Why did Coach Ellis Johnson Fail?

[war eagle6 0]

His scheme was flawed, it's like he was force feeding something that was not working....his defensive play calling in BCS game cost AU the natty IMO .....last play he lines Davis up against Benjamin one on one...Benjamin 6'5 ..Davis 5'10 on a good day...Benjamin should have been doubled and jammed at the line as all know wa crab legs security blanket in the red zone. Also the 4-2-5, takes a true linebacker of the field, and UGA outflanked the DLINE with more blockers and just opened up huge holes....he just did not adjust his philosophy enough, it was not working with the personnel he had...jmho

Spot on, as I have said this countless times,

It's Just that no one was listening

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,673]

His scheme was flawed, it's like he was force feeding something that was not working....his defensive play calling in BCS game cost AU the natty IMO .....last play he lines Davis up against Benjamin one on one...Benjamin 6'5 ..Davis 5'10 on a good day...Benjamin should have been doubled and jammed at the line as all know wa crab legs security blanket in the red zone. Also the 4-2-5, takes a true linebacker of the field, and UGA outflanked the DLINE with more blockers and just opened up huge holes....he just did not adjust his philosophy enough, it was not working with the personnel he had...jmho

Spot on, as I have said this countless times,

It's Just that no one was listening

I can get with the star if you have a guy that can actually play LB but defend decently vs the opposite...which favored Garrett, but I don't know what happened with that. I think he should've started vs Therezie this year since Auburn couldn't get actual pressure with just 4 and Therezie really did nothing to help the pass coverage.

[lala 327]

His scheme is not flawed and he is a good x and o coach. Plus it is not rocket science. I think a pass rush and safety play was his downfall and potentially his ability to relate more to the players. You need to be as much a motivator as an x&o guy

[war eagle6 0]

We all should have seen it coming against uga last year. Mike bobo figured him out and was exploiting him big time. No way the miracle in Jordan hare should have occurred. Same thing with the natty. U don't leave a 5'9 guy on a 6'5 guy by himself. There should have been help somewhere, especially when the whole world knew who was getting the ball. Well, everyone except Ellis. We had a big enough lead to win that game. After Tre scored our last td, I immediately looked at the clock and said we left too much time on the clock. That shows u how much faith I had in coach Johnson's defensive scheme.

[PoetTiger 1,899]

We all should have seen it coming against uga last year. Mike bobo figured him out and was exploiting him big time. No way the miracle in Jordan hare should have occurred. Same thing with the natty. U don't leave a 5'9 guy on a 6'5 guy by himself. There should have been help somewhere, especially when the whole world knew who was getting the ball. Well, everyone except Ellis. We had a big enough lead to win that game. After Tre scored our last td, I immediately looked at the clock and said we left too much time on the clock. That shows u how much faith I had in coach Johnson's defensive scheme.

BIngo...

[DyeHardAllTheWay 0]

Ellis Johnson was never a good defensive coordinator. Mediocre maybe. He was defensive coordinator during the DuBose years at Alabama and was demoted at South Carolina. He has been inconsistent at every stop and nothing made me think he had the answers to our defenses problems, even with his cute scheme.

[Warbird82 160]

No pass rush

This is the main issue. Our D line really struggled to put any pressure on the opposing QB. When we did, we had to blitz and that open all kinds of passing lanes. Teams just ate us alive in the passing game, which then opened the running game. Then we lost confidence and could not stop anybody from doing anything.

But the straw that broke the camels back was the fact that we scored 44 points against Alabama and lost... by double digits. First time in history we scored that much and lost.

But we knew from the beginning that without CL, we were not going to get a good push from the front four...to help with this, you have to stunt and blitz. Our problem with blitzing was that we rarely disguised the blitzes...this gave the other side time to adjust. JMHO.

[gman87 398]

We all should have seen it coming against uga last year. Mike bobo figured him out and was exploiting him big time. No way the miracle in Jordan hare should have occurred. Same thing with the natty. U don't leave a 5'9 guy on a 6'5 guy by himself. There should have been help somewhere, especially when the whole world knew who was getting the ball. Well, everyone except Ellis. We had a big enough lead to win that game. After Tre scored our last td, I immediately looked at the clock and said we left too much time on the clock. That shows u how much faith I had in coach Johnson's defensive scheme.

BIngo...

You 2 should get a room. FSU was on the 2 yard line on that score and you want to double team a WR. sheesh

[cole256 17,084]

Once they were on the 2 they were scoring. Now the 6 yard hitch that turned into a 50 yd play??? Pissed me off tremendously.

[war eagle6 0]

We all should have seen it coming against uga last year. Mike bobo figured him out and was exploiting him big time. No way the miracle in Jordan hare should have occurred. Same thing with the natty. U don't leave a 5'9 guy on a 6'5 guy by himself. There should have been help somewhere, especially when the whole world knew who was getting the ball. Well, everyone except Ellis. We had a big enough lead to win that game. After Tre scored our last td, I immediately looked at the clock and said we left too much time on the clock. That shows u how much faith I had in coach Johnson's defensive scheme.

