carbonpoke
Well-known member
alrighty then!
I want to reflect back for a second to the joe glenn years. smash mouth, great defense, devin moore... on the other hand, what led to his dismissal; diminishing returns, horrible conference record, bad quarterback play, and lastly and most importantly turnovers.
the system works in Laramie, but its has to be based around specific principles. Limit or eliminate turnovers, keep time of possession, and have depth.
I like where we are headed. I think this defense will be a "NASTY" 2001 Baltimore ravens style defense if we can stay healthy and fresh (time-o-possession). mertens wore down last season, but against Nebraska he looked like a pro playing against highschool kids.
Im a little worried about linebacker play. I don't know if the change in coaching staff and philosophy will lead to more three and outs, but the linebackers have to play to a higher standard. More tackles at the line of scrimmage instead of three to four yards past the line of scrimmage.
we are lucky in the fact that we have two outside linebackers on the roster that can run and cover. nzeocha and wacha. we have to remember that in the football landscape we can scheme to play a 4-3 all we want; but if a team like fresno splits 3-4 receivers each play...? you either have to run a nickel package, or have a linebacker that can cover. no matter, as running the spread thins out base defenses pre snap. the middle of the field always loosens up to properly cover man for man. we will see this abundantly. the key to us keeping time of possession and maintaining a lead against spread offenses will be pressure from the front four and tight coverage from the secondary for 3-4 seconds. good pressure and bump and run coverage to get into 3rd and long situations. we have to force more punts this year.
I also believe that our oline will surprise this year. switching to a run blocking scheme is fairly easy in transition; as long as the terminology and playbook lingo are easily learned. in christensens offense, we had big splits and ran zone blocking. once teams exposed our vulnerability to flooding an area of the line with pressure, we were screwed. this year teams will have to risk more by overcrowding areas of the line of scrimmage. I want to remind people of dennis franchione's double stack over our tackles in last years texas state game. pure awesome if you are a football purist from texas... absolute hell if you are like me.
again, I think that our line will improve this year. shortening the splits, and creating offensive overloads at the point of attack; that is what we will see this year... AND A FULL BACK. SWEET!
underlying all this is the fear of injury. we need to stay healthy, and I agree with j-rod that there are certain positions that we have huge question marks if we get hurt.
I will add, in my experience with football, and in the army... injury rates have a direct correlation to conditioning. AND, ive noticed that teams that run smash mouth football cause more injuries than they receive.
anyways fellas... I wholeheartedly expect to see "cowboy tough" return. I am working nights and weekends with my new job... FML! gonna have to record many games this year. ahh well... what can you do?
I want to reflect back for a second to the joe glenn years. smash mouth, great defense, devin moore... on the other hand, what led to his dismissal; diminishing returns, horrible conference record, bad quarterback play, and lastly and most importantly turnovers.
the system works in Laramie, but its has to be based around specific principles. Limit or eliminate turnovers, keep time of possession, and have depth.
I like where we are headed. I think this defense will be a "NASTY" 2001 Baltimore ravens style defense if we can stay healthy and fresh (time-o-possession). mertens wore down last season, but against Nebraska he looked like a pro playing against highschool kids.
Im a little worried about linebacker play. I don't know if the change in coaching staff and philosophy will lead to more three and outs, but the linebackers have to play to a higher standard. More tackles at the line of scrimmage instead of three to four yards past the line of scrimmage.
we are lucky in the fact that we have two outside linebackers on the roster that can run and cover. nzeocha and wacha. we have to remember that in the football landscape we can scheme to play a 4-3 all we want; but if a team like fresno splits 3-4 receivers each play...? you either have to run a nickel package, or have a linebacker that can cover. no matter, as running the spread thins out base defenses pre snap. the middle of the field always loosens up to properly cover man for man. we will see this abundantly. the key to us keeping time of possession and maintaining a lead against spread offenses will be pressure from the front four and tight coverage from the secondary for 3-4 seconds. good pressure and bump and run coverage to get into 3rd and long situations. we have to force more punts this year.
I also believe that our oline will surprise this year. switching to a run blocking scheme is fairly easy in transition; as long as the terminology and playbook lingo are easily learned. in christensens offense, we had big splits and ran zone blocking. once teams exposed our vulnerability to flooding an area of the line with pressure, we were screwed. this year teams will have to risk more by overcrowding areas of the line of scrimmage. I want to remind people of dennis franchione's double stack over our tackles in last years texas state game. pure awesome if you are a football purist from texas... absolute hell if you are like me.
again, I think that our line will improve this year. shortening the splits, and creating offensive overloads at the point of attack; that is what we will see this year... AND A FULL BACK. SWEET!
underlying all this is the fear of injury. we need to stay healthy, and I agree with j-rod that there are certain positions that we have huge question marks if we get hurt.
I will add, in my experience with football, and in the army... injury rates have a direct correlation to conditioning. AND, ive noticed that teams that run smash mouth football cause more injuries than they receive.
anyways fellas... I wholeheartedly expect to see "cowboy tough" return. I am working nights and weekends with my new job... FML! gonna have to record many games this year. ahh well... what can you do?
