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Who's not tackling?

WyoBrandX

Well-known member
I'm going to pay more attention this week to numbers on jerseys' missing tackles. Looking at the age of the starters on the depth chart, we shouldn't see the problems we are seeing. Any ideas?
Depth Chart 9/13/10

Cornerbacks
2 Marcell Gipson (5-10, 189, Sr., Dallas, Texas)
1 James Caraway (5-11, 185, So., Topeka, Kan.)

Free Safeties
24 Chris Prosinski (6-1, 210, Sr., Buffalo, Wyo.)
36 Eric Mitchell (6-0, 200, Jr., Highlands Ranch, Colo.)
16 Kenny Browder (5-11, 175, So., Round Rock, Texas)

Strong Safeties
7 Shamiel Gary (6-1, 210, So., Tulsa, Okla.)
29 Luke Ruff (5-11, 190, So., Castle Rock, Colo.)

Cornerbacks
4 Tashaun Gipson (6-0, 203, Jr., Dallas, Texas)
14 Marqueston Huff (6-0, 180, Fr., Texarkana, Texas)

LEO Linebackers (Outside Linebackers)
17 Keith Lewis (5-11, 213, Sr., Evergreen Park, Ill.)
43 Devyn Harris (6-3, 225, RFr., Fountain, Colo.)
31 Jeff Roueche (6-3, 220, RFr., Niwot, Colo.)

MIKE Linebackers (Middle Linebackers)
8 Brian Hendricks (6-1, 228, Jr., Burlington, Colo.)
35 Oliver Schober (6-0, 231, Jr., Munich, Germany)
9 Patrick Hartford (6-0, 222, So., Rock Springs, Wyo.)

WILL Linebackers (Outside Linebackers)
23 Ghaali Muhammad (6-0, 225, So., St. Joseph, Mo.)
6 Alex Toney (6-1, 220, Sr., Las Vegas, Nev.)
59 Reece Hall (5-10, 190, Sr., Sheridan, Wyo.)

Left Defensive Ends
44 Josh Biezuns (6-2, 249, Jr., Prior Lake, Minn.)
34 Mat Birkeness (6-4, 250, So., Littleton, Colo.)

Left Defensive Tackles
50 Mike Purcell (6-3, 269, So., Highlands Ranch, Colo.)
15 Ben Durbin (6-3, 256, So., Gilbert, Iowa)

Right Defensive Tackles
95 Patrick Mertens (6-5, 269, RFr., Sterling, Colo.)
90 Tyler Strong (6-3, 275, Fr., Longmont, Colo.)

Right Defensive Ends
52 Gabe Knapton (6-3, 251, Jr., Mead, Colo.)
85 Mark Willis (6-4, 225, RFr., Oak Park, Ill.)
 
Tashaun and Shamiel looked pretty rough in their tackling the last couple weeks. Prosinski looked bad against suu but is looking better (he admitted to missing a bunch) and shamiel and chrispro blew coverages against bsu. I am dissappointed in our secondary.
 
I think if i was any team we were playing, i would target the run against our right defensive tackles a few times to try to get the defense to over compensate for the freshman playing that position. As soon as they start compensating, you should be able to move the ball easier by getting the other DL players to play more conservatively. Hmm.
 
TwoTone said:
All of them....
Actually, Hendricks, Knapton, and Prosinski seem to do alright. And Prosinski isn't afraid to nail the other teams players. Hendricks is playing pretty well, and he's basically catching anyone that comes up the middle as well.
 
I know Shamiel missed some tackles, but he got 17 against BSU. If he (at safety) is getting that many, then the linebackers and dl aren't doing their job.
 
WYCowboy said:
I know Shamiel missed some tackles, but he got 17 against BSU. If he (at safety) is getting that many, then the linebackers and dl aren't doing their job.
I think that's when BSU wrapped the LBs up with WRs and O-linemen.
 
We have talked about this before...but I feel the switch to a 4 - 3 right now (this season) was a mistake. We took 2 very good LB's, and some decent back-up LB's (Ben Durbin for instance), and made them undersized DE's.

Knapton & Biezuns are clearly playing out of position, and are not a force. They have both been taken "out of thier game." And...at least with the 3 - 4 you can look like you rush 5 every play, disguising all kinds of blitz packages, etc.
 
McPeachy said:
We have talked about this before...but I feel the switch to a 4 - 3 right now (this season) was a mistake. We took 2 very good LB's, and some decent back-up LB's (Ben Durbin for instance), and made them undersized DE's.

Knapton & Biezuns are clearly playing out of position, and are not a force. They have both been taken "out of thier game." And...at least with the 3 - 4 you can look like you rush 5 every play, disguising all kinds of blitz packages, etc.

I don't see how we had any options, though. We don't have ANY linemen big enough for the 3-4. Who would play NT? At least with 4-3 you can get away with having slightly smaller linemen...

I kind of liked the hybrid we used towards the end of last season, though... but yeah, we still don't have Fletcher and the others :(
 
McPeachy said:
We have talked about this before...but I feel the switch to a 4 - 3 right now (this season) was a mistake. We took 2 very good LB's, and some decent back-up LB's (Ben Durbin for instance), and made them undersized DE's.

