Defense

[EdubU10]

This D is the best we have had in many years. So I am excited about it. It appears to get better every game. The play calling I question on occasion. The Davis QB was good and yet we only rushed three several times and gave him way to much time to find that outstanding receiver, which resulted in big plays. I can't blame the players for those choices.

I don't think I could be persuaded to believe our D is better this year than last year. The stats don't seem to bear that out.

But I can reserve some judgment until after this weekend. If there was a team we should be able to make a lot of stops against, it's Montana State. If they chew us up like we've been seeing, that is a really bad sign. They don't offer much through the air, so we should be able to load up the box.

I'm with Dopa on this one. Yeah we played a tough schedule thus far and we're not going to be work beaters on Defense. My main concern is TURNOVERS. We're -9 so far this season and averaging less than 1 force turnover per game. That's....not good.

 

[clawman1]

This D is the best we have had in many years. So I am excited about it. It appears to get better every game. The play calling I question on occasion. The Davis QB was good and yet we only rushed three several times and gave him way to much time to find that outstanding receiver, which resulted in big plays. I can't blame the players for those choices.

I don't think I could be persuaded to believe our D is better this year than last year. The stats don't seem to bear that out.

But I can reserve some judgment until after this weekend. If there was a team we should be able to make a lot of stops against, it's Montana State. If they chew us up like we've been seeing, that is a really bad sign. They don't offer much through the air, so we should be able to load up the box.

I'm with Dopa on this one. Yeah we played a tough schedule thus far and we're not going to be work beaters on Defense. My main concern is TURNOVERS. We're -9 so far this season and averaging less than 1 force turnover per game. That's....not good.

Agreed -9 is not good, in fact we should have a worse record than we do because of that stat.
But... being -9 on turnovers and only lost the two games that we did is in fact a testament to our defense rather than an indication of poor defense. Lesser defenses would be giving up more points on those turnovers resulting in a loss. Imagine when we turn that stat around how dominate this team will be!

 

[93bird]

I watched the entire game last night. Some credit has to go to the Aggies. They have a lot more skill offensively than we're used to. I thought our defense was physical and quick to the ball. There was also good pressure on their QB even though we didn't blitz a lot. Kupp and Williams were impressive. Aside from possibly Weber, I highly doubt we see another team this season throw the ball as effectively.

 

[ewueagle2010]

This D is the best we have had in many years. So I am excited about it. It appears to get better every game. The play calling I question on occasion. The Davis QB was good and yet we only rushed three several times and gave him way to much time to find that outstanding receiver, which resulted in big plays. I can't blame the players for those choices.

I don't think I could be persuaded to believe our D is better this year than last year. The stats don't seem to bear that out.

But I can reserve some judgment until after this weekend. If there was a team we should be able to make a lot of stops against, it's Montana State. If they chew us up like we've been seeing, that is a really bad sign. They don't offer much through the air, so we should be able to load up the box.

I'm with Dopa on this one. Yeah we played a tough schedule thus far and we're not going to be work beaters on Defense. My main concern is TURNOVERS. We're -9 so far this season and averaging less than 1 force turnover per game. That's....not good.

Agreed -9 is not good, in fact we should have a worse record than we do because of that stat.
But... being -9 on turnovers and only lost the two games that we did is in fact a testament to our defense rather than an indication of poor defense. Lesser defenses would be giving up more points on those turnovers resulting in a loss. Imagine when we turn that stat around how dominate this team will be!

Agreed, Clawman. I'm not sure why a negative turnover margin would be blamed on the D. They're already getting some takeaways and third down stops, but when you consider the amount of time they're spending on the field, with limited depth & unexpected turnovers by our O, I think that makes the D look even better.

 

[LDopaPDX]

At some point, we need the defense to step up and dominate a game. The Huskies and Cougars are doing it in the Pac-10. The schedule can't be used as an excuse, although it may mitigate the circumstances. Great defenses (North Dakota State, for example) find games where they just take over and shut down a team. Every great defense can have a bad game, but those big points outputs for other teams need to be the exception, not an every week occurrence.

I'd love to see the D step up and make it happen this weekend! This is a perfect opportunity. Montana State has had some games where their offense sputtered, so this is an offense that can be shut down effectively.

