re: Aranda and Modern Offenses

quote:

---

so your solution is to just blitz the ultra mobile QB?

---

I'm not the defensive guru. i'm asking why the guru didn't try something different. when we did blitz or stunt we had some success. I realize you can't do it every play. but on a 3rd and long or 2d and long it would've been nice to see some pressure.

I expect aranda, being so smart, to be able to make some adjustments. I agree with other posters that everyone has bad days, and am not really down on aranda. just disappointed in this game.

I also understand he's got to adjust to this new style of play.

There were instances where we blitzed and they attacked the blitz

We dropped Ferrel into coverage on one of those DT and brought some LBs.

That didn't work.

I feel like this board wants jail break blitzes way more than could possibly work.

quote:

---

when we did blitz or stunt we had some success.

---

4th & 2, when they scored the td, we blitzed.

2nd & 24, when ehlinger scrambled for 15 yards, we blitzed.

Aranda was essentially playing a prevent with a cover 4 shell all night and forcing Texas to march down the field. The goal was to force Ehlinger to stay in the pocket and dump off short passes and our defense would swarm and make their gains minimal.

They ended up carving up our defense with the short passing game, stressing our safeties and corners to their brink with their wideouts, and running it right at us with a brand-new RB who was explosive and tenacious as hell.

His gameplan was ruined by how good Ehlinger was. When Texas made adjustments in the second half to attack the defense Aranda trotted out in the first half, he rarely did anything to change. At the end of the first half, there was a serious where they forced a 3 and out with multiple blitzes and stunts as well as playing a different coverage shell.

Think about what Clemson did against Alabama in the CFPNC game? They disguised their coverage shells to confuse Tua. We needed to do that against Ehlinger. Show cover 2 shell, roll to cover 3 or cover 1. Show cover 1 and roll the shell to cover 2, and on and on. Aranda did nothing to help his defense cover-wise and their was a lack of faith in his DBs apparently since he didn't feel that he could bring extra pressure.

quote:

---

[Where the D-Linemen just engaged an O-Lineman, then kept their spacing to "keep Ehlinger contained" - major failure - O and D players both said it didn't work]

---

If this was the case, perhaps it DID work in one aspect. Ehlinger did hurt us quite a bit with his feet, but I've seen him do way more damage on the ground to other opponents. Granted, those defenses were not our caliber, but he is still a very good runner that we contained in the 1st half and MOST of the 2nd half.

Ehlinger had 19 carries for 60 yards, an average of about 3 yards per run. The BULK of his yardage came on those last 2 drives where he had 3 separate runs of 13 yards each. That's 2/3 of his yards in 3 plays on 2 drives.

I am not a coach, but what I was Ehlinger actually started beating us through the air when that offense started to get going. I think that was the gameplan, honestly. We all knew Ehlinger could run, so contain him and if he has to beat us through the air we are in good shape. We had one long throw that Fulton mis-judged, another missed tackle on the Collin Johnson breakaway, and then the TD throw to Smith that had to be a fricking bullseye.

I'll give credit where it's due, Ehlinger started making accurate throws and my talk went pretty quickly from "that's a lucky throw" to "maybe his accuracy has improved." I think maybe what happened was he started eating us with the pass, so Aranda had to change up scheme and we just didn't have the scheme to keep him from running while getting pressure at the same time. It worked a few times, don't get me wrong, but after what I saw Saturday I keep getting led to the same conclusion:

Texas has a really good offense that we may have underestimated.

quote:

---

The only thing i want Aranda to start dialing up is more blitzing

---

exactly. we were already getting torched anyways so we really had nothing to lose

quote:

---

Wasn't one of the biggest problems (against Texas) the Cage Rush? [Where the D-Linemen just engaged an O-Lineman, then kept their spacing to "keep Ehlinger contained" - major failure - O and D players both said it didn't work] A lot of what looked like offensive holding was just the LSU D-Line running the cage rush - making no attempt to break away - by design.

---

What players were saying this?

quote:

---

Which, of course, brings up the other point that even the greats get outcoached, outmanned, out matchuped or all three on occasion

---

The whole "hes the highest paid DC he should be able to stop anyone"

He is going up against the following offensive minds

Jimbo Fisher -NC as an OC, NC as a Head Coach 7.5 Mill a year.

Dan Mullen 2x NC as OC $6 Million a year

Tom Herman NC as OC $6.5 Million a year.

Do those guys all of a sudden become worse coaches because Aranda is the top paid DC?

Honestly, I still think Aranda is great. Top 3 DCs out there. top 10 defensive minds if you include HCs. I would only say Venables is probably better and he isn't going anywhere.

quote:

---

The whole "hes the highest paid DC he should be able to stop anyone"

---

quote:

---

Do those guys all of a sudden become worse coaches because Aranda is the top paid DC?

---

Well, and if being highly paid means you have to be successful against every opponent, then what is supposed to occur when two highly paid people end up on opposite sides?

I mean, shouldn't Herman's offense be unstoppable using the same logic? There should be ZERO DCs out there who stop him. But then, um, what about the impenetrable DCs? Guess on those days, one of them has to "suck"