UM's Defensive Stats

[Coach Macho]

Duke averaged 25 PPG.
We allowed 6.

FSU averaged 26 PPG.
We allowed 20.

GT averaged 28 PPG.
We allowed 24.

Syracuse averaged 27 PPG.
We allowed 19.

UNC averaged 26 PPG.
We allowed 19.

VT averaged 28 PPG.
We allowed 10.

ND averaged 35 PPG.
We allowed 8.

UVA averaged 23 PPG. (last in the ACC)
We allowed 28.

Pitt averaged 23 PPG. (2nd to last in the ACC)
We allowed 24.

Clemson averaged 35 PPG.
We allowed 38. (they probably could've scored 50)


Obviously there's all kinds of variables involved in those games that contribute to the defense giving up points, but it honestly looks like the defense wore down towards the end of the year. When you play defense beside an offense that can't score or convert 3rd downs it screws with your player's heads. They become frustrated and mentally/physically drained from having to march out onto the field every 2 minutes. I've been through this personally and I've watched my players go through it many times.

It takes a special defense to go out there and dominate every possession when your offense ain't doing their part. I don't think we're there yet. Too young.

 

[bshaw28]

The D forced 2 turnovers in the first half against Pitt, both at the 50 yard line. The offense went 3 and out after both turnovers.

The D forced a fumble in the 1st Quarter at the Clemson 37 yd line. the offense went 8 yds and missed a FG.

Our Offense just totally deflated our Defense in the last 2 games.

 

[JimmyJohnsonsHair]

We held Clemson to 4.41 yards per play (75 total plays). Our offense had only 59 plays run for 3.64 yards.

They were on the field for 10 minutes more. They ran the ball 41 times for 77 yards. FFS if the offense had even half the execution that Clemson's offense had, this would've been a close game. If we had a decent offense that can convert 3rd downs and RZ visits, we would've ran the table easily. EASILY.

I love Rosier. He's a Cane. But if he doesn't develop some other QB-necessary traits besides scrambling and throwing the ball, this offense won't take the next step. The same Rosier shows up to camp next year, then this is open season on the QB1 slot.

More dopey stats which skew it to look like the defense did a good job because they slowed down Clemson after the game was already over.

Give me the stats on the first 3 drives when the game was still in issue. What were the defensive stats in the first half?

it's not just that game, it's the previous two as well

Agreed. I'm not sure why it is considered sacrosanct by some to critique our defense in any capacity. No one is saying the defense was the biggest problem. Clearly they were the best unit this season. But it is also true that their performance trailed off the last three games for whatever reason.

 

[Consigliere]

Duke averaged 25 PPG.
We allowed 6.

FSU averaged 26 PPG.
We allowed 20.

GT averaged 28 PPG.
We allowed 24.

Syracuse averaged 27 PPG.
We allowed 19.

UNC averaged 26 PPG.
We allowed 19.

VT averaged 28 PPG.
We allowed 10.

ND averaged 35 PPG.
We allowed 8.

UVA averaged 23 PPG. (last in the ACC)
We allowed 28.

Pitt averaged 23 PPG. (2nd to last in the ACC)
We allowed 24.

Clemson averaged 35 PPG.
We allowed 38. (they probably could've scored 50)


Obviously there's all kinds of variables involved in those games that contribute to the defense giving up points, but it honestly looks like the defense wore down towards the end of the year. When you play defense beside an offense that can't score or convert 3rd downs it screws with your player's heads. They become frustrated and mentally/physically drained from having to march out onto the field every 2 minutes. I've been through this personally and I've watched my players go through it many times.

It takes a special defense to go out there and dominate every possession when your offense ain't doing their part. I don't think we're there yet. Too young.

To keep it 100:

1. As you said, Clemson could’ve scored _______ points.

2. One of the TDs against GT was by no fault of the D. That botched onside lick return for a TD.

 

[Consigliere]

the uva qb is a top 5 draft qb.

tell me who else other than the top team in the country we under performed on.

perhaps you dont understand that the defense knew the all season they would have to help malik. they probably got sick of it by pitt.

no excuse for the poor play versus clemson but again our offense went 3 and out multiple times (or pretty close to 3 and out) to start the game.

we were tops or close to it in TO, sacks and TFLs.

put this defense on oklahoma and they'd never lose a game.

How about Pitt? That game before the last.

