Our defense

[fatty fat fat]

are we better vs the pass or run?

are we imploding like we did last year as the season went on?

[michigancat]

are we imploding like we did last year as the season went on?

Prolly.

[hemmy]

Questionable

I'd say the pass but we never give safety help on deep throws so we are always at risk of giving up the huge play

[catzacker]

are we imploding like we did last year as the season went on?

Prolly.

I concur.  The idea that we don't need the proper players to run the 3-4 (specifically the NT) was a crock.  That and we hate tackling. 

[SuperSoulFighter]

We have holes and those holes get more and more exposed as the season wears on and the teams we play have more film to look at.  Give our coaches a lot of credit for covering them up in different ways so far, but I fear that there will come a game where sacrificing in one area leads to us getting burned badly in others.  When the other team can do everything well they will take whatever we give them and they will take it over and over and over.

That will be Mizzou for sure and possibly O State.

It's not an implosion.  They won't suddenly play worse.  It's just a lack of quality players at every position.

[Pittcat]

Better against the pass I think.  NT lacks a bit (not getting doubled enough or at all), and the DB's are deep and talented.  Just think if J. Moore was eligible.  Tibs could almost commit a safety exclusively to the run.

One thing for sure though, this defensive unit has matured alot since last year.  And that should only continue into bowl season, spring ball, summer workouts, camp, and next season.  Look for the Lynch Mob to be back in full force in '08!

[WilliamTheWildcat]

It's certainly a concern.  Teams now have enough tape that they can game plan our tendencies.  And after CU gouged us right up the gut with Charles..... I don't mind saying that game gave me flashbacks to the Texas Bowl.

[cocomonkey]

thank god our d isn't made up of you pussies.

god do any of you ever say anything positive?

that defense held its opponent to 1-12 on 3rd down opportunities and had two picks.

yes they gave up yards, yes i would love to see the lb's drop the hammer and quit getting sealed off after making the wrong read, yes i would love to see better tackling but damn you would thing from listening to you guys that they were just a bunch of hapless bafoons.

GOCATS!!!

[fatty fat fat]

thank god our d isn't made up of you pussies.

god do any of you ever say anything positive?

that defense held its opponent to 1-12 on 3rd down opportunities and had two picks.

yes they gave up yards, yes i would love to see the lb's drop the hammer and quit getting sealed off after making the wrong read, yes i would love to see better tackling but damn you would thing from listening to you guys that they were just a bunch of hapless bafoons.

GOCATS!!!

they imploded down the strech last year, and I'm worried the same is occuring this year.

[pissclams]

thank god our d isn't made up of you pussies.

god do any of you ever say anything positive?

that defense held its opponent to 1-12 on 3rd down opportunities and had two picks.

yes they gave up yards, yes i would love to see the lb's drop the hammer and quit getting sealed off after making the wrong read, yes i would love to see better tackling but damn you would thing from listening to you guys that they were just a bunch of hapless bafoons.

GOCATS!!!

Are you saying that you think we suck?  Wow.  Must be a real big time 'Cats fan huh?  Well, I've got news for you, they (we) DON'T SUCK!! EMAW!

[goCATSgo]

thank god our d isn't made up of you pussies.

god do any of you ever say anything positive?

that defense held its opponent to 1-12 on 3rd down opportunities and had two picks.

yes they gave up yards, yes i would love to see the lb's drop the hammer and quit getting sealed off after making the wrong read, yes i would love to see better tackling but damn you would thing from listening to you guys that they were just a bunch of hapless bafoons.

GOCATS!!!

we actually had 3 picks

[Pittcat]

thank god our d isn't made up of you pussies.

god do any of you ever say anything positive?

that defense held its opponent to 1-12 on 3rd down opportunities and had two picks.

yes they gave up yards, yes i would love to see the lb's drop the hammer and quit getting sealed off after making the wrong read, yes i would love to see better tackling but damn you would thing from listening to you guys that they were just a bunch of hapless bafoons.

GOCATS!!!

we actually had 3 picks

and a fumble recovery

[doom]

I think the strategy for CU was give up the run and stop anything deep.  CU was salivating at the thought that we drop the safeties so they could go long.  We never bit, and won by 27.  I think we'll be fine.

[feralchat]

The offense has to get them off the field -- that and hang on the ball. We saw the benefit of that against CU. And OSU and MU's defenses are more suspect than K-State's.
Also maybe some juco and young guys start to get it. So maybe we should think of slow improvement not imploding you glass-is-half-empty types.

[ksuno1stunner]

Need to factor in the fact that Raheem was going to Tampa Bay and knew it.

