Lack of contain

Arden Key couldn't contain my grandma. What a fricking disgrace of a football player he is now.
Just play K'lavon Key is worse than hot garbage

The wide open spread did it to us last night. 5 wides on the field and all the underneath and short screen passes had our DBs on their heels all night.

I don't really know if Syracuse just really came to play or if our defense overall just isn't that good this year. Maybe it's both. But regardless, it's not good when a bad Syracuse team hangs with us in Death Valley after dark. We have lost our mojo.

Eh... yeah, there HAS to be some lack of fundamental issues there. Happens too much.

A) seen several times where contain THINKS he has contain, but is actually out of position. Whether it's too far upfield or they've let a blocker get outside them. That's a fundamentals issue.

B) In some cases I think it's someone just wanting to make a play. Players, not just freshmen, not playing their assignment and playing within the system. That's what happens when you're plugging holes and there's a lack of trust in the other guy doing his job.

C) DL's inability to eat up enough blockers is affecting the LBs here.

It's not a simple case of teaching one or two, especially when (B) is happening.

But it indeed is killing us.

I noticed this too, particularly when they ran reverses. We had nobody setting the edge on the backside.

If you think about it we're dealing with one of the worst combinations for a defense in football...

A depleted, gassed, or otherwise ineffective DL that allows QBs to extend plays, thereby putting additional pressure to hold coverage on a young inexperienced secondary who then can't risk helping in run support, including containment.

Always comes back to the trenches.