two things happened last night.. 1. LSU ran alot more man and it was the main coverage scheme that they blitzed from... and 2. Culter folded under the pressure.. he had alot of Aaron Brooks-ish reactions to the blitz which made the D look much better than it was... there were several times when there was a WR who was open deep but Cutler couldnt stand up and make the throw before getting hit... he threw of his back foot and short armed the ball.. a quality QB is going to make those throws...
Actually I did, but I didn't think you were talking about that. We played press coverage about 32% of the time vs. Tenn. It was not the same type of press Saban taught though. The DBs stay about 3-5 yds off the WR and don't chuck them on first contact with consistency, if at all. Against Vanderbilt we played in that same space about 66% of the time, still little chucking but the DBs were much better at guiding the WR into the zone help (Prude was beaten a few times in MoM, and some blown assignments again...but DL rush saved them). Keep in mind the press coverage doesn't mean man, and man doesn't mean press necessarily, and since I can't see every play, I don't include man coverage in the statistics....but the plays that could be seen were about the same percentage in all games except ASU. It's hard to tell on the TV replays what coverage the DBs are in on every play because they don't replay each one, and the ones they do don't show the wide angle. Against ASU we played off more, and blitzed less, than the other games by a fair margin. I chalk that up to trying to 'prevent' big plays...and possibly some concern on Pelini's part that our guys didn't know what was going on, so taking less risk was warranted(?). He's made some adjustments, but those are more due to differing teams and offenses...the changes fall within his schematic philosophies, every player that's been hit up for an answer has said the same, we're running the same thing, just better execution and communication. Another big reason why the players have performed much better, aside from just playing some games in it, is the competition and the athlete on the other side of them that they must beat, is inferior. That can help a lot..and getting that confidence can help vs. better teams. I still don't like the prospect of Prude covering Chad Jackson though
What???? Cutler is a quality QB but may have set the record last night for the amount of times a QB had to pick himself up off the ground. He was shell shocked from all the hits last night just like ANY other QB would have been. If you don't believe it watch a couple NFL games today. As down as I have been on Pellini you have to say it was the defense playing good ball and not just Vandy and Cutler stinking it up. I'm not sure if he threw one single pass last night where he wasn't under pressure and many a good QB would fold under such pressure.
TigerWins, as far as the blitzing origination, Pelini mixes up his blitzes very well. Lots of combination of DBs, LBs, and from every position. I saw no difference in the place they came from..it was all pretty random and the down and distance was random (which I also tracked, and the outcome of the play too btw). You are right though, I could not track accurately the type of D the DBs were playing when the blitz came, except for when there was a safety blitz of course. Even then I had to keep track of where the ball was thrown, and whether that side of the field had deep help from the non blitzing S if there was one. It's all mish mash of stats and situations, and we don;t have an uncluttered, full pciture because we dont have the goalpost film to watch or Beaux'/s gameplan notes to compare to. My main point is keep people from claiming we played too much soft zone and blitzed too little in our loss to Tenn (doesn't apply to you as far as I know btw). Trying to take away as much wiggle room as I can to the Pelini basher who want to havea built in excuse to later try to claim they were;nt wrong, etc.
I like the way our D has played the past two weeks, but then I realize our opponents have been MSU & Vandy. Bring the same intensity, execution, and results against the Gators & Barners and I'm on the bandwagon.
My opinion is...he's still not up to par. Making adjustments and playing to the strengths of the defensive talent on hand is something that should have been done back in, say, August, not a month into the season. His more attacking, more man coverage-oriented style now reinforces, in my mind, that Pelini looked at what was obvious to most, ignored it, and stubbornly tried to do things "his way". Well, IMO, he can save his stubbornness for the way he deals with his wife and not project it onto my favorite football team. Thanks, Bo. :thumb:
My opinion is that its too early to tell. This question should be asked no earlier than the Bama game and then at the end of the year. Just because we had 1 good game against Vandy doesn't mean we are back to where we once was. It seems to me that LSU football has sunk so much compared to last year that I couldn't believe posters here, last night were telling people to change their avatar. One poster has a picture of Pellini with a no through it. It amazes me that people were defending Pellini for a win over MSU and now Vandy. Yes the team, defense played better but we should realize that reality is just around the corner with teams like Florida, Auburn and Alabama. Then we can celebrate if our defense is able to play as good and defend Pellini. I just think some of this has been pre-mature thats all.
Anyone who thinks that defense last night was the same scheme and playcalling from the previous games, may want to head to your local library and check out a copy of "Football 101." Way more agressive, different blitz angles, man to man almost all night. The reason it worked so well is because this team was recruited specifically to play man-to-man, here we are, come and get us, speed defense. The first two games we played drop back, read and react zone. Rarely did we run any kind of stunt other that sending Daniels a few times or one linebacker at a time.