 

[EWURanger]

Thoughts on true freshman #34 Anfernee Gurley? From what I've seen of him this year, guy seems to have a nose for the ball. On special teams at Montana, he was one of the first to the returner and made some good tackles. Thought he played pretty good Saturday as well.

Still pretty raw and mistake prone, but he has obvious athletic ability and makes a lot of plays on special teams. I think he’ll be an impact player on defense in a year or two.

 

[EWURanger]

This D is the best we have had in many years. So I am excited about it. It appears to get better every game. The play calling I question on occasion. The Davis QB was good and yet we only rushed three several times and gave him way to much time to find that outstanding receiver, which resulted in big plays. I can't blame the players for those choices.

I don't think I could be persuaded to believe our D is better this year than last year. The stats don't seem to bear that out.

But I can reserve some judgment until after this weekend. If there was a team we should be able to make a lot of stops against, it's Montana State. If they chew us up like we've been seeing, that is a really bad sign. They don't offer much through the air, so we should be able to load up the box.

I'm with Dopa on this one. Yeah we played a tough schedule thus far and we're not going to be work beaters on Defense. My main concern is TURNOVERS. We're -9 so far this season and averaging less than 1 force turnover per game. That's....not good.

Agreed -9 is not good, in fact we should have a worse record than we do because of that stat.
But... being -9 on turnovers and only lost the two games that we did is in fact a testament to our defense rather than an indication of poor defense. Lesser defenses would be giving up more points on those turnovers resulting in a loss. Imagine when we turn that stat around how dominate this team will be!

Agreed.

 

[FormerEag]

Just imagine how dominant this team will be when each phase puts together a complete 4 quarters. So much potential upside for this crew...

 

[rontheoldwiseeagle2]

At some point, we need the defense to step up and dominate a game. The Huskies and Cougars are doing it in the Pac-10. The schedule can't be used as an excuse, although it may mitigate the circumstances. Great defenses (North Dakota State, for example) find games where they just take over and shut down a team. Every great defense can have a bad game, but those big points outputs for other teams need to be the exception, not an every week occurrence.

I'd love to see the D step up and make it happen this weekend! This is a perfect opportunity. Montana State has had some games where their offense sputtered, so this is an offense that can be shut down effectively.

I have to say that a lot of the performance from our D has to do with coaches play calling, and i am not sure that the EWU defensive staff is as good as the talent on the field?

 

[luckyintheorder]

At some point, we need the defense to step up and dominate a game. The Huskies and Cougars are doing it in the Pac-10. The schedule can't be used as an excuse, although it may mitigate the circumstances. Great defenses (North Dakota State, for example) find games where they just take over and shut down a team. Every great defense can have a bad game, but those big points outputs for other teams need to be the exception, not an every week occurrence.

I'd love to see the D step up and make it happen this weekend! This is a perfect opportunity. Montana State has had some games where their offense sputtered, so this is an offense that can be shut down effectively.

I have to say that a lot of the performance from our D has to do with coaches play calling, and i am not sure that the EWU defensive staff is as good as the talent on the field?

Know you aren't eliciting my support, but you are spot on with this comment. Let's face it, defense is hard. Am very happy with the heads up play this season. Better general pursuit, great effort down after down and a resilience to adversity from the Fordham game on. Coaches can be applauded for not letting them sink after TT and NDSU efforts.

Had hoped that the defensive staff which has been together three years now, would look in the mirror and correct some of the obvious shortcomings from past years. Have posted too many times the lack of situational awareness, personnel choices, lack of aggressiveness and odd play calling at times. Asking our players to do far more than should be necessary to be successful. Whoops, my axe to grind is showing.

Know it is hard to evaluate a staff when none of us are professional coaches working with very young men, but when is it obvious that the players pass the eye test week in and out against comparable level teams; it comes down to coaching. Not saying there isn't room for improvement for the players. Since this is a reasonable, rational perspective; fully expect it to be disregarded out of hand.

