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We do not have a defense!

Hornut

Active member
The EWU game was horrific. So far I have been to two games. In both games, I have seen the opposing team score at will. What the freak are we going to do? How are we going to win?
 
Hornut said:
The EWU game was horrific. So far I have been to two games. In both games, I have seen the opposing team score at will. What the freak are we going to do? How are we going to win?

I'm not sure this team can win a game. The defense is absolutely HORRIBLE, and I mean HORRIBLE!! I can't see why people were saying the D-line was good, they were blown off the ball in every snap. The LB's and DB's can't tackle or cover!

On offense, they scored some points but there were to many mistakes - bad passes, drops, and terrible play calling. If I see that swing pass to the WR one more time I'm going to scream - throw the ball down the field. I also don't understand why Dailey isn't getting more reps? Wilkins is to small, and that fumble was a huge play.

WOW, what a huge step back. It's ashame because I do think they'll be able to score enough points to win a normal game. But this defense will give up over 40+ points in EVERY game - they are really bad!
 
Well, if there is a bright side, we face two atrocious offenses the next two weeks in PSU and ISU so that might give our defense some confidence...but its not very good right now. And Eastern is still a very good team on offense.
 
I am new to Hornet football and this board, although I have read the posts since the beginning of fall camp. There have been several references to the former coach, Moosh. Was the team, under him, much worse than it is now? Hard to believe.
 
Hornut said:
The EWU game was horrific. So far I have been to two games. In both games, I have seen the opposing team score at will. What the freak are we going to do? How are we going to win?
I'm sure we will win a couple of games. Remember even a blind squirrel will find a acorn now and then.
 
Dailey must be in the Coach's dog house. On the play just before Wilkins scored in the 3rd quarter to make it 49 to 30, I saw Coach grab Dailey by both shoulders, push and shake him and yell at him for a good 30 seconds. Then, Dailey stomped off to the far end of the bench, about 25 yards away, and McCleod went and grabbed him and forced him back to where the offense hangs together when they have the ball. Coach called for the extra point and after that was made, he went back to Dailey and gave him another verbal lashing.

It appeared to me that Dailey wanted more reps and said something that ticked Coach off. Dailey may have attitude/behavior problems and Coach isn't going to let him play until he shapes up, IMO. Dailey never got close to getting in the rest of the game and Coach never even looked at him.
 
I've never seen a defense miss so many tackles. Like I said in a previous post. If they can't stop anybody then we will not win games cause you can't outscore everybody.

As for Dailey. He should be playing. Sperbeck constantly goes to the smaller wilkins on tough yardage situations. Dailey is the best back they have and Sperbeck refuses to use his talent. The kid is frustrated cause he isn't getting a chance to do what his is capable of to help the team win. A coach has to know how to get out of his own way and allow the talent to come to the surface. I don't see that with Sperbeck.

If winning games is the priority then play your best players. Period.
 
Greenhornet and Football now, thanks for the information. I agree Dailey should be playing. He should have way more than 6 touches. He tore up UNLV's defense and its hard to believe he wouldn't have done the same against SLO and EWU.
 
On a somewhat bright note, Reed had his breakout game, and the tight ends were used for good gains...

I saw the Dailey flare up and it's not what you want to see during a game. Biaz and his "Swiss Cheese" defense have got to make some changes. Even though the offense showed a spark, the defense is not tackling or forcing anything. Too many end runs by EWU last night that went for big yards and not a linebacker in sight.
 
Wow! I finally got to see this in person. Dailey is a small problem compared to the overhaul we need. Old Hornet you are right, nothing special about the D-Line play. Remember, when I mentioned Dailey being a risk and possible cancer, most said they would take the chance no matter what. We must live by the risks we take. Green Hornet, I too saw the sideline incident. If he is a problem he must sit out or lose the respect of the players to the staff. Hello! Why isn't he still with UW, the team on the rise who just beat USC?
 
