Spring football coverage from The Spokesman-Review

[clawman1]

There is a lot of room for improvement!
Don't worry, be happy.

 

[ewueagle2010]

"Last year, the Eagles switched to a base 4-2-5 defense that brought more speed and was expected to bring a little more pressure against the quarterback.

It didn’t happen. As the season went on, the Eastern defense struggled to get off the field. For many fans, the most galling statistic of the season was opponents’ 49.7 percent success rate on third down; out of 131 teams in FCS, only two were worse.

In the last three games, Northern Arizona, Montana and PSU were a combined 34-for-50 on third down, a major reason the Eagles missed the postseason for the first time in four years."

Well, it's nice to know everyone realizes what our critical problem area is... what's really tough is that this has been an issue year after year for a long time. We really need to find a solution this season and start playing some defense again.

The defense couldn't get off the field last season because it was comprised of freshmen and sophomores. This also explains your "toughness" theory. Most of these athletes on defense were really green and simply were not as mature as the competition they were playing against.

I'd argue that the defense couldn't get off the field last yer because they were passive in playing 12-15 yards of the ball and because they never found ways to bring pressure. We need to start attacking the line of scrimmage and forcing teams to adjust. I'd love to see our D play like Montana played against us, blitzing overload on nearly every play while taking away short routes in press coverage. If we get beat over the top for 75 yards, so be it, but letting every drive go for 12 plays and 7 minutes clearly isn't getting it done for us. Lots of teams are young on D and still finished with much better defenses than ours. Third to last in FCS? That sort of says it all, doesn't it?

This. This x's 1,000,000!! Getting the offense to third down over and over and over again, only to let them pick up a 3rd down has got to be frustrating for the players. I know it sure is as a fan in the stands! I know these kids are giving it their all on every play, but watching the scheme never change and getting the same results again and again is brutal for all involved.

The D has cost this program at least another trip to the National Title, if not a win. In 2013, this team was one stop away from going back to Frisco, and I think was good enough to beat NDSU. In 2014, they were at least good enough offensively to get there. This program is too good not to have a better D. They certainly seem solid enough to recruit good enough players, so what gives?

 

[EdubU10]

"Last year, the Eagles switched to a base 4-2-5 defense that brought more speed and was expected to bring a little more pressure against the quarterback.

It didn’t happen. As the season went on, the Eastern defense struggled to get off the field. For many fans, the most galling statistic of the season was opponents’ 49.7 percent success rate on third down; out of 131 teams in FCS, only two were worse.

In the last three games, Northern Arizona, Montana and PSU were a combined 34-for-50 on third down, a major reason the Eagles missed the postseason for the first time in four years."

Well, it's nice to know everyone realizes what our critical problem area is... what's really tough is that this has been an issue year after year for a long time. We really need to find a solution this season and start playing some defense again.

The defense couldn't get off the field last season because it was comprised of freshmen and sophomores. This also explains your "toughness" theory. Most of these athletes on defense were really green and simply were not as mature as the competition they were playing against.

I'd argue that the defense couldn't get off the field last yer because they were passive in playing 12-15 yards of the ball and because they never found ways to bring pressure. We need to start attacking the line of scrimmage and forcing teams to adjust. I'd love to see our D play like Montana played against us, blitzing overload on nearly every play while taking away short routes in press coverage. If we get beat over the top for 75 yards, so be it, but letting every drive go for 12 plays and 7 minutes clearly isn't getting it done for us. Lots of teams are young on D and still finished with much better defenses than ours. Third to last in FCS? That sort of says it all, doesn't it?

This. Then add in the fact our D-line was/is way undersized to create any pressure and what you get is teams picking up 7-10 yards per play. We need to play more aggressive on defense, if we give up the big play, so be it. Better than gassing your defense all game long.

 

[GoldenEagle]

Maybe Montana could play that type of aggressive defense because they started 8 seniors and 3 juniors almost every game last year. Much easier to blitz linebackers when you have a defensive end like Tyrone Holmes coming off the edge. The EAGS really missed Evan Day the last two years as that combination of Ebukam and Day would have allowed for a more aggressive defense.