Hetherman had his roughest day at Miami

[edge]

I was curious why Wilson had 25 snaps. I was just listening to Mario's presser and it sounds like the flu bug hit the team. I am going to bet Wilson had the flu. I find it hard to believe he went from game wrecker to ineffective against FSU's line. I will definitely key in on him against Pitt.

 

[skyman]

 

[Orig.CaneSawMassacre]

Losing Poyser was devastating to the back end.

Thornton taking out Lucas on the sideline pass was hilarious (only because we won anyway).

I was saying losing Poyser back there is huge from a communication standpoint.

 

[Orig.CaneSawMassacre]

He had a bad night. We gave up way too many explosive plays, especially explosive TDs (4). We did a great job playing defense in the red zone again, but let FSU score way too often from outside of it.

I thought we should have given more snaps to Bonner and Pruitt after Kromah went out.

We missed Poyser bad, and Fitz was only able to play half the snaps. I think we will look a lot different going forward with Poyser playing all the snaps, and Fitz hopefully playing nearly all his snaps at safety and nickel, which will allow us to limit Thornton, Day, and Dunnigan snaps (which I think will make Dunnigan more effective).

I’ve been yelling this for weeks. It was even more evident with Poyser out and Bryce nicked. Day didn’t play well and Thornton gonna Thornton.

 

[DubCaliCane]

I am surprised Damari Brown isn't getting more snaps given all the guys out.

 

[Angry Ibis]

I think it's a terrible call in that situation. I wish it would have stood and we just stopped them on the 2 pt conversion.

What an atrocious defensive play in the secondary to get beat deep for a TD there.

 

[theuksu]

Hindsight is 20/20 fellas. That Safety blitz has been a staple and has worked plenty.
Lucas has to play better and Thornton has to tackle. Poor performance by both guys on that play. That can make ANY call look bad.

I understand the timing of the call is in question, but if he played off/passive then we'd be complaining about him being conservative.

Kinda coming to his defense because I know what it's like NOT to have your "guys" back there. Missing even ONE key guy at Safety can make the whole back-end look worse...because that guy (Safety) is the glue that keeps everything together. He makes the coverage calls/checks, he relays information and assignments to the other guys, he alerts certain tendencies, etc etc etc.
So without Poyser you have to move the pieces around, and that can really ***** things up.

@Coach Macho Hetherman got outcoached tonight. What are the main issues you see? QBs don't even have to make tough throws against us, because there is always someone WIDE open.

 

[AmenCanes]

Hindsight is 20/20 fellas. That Safety blitz has been a staple and has worked plenty.
Lucas has to play better and Thornton has to tackle. Poor performance by both guys on that play. That can make ANY call look bad.

I understand the timing of the call is in question, but if he played off/passive then we'd be complaining about him being conservative.

Kinda coming to his defense because I know what it's like NOT to have your "guys" back there. Missing even ONE key guy at Safety can make the whole back-end look worse...because that guy (Safety) is the glue that keeps everything together. He makes the coverage calls/checks, he relays information and assignments to the other guys, he alerts certain tendencies, etc etc etc.
So without Poyser you have to move the pieces around, and that can really ***** things up.

Really interested in your current thoughts

 

[Coach Macho]

@Coach Macho Hetherman got outcoached tonight. What are the main issues you see? QBs don't even have to make tough throws against us, because there is always someone WIDE open.

Biggest issue I see is spot dropping, covering grass and not matching routes.

If any of you are bored and a glutton for pain, run the game back and watch how often our defenders are covering grass and/or standing a mile away from a WR at the end of a play.

Outside WR runs a hitch...
The CB is standing 5+ yards away and doesn't close until the ball is thrown. (too late)

A traditional defensive call (with no blitz) involves 7 guys in coverage. If you're matching routes based on post-snap distribution then you can effectively use all 7 to cover eligible WR's. However, if you're spot dropping and simply covering grass, there's going to be plays where 2 or more of your guys are covering nobody. (wasted defenders IMO)

EXAMPLE: This was the post route/bender that was caught in front of Poyser for a big gain.

I circled 3 defenders that were practically off the screen. They're covering nobody, just grass. QB could've thrown to either one of these WR's.
The Nickel is at the top-left covering the flat while no receiving threat is there.
The CB is at the top-right bailing deep although there is no receiving threat in that zone.
There's also a LB off the screen to the left that is covering nobody as well.

This creates bigger windows, putting more pressure on Poyser to cover ground.

It was a simple 3x1 formation, and only 2 WR's went out. (TE stayed in to block)

It was a simple play to cover.
Outside WR ran a deep curl/dig.
Inside WR ran a seam/bender.

If the CB locks onto the outside WR instead of bailing to vacant grass...
And the Nickel and LB carry the seam...
The throwing windows are much smaller and Poyser doesn't need as much range.

