The Defense.

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:32 am

I was wondering if anyone watched the San Diego/Philly game last sunday. If you did, you saw Philly shut down Ladanian Tomlinson (17 att, 7 yds), arguably the best RB in the AFC. I don't know their base defense (3-4/4-3), but Philly was absolutely FLYING to the ball on run plays. I saw so many different run blitzes it blew my mind. This is the type of defense we all thought the 3-4 would be. Maybe the coaches need to get some film of the Philly run D and get some ideas on how to stop the run.

Another game that I watched was the Denver/NY Giants game. For the first 3 quarters, Denver came with a variety of delayed safetey and linebacker blitzes, and were quite successful at getting to Eli Manning. He threw the ball away a lot, and was hit a lot. They didn't sack him very many times, but they were definately putting pressure on him. Granted their base D is a 4-3 (and a good one at that), but still, their linebacking corp is one of the fastest in the league. Their secondary is also good, even with two rookies starting.

I think our LB's and DB's are comparable (at the college level) to the Denver LB's and DB's. We need to send at least 2 linebackers and one safety (or 3 linebackers) on every predictable passing down. That means man D with a safety over the top in 3-wide sets. That, or at least send 4-5 guys at the QB and drop 7-6 guys for 3-4 wide sets, man D, safteys over. I am sick of this rush 3 drop 8 BS. We made Sawyer Smith look like Brett Favre at PSU. Just my 2 cents worth on our D. Comments?

DriftCat · Post by **DriftCat** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:48 am

I agree 100%. The part about flying to the ball especially. We dont seam to be playing with any fire on D, where is the leadership?

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:50 am

Philly was bringing more guys than SD could block. So it was futile for SD to even run. Philly has a really really good secondary though (shut down type) and Kramer said we don't currently have that so that is probably why we are not doing that a lot yet this year. Philly can go man to man in the secondary and still bring the house which is why they were so successful against the BOlts. They did give up a 5-6 big pass plays though and "SHOULD" have lost that game

(I still haven't gotten over it).

I like the philosophy and I think MSU should at least 'shake' it up once in a while that way just to keep the offense honest and out of balance. What is the difference if we give up a 45 yard big pass play over letting them dink and dunk for 45 yards on 5-6 pass plays? Are they trying to make the offense beat themselves on that is why they are playing that way? I say at least shake it up and if they beat us deep once, then go back to that, but at least hit them in the mouth in the running game a few times I think.

Slackjaw · Post by **Slackjaw** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:24 pm

Thats the problem. Right now the defense is playing afraid. We play like we are waiting and hoping the offense beats itself, rather then beating the offense with agressive play. Personally I believe that you call defense the same way you would call offense. On offense you never call plays hoping the defense beats itself, you call plays to beat the defense. The same can be done on defense, it just takes a pair between the legs. Lets hope that in the off week our coaches found their's.

Ponycat · Post by **Ponycat** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:48 pm

Slackjaw wrote:Thats the problem. Right now the defense is playing afraid. We play like we are waiting and hoping the offense beats itself, rather then beating the offense with agressive play. Personally I believe that you call defense the same way you would call offense. On offense you never call plays hoping the defense beats itself, you call plays to beat the defense. The same can be done on defense, it just takes a pair between the legs. Lets hope that in the off week our coaches found their's.

I couldn't agree more. We will loose to both the Eagles and the Griz with the Defense that showed up against Portland St.

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:59 pm

Ponycat wrote:
Slackjaw wrote:Thats the problem. Right now the defense is playing afraid. We play like we are waiting and hoping the offense beats itself, rather then beating the offense with agressive play. Personally I believe that you call defense the same way you would call offense. On offense you never call plays hoping the defense beats itself, you call plays to beat the defense. The same can be done on defense, it just takes a pair between the legs. Lets hope that in the off week our coaches found their's.
I couldn't agree more. We will loose to both the Eagles and the Griz with the Defense that showed up against Portland St.