What does it take to win at this level? I understand things don’t happen overnight, but the Hornets have been in the conference for a while now. Every season I have hopes that there will be improvement only to be let down in the end.
I’ve been following them for around ten years and except for a couple of exciting seasons with Ricky Ray and Charles Roberts the Hornets have been bad to mediocre. Mostly bad. Even the improvement in last year’s record is misleading due to the two lower level opponents on their schedule. And, after watching last nights game I have no idea how they beat Eastern Washington last year.
I guess I’m just frustrated, but I’ve gained a lot of respect for programs that can win and win consistently. I hope it’s soon for the Hornets.

I agree Daliey look’s like the best back the Hornets have, however, the Eagles #22 was by far better than Daliey.
I felt Smith and the offense played pretty well. I was happy to see they battled through all their penalties at the start of the second half and marched down the field to score. I was a little disappointed in the play calling.

The defense was just terrible.
 
Our defense lacks the intensity that they have shown over the past few seasons. With Cyrus, Brannon, Hickman etc. in there seemed to be a lot of emotion it looked like they enjoyed the challenge of making teams fight for every inch, every play. If they were burned they would come back with the same intensity the next series. I realize that we lost a lot of talent on defense and that it would be hard to replace them and it would take time to incorporate the new players and make it jell but what I saw last night on defense is going nowhere. I don’t think it has to do with the drop off of talent as much as it has to do with leadership, pride and emotion as a defensive unit. To be fair EWU has a lot of offensive weapons, Matt Nichols probably the best QB in the Big Sky, Taiwan Jones the most explosive running back in the Big Sky etc. The defense had too much to defend last night and was just overwhelmed.
On the other hand the offense showed flashes of what could develop into a very exciting an high scoring unit. Jason Smith was effective, Brandyn Reed looked great, dispite coming to camp late. He is as good as advertised and will be a real factor . I was really impressed by Sam McCowan I would like to see him get more snaps. What a freshman, he will be fun to watch over the next four years! Dylan Lane also had a good night and I was glad to see us going to the tight ends more. I didn’t see the flare up between Coach Sperbeck and Terrance Dailey that others described but if it happened it is understandable why his carries were limited. If there is a problem I hope they are able to settle it because Dailey definitely has the ability to contribute, 32 yards on 5 carries, but that’s Coach Sperbeck’s decision. If the offense had played like they did last night at SLO we would have beaten Cal Poly. Lets hope that they continue to jell and improve. To be successful we definitely have to cut the down on the turnovers, 4 tunovers last night and I believe 4 against Cal Poly won’t win many games. Hopefully the coaches can revamp the defense and make adjustments before the Portland State game. The next two Portland State and Idaho State don’t have near the offensive weapons of EWU so this might be a good time to get something going and get a win!
 
SactoHornetAlum said:
Well, if there is a bright side, we face two atrocious offenses the next two weeks in PSU and ISU so that might give our defense some confidence...but its not very good right now. And Eastern is still a very good team on offense.

PSU can score points. I wouldn't overlook their offense at all. As it looks right now, the only way they win in Portland is if they outscore them.

After last nights performance by the defense, there is no question that Baiz (defensive coordinator) has to be on the hot seat. If the LB’s aren’t going to make plays in coverage, send them to put pressure on the QB. The DL looked very ineffective as well. As the DC, he has to know where his defense stands and that he has to try something to get after the high powered offense. I didn’t see anything that looked aggressive. I saw some blitzes but I wanted to see a blitz on almost every play. If you are going to get burned, at least get burned for being aggressive, not sitting on your heels hoping to make a stop. I had higher hopes for them coming into the season. The Hornets are staring a 1 or 2 win season right in the face. The game they might be favored in is the upcoming ISU game. If they drop that game...

I was also amazed at the shotty special teams play last night. The kick-off coverage gave up some good returns. The punt returner dropped a kick. They allowed a blocked PAT. I mean these are areas of the game where the team can not afford any mistakes.
 
