Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshua
paine and barrett,
I'm curious why you both thought the D line played well last night. I saw a line that was getting gashed right up the middle for 6-8 yards on first down virtually every play. I agree that the linebackers and DBs need to come up and play the run better but your D line needs to make some of those plays themselves and at least, not get pushed around like they did. While I get your comment about the second levels filling in, were both of you envisioning a defense where the primary run stopping would be provided by Demeco and Eugene Wilson? That seems like a recipe for disaster.
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Almost everyone on this board wanted the DL playing forward, penetrating, and aggressive. They did this last night. The problem is that when you shoot gaps you are shooting yourself out of the play as often as not. That's why not many DL play to shoot the gaps. At least not with both DTs. Yet everyone was excited that Bush promised this style. And from what I saw last night, the DL was in the backfield often against both the run and the pass.
The problem is that the LBs MUST play downhill against the run if your DL is going to penetrate. Specifically they must fill the gaps. They must take on and shed blocks from the FB or pulling OL. Our LBs are not made for this. They are all small and they all struggle when blocked by OL. Especially Demeco. He will struggle if we play like this. He is too small to deal with OL.
We must hope that Travis Johnson is back soon. He is not a great DT, but he is our best in terms of standing his ground in the run game. We must also hope Cushing can get healthy and provide good size at the point of attack. Without both of these things happening we will be in trouble on defense even before teams start exploiting our secondary. Honestly, with our personnel we may be worse off in this scheme than the one we played last year. Our only hope is to play from ahead and pressure the QB in a big way.
So I think for what is being asked of our DL (penetration), they did a fine job last night. I just don't think we have the back 7 to support that kind of defense.