[Pittcat]

Need to factor in the fact that Raheem was going to Tampa Bay and knew it.

Lame duck/Bill Callahan syndrome

[leawoodcat]

The offense has to get them off the field -- that and hang on the ball. We saw the benefit of that against CU. And OSU and MU's defenses are more suspect than K-State's.
Also maybe some juco and young guys start to get it. So maybe we should think of slow improvement not imploding you glass-is-half-empty types.

Bingo. Didn't anybody listen to Prince?  CU loves to throw the long ball. Prince chose to take away the long ball and make them beat us on the ground. Further, in the second half, he made the adjustment to have Watts play SS and closer to the line. Watts was fantastic in that role. I suspect that Watts at SS and Carney at FS will be the primary usage of the safeties moving forward.

Once we got up and they had to play catch up by throwing it was checkmate.

It wasn't a thing of beauty but it was nice to see the coaches come up with a winning strategy as well as a good adjustment during the game.

[turbowildcat]

are we better vs the pass or run?

are we imploding like we did last year as the season went on?

We are better in the pass by far, our run defense was destroyed by Cu. And we lost the ku game b/c of lack of pressure, therefore pulling men away from pass coverage and into the blitzing game.

[cireksu]

I think CU's ydg was a result of not wanting to give up the big pass play and not giving charles a chance to get outside.  they adjusted and tightened up in the second half, a blown coverage assignment led to the big pass play and they only had 1 big run in the second half as well.  But OSU does worry me with all their weapons.  We have had too many breakdowns in the passing game.

[Poopley]

We miss Moore, Moran, and Antwon.  Josh Moore . . . obvious. Cline gets worn down by the 3rd quarter. Antwon loved to tackle and understood where he was supposed to be when he was not blitzing. Herndon and Patterson just don't have his savvy.

We'd be a much saltier d with those 3 guys, but hey, you gotta play with what you got. I kind of expect them to get rolled by OSU's offense.

[The Manhatter]

settle, Coco, it's a legit concern.  The defense wilted as the season progressed last year and we're seeing early signs of similar play.

But the Pass D, fatty, has been pretty good.  Compare both Pass D(especially completion pct and particularly in Big 12 play only) and Pass Eff D to last year.  LOL at the difference.

[LimestoneOutcropping]

We miss Moore, Moran, and Antwon.  Josh Moore . . . obvious. Cline gets worn down by the 3rd quarter. Antwon loved to tackle and understood where he was supposed to be when he was not blitzing. Herndon and Patterson just don't have his savvy.

We'd be a much saltier d with those 3 guys, but hey, you gotta play with what you got. I kind of expect them to get rolled by OSU's offense.

We are building up Moore the way Husker fans built up Steve Octavian when he was injured and not playing...

[ksu_FAN]

We miss Moore, Moran, and Antwon.  Josh Moore . . . obvious. Cline gets worn down by the 3rd quarter. Antwon loved to tackle and understood where he was supposed to be when he was not blitzing. Herndon and Patterson just don't have his savvy.

We'd be a much saltier d with those 3 guys, but hey, you gotta play with what you got. I kind of expect them to get rolled by OSU's offense.

We are building up Moore the way Husker fans built up Steve Octavian when he was injured and not playing...

Yeah, Moore will not ever see the field at KSU.  He might as well put his name in the NFL draft this year.

And as others have said, there are some legit concerns with our defense.  We are not real big up front and we are seeing what teams can do to us if we don't put 8 in the box.  However, I'm confident that we can make adjustments better in the 3-4 than the Tampa 2 we had last year, and hopefully we won't have the same injury issues.  I think we're seeing guys grow into the 3-4 a bit as well, especially in the secondary.

That said, one of the biggest issues right now is one that goes beyond the scheme; tackling.  We have got to be a better tackling team, especially from the LB position.  That has been my biggest disappointment defensively the last couple of weeks.

[Pittcat]

We miss Moore, Moran, and Antwon.  Josh Moore . . . obvious. Cline gets worn down by the 3rd quarter. Antwon loved to tackle and understood where he was supposed to be when he was not blitzing. Herndon and Patterson just don't have his savvy.

We'd be a much saltier d with those 3 guys, but hey, you gotta play with what you got. I kind of expect them to get rolled by OSU's offense.

We are building up Moore the way Husker fans built up Steve Octavian when he was injured and not playing...

Do you really think it's gone that far?

