The Bobcat Nation

So, we have a pretty clear objective on the offensive end next week against Eastern...score, score, and score some more. However difficult that may be, it is probably true that the harder case is made against our defense and it's attempt to slow down a prolific Eastern offensive attack.

So, for those of you who fancy yourselves as defensive minds, how would you gameplan against Eastern Washington on the defensive end. Pretend you are K I and get all DEFENSIVE For us...

I will withhold my observations and ideas for later as I don't want to cherry pick the obvious Cooper Kupp double teams...etc..

So, how do you prepare our defense??????


GO......

Prevent the big play!!!!

I would probably do what everybody here (including me) hates and play somewhat like Poly did against UM, 2 high safety's and give a little at the line, try to pressure the QB as much as possible with 4 DL.

I hate to say it but it sounds like Jamie Marshall's go to game plan but I think you need to make them go for short passes and over the middle, make them run as many plays in a drive as possible and hope they make a mistake before they reach the endzone. We have to tackle well in space, when the receivers make a catch we need to get them down right away.

I know they blew up Oregon's defense, but I think this week against UNI will give us a better read on this team. Not saying Oregon looked past EWU, but Michigan State is this weekend. I think that games carries a little more weight then EWU. So, I want to see how they do against UNI. I am thinking that this will be a close game until the 4th and then EWU pulls away and wins by 14+. But if UNI can hang in there, it will make me feel a little better about our chances.

Get a good rush with the front 4, get to the QB, press coverage with safety help disrupt the timing. DONT get beat deep make them throw short or to middle linebackers be aggressive don't miss tackles and keep the play in front of you and make the pay everytime they have the ball a lot of bignell esque hits. Essentially play the same defensive scheme the seahawks did against the broncos in the Super Bowl

Copy what um did last year.

One thing I was thinking about is that VA probably gave the Oregon coaches some good knowledge about what EWU would do offensively and EWU still shredded them.

Literally, give them whatever they want between the 20's, except the big play. Three man front, don't blitz, don't give up a TD. Do this with 2nd stringers if possible. Then when they get to the red zone... bring in first team D, play aggressive, tough Bobcat D that we've been know for historically. Double team Kupp.

Here is my gameplan.

Hawks86 wrote:Here is my gameplan.

'Merica!

The grizz sacked Adams five times in each game last year. They held EWU to 394 yards and just 4.9 per play in the second meeting. The first meeting was 461 and 6.7. They had 582 and 7.9 against us. If we can just match the numbers um held them to in the first game I really like our chances. We had three sacks.

They held them to 36 then 37 points. So they can be slowed down.

I don't think that we can afford to play scared - which is what seems to be being suggested. We tried that with Marshal a few years ago and we never stopped them once. Eastern is to good to hope that if you keep everything in front of you that they will make a mistake. You have to cause them to make a mistake. I love the idea of rushing 4 and dropping the rest but unfortunately I don't think that we have the guys up front to do that. We have to play aggressive and send pressure from all over the place. We need to press their wide outs and double Kupp at all times. I would put my number 2 corner on Kupp with safety help and hope that the other corner can hold his own. Then you have to get to that QB as often as possible. The only way we win this game is if we come out swinging and hit West as often as possible. If we can make him make a mistake and get him rattled then we have a chance. I know that we will get burned for a bunch of long TD's but I would way rather a quick score every other drive and stop them 50% of the time than for our offence to be sitting on the bench getting cold as Eastern methodical drives down the field and scores every time which is what will happen if we play prevent defence. Ultimately it's a tough call but I say let those guys be athletes, disguise the coverages, and send pressure often. You know they are going to score but we have good athletes on defence too so let them make make plays. Then the offense has to come and score a lot. They can not have a slow start.

Hawks86 wrote:Here is my gameplan.

I was just going to say, HIT HARD AND HIT OFTEN, but that gif pretty much already takes care of that.

Remember when Jordan Craney, Mike Rider, and Zach Minter all had great hits in the 30-7 win against EWOO who went on to win the natty?

Yeah, Whack em hard.

LongTimeCatFan wrote:

Hawks86 wrote:Here is my gameplan.

I was just going to say, HIT HARD AND HIT OFTEN, but that gif pretty much already takes care of that.

Remember when Jordan Craney, Mike Rider, and Zach Minter all had great hits in the 30-7 win against EWOO who went on to win the natty?

Yeah, Whack em hard.

That's the key. I understand that ewu has a good offense, but there seems to be this suggestion that they are unstoppable, and that part I don't understand. In 2010, ewu's points on every game except the MSU one were: 24, 35, 36, 35, 21, 35, 28, 50, 31, 34, 37, 38, 41, 20 (average of 33). MSU held them to 7.

With the right scheme, gameplan, and execution, ANY offense can be stopped, including ewu and MSU (as we have found out playing the griz, SHSU, and others). If MSU goes into this game with the notion that "ewu will get their yards and points and we just have to make sure we get more," I think they are setting themselves up for failure. It's the same as playing not to lose, as opposed to playing to win. Realistically, I think ewu will put up some points against MSU, but I don't think its unreasonable to expect to hold them to 25-35 with the right scheme, gameplan, and execution. Like a previous poster said, if MSU plays aggressive, fast, and loose, we may get burned a few times, but at least we put the ball and their court and force ewu to execute and make a play, rather than die a slow death of consistent 5-7 yard short passes all day long. Just my two cents, but I'm not exactly innovated, so who knows

I'm not sure Kane has said it, but most our defensive coaches have said that much, that defense is changing. It isn't measured in yards anymore, it's measured in 3rd down stops and turnovers. This is basically saying teams will get their yards, it's the nature of the current game, but you still have to make those critical stops, and get the ball back.

