In 'Hindsight,' What Could We Do Differently on D to Contain QBs?

idk, but I’m also not paid $100MM to figure it out

We had hindsight with A&M vs Alabama. it still didn't work

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It's not hindsight. We kept having our DE's crashing towards the middle of the filed without having a LB or Safety step up to contain

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I think this is wrong.

We had a player to contain. They weren’t athletic enough to do it.

Alabama didn’t kill us with the zone read though. They ran QB power. We added players to the box but that just resulted in long runs.

We don’t tackle well.

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It's not hindsight. We kept having our DE's crashing towards the middle of the filed without having a LB or Safety step up to contain. We showed ZERO gap discipline.

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I’m far from a technical expert on football, but I don’t think our players trust the other players to make the play. Thus, they bite on fakes and over-pursue and don’t contain when they should. Gap discipline is lacking and they don’t seem to be able to correct it. That is on coaching.

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I think this is wrong.

We had a player to contain. They weren’t athletic enough to do it.

Alabama didn’t kill us with the zone read though. They ran QB power. We added players to the box but that just resulted in long runs.

We don’t tackle well.

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Looking back, it was a combination of things. One, Bama blocked these runs very well. Two, our DL was never really a threat to stop any of this shite. Three, Weeks is out of position and/or can't shed a block a ton. And our Safeties are awful.

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Keep major burns on the bench

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Ok. Burns is now on the bench. Does that solve our problem or what else do we have to do?

THIS... Burns didn't try on one long run but was in position. Gilbert is hurt and limited. Sage has is just average

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Looking back, it was a combination of things. One, Bama blocked these runs very well. Two, our DL was never really a threat to stop any of this shite. Three, Weeks is out of position and/or can't shed a block a ton. And our Safeties are awful.

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TL;DR - Our Edges aren't playing proper run contain technique, putting the back end of the defense in a precarious situation time and again against dual-threat run games.


Bad technique is the problem, on two fronts:

1). Bama did a good job blocking, but we made it easy on them. Our containment against dual-threat QBs (and the run, in general) this season has been atrocious.

Our Edges are excellent pass rushers, but they play hero ball when it comes to the zone read and power QB runs. I counted several times where, on the zone read, the Edge to the play side rushed to the mesh point of the handoff. Dual-threat QBs that know what they are doing will pull that ball every time and just take a step back to avoid the Edge and break his contain for big yardage.

Once he does that, the contain that the Edge is responsible for is broken because the LB (usually Weeks) is responsible for the inside handoff that the Edge is SUPPOSED to be forcing to happen.

That's how you stop a dual threat QB's run threat. The Edge's job is to recognize the play and take away the QB's option to run with that ball. This forces the inside handoff, where we SHOULD have a numbers or gap advantage on pre-snap alignment alone.

(Our DL had their worst game all season, though, so even if the Edges did their job it is questionable if we could have stopped the inside run game.)



2). The LBs and Safeties don't meet blockers in the hole, but rather wait in place to be blocked by whatever OL or TE is coming their way. Instead of taking the fight to the opposing scheme and clogging the hole they want to run to, they stand pat and allow the blockers to get the right positioning and take themselves out of the play altogether.

That has been a problem all season long.



Now, with all of that said, the players are the ones who have to take that knowledge and execute it on the field on Saturdays. We give a lot of criticism to the coaches, but sometimes the players are the problem.

In no way am I saying that is DEFINITELY the issue. It could be that the coaches just aren't teaching fundamentals and are relying on game planning instead, assuming the players understand those fundamentals in the first place in error.

If it is the latter, it is very alarming that the coaching staff that we have can't recognize that. These guys are where they are for a reason...

I tend to find it hard to believe that coaches at this level who are paid so much can't recognize and address a lack of fundamentals.

I think the players carry a lot of the blame here, but that is personal opinion. We had the same problem under House when he was the DC.

Sidebar: Have you guys noticed that we didn't have this problem two years ago when Perkins was playing the Edge?

It's because he knows how to contain AND rush the passer, which require different techniques and play recognition skills. Hopefully Baker sees that in self-scouting after the season and reintroduces Perkins as one of our Edges.

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It's not hindsight. We kept having our DE's crashing towards the middle of the filed without having a LB or Safety step up to contain. We showed ZERO gap discipline.

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I’m mean we had played where the safety absolutely was up to contain and just constantly took themselves out of the play.

I agree though, on the read options our DE always pursues and at some point you gotta say, let that side worry about the RB you can’t let the QB run free.

Well for once do your freaking job! Hold your gap and do your job! The effort from the players on this team is absolute garbage. They should be benched and the younger guys need more playing time to develop. Sick if Burns, Ryan, even Zy at times doesn't plat to the whistle a lofts on plays if it's not a pass play. Bench them