 

[paksat]

the uva qb is a top 5 draft qb.

tell me who else other than the top team in the country we under performed on.

perhaps you dont understand that the defense knew the all season they would have to help malik. they probably got sick of it by pitt.

no excuse for the poor play versus clemson but again our offense went 3 and out multiple times (or pretty close to 3 and out) to start the game.

we were tops or close to it in TO, sacks and TFLs.

put this defense on oklahoma and they'd never lose a game.

How about Pitt? That game before the last.

bethune marched right down the field picking on delaney don't forget

toledo's qb had himself a day as well

ga tech anyone? We almost lost that game

UNC's 3rd string quarterback on a depleted team was doing decent were they not?

yes we cause a crap ton of turnovers but still..

 

[Consigliere]

the uva qb is a top 5 draft qb.

tell me who else other than the top team in the country we under performed on.

perhaps you dont understand that the defense knew the all season they would have to help malik. they probably got sick of it by pitt.

no excuse for the poor play versus clemson but again our offense went 3 and out multiple times (or pretty close to 3 and out) to start the game.

we were tops or close to it in TO, sacks and TFLs.

put this defense on oklahoma and they'd never lose a game.

How about Pitt? That game before the last.

bethune marched right down the field picking on delaney don't forget

toledo's qb had himself a day as well

ga tech anyone? We almost lost that game

UNC's 3rd string quarterback on a depleted team was doing decent were they not?

yes we cause a crap ton of turnovers but still..

How is any of that relevant to what I posted? Are you having a conversation with yourself?

 

[NJshoreCane]

How many turnovers did we waste by going 3 and out immediately after. Those were killers to our D this year. Next year if we make them pay with extended drives and points you will see those games going our way more often than not.

Kind of on topic...
Your avatar. I remember that play as being one of the best on D that year.
Nice to see that we're making those kinds of plays 4 or 5 times a game.

 

[CANE]

How many turnovers did we waste by going 3 and out immediately after. Those were killers to our D this year. Next year if we make them pay with extended drives and points you will see those games going our way more often than not.

And less snaps on the defense. They played a LOT of unnecessary snaps imo. Vs. syracuse, over 90 snaps, iirc. Vs. fsu, unc, and gtech to a lesser extent, the defense had to continually go back on the field because the offense went 3 and out. Again, for 12 weeks straight. IDGAF about stats. This defense won games.

 

[NJshoreCane]

Put faster starts from the D on this years holiday wish list.

Our 3 best 1st quarter defensive performances on D were against SU, VT and ND.
All shutouts and less than 50 yards.

Other games (yds):
Toledo- 110
Duke- 108
FSU- 114
GT- 137
UNC- 168
UVA- 186
Pitt- 74
Clemson- 194

 

[Dghustla]

I think that some ppl are still in denial about where this program is and where it is coming from. Under Randy and Golden we were NOT operating like a Power 5 program. Our development, nutrition, S&C has been terrible.

Unfortunately, we wasted the talent of a lot of good players. The fact that we were able to field a defense that held most teams below their season averages was remarkable.

Of course, it's hard to win a championship without a great defense everyone knows that and it's 1 of the reasons we aren't in the playoffs right now.

But for the ppl who are comparing us to Bama or Clemson, you are comparing year 2 of a total rebuild to year 8 final products. Not the best argument.

 

[Coach Macho]

Duke averaged 25 PPG.
We allowed 6.

FSU averaged 26 PPG.
We allowed 20.

GT averaged 28 PPG.
We allowed 24.

Syracuse averaged 27 PPG.
We allowed 19.

UNC averaged 26 PPG.
We allowed 19.

VT averaged 28 PPG.
We allowed 10.

ND averaged 35 PPG.
We allowed 8.

UVA averaged 23 PPG. (last in the ACC)
We allowed 28.

Pitt averaged 23 PPG. (2nd to last in the ACC)
We allowed 24.

Clemson averaged 35 PPG.
We allowed 38. (they probably could've scored 50)


Obviously there's all kinds of variables involved in those games that contribute to the defense giving up points, but it honestly looks like the defense wore down towards the end of the year. When you play defense beside an offense that can't score or convert 3rd downs it screws with your player's heads. They become frustrated and mentally/physically drained from having to march out onto the field every 2 minutes. I've been through this personally and I've watched my players go through it many times.

It takes a special defense to go out there and dominate every possession when your offense ain't doing their part. I don't think we're there yet. Too young.

To keep it 100:

1. As you said, Clemson could’ve scored _______ points.

2. One of the TDs against GT was by no fault of the D. That botched onside lick return for a TD.

That is true. I forgot about that.