 

[rontheoldwiseeagle2]

At some point, we need the defense to step up and dominate a game. The Huskies and Cougars are doing it in the Pac-10. The schedule can't be used as an excuse, although it may mitigate the circumstances. Great defenses (North Dakota State, for example) find games where they just take over and shut down a team. Every great defense can have a bad game, but those big points outputs for other teams need :thumb: to be the exception, not an every week occurrence.

I'd love to see the D step up and make it happen this weekend! This is a perfect opportunity. Montana State has had some games where their offense sputtered, so this is an offense that can be shut down effectively.

I have to say that a lot of the performance from our D has to do with coaches play calling, and i am not sure that the EWU defensive staff is as good as the talent on the field?

Know you aren't eliciting my support, but you are spot on with this comment. Let's face it, defense is hard. Am very happy with the heads up play this season. Better general pursuit, great effort down after down and a resilience to adversity from the Fordham game on. Coaches can be applauded for not letting them sink after TT and NDSU efforts.

Had hoped that the defensive staff which has been together three years now, would look in the mirror and correct some of the obvious shortcomings from past years. Have posted too many times the lack of situational awareness, personnel choices, lack of aggressiveness and odd play calling at times. Asking our players to do far more than should be necessary to be successful. Whoops, my axe to grind is showing.

Know it is hard to evaluate a staff when none of us are professional coaches working with very young men, but when is it obvious that the players pass the eye test week in and out against comparable level teams; it comes down to coaching. Not saying there isn't room for improvement for the players. Since this is a reasonable, rational perspective; fully expect it to be disregarded out of hand.

Ya, what he said, :thumb:

 

[SeattleBobcat]

At some point, we need the defense to step up and dominate a game. The Huskies and Cougars are doing it in the Pac-10. The schedule can't be used as an excuse, although it may mitigate the circumstances. Great defenses (North Dakota State, for example) find games where they just take over and shut down a team. Every great defense can have a bad game, but those big points outputs for other teams need :thumb: to be the exception, not an every week occurrence.

I'd love to see the D step up and make it happen this weekend! This is a perfect opportunity. Montana State has had some games where their offense sputtered, so this is an offense that can be shut down effectively.

I have to say that a lot of the performance from our D has to do with coaches play calling, and i am not sure that the EWU defensive staff is as good as the talent on the field?

Know you aren't eliciting my support, but you are spot on with this comment. Let's face it, defense is hard. Am very happy with the heads up play this season. Better general pursuit, great effort down after down and a resilience to adversity from the Fordham game on. Coaches can be applauded for not letting them sink after TT and NDSU efforts.

Had hoped that the defensive staff which has been together three years now, would look in the mirror and correct some of the obvious shortcomings from past years. Have posted too many times the lack of situational awareness, personnel choices, lack of aggressiveness and odd play calling at times. Asking our players to do far more than should be necessary to be successful. Whoops, my axe to grind is showing.

Know it is hard to evaluate a staff when none of us are professional coaches working with very young men, but when is it obvious that the players pass the eye test week in and out against comparable level teams; it comes down to coaching. Not saying there isn't room for improvement for the players. Since this is a reasonable, rational perspective; fully expect it to be disregarded out of hand.

Ya, what he said, :thumb:

Case in point: MSU 2015, MSU's D is a sieve even with a playmaker like Alex Singleton (who's now dominating the CFL). 1 year later we hire TG because stitt can't share the glory in Missoula, and our D goes from soft as a feather pillow to hard as a rock. It was amazing to see those kids develop and be coached up.

 

[60s Savage]

The offense hasn't been totally helpful to defensive efforts this season. TOs hurt, but so do 3nOs coupled with short field position. Gage needs to hoof it more which will improve opportunities for our stable of receivers. Go Eags!

 

[LDopaPDX]

At some point, we need the defense to step up and dominate a game. The Huskies and Cougars are doing it in the Pac-10. The schedule can't be used as an excuse, although it may mitigate the circumstances. Great defenses (North Dakota State, for example) find games where they just take over and shut down a team. Every great defense can have a bad game, but those big points outputs for other teams need :thumb: to be the exception, not an every week occurrence.

I'd love to see the D step up and make it happen this weekend! This is a perfect opportunity. Montana State has had some games where their offense sputtered, so this is an offense that can be shut down effectively.

