Wednesday September 08, 2010

Defense Review for North Texas Game

Defense Review of North Texas Game
Each week I want to review the previous game with a look at both sides of the football. On a normal week we will look at the offense on Monday and the defense on Tuesday but since Monday was Labor Day, we have moved this back one day.

So here are a few thoughts I had about the defense on Saturday:
There were some positives from Saturday. The Tigers won. The defense did hold North Texas to 10 points. They had six sacks and 13 tackles for a loss.

However I am still confused by some of the things I saw Saturday.

North Texas had 25 first downs.

The Mean Green had the ball for 42 minutes.

They rushed for 193 yards.

North Texas passed for 269 yards.

They ran 83 offensive plays.

First, let me state that this is just the first game of the season and one game does not make a trend. Also, the Tigers did hold North Texas to 10 points. And for all of their issues on defense from Saturday, defensive coordinator Kevin Steele did take responsibility in bis Tuesday press conference.

I think everyone agrees that tackling was the main issue. No matter what the scheme or personnel, bad tackling makes everything look bad. When poor tackling exists, the personnel looks bad and the scheme looks questionable.

However, I think we must still look at both personnel and scheme from Saturday.

Clemson gave up 269 yards passing and that is not acceptable but not alarming. Considering the number of rushing yards the Tigers allowed in the last few games of 2009, the fact that North Texas rushed for 193 yards was alarming for me.

From a scheme standpoint I was puzzled as to why the staff chose to play so much nickel and dime packages. Quandon Christian was the Tigers SAM linebacker and the first linebacker to be taken out of the game when the Tigers go to the nickel package. Christian played only eight of the 83 plays Saturday.

Because Clemson did not play another SAM linebacker, that means the Tigers played less than three linebackers in 75 of the 83 plays.

Tig Willard the WILL linebacker played 37 plays and Daniel Andrews played 5. So Clemson played two or more linebackers on 42 plays.

If my math is correct Clemson played its 4-3 base defense eight plays, nickel 42 plays and dime 33 plays.

The ability to stop the run usually decreases when you run nickel and dime packages. They are usually reserved to help with passing situations and against spread offenses that employ four or five wide outs. North Texas was able to spread the field and take advantage of less linebackers in the game and ran the ball for 193 yards.

The Tigers did walk up a safety to show two linebackers but that safety was usually Marcus Gilchrist a 190-pound corner.

Clemson played four cornerbacks and two safeties in their dime package because the two extra defensive backs were Xavier Brewer and Coty Sensabaugh, two corners. The Tigers corners played 291 plays Saturday. All together the defensive backs played 462 plays. The linebackers played 132. I believe this made it more difficult to stop the run. Most of the time the defense’s first goal is to shut down the run and turn the offense one-dimensional. That was not the case Saturday.

So why did the Tigers play so much nickel and dime? I am not sure as to the answer of that question but my guess would get back to personnel. I think it is safe to say the staff trusts their defensive backs more than their linebackers.

Does the staff not trust Christian to play more than eight plays?

Do they trust Willard? Did they really miss Brandon Maye that much?

I do know Willard was the backer that gave up a big pass play and is not the greatest cover guy but it is worth giving up that many rushing yards?

Also it’s not like the nickel and dime packages were shutting down the pass. Clemson allowed 269 yards through the air.

So is the nickel and dime here to stay? Will Clemson always counter the three and four wide out sets with extra defensive backs and less linebackers? Can Clemson stop the run?

Clemson is inexperienced at linebacker but I thought Saturdays game was a great time to get Willard and Christian more experience. I would have thought the Tigers could have tried to play them straight up in their 4-3 base but apparently the staff thought they had a better chance with nickel and dime instead of Willard and Christian. Steele says he will not put linebackers in the bad positioning where they have to cover wide outs.

This might be the issue the entire season. If I am an offensive coordinator facing the Tigers I would certainly consider spreading the field with three or four wide outs in order to get smaller defensive backs in the game. Then I would run the ball with five or six in the box.

We probably would not think too much about this one and would have given North Texas more credit if it were not for the way the defense ended last season. Now we have more questions than answers.

In his Tuesday press conference Kevin Steele took responsibility for the poor play even though he did not miss any tackles. Steele was accountable and said Saturdays performance was unacceptable. I will give him credit for being accountable and being a stand up guy here. Also he is put at a disadvantage because Dabo only wants his staff to talk in positive terms and to not blame players.

And to be fair, it was just one game. The Tigers played a basic scheme as well. And the staff says they will fix it. Let’s see of the staff and players can correct the issues over the next few games.

*The participation charts is found below:
DE-Bowers 46, Branch 45, Brown 42, Goodman 36, Richardson 6,

DT-Jenkins 58, Thompson 45, Moore 32, Shatley 24, Chavis 11, Wright 5

LB-Hawkins 62, Willard 37, Shuey 11, Parker 9, Christian 8, Andrews 5

DB-McDaniel 80, Hall 78, Brewer 77, Gilchrist 77, Maxwell 77, Sensabaugh 42, Jenkins 9, Adams 9, Lewis 7, Meeks 6

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