OldHornet said:
On offense, they scored some points but there were to many mistakes - bad passes, drops, and terrible play calling. If I see that swing pass to the WR one more time I'm going to scream - throw the ball down the field. I also don't understand why Dailey isn't getting more reps? Wilkins is to small, and that fumble was a huge play.

WOW, what a huge step back. It's ashame because I do think they'll be able to score enough points to win a normal game. But this defense will give up over 40+ points in EVERY game - they are really bad!

Yes the offense had some miscues, but given what they showed us in the first 2 games, this at least lets us know they can move the ball and score points. I agree, too many drops and penalties, but these should decrease as the season progresses. And there is absolutely no excuse for turning the ball over in the redzone. But as others have stated, Dailey should be getting the ball for those tough yards. But he has a fumble or two as well so who knows.

And I agree with the WR screen passes. That’s something that teams with no running game do. Plus as we all saw, a LB on a spy or a safety playing close to the line of scrimmage sets up an easy pick six for the defense. The play I hate the most is that retarded WR motion behind the QB out of the shotgun. This does nothing other than bring an additional defender into the box. I mean running out of the shotgun already gives the running back a disadvantage, but now you bring in a WR to add more traffic. WTF!?!
 
Any team can put up points and PSU took Weber down to the end of the game yesterday. I didn’t mean to disregard them. My point is that WSU has far more weapons offensively than PSU. Defending PSU might a little simpler than trying to defend all that WSU can throw at you. We are not in the position to be able to take anyone lightly as Idaho State showed us last year. I agree that I would rather see a more aggressive defense , even if we occasionally get burned than what we had going last night. Hopefully the coaches are putting their heads together right now and putting together a defensive scheme that gives us a better chance at Portland. Speaking of special teams I miss Chase Deadder on kick coverage, he did a great job last season not to mention his value as a receiver. I heard that he was coming back from a injury and would be available for EWU. Does anyone know his status?

One positive is that we had the highest attendance in the Big Sky Conference yesterday!
 
PSU can score points. Two desparate teams trying to save the season, at their house.

Typical PSU playcalling scenario:

Pass
Pass
Draw
Pass
Pass
Sweep Pass to RB
Pass
QB keeper up middle(big yards, LB's back in Sac county)
Pass
Draw
Pass
Pass
Sweep Pass to RB
Pass

If we don't get DL penetration and provide mid-downfield coverage, we will get toasted.
Don't over-rush the play, PSU is notorious for screen dump passes over the on-rushing LB's head.
 
One of the things that really stuck out to me was how small our front seven looked in comparision to EWU. The EWU OL was dominate in both size and strength compared to our DL. Our LB's look like they should be playing DB, another reason we couldn't stop the run. If we are going to employee small LB's they better learn to cover the TE or the RB out of the back field.

I don't like discussing someone's job, but our current d-coordinator is not getting the job done. If you look at the time he's been here I don't see anytime where are defense was really good. Did he sign a long term contract when they were searching for the new HC?

I must admit, I'm really down on how things are shaping up for the year. I know Sperbeck has a challenge to rebuild the program, but I expected us to be competitive in year 3.
 
I thought the D played much better in SLO, I also thought there was a QB issue. However, after this weeks game I saw Smith step up and play pretty good, the D was absolutely terrible though.

The PSU game will be a bloodletting, they just scored 34 on Montana, who has a MUCH better D than Sac State! I dont see a win against anyone this season other than ISU, and that's iffy because theyre thinking that the Sac game will be there only win as well I'm sure.

I'm seriously dissappointed in the game this last Saturday, I'm tired of hearing all of the excuses, THERE ARE NO GOOD ONES!!! The excuses are the same every year, lets at least try and come up with some new ones. The team is young, it's only Sperbecks third season, we're still building, give them time and wins will come, BLAH BLAH BLAH!
 

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