Say they changed due to the fans is a way of patting themselves on the back and giving a backhanded compliment to the coaches. As soon as coach starts listening to fans he already has one foot out the door. whether it be one play or a scheme.
I'm not saying Pelini is listening to the fans but he felt the heat and started changing some play calling or schemes. I think the terrible play calling in the ASU and the UT game was a mix of players not use to the system and insufficient plays and sub par play calling and lack of adjustments. In the ASU game the same defense was run the entire game. 4-3 soft zone and giving WR's 10 yard pads. Why was that the only play ran for virtualy the whole game? Why no adjustments, no blitzes? Are you saying the players didn't know any other plays? If so why? The play calling in ASU was just that. Bad play calling. Sure the players hosed up some plays and it is quite OK to critique players and say it was there fault so why can't we critique the coaches. Many of those that say it is wrong for people to critique the coaches fall back on "The players don't know the system, the players made a lot of mistakes, etc". Why just blame the players and why don't the players know the system backwards and forwards and why didn't Bo call varying plays in the ASU game. I'm not willing to level the blame at players only.
Pelini called a lot more conservatively earlier in the year because the players did not know the scheme/plays inside and out. Had he risked calling plays with which the players were not familiar or comfortable, things would have turned out much worse. Now that the players have had the opporunity to get a much better feel for how his scheme works, he is free to take the reigns off. You can practice something over and over in summer practices and/or scrimmages. But until you see how it translates against a live opponent, you won't be completely comfortable with it. It's no coincidence that our D has improved every game (yes, I realize that UT was no gem, but it was statistically much better than ASU). I think we're finally beginning to see why Bo was so great at Nebraska. We held Vandy to a much, much lower offensive output this year than with last years much more experienced defense and less experienced Cutler. That fact is highlighted when you consider that 40 of their 138 total yards were gained on the last play. Ninety-eight frikkin' yards? I don't care who that's against, that is outstanding.
Chaos, I'm not sold on this theory. Why didn't the players know more plays and schemes? If the offense can learn untold amounts of plays why can't the defense. Yes the team had a shorter practice schedule, but I will fault Pelini for not having the players prepared for more than a 4-3 soft zone for 4 qtrs. Why couldn't any adjustments be made and or blitzes called. Rattle an inexperienced QB with a few blitzes and it would've been a different game, ala Cutler. I just find it ridiculous that the players didn't know the schemes or plays well enough to do something other than 4-3 soft zone the entire game and that Pelini had no alternate plan in the 2nd half. But for arguments sake I'll let that argument go. Lets go to the UT game. So now Pelini has taught the defense his scheme and he has a gameplan of attacking the OL and pressuring the QB. He has a great deal of success in doing it, but once he is up by 21 points who reverts to the 4-3 soft zone and rushes 4 play after play and gives 10 yard cushions to the WR's and lets Clausen of all people mop the field with his defense. Obviously the defense knew a lot more plays and schemes by evidence in the 1st half play, so why give up on it?? That was the coaches call and it was terrible and no changes were made by no one on the coaching staff. THere was no excuse of the players not knowing the system blah blah b/c they did but it was coaching that lost that game.
It seems like having to play 11 DB's in the second half of that game due to the players cramping up would shed a little light on why LSU did not play a pressing man to man in the second half vs the Vols, but of course that will be looked at as an excuse even though it is a fact. But my main point would be that every time a new coordinator comes into a program there is going to be a learning curve, they are not going to have the whole system down pat for the first, second, third or even the fourth game most likely. Especially when they did not have the benefit of a tune up game or two like most teams usually have. And losing as much practice time as LSU did for 3 weeks sure as hell didn't help.
Clausen used a lot of quick-drops in the 2nd half. You can blitz all you want, but if you're not throwing off the timing of the WR's, quick-drops will eat your lunch. Remember, in the first half, our success hinged on pressuring Ainge. We abused that overrated little sap. There wasn't spectacular coverage or anything, Ainge just didn't have time to make good throws. Additionally, what may have seemed like 'soft-zone' could very well have been an assload of blown assignments. One thing I noticed in the 2nd hald that didn't happen in the 1st was one DB or LB having no clue where he was supposed to line up pre-snap on practically every play. Other DBs had to direct him where to go, and the ball was being snapped by the time they got settled in. There was obviously a lot of confusion in the second half, which led to a complete meltdown. That really led me to believe that the players still weren't comfortable in the system. Also, about offense vs defense, remember, our offense did not have to learn new plays this year. Maybe a few, but I imagine the bulk of them haven't changed.
No thanks to the defensive play calling. Thank God for the SPTeams because we lost that game on defense.
Do you know why we stopped them on their last drive?? If you look back on that game, you will notice a 4-3 zone and giving WR's a 10 yd cushion, with the LB's dropping back in zone. So ASU gets a couple of big plays and is in LSU half of the field. Pelini then decides to put pressure on Keller with blitzes and throwing his timing off and not giving him time to pick the LSU zone apart. Please go back and tell I'm wrong. If the defense knew the plays and schemes well enough to pull it out on the last drive of the game then why didn't Bo make the adjustments at half time instead waiting till the last minute. It was bad play calling and he made no adjustments during the game until the last drive. The philosophy on the last set of downs changed completely. For that I commend Pelini but I don't understand why he didn't make the needed changes earlier in the game when they waxed the LSU defense. Keller was dazed and confused on the last drive because of the new defensive scheme coming at him. He had not seen any of the blitzes or plays the whole night. That was coaching decisions and I think they were bad decision and thank God he realized he had to do somthing different on the last drive.
