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Defense against Florida Atlantic

Posted by HenryJames on September 1st, 2008 under Football

Finally got around to rewatching the game so here’s my thoughts on our defense. We used our base 4-3 probably 75% of the time. The other 25% was nickel. There was no reason for us to use anything else. You can count on one hand the number of times we blitzed. We had no reason to. In other words, Muschamp did not tip his hand.

The worst internet meme to come out of this game is that our defensive line played poorly. Anyone making this argument deserves to die alone. Our defensive line was fantastic. Let’s first take a look at what FAU did with their protection. They rolled the pocket. They used slide protection. They used two tight end sets. They kept one and sometimes two backs in to block. They had at least three holds that weren’t called. And they had a quarterback who gets rid of the ball at all costs. The defensive line still got pressure. Orakpo, Melton, Miller, Houston and Lewis all generated pressure, but the Rusty Smith was not going to take a sack.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Henry Melton caused Rusty Smith’s only interception. It was his pressure that caused Smith to throw it off his back foot (he threw off his back foot more than once) while trying to throw it out of the endzone. The Statesman says Melton hit his arm, but I couldn’t tell from the replay.

On Brandon Foster’s pass interference call, we rushed four. FAU kept two tight ends and a back in to protect, and Aaron Lewis still got pressure.

The most gratifying thing to me is that we stopped screens and reverses. That is a sign of a well-coached defense. It’s about players reading their keys and carrying out their assignments. FAU ran 1 reverse and 4 screens:

1) FAU ran a reverse on the first play of the game. Brian Orakpo doesn’t chase flow and stays home. He stuffs an attempted cut block by Smith, turns the play inside and makes the tackle for no gain.

2) Seventh play of the initial FAU drive. They try a wide receiver screen to the left side, and Blake Gideon makes an outstanding play. He got by three blockers and then nailed Jamari Grant.

3) FAU’s last possession before the half. They try a RB screen on first down, and Jared Norton makes the tackle for a three yard loss.

4) FAU started the drive from their own 2 with 11.14 left in the 3rd. They try a slip screen to the receiver on 2nd and 10, and Norton again sniffs it out and makes a great play for no gain.

5) FAU started the drive with 8:24 left in the game. They once again try a slip screen to the receiver, and this time Eddie Jones makes a great play from his defensive end spot. Three yard loss.

We made four bad plays that led to to probably at least a third of FAU’s total yards, but we didn’t make any bad plays after the half. Missed open field tackles by Earl Thomas and Curtis Brown led to a lot of yards after the catch, we failed to cover the fullback (most likely Bobino’s man) on FAU’s first drive and Thomas gave up a post pattern for a touchdown. The FAU receivers also made a couple of great catches, but other than that we shut them down. How much so? After they cut the lead to 28-10, they managed only 45 yards the rest of the game. Five of their subsequent drives resulted in negative yardage.

Some individual players deserve kudos.

Earl Thomas is the definition of upside. While he might have given up a touchdown catch and missed an open field tackle, he also forced a fumble, tipped a pass that was intercepted and blocked a punt. That’s why the argument was made last year that the younger players should get some snaps in the secondary and at linebacker. The younger guys make plays.

Aaron Lewis had a great game rushing the quarterback from the defensive tackle spot. He becomes even more important now that Houston will be sitting out the next game.

Jared Norton made two great plays on screens and was all over the field. He’s lighter and quicker this year, and there is no reason he should not be starting.

Henry Melton played great. He’s quick, athletic and he hustles. Watch the play he made on FAU’s second play of the second half. He cuts inside the tackle, stuff the fullback in the backfield while keeping his outside arm free and stuffs the runner for a 3 yard loss. Houston got credit for the tackle, but Melton made the play.

But this was a team effort, and it bodes very well for the rest of the season.

Thoughts?

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15 Responses

  1. westlake said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 7:11 am

    can you talk a little more about the back four ?

  2. Meme said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 7:15 am

    I thought the worst internet meme was the use of the word meme.

  3. Kafka said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 8:22 am

    Palmer was the CB who had the initial coverage. Thomas gave Palmer a WTF look after the play. If it was Thomas’s fault (which I assume is the case), then he obviously wasn’t clear on his coverage responsibility (i.e. freshman mistake).

    that pattern (deep post) gave us trouble last year, too. It is like doubles tennis (”down the middle, solves the riddle”).

    If it was Palmer’s fault, he was not even close to covering that receiver. My impression is that they picked on Palmer a lot.

    Regarding the D line, I got the impression that they were bull rushing a lot. this conservative approach minimizes mistakes but makes it pretty tough to get to the QB.

  4. rpongett said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 8:46 am

    Melton and Orakpo were lightning off the edge. Even on that grainy internet video I posted last year, you tell when Melton was in just by the way that freak moves. Orakpo abused Williams, who was supposedly their quickest lineman, but it is FAU.

    I’m a little worried with Houston and Lewis playing 3 tech DT in running situations against guards. Not that we seem to play anyone that runs anymore. They got shoved around a little a few times, but FAU didn’t get yards from it.

  5. HenryJames said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 10:29 am

    When are you going to have your videos posted? It’s a fantastic resource.

  6. Dude said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 11:21 am

    Their tackles could not block Sam Acho. One time they horse collared him (it was called). They also used backs on him. Acho is my Mr Upside.

  7. 8straight said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    I haven’t been able to watch the tape yet. I don’t seem to see Kindle’s name mentioned.

  8. 71grad said:

    September 1st, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    The play of Bobino, Kindle, Norton and Muck was very encouraging. A not so fond goodbye to last years disaster of an LB coach.

  9. Mysterious Package said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 5:27 am

    I dont even remember anything about this game. It was a long blacked out day.

  10. Vasherized said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 am

    I see what you did there with Brandon Foster and you’re not fooling anyone.

    Houston got his pads too high on a few plays and got pushed around but when he stays low he can knife through the traffic with reckless abandon. Glad to hear he’s only out one game.

    Melton is a completely different player on defense. We can throw a little bit of everything at an offense when you go four deep on the ends with Orakpo, Melton, Acho and Jones (who also played well in limited action).

  11. dedfischer said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Would you guys be offended if I said I thought Eastern Washington had a better offense than Florida Atlantic?

  12. HenryJames said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    You can make whatever extravagant claims you want about Eastern Washington.

  13. dedfischer said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Ok, I just wanted to check first. They moved in to the #19 spot on my poll this week. I’m playing the BCS game.

  14. dedfischer said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    I guess my real point was that I couldn’t tell anything more about your defense against FAU than I could Tech against EWU. Okie State held them to 6 points and 200 total yards last year, and their defense was worse than ours. I think we’ll get a good test against Nevada with regards to our run defense this week. I thought Price’s outfit might be a good test, but they were awful last week.

  15. dedfischer said:

    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    I take that back, I did learn one thing. The state of Texas’ top athletes have the ability to completely dominate 4th tier athletes from Florida, and Texas’ 2nd tier athletes have the ability to dominate the state of Washington’s 4th tier athletes. Other than that, I couldn’t say much accurately, even though I probably would anyway.

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