Unless Kane has reversed that notion, that is the consensus I got from the coaching staff this offseason, after last year.

And I hate to say it, but comparing our current defense, or last year's defense, to the 2010 defense is apples and oranges. For one, the game has changed even since 2010, offenses rule the day. Two, we had a pretty decent defense in 2010, though not great. We were 5th in scoring defense at 25.8 PPG, and 5th in yards per game at 378.9. But I agree if we return to the 2010 form, which was an average defense by normal MSU standards, we could win the NC.

95bcfb wrote:I don't think that we can afford to play scared - which is what seems to be being suggested. We tried that with Marshal a few years ago and we never stopped them once. Eastern is to good to hope that if you keep everything in front of you that they will make a mistake. You have to cause them to make a mistake. I love the idea of rushing 4 and dropping the rest but unfortunately I don't think that we have the guys up front to do that. We have to play aggressive and send pressure from all over the place. We need to press their wide outs and double Kupp at all times. I would put my number 2 corner on Kupp with safety help and hope that the other corner can hold his own. Then you have to get to that QB as often as possible. The only way we win this game is if we come out swinging and hit West as often as possible. If we can make him make a mistake and get him rattled then we have a chance. I know that we will get burned for a bunch of long TD's but I would way rather a quick score every other drive and stop them 50% of the time than for our offence to be sitting on the bench getting cold as Eastern methodical drives down the field and scores every time which is what will happen if we play prevent defence. Ultimately it's a tough call but I say let those guys be athletes, disguise the coverages, and send pressure often. You know they are going to score but we have good athletes on defence too so let them make make plays. Then the offense has to come and score a lot. They can not have a slow start.

I agree, to me bend but don't break is double talk for hope for the best. You want to win this game, I say go after EWU. Hit them hard and often and make them make the big play. The best thing that could happen for us is to force a few turnovers and playing aggressive is the best way to make that happen. Send pressure often, we can play Marshall style defense if we get a comfortable lead.

95bcfb wrote:I don't think that we can afford to play scared - which is what seems to be being suggested. We tried that with Marshal a few years ago and we never stopped them once. Eastern is to good to hope that if you keep everything in front of you that they will make a mistake. You have to cause them to make a mistake. I love the idea of rushing 4 and dropping the rest but unfortunately I don't think that we have the guys up front to do that. We have to play aggressive and send pressure from all over the place. We need to press their wide outs and double Kupp at all times. I would put my number 2 corner on Kupp with safety help and hope that the other corner can hold his own. Then you have to get to that QB as often as possible. The only way we win this game is if we come out swinging and hit West as often as possible. If we can make him make a mistake and get him rattled then we have a chance. I know that we will get burned for a bunch of long TD's but I would way rather a quick score every other drive and stop them 50% of the time than for our offence to be sitting on the bench getting cold as Eastern methodical drives down the field and scores every time which is what will happen if we play prevent defence. Ultimately it's a tough call but I say let those guys be athletes, disguise the coverages, and send pressure often. You know they are going to score but we have good athletes on defence too so let them make make plays. Then the offense has to come and score a lot. They can not have a slow start.

We don't play scared. C'mon. Too nervous, maybe, but not scared. There's no magic spell. Just work hard and make plays.

I agree with 95bcfb. Release the Kraken.


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I hate cover 2 zone, or bend don’t break defense. If we go that route it’s going to be a frustrating day. They will run us ragged with methodical drives all day long if we sit in a soft zone trying to keep everything in front of us.
We need to play the cover 2 man defense. They are going to get their points against our defense but the tight man aggressive pressure defense gives us the best chance to make a few stops during the day and with a little luck a turnover or two. Cover two man gives deep safety help for Kupp. We need to encourage the players to play loose, jam the receivers every single time on the LOS, and disrupt their routes. Encourage aggressive play and accept the fact that you will most likely give up some yards to pass interference.
IMHO we have a much better chance to make stops in an aggressive style defense than thinking they will make mistakes if we sit in a soft zone.

Make that 4th down stop.

Weltercat wrote:I hate cover 2 zone, or bend don’t break defense. If we go that route it’s going to be a frustrating day. They will run us ragged with methodical drives all day long if we sit in a soft zone trying to keep everything in front of us.
We need to play the cover 2 man defense. They are going to get their points against our defense but the tight man aggressive pressure defense gives us the best chance to make a few stops during the day and with a little luck a turnover or two. Cover two man gives deep safety help for Kupp. We need to encourage the players to play loose, jam the receivers every single time on the LOS, and disrupt their routes. Encourage aggressive play and accept the fact that you will most likely give up some yards to pass interference.
IMHO we have a much better chance to make stops in an aggressive style defense than thinking they will make mistakes if we sit in a soft zone.

I'm no football expert, but this makes sense to me. Playing zone against eastern puts the defense in a purely reactive posture. Playing man coverage and jamming the WR at the line creates some havoc for the timing routes, but it also comes with the risk of someone being left to make that open field tackle that would otherwise result in a big play. If we can disrupt those shorter routes and make the QB go through a few more reads, that gives us time to get in the backfield and get a few sacks/knockdowns.

In this case, you fight fire with a bigger fire and you play eastern by being physical. In years past, it seems that the defense has been coached up to be "calculated" during games, which has certainly not worked very well.