Maybe we are going to be like the big Russian in Rocky 3. Just hang around with the other boxer until the Russian trainer yells those special ATTACK words. Maybe Kramer is saving some shakeups for this D until we hit the LAST 2 HUGE GAMES

Ponycat · Post by **Ponycat** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:03 pm

Actually that has crossed my mind, and I hope its true but I'm still very unhappy thus far with our defense.

Ponycat · Post by **Ponycat** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:04 pm

Actually that has crossed my mind, and I hope its true but I'm still very unhappy thus far with our defense.

tetoncat · Post by **tetoncat** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:07 pm

We can still hope to out score them

Kramer said on coaches show today that secondary has not performed as well as expected due to injury to Davis and Smith who have never made it to the field. I hope we can shake it up, run some 3-4 some 4-3 and confuse them a little.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:09 pm

If the defense is going to get better, it'll have to happen this week. They've had about 12 weeks. If PSU can shut them out, MSU should at least hold them to 10 offensive points (not counting turnovers ret. for scores or setting up TDs or Sp. Team scores.)
If MSU gives up 20+ vs. NAU and SSU next week, don't hold out hope for a win at EW or against UM.

HelenaCat95 · Post by **HelenaCat95** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:42 pm

I'm as big a Cat fan as anybody..but I don't think we could beat Phillly or San Diego.

94VegasCat · Post by **94VegasCat** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:31 pm

When was the last time the CATS shut anybody out? How great would it be to shut out the next four opponents? Run a 4-3 this week against NAU and then a 3-4 against Suc State and EWU and then the griz will be in a hissy about what to prepare for.

jagur1 · Post by **jagur1** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:36 pm

94 Bobby must be one step ahead of you word is the Griz will run the 3-4 again this week vrs. PSU.

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 3:45 pm

jagur1 wrote:94 Bobby must be one step ahead of you word is the Griz will run the 3-4 again this week vrs. PSU.

Griz better run a 1-10 against us as we'll be blowing down the field against your secondary

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:32 pm

jagur1 wrote:94 Bobby must be one step ahead of you word is the Griz will run the 3-4 again this week vrs. PSU.

And won't Rubin and Kennett be happy to hear that.

catatac · Post by **catatac** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:14 pm

3-4, 4-3, whatever. It’s just the base formation and it changes all throughout the game anyway, play to play. As coack K. said before the season, our old scheme was a good one ,and this 3-4 is a good one also. It all comes down to execution and that has been our problem as of late. I have a feeling that with the bye week to practice and focus, Mac back in and healthy, Lowe back, and possibly Kolone, we will be pleasantly surprised with our D from here on out. I definitely agree though, we need to see some more aggression. We’re –3 in takeaways and as usual – the Griz are +8 or something like that. They’re flying to the ball, hitting harder, punishing opponents, and jumping on the ball when it comes out. Ticks me off because that was us a couple years ago. Teams always said they were the most sore after playing the Bobcats. Hopefully we regain that attitude starting Saturday…

94VegasCat · Post by **94VegasCat** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:08 am

If I remember correctly, our defense played really well in the first few games. We held OSU to 15, and SFA to 6. They are showing that they aren't the powers that they usually are, but they are good teams nonetheless. If we are healthy this week, I see no reason that we cannot regain some of our early season successes on defense. With a week to heal up, we should be ready to roll through the final four, and make it into the playoffs.

WYCAT · Post by **WYCAT** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:18 am

I was much more impressed with the defense after the first 2 games but it has been downhill since then. Having been to both games though, the SFA effort was far more impressive. OSU's offense, especially that first game, was really bad. They were inept, changing QB's, new scheme, etc. and if it weren't for two very athletic QB's that could run we may have shut them out. After the SFA game I had high hopes but it seems to be getting worse every week. I hope a lot of that was due to injuries and this week should be the week we prove or disprove that.