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What is wrong with our defense this year ??

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The game on 12/10/2020

Manny defense got exposed to the core. Since that game, every team has been scoring on us.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
In 2018 we had the #3 defense in the country in YPP allowed. We allowed the lowest passer rating in America. We were 2nd in lowest completion percentage allowed. We led the country in 3rd down defense. We were 3rd in TFLs per game and 11th in sacks.

You don't do that by luck.
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Clearly the d has been figured out by our opponents. He had 1 really good year in his career
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
All 3 of his first 3 years here were much, much better than this. Much. 2018 was elite. But 2016 and 2017 had some, at worst, pretty good defenses. This is a major drop off.
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Agree they were ok but I think we thought anyone that rushed the passer was an upgrade after the Dorito years. It is definitely unbearable now.
 
coffeecane said:
Agree they were ok but I think we thought anyone that rushed the passer was an upgrade after the Dorito years. It is definitely unbearable now.
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I’m just going by the metrics. It was probably a top 30 defense in just about every aspect all 3 years. What we’re seeing now is a Dorito defense.
 
Coach Macho said:
My first issue is, we don't make an effort to take away anything specific. We seem to just line-up in whatever call we like, and run it regardless of what the offense is doing.
I've watched us make absolutely no effort to take away opponent's best players. I'll never forget covering Tutu Atwell 1-on-1 with Bolden all game.

In the UNC game...
UNC lines-up in a 3x1 bunch set. Common man-beating formation. Yet what do we do? We play man coverage on their best WR with Gurvan Hall, and provide no help underneath.
As a DC myself, I would never stay in man coverage versus a 3x1 bunch set unless I was gonna drop a 'middle hole' defender underneath to rob any inside routes that are inevitably going to come open. YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THE OFFENSE IS TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH ON THAT SPECIFIC PLAY!!! If they're in a bunch set, then they're trying to get somebody open with rubs routes and confusion.

Alabama game...
Coming out of their own endzone...
Bama line-up in 3x1 bunch set.
We play Cover-1 man with NO BLITZ, and the middle field Safety lined-up ON THE BOUNDARY (short side) HASH!!!
Their WR runs a post/corner route versus Ivey...with all day to throw...and no Safety help at all because he was on the short-side of the field!
This is just comically bad! This is high school level incompetence. Why would your only Safety be helping the short-side when there's 3 WR's to the wide side?! If you were trying to bracket the single-WR then you could've went 2-high coverage and had help to both sides!

I see blunders like this every week!
The issue I have with this defense is...many of the issues I see weekly are easily preventable.


Someone tell me ONE THING that this defense does a good job of taking away.

My personal philosophy on defense is to take away the MIDDLE OF THE FIELD, passes and runs. You will NOT throw or run the ball down the middle of the field (in between the hashes). That's where all the easy throws and runs are. Anything that has to go OUTSIDE THE HASHES is lower percentage. (statistical fact) Also, we want to force every run to bounce. We want to force every QB to throw outside and deep. The percentage of success decreases significantly out there. The lowest completed throw on the field is outside/vertical. Our Cover-3-Match aggressively covers inside WR's, takes way bubbles, hitches, seam routes, slants and speed outs. We force you to throw the ball deep and outside, where we have the sideline for help. In the run game, we try to prevent all down-hill runs and force offenses to go east/west, where it takes longer and we can run things down.
We're not gonna sacrifice integrity or leverage for the sake of creating "chaos". That's how you find yourself giving up easy completions.

If Manny's philosophy is to play "bend but don't break" and hope that offense makes it's own mistakes, that's goofy. Good offenses won't make enough mistakes. They'll simply take the easy underneath stuff that you give them on a platter.
To the contrary, it's much harder for an offense to succeed if you force them to throw deep/outside during the entire course of a game. If your CB's are any good, there's no offense that can win all 4 quarters in that fashion. We watched Seattle dominate the NFL with this philosophy for years.

Decide what your philosophy is gonna be and choose your personnel accordingly.
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I’ll take this defensive philosophy 10x’s over what Manny runs. All day and Subday Coach!!!
 
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Idk if manny just loves sending pressure and leaving the middle open or feels the need like he has to or just doesn’t understand football lol. Ur guess is as good as mine
 
coffeecane said:
Agree they were ok but I think we thought anyone that rushed the passer was an upgrade after the Dorito years. It is definitely unbearable now.
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I mean we had 2 really good starting backers that made his defense better. Now we have only fat and slow backers that aren’t instinctive so that’s glaring.
 
We've given up 30+ in 8 consecutive games against P5 competition starting with the UNC debacle last year. This defense is broken and Manny has no answers. We will have to outscore everyone as long as Manny has a hand in the defense.
 
The bend but don't break strategy has brought us back in 4 straight games where we made huge stops on good offenses during late runs. The defense is improving like the offense.

We did a good job on Pitt at Pitt. We held their rb, who was averaging over 120 tpg to 28 yds. But mainly we intercepted Pickett late to seal the game. We didn't stop everything but made plays when we had to.

Against NCst, late in the game Miami made NCst turn the ball over on downs. Then we ran out the clock.

We've got a bunch of young players starting and getting minutes. McCloud seems like he's figuring things out. I'd say hold out judgment a little longer on these guys.
 
PIPO said:
All of this extra Manny crap because Kenny Pickett missed two open receivers on both of his INTs that he normally makes in his sleep.
He had one job, lol
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Same thing with all the NC State drops.

While we are a few plays away from being 6-2, we are also easily a few plays away from being 2-6.
 
Issue I see is the continual delayed blitzes, play after play and normally the player is a non factor in the play.
Would rather see 8 or 9 guys on the line and let them try to figure out who is coming and who is dropping back.
 
canefan96 said:
Issue I see is the continual delayed blitzes, play after play and normally the player is a non factor in the play.
Would rather see 8 or 9 guys on the line and let them try to figure out who is coming and who is dropping back.
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By the time the blitzing safety from 15 yards away reaches the line of scrimmage the ball has already been released by the QB.

I can only remember that Safety blitz getting home 1 time this year and it was by Bubba Bolden. I think it was his last tackle as a Cane as it happened in that NC State game if I recall correctly. Other that, a handful of pressures.

It’s a maddening thing to watch.
 
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cscramon said:
We have enough talent to be at least average or above it, but why is our defense performing so poorly , specially if Manny is he true defensive coordinator ?

CS
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Not many defenses are that good in college ftball. Prob a combo of game plan & execution. Manny Def plans haven’t changed to today’s ftball.
 
cscramon said:
We have enough talent to be at least average or above it, but why is our defense performing so poorly , specially if Manny is he true defensive coordinator ?

CS
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No middle linebackers, Weak De, only one Corner.
 
cscramon said:
We have enough talent to be at least average or above it, but why is our defense performing so poorly , specially if Manny is he true defensive coordinator ?

CS
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Same answer as what was wrong with the 2006 Hurricanes, who on paper had loads of talent at HB, TE, and QB, but had only six scholarship wide receivers entering the year and only three by game 8. A personnel deficiency on one position can ruin everything else. Our biggest liability is linebacker, and because of that it is affecting everything else. We also have a personnel deficiency at cornerback as well.
 
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