 

[Bennubird]

Another telling stat is that every team after FSU held on 3rd down without worrying about getting a holding penalty. Our defense wasn't perfect certainly but refs swallowing their whistles didn't help.

 

[FrancisSawyer]

Average yards per play,

4.7 in 2016

4.6 in 2017

Let's see folks, our Defense improved by 0.1 yards per play over 2016. Wow what an improvement!! Last time I did my Math, 4.6 yards/Play x 3 downs= 13.8 Yards per every 3 downs, which means basically that on an average basis, our Defense never got off the field. These stats for a Defense suck folks!

Those numbers are very impressive. Are you deficient?

 

[FrancisSawyer]

I think overall the defense played extremely well. I think we had some issues in the secondary that we were able to cover up for the most part and that should be fixed with all of the 2018 kids. The thing that disturbs me is the inability to stop teams on 3rd and long. We give that up much too often. To be fair we improved as the season went on but that facet still needs work. Also please for the love of god 0lease stop opening games playing soft zone. Were no good at it.

 

[thegrove]

Minor point, but remember we canceled a cupcake game. This likely would have some impact on per game stats in all categories.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I was going to point this out, too.

Would upvote a second time and laughing it took someone this long to point a major flaw in the metric data base here. Cancelling a cupcake game and not having those stats in 2017 comparison make this whole thread garbage. Mods should just lock it now.

Really weird to get emotional about stats. You play the schedule in front of you. If we needed a cupcake to not look as sketchy on defense, then I think that answers whether or not our defense is all that great. JMO.

No one is getting emotional, just pointing out that we missed out on playing a cupcake, and others did not. Metrics is math not emotional. If the data input is skewed in any way then the notation should be made being as decisions are made based on apples to apples comparison.

 

[ChosenOne]

Put faster starts from the D on this years holiday wish list.

Our 3 best 1st quarter defensive performances on D were against SU, VT and ND.
All shutouts and less than 50 yards.

Other games (yds):
Toledo- 110
Duke- 108
FSU- 114
GT- 137
UNC- 168
UVA- 186
Pitt- 74
Clemson- 194

BRUH I KNEW IT. I knew our 1st QTR defense had to be the worst in college football at least in the P5.

THAT IS HALF OF GAME YARDAGE WE'RE GIVING UP IN THE 1ST QTR. Look at what happens when you double that same amount of yardage we give up in the 1st QTR.

Toledo- 110 + 110 = 220
Duke- 108 + 108 = 218
FSU- 114 + 114 = 228
GT- 137 + 137 = 274
UNC- 168 + 168 = 336
UVA- 186 + 186 = 372
Pitt- 74 + 74 = 148
Clemson- 194 + 194 = 388

As you can see we're giving up half of game yardage in the 1st QTR. If you double those 1st QTR yardage and can clearly see the amount of yardage would total to something you typically give up in the entire game and we're giving up half of that total in the 1st QTR. That is abysmal.

Manny is our biggest strength and our biggest weakness at the same time. He must reevaluate some of the things he does in game planning and tweak some things schematically. If I had advice (not that I'm anyone important) but I would:

1) Simplify the scheme. We played much better last year because I'm positive we had to simplify it given the time frame our players had to learn the defense.

2) Don't over game plan. Manny clearly overthinks his game plans as the 1st QTR numbers prove it. You don't consistently give up that much yardages (especially to terrible offenses) unless your initial game plans are horrible. PERIOD. Don't give up something easy completion to start the game when a team hasn't earned it yet. I don't understand why we're scared of giving up the deep ball when a team hadn't show they can go deep on us especially during the game. The elite defense squeeze the offense. What I mean by that is they get the offense to go shorter and shorter with their routes and play calls. The offense comes out trying to do a 7 yard pass but you tighten up at the LOS and we force them to do plays that are shorter and shorter and shorter to the point all their doing is 3 yard slants/outs, running the ball, and bubble screens.

Coming out of the gate respecting a teams ability to throw deep ball by giving up everything underneath especially when we have better athletes is ridiculous. We need to stop being so paranoid with our coverage. If we're fearful then just play 2 safety high but have everyone else defend/jump the shorter stuff. That all the respect they should get.. 2 safeties and press everything underneath.

3) Alignment. I think most of our alignment gives up the coverage before offenses even snap the ball.. I mean for goodness sake Bethune Cookman coaches were able to diagnose what we were doing defensively based on our alignment and they easily got 350 yards on us. Like I said in #2 we were respecting Bethune Cookman deep ball and I don't understand why.. stuff like that got the other DC fired.