BIngo...

You 2 should get a room. FSU was on the 2 yard line on that score and you want to double team a WR. sheesh

And u should get your eyes checked! They were just inside the 6 yd line, not the 2 yd line as u were suggesting. Even if they were at the 2 yd line, Benjamin should have at least been jammed at the line of scrimmage to slow down the pattern instead of being free to make a move coming off the line, before going into his route. But once again, cej shows press coverage only to be soft as tissue in reality. But this is old cold news of what should have been, Its a new day and muschamp is going to make a lot of people forget cej was our dcoordinator at some point in time. But then again, cej did set embarrassing numbers at AU, and IMO cost us a natty when he gave up that final drive to fsu. That's going to leave a mark for a long time

Edited by war eagle6, Today, 05:49 PM.

[kevon67 2,368]

His version of the 4-2-5 was going to require consistent play from the DL. Losing Lawson was huge not just because of his potential but the opportunities he would have created for the other 3 DL just by being on the field. In a nutshell, all the issues began up front and carried over to the back-7.

well put sir

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

I know losing Lawson hurt, but a sign of a strong program is one that does not let the loss of one player ruin the season. That being said, getting him back next year will be huge.

Bingo! If our entire defense depends on one player....you're in MAJOR trouble to begin with. Having him is big but I don't like having to depend so heavily on 1 or 2 players on defense to make us a "good" defense.

[meh130 1,043]

His version of the 4-2-5 was going to require consistent play from the DL. Losing Lawson was huge not just because of his potential but the opportunities he would have created for the other 3 DL just by being on the field. In a nutshell, all the issues began up front and carried over to the back-7.

Very true. DL play is key in any 40-series front defense, but it becomes more important in a 4-2-5, and critical in CEJ's 4-2-5 which heavily used man to man pass defense.

Good man to man will only be able to provide pass coverage for a few seconds, then the receivers' moves, crossing routes, etc., will disrupt the man to man coverage. QB pressure and hurries are necessary to shorten the time of pass plays.

Similarly, for running plays, any 40-series front needs to stop, disrupt, or slow down the running play, to allow the pursuit of the LBs and DBs to get there. This is not the case with a true 30-seies front where the DL can only be expected to soak up blocks and double teams allowing LBs to make the play. DL play is more important in a 4-2-5 because there is one less true LB backing up the line.

We did not see the sacks and hurries this year. Also, the DL did not seem to make as many tackles this year. Those stats need to be higher regardless of the a 4-2-5 or a 4-3.

I do think CEJ's man to man heavy 4-2-5 may have overall issues. Ole Miss' zone heavy 4-2-5 worked much better against many of the same opponents. I think Ole Miss confused the pass-heavy offenses more, provided better run support, and was more effective in the Red Zone.

[cole256 17,084]

You can't be a big time program and only have one pass rusher on your team. No matter what it's on the coaches for not going out and getting somebody who can

[cole256 17,084]

Ole miss recruited guys on the d line that could run stop and pass rush immediately

[war eagle6 0]

Ole miss recruited guys on the d line that could run stop and pass rush immediately

Yep

[IronMan70 3,277]

Once they were on the 2 they were scoring. Now the 6 yard hitch that turned into a 50 yd play??? Pissed me off tremendously.

Yep, that was the play that gave them the chance and the thing was, all they were trying to do was get a first down. With less than a minute to go by then, as long as we don't allow one thing, we win the game.

We could not allow them to gain a large chunk of yardage on 1 play, using little time to do it. But, that is exactly what we did. That 1 play put them in scoring range with enough time left that it allowed them to open up their red zone play book and use it effectively.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

We all should have seen it coming against uga last year. Mike bobo figured him out and was exploiting him big time. No way the miracle in Jordan hare should have occurred. Same thing with the natty. U don't leave a 5'9 guy on a 6'5 guy by himself. There should have been help somewhere, especially when the whole world knew who was getting the ball. Well, everyone except Ellis. We had a big enough lead to win that game. After Tre scored our last td, I immediately looked at the clock and said we left too much time on the clock. That shows u how much faith I had in coach Johnson's defensive scheme.

I was thinking the same thing too....as most who were watching the game with me. It was hard for me to get all excited about Tre's TD b/c I was like crap that's a lot of time on the clock. It sucked to immediately have a feeling of we're about to lose this game right after Tre scored. Was hoping we'd blitz every darn time on defense.

[war eagle6 0]

Exactly^^. Trust me, every AU fan at the sports bar hung their heads as Tre mason crossed the goal line. While I was screaming inside for someone from fsu to tackle tre inside the redzone, because I knew we wouldn't be able to stop them from scoring. And I hate that feeling with a passion, because I believe in AUburn and love it! WDE