[catzacker]

We miss Moore, Moran, and Antwon.  Josh Moore . . . obvious. Cline gets worn down by the 3rd quarter. Antwon loved to tackle and understood where he was supposed to be when he was not blitzing. Herndon and Patterson just don't have his savvy.

We'd be a much saltier d with those 3 guys, but hey, you gotta play with what you got. I kind of expect them to get rolled by OSU's offense.

We are building up Moore the way Husker fans built up Steve Octavian when he was injured and not playing...

Yeah, Moore will not ever see the field at KSU.  He might as well put his name in the NFL draft this year.

And as others have said, there are some legit concerns with our defense.  We are not real big up front and we are seeing what teams can do to us if we don't put 8 in the box.  However, I'm confident that we can make adjustments better in the 3-4 than the Tampa 2 we had last year, and hopefully we won't have the same injury issues.  I think we're seeing guys grow into the 3-4 a bit as well, especially in the secondary.

That said, one of the biggest issues right now is one that goes beyond the scheme; tackling.  We have got to be a better tackling team, especially from the LB position.  That has been my biggest disappointment defensively the last couple of weeks.

I don't know what adjustments can be made.  Part of it is a personnel issue.  The NT is supposed to be able to control the A gap on either side of the center, right?  And he (no matter how it is) hasn't been able to do that the past two games.  That basically leaves the play side guard and/or the fullback (or lead back) hat on hat with the play side LB, the weakside guard is getting to the weakside LB and there is a huge hole, that has to be filled by the FS/SS.  We "fixed" this by moving Watts closer to the LOS and I believe we told the NT to slant into the strong side A gap and never really paid for it because CU's WR's aren't that great, Hawkins made some poor throws, and our offense kept scoring which forced CU out of the run. 

[michigancat]

Just poor tackling.

[ksu_FAN]

We miss Moore, Moran, and Antwon.  Josh Moore . . . obvious. Cline gets worn down by the 3rd quarter. Antwon loved to tackle and understood where he was supposed to be when he was not blitzing. Herndon and Patterson just don't have his savvy.

We'd be a much saltier d with those 3 guys, but hey, you gotta play with what you got. I kind of expect them to get rolled by OSU's offense.

We are building up Moore the way Husker fans built up Steve Octavian when he was injured and not playing...

Yeah, Moore will not ever see the field at KSU.  He might as well put his name in the NFL draft this year.

And as others have said, there are some legit concerns with our defense.  We are not real big up front and we are seeing what teams can do to us if we don't put 8 in the box.  However, I'm confident that we can make adjustments better in the 3-4 than the Tampa 2 we had last year, and hopefully we won't have the same injury issues.  I think we're seeing guys grow into the 3-4 a bit as well, especially in the secondary.

That said, one of the biggest issues right now is one that goes beyond the scheme; tackling.  We have got to be a better tackling team, especially from the LB position.  That has been my biggest disappointment defensively the last couple of weeks.

I don't know what adjustments can be made.  Part of it is a personnel issue.  The NT is supposed to be able to control the A gap on either side of the center, right?  And he (no matter how it is) hasn't been able to do that the past two games.  That basically leaves the play side guard and/or the fullback (or lead back) hat on hat with the play side LB, the weakside guard is getting to the weakside LB and there is a huge hole, that has to be filled by the FS/SS.  We "fixed" this by moving Watts closer to the LOS and I believe we told the NT to slant into the strong side A gap and never really paid for it because CU's WR's aren't that great, Hawkins made some poor throws, and our offense kept scoring which forced CU out of the run. 

The movement of Watts into the box is one major adjustment that really wasn't possible in the Tampa 2.  Granted, some adjustments you make open you up in other areas, but there seem to be more options.  You can also slant, as you suggested above, or slide your front weak or strong to give the offense different looks, but still stay in the 3-4 scheme.  Of course, all these are things you use to cover up deficiencies, but at least you have some options.  I'm not sure you have some of those options in the Tampa 2. 

[fatty fat fat]

I rewatched the CU game in HD:

I have 2 observations:

1)Erker should never see the field
2)Our LB's are taking the wrong gaps. How hard is it to avoid an O-Lineman?


 

[SUPERKSUFAN]

I rewatched the CU game in HD:

I have 2 observations:

1)Erker should never see the field
2)Our LB's are taking the wrong gaps. How hard is it to avoid an O-Lineman?


 

That is a huge factor right there....

[ArchE_Cat]

I rewatched the CU game in HD:

I have 2 observations:

1)Erker should never see the field
2)Our LB's are taking the wrong gaps. How hard is it to avoid an O-Lineman?


 

Prince has already said that this was a scheme mistake that we will not fall into again.