Geno was going to get his yards no matter what we did. We blitzed off the edge a few times. All it did was leave one-on-one coverage with one of those speedster WRs. If Claiborne or Mathieu misses one of those tackles, a 7-yd gain suddenly turns into 30+. WVU would also put 2 RBs in the backfield with one of them hanging back to block if we blitzed. Factor in those quick throws and you've basically neutralized the DL. The lack of a running threat made bend but don't break a sound way to defend this kind of spread. Unlike the kind UF ran with Tebow, where he could just bulldoze you for 3-4 yards when needed, and required a more aggressive style of D.
That was the plan vs WVU - not always going to be the case. Watch this next game with a more "standard" offense to get after.
Sure we didn't sack the QB but we did cause 4 turnovers. Given the choice between those two options I'll take the turnovers every time.
And here I was thinking I was the only one who knew this.. Truth of the matter is, Smith got rid of the ball so quickly, it wouldn't have done us any good to go after him. Chief knew this so he dialed up a little different game plan. And even though we gave up a bunch of yardage through the air, they weren't able to score much on us. Sometimes you gotta let the offense think they can do what they want, as it puts a nice little confused look on their faces when you devour their souls..
Because we do what we have to do to win football games. The worst thing to do against a quick strike/slant running offense like WVU is vacate a few members of the secondary or LB group. See Wes Welker and Pretty boy Brady. Again we played the defense our coaches thought (correctly) would give us the best chance to win the game. It may not be pretty, but it got the job done. They played outstanding, we missed a few tackles, we missed a few INT's, we dropped a TD, we missed a FG....we still won by 26. I think I'll just be satisfied with that.
Nice work, Fish! Guess a solid example showing that we ARE trained and capable still isn't good enough for people to still be negative for something...
It is frustrating to see the QB sit back and scan the field, and that has happened a good bit. But before we get too critical we should remember we've faced some potent spread offenses so far this season.