 

[dirtyred786]

Biggest issue I see is spot dropping, covering grass and not matching routes.

If any of you are bored and a glutton for pain, run the game back and watch how often our defenders are covering grass and/or standing a mile away from a WR at the end of a play.

Outside WR runs a hitch...
The CB is standing 5+ yards away and doesn't close until the ball is thrown. (too late)

A traditional defensive call (with no blitz) involves 7 guys in coverage. If you're matching routes based on post-snap distribution then you can effectively use all 7 to cover eligible WR's. However, if you're spot dropping and simply covering grass, there's going to be plays where 2 or more of your guys are covering nobody. (wasted defenders IMO)

EXAMPLE: This was the post route/bender that was caught in front of Poyser for a big gain.
View attachment 378857

I circled 3 defenders that were practically off the screen. They're covering nobody, just grass. QB could've thrown to either one of these WR's.
The Nickel is at the top-left covering the flat while no receiving threat is there.
The CB is at the top-right bailing deep although there is no receiving threat in that zone.
There's also a LB off the screen to the left that is covering nobody as well.

This creates bigger windows, putting more pressure on Poyser to cover ground.

It was a simple 3x1 formation, and only 2 WR's went out. (TE stayed in to block)

It was a simple play to cover.
Outside WR ran a deep curl/dig.
Inside WR ran a seam/bender.

If the CB locks onto the outside WR instead of bailing to vacant grass...
And the Nickel and LB carry the seam...
The throwing windows are much smaller and Poyser doesn't need as much range.

This spot dropping is old news. No one really does it anymore, not sure why we are so **** bent on it. I'll tell you what, if we change up and do some more pattern matching and man coverage this week, it will definitely catch Notre Dame off guard. This is the week to destroy the tendencies.

 

[Category81]

Biggest issue I see is spot dropping, covering grass and not matching routes.

If any of you are bored and a glutton for pain, run the game back and watch how often our defenders are covering grass and/or standing a mile away from a WR at the end of a play.

Outside WR runs a hitch...
The CB is standing 5+ yards away and doesn't close until the ball is thrown. (too late)

A traditional defensive call (with no blitz) involves 7 guys in coverage. If you're matching routes based on post-snap distribution then you can effectively use all 7 to cover eligible WR's. However, if you're spot dropping and simply covering grass, there's going to be plays where 2 or more of your guys are covering nobody. (wasted defenders IMO)

EXAMPLE: This was the post route/bender that was caught in front of Poyser for a big gain.
View attachment 378857

I circled 3 defenders that were practically off the screen. They're covering nobody, just grass. QB could've thrown to either one of these WR's.
The Nickel is at the top-left covering the flat while no receiving threat is there.
The CB is at the top-right bailing deep although there is no receiving threat in that zone.
There's also a LB off the screen to the left that is covering nobody as well.

This creates bigger windows, putting more pressure on Poyser to cover ground.

It was a simple 3x1 formation, and only 2 WR's went out. (TE stayed in to block)

It was a simple play to cover.
Outside WR ran a deep curl/dig.
Inside WR ran a seam/bender.

If the CB locks onto the outside WR instead of bailing to vacant grass...
And the Nickel and LB carry the seam...
The throwing windows are much smaller and Poyser doesn't need as much range.

So if you were Heatherman what would change/do differently with our current crop of players?

Anything has to be better than what we’re getting, I’m having 2024 flashbacks.

 

[Coach Macho]

This spot dropping is old news. No one really does it anymore, not sure why we are so **** bent on it. I'll tell you what, if we change up and do some more pattern matching and man coverage this week, it will definitely catch Notre Dame off guard. This is the week to destroy the tendencies.

As much as I'd wish that would happen, pattern matching is expensive and takes some time to teach.

 

[dirtyred786]

As much as I'd wish that would happen, pattern matching is expensive and takes some time to teach.

Well I guess we can play some man, and blitz linebackers instead of DBs. That would be different.

 

[Coach Macho]

So if you were Heatherman what would change/do differently with our current crop of players?

Anything has to be better than what we’re getting, I’m having 2024 flashbacks.

Hard to say because I don't think the remedy is part of his repertoire. (I could be wrong)

I'd do as much research as I could on Nick Saban's "Rip/Liz Match" Cover-3 and Gary Patterson's split-field 4-2-5 concepts.

I think the soft zone, spot dropping and bailing Corners is simply a fundamental part of our defense. We saw it last year too. Indiana killed us in the first half throwing into our voids until we utilized more press-man coverage in the second half.

Going man can't be your end-all be-all response though, because then you become susceptible to "man beaters" and/or scrambling QB's.

There needs to be a tighter way to play zone coverage so you can utilize the advantages of both. (man & zone)

 

[jrock2332]

Move Bryce to fs and poyser to as with dunn. Like you said do more back blitzing and mix some man2man in there. We can't afford to play the way we played this last game in defensive anymore.