I have to say that a lot of the performance from our D has to do with coaches play calling, and i am not sure that the EWU defensive staff is as good as the talent on the field?

Know you aren't eliciting my support, but you are spot on with this comment. Let's face it, defense is hard. Am very happy with the heads up play this season. Better general pursuit, great effort down after down and a resilience to adversity from the Fordham game on. Coaches can be applauded for not letting them sink after TT and NDSU efforts.

Had hoped that the defensive staff which has been together three years now, would look in the mirror and correct some of the obvious shortcomings from past years. Have posted too many times the lack of situational awareness, personnel choices, lack of aggressiveness and odd play calling at times. Asking our players to do far more than should be necessary to be successful. Whoops, my axe to grind is showing.

Know it is hard to evaluate a staff when none of us are professional coaches working with very young men, but when is it obvious that the players pass the eye test week in and out against comparable level teams; it comes down to coaching. Not saying there isn't room for improvement for the players. Since this is a reasonable, rational perspective; fully expect it to be disregarded out of hand.

Ya, what he said, :thumb:

I get what you're saying, but there's also things that make our coaches look good and players... well, let's just say not so good.

All three TDs Montana scored in the first half were complete player errors. The first two TDs, we had defenders on a ball carrier in the backfield and whiffed in one-on-one tackles. The third was the result of a missed tackle and an inability to defend the ball in the air despite good coverage. These are the ones that come to mind, but we've had a lot of missed tackles in open field that have led to big yardage.

The funny thing is that we're not that far away from being pretty good on D. There always seems to be one coverage error or one missed tackle that leads to a drive-extending play. If we can just get to where we make that play instead of missing it, we could significantly reduce the amount of scoring. More importantly, we get our D off the field and put our offense back on the field.

 

[Hambone]

The offense hasn't been totally helpful to defensive efforts this season. TOs hurt, but so do 3nOs coupled with short field position. Gage needs to hoof it more which will improve opportunities for our stable of receivers. Go Eags!

We are very fortune that the turnovers haven't been a lot more costly. In the Fordham we turned it over a ton of times and still won by a very large margin. Against playoff teams, well, we have already seen what happens when we turn the ball over a bunch against a team like NDSU. It isn't pretty. I hope we can continue to turn the corner on that aspect of this season. We've been too careless.

 

[clawman1]

The offense hasn't been totally helpful to defensive efforts this season. TOs hurt, but so do 3nOs coupled with short field position. Gage needs to hoof it more which will improve opportunities for our stable of receivers. Go Eags!

And what are you looking for???
In the last 4 games the Eagles have averaged over 600 yards per game (2469 total offense per game), and you want them to do something different?
Hmmm let me think about that.

 

[60s Savage]

Clawman:
Just saying that the offense needs to produce more first downs early in the game to give the defense longer field positions to work with.

 

[clawman1]

The offense hasn't been totally helpful to defensive efforts this season. TOs hurt, but so do 3nOs coupled with short field position. Gage needs to hoof it more which will improve opportunities for our stable of receivers. Go Eags!

And what are you looking for???
In the last 4 games the Eagles have averaged over 600 yards per game (2469 total offense), and you want them to do something different?
Hmmm let me think about that.

 

[DefendtheRed]

I stand firm in my belief that the D continues to pass the eye test. Stats do not tell the story for that unit this season. Saturday alone, the offense turned the ball over twice, putting the D on their heels. The first pick was brutal and set UC Davis up in deep Eagle territory. The D stood strong and Davis ended up having the FG attempt blocked.

Additionally, the D was on the field again for over 36 minutes. On the road, against a motivated team with a fantastic player in Doss, I'd say the D did just fine. This unit continues to improve each week despite key injuries and quality opponents.

By the way, Texas Tech is now 4-1 with it's only loss a close one to Oklahoma State. NDSU is 5-0, UM is 4-2 with its only losses to EWU and Washington and Sac State and UC Davis are much improved middle of the pack Big Sky teams that both will knock off more teams. Oh, and we're now 3-1 on the road. Defense wins road games.

How can you believe this? We haven't had a defense that passes the eye test since 2010.

 

[tomq04]

How do we feel about 19 points given up and 4 turnovers against MSU?