Knapton & Biezuns are clearly playing out of position, and are not a force. They have both been taken "out of thier game." And...at least with the 3 - 4 you can look like you rush 5 every play, disguising all kinds of blitz packages, etc.
Well, if you feel comfortable about moving our DTs to DE and finding a DT that makes them look small, be my guest. The fact of the matter is, the 3-4 requires some pretty large D-linemen. And we simply don't have that right now.

Plus, the poor play the D can be summed up to a piss poor strategy by English who is not using ANY of the speed on D except for having to rely on an almost constant pass rush that is very suspect on the interior. Biezuns and Knapton do get around the O-lines, just that they don't get near enough support from the DTs to be all that effective.
 
Why does everyone say we don't have the size to play a 3 - 4 still...but we do to play a 4 - 3? This just doesn't make any sense. WE don't have the size to have play 3 DL's but we do for 4 DL's? Huh?

Here are my NT candidates for the 3 - 4:
Starter: BJ Sumter 6-1, 310
Backup: Kurt Taufa'asau 6-2, 285
Backup: Tyler Strong, 6-3, 275

Here are my DE candidates for the 3 - 4:
Starter: Mike Purcell 6-3, 279
Starter: Patrick Mertens 6-5, 269
Backup: Ben Durbin 6-3, 253
Backup: Mike Birkeness 6-4, 239
Backup: Bryson Studnicka, 6-3, 256
Backup: Mark Willis, 6-4, 225
Backup: Spenser Bruce, 6-5, 230
Backup: Eric Brooks, 6-2, 246
Backup: Max Gustafson, 6-4, 215

So, then, for LB's you can put Biezuns and Knapton back where they belong, you have 8 or so others to join them on the 2+ deep (Tony, Lewis, Muhammad, Hendricks, Schober, Knight, Rouche, Harris).

Seems to be, again just IMO, that we were premature on our switch.
 
Sumter and Taufa'asau are with the 3rd string defense, meaning they aren't even ready to play as back ups yet. So that really only leaves us with 1 viable NG.

For DE, half of those you have listed weigh about the same as some of the cornerbacks we have. But we would need DEs weighing closer to what our current DTs weigh in order for them to at least stand their ground. Fletcher and Unrein were both over 270lbs. Only Purcell and Mertens are close to that size.
 
fromolwyoming said:
Sumter and Taufa'asau are with the 3rd string defense, meaning they aren't even ready to play as back ups yet. So that really only leaves us with 1 viable NG.

For DE, half of those you have listed weigh about the same as some of the cornerbacks we have. But we would need DEs weighing closer to what our current DTs weigh in order for them to at least stand their ground. Fletcher and Unrein were both over 270lbs. Only Purcell and Mertens are close to that size.

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this. One last question for you though...why does Knapton and Biezuns (248 and 247) get a pass on the "size thing" you keep arguing as DE's then? They are out of their element, and are playing out of position. I never thought I would see Knapton get tossed around like a ragdoll, ever, until I witnessed the last 2 games.
 
McPeachy said:
fromolwyoming said:
Sumter and Taufa'asau are with the 3rd string defense, meaning they aren't even ready to play as back ups yet. So that really only leaves us with 1 viable NG.

For DE, half of those you have listed weigh about the same as some of the cornerbacks we have. But we would need DEs weighing closer to what our current DTs weigh in order for them to at least stand their ground. Fletcher and Unrein were both over 270lbs. Only Purcell and Mertens are close to that size.

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this. One last question for you though...why does Knapton and Biezuns (248 and 247) get a pass on the "size thing" you keep arguing as DE's then? They are out of their element, and are playing out of position. I never thought I would see Knapton get tossed around like a ragdoll, ever, until I witnessed the last 2 games.
With the 4-3, you can usually get away with having a smaller D-line, provided the DTs can at least block up the middle by holding down 2 or even 3 of the O-linemen, allowing for smaller, faster DEs to run around the edges, hopefully 1 on 1 with the remaining O-linemen, and then get past them to get the QB. The 3-4 REQUIRES large D-linemen at the DE position. We would be alright starter wise, but then it would be a HUGE drop off. Some of those DEs are small enough that they could play the linebacker position.
 
Mcpeachy, you don't understand one thing, you have to have a great NT for a 3-4 to work. I have a feeling that we are screwed no matter what system we would be able to play. I think the 3-4 would be perfect for us this season if BJ Sumpter panned out for us. If you have a good NT, than we only need a few DT's in there instead of having two LB's as DE. We basically have too many guys playing out of position on the DL.

The DT's don't seem to be getting it done in the 4-3.. I don't think I've seen any blitzing. I've seen stunting work. This smaller speedier DL doesn't seem to do anything to utilize their speed. I see them getting laid out like they were kids.
 
I think our Dline is subpar but that can be made up for if our play calling wasn't so shitty. How bought we blitz five sometimes? I thought the Gipsons were good to go in man coverage and we have the safeties go over top? It does suck the BJ sumpter didn't pan out because we could run multiple D sets but I doubt Marty would be capable of figuring out how to do that.
 
#1 requirement for a 3-4 is to have a monster NT who can eat up the middle of the line by himself, we don't have that. By the same token , we don't have the personal for a 4-3 either. Our problems on the lines come down to personnel... they just haven't shown themselves to be that good yet, it doesn't matter 3-4, 4-3, we just don't have any horses up front. Hopefully a couple of them will develop into some, but as of right now I saw our line get pushed back 5 yards every snap against BSU, when that is happening it doesn't matter what your scheme is.
 

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