call blitches, stunts, and other methods to off-set their speed at WR>

[rebdawg 5]

Our ends (especially McClover and Lagenfield) are very quick. McClover knocked down a pass against MSU 20 yards down field because they dropped him into a deep zone. We play Schaeffer the same way we played Randall and Conner, he is no better on the run than either of those two. Although Randall did hurt us a little early in the game, Brett settled him down.

[ECEstudentUA 9]

Ummm have you watched a bama game this year? We've been playing a ton of man. How else do you explain all the blitz packages?

106650[/snapback]

I didnt say that we dont play man to man.......we just dont press that much. They walk up to the line and then back off. You can play man and not press.