Despite the poor 2nd half performance vs a&m, the defense has generally exceeded most expectations coming out of spring camp. We knew that we had both talent and depth deficiencies on the DL and across the entire secondary. The loss of Guillory was huge, yet the coaching staff has managed to take a bunch of good but not great players to create a serviceable defense. If we would have had this defense with Daniels and last year’s offense we may have been in playoff contention. The offense has been a big disappointment. No running game whatsoever. Our great pass blocking OL’s inability to run block is puzzling. I have to wonder if our play selection and offensive game schemes are the issue. When we get in the red zone the inability to run amplifies the difficulty to score. You would think by now that an experienced HC like Kelley would realize that hiring from within has less than a 50-50 chance of succeeding. Selecting Sloan to replace Denbrock is looking like a fail.
I’m wondering if nuss’s ankle is worse than we thought, so he couldn’t push off when he threw and the reason for the 3 interceptions
Its unfathomable that we have two potential first round picks playing tackle, one of whom is a probable top 5 pick, and we can't run behind either of them. My biggest problem with Sloan is predictability. Against A&M, until we were behind two scores, every time we threw an incomplete pass on first down, the 2nd and 10 play call was a run between the tackles. Every time. The defense is looking for it and it guarantees a 3rd and long situation. He also doesn't seem satisfied with success. Now admittedly, this might be Nuss forcing things, but against Arkansas in particular, we had great success in the first quarter with the short pass game. We got up a couple of scores and suddenly started forcing the ball deep. Of course, those incompletions on low percentage throws were followed up by runs between the tackles and before you knew it, Arkansas was back in the game. Keep doing what's working until they stop it.
It sure didnt help. But give tickleme credit. He realized we were no run threat between tackle or otherwise and their D pinned ears back.
