Pass defense ?

[gofurman]

Soooo I still wonder about our pass D. Examples:

-Elon lit us up with anything they wanted to do.

- Once ETSU realized Henrik was the man they stormed back with 20+ unanswered points in a quarter and beat us. Painful

- WCU almost pulled off the comeback down 20 or so to finish 44-38. Thankfully we held on to this one

Today, Hodges was 40/52 for 400+ passing yards. Same as it ever was

Now I don't doubt we COULD have won the game with a healthy Roberts and an offense that could move the ball more.. I left feeling better that we could beat Samford. That said, I still felt our pass D isn't good. Especially vs a quick-throw offense. The good part of our pass D is our pass rush and the quick routes / 3 second drop of Samford eliminates that.

Though even when Hodges did take a while to find a receiver we couldn't get to him. Either the pass pro was too good or he would slide towards the sideline. Have to give Hodges credit - his ability to run to the sideline and get five yards while keeping his head downfield was great. And that one pass for their final TD he threw when we blitzed and he went running left and threw a perfect TD... Man. That was a Dagger.

SO GLAD Hodges and McKnight and Ahmad Gooden on DL are all graduating - I've seen enough of those guys !

Thoughts on pass D? I know about the ' keep it in front of you' theory but before someone defends that even Hendrix said that was too high a completion percentage on the post-game radio show ... Though I would have liked to play that game with Roberts. I do think we might could win w Roberts. Never know.

[Paladin91]

We have always sort of played this bend but don't break kind of defense where we give the receiver 8-10 yds off the line of scrimmage - I don't quite get it. For someone like Hodges, it's a guaranteed 7-10 yd reception every time. We have decent corners - Trapp, Kearse, Weems, and Lemmons all have decent experience at this point and good speed. Why we don't play tighter on receivers is beyond me, other than preventing the long ball and quick score. Hodges was going over the middle all day long - if receivers were getting mismatches on our slower linebackers, why wouldn't you insert the other two corners in place of LBs to combat this disadvantage?

[Furmanoid]

The pass defense is horrible. They did ok briefly in man but went to a very soft zone for most of the game. ETSU had a middle schooler playing for a half and they shut him down since he couldn’t throw anywhere near a receiver. But when they put in a bad college qb we made him look like Tom Brady.

[Jasper]

Before the offense imploded in the 3rd. Quarter, the most prolific passing offense in the league had 1 TD. No one is going to throw a shutout against Hodges. I thought the defense did a very good job of bending without breaking when they got in the red zone. I think we win handily with Roberts at QB

[apaladin]

Sort of agree with Jasper. When Roberts went out so did 75 percent of the offense.

[The Jackal]

Before the offense imploded in the 3rd. Quarter, the most prolific passing offense in the league had 1 TD. No one is going to throw a shutout against Hodges. I thought the defense did a very good job of bending without breaking when they got in the red zone. I think we win handily with Roberts at QB

This is the correct answer. In fact, our defense looked perfectly fine.

It was the same story from the ETSU game. Defense played well early, offense couldn't stay on the field in the second half and put the defense in compromising situations with turnovers.

Playing Samford, the total yards, completions, etc. are largely irrelevant. Their entire offense is designed to do that. If Furman wanted to spread receivers out every time and complete short passes, they could too. Where Samford sometimes struggles is converting yards into points. Points are the key metric, not yards.

[Furmanoid]

I understand that they implemented the game plan of shutting down Samford for only 31 points. I just think it’s a bad plan. Furman has long done this thing of spotting you 9 yards a play and praying for you to make mistakes. I just get tired of everybody bashing an offense that at least tries to evolve when the the d has shown zero imagination for years- just what looks like a prehistoric zone.

[Paladin91]

Before the offense imploded in the 3rd. Quarter, the most prolific passing offense in the league had 1 TD. No one is going to throw a shutout against Hodges. I thought the defense did a very good job of bending without breaking when they got in the red zone. I think we win handily with Roberts at QB

This is the correct answer. In fact, our defense looked perfectly fine.

It was the same story from the ETSU game. Defense played well early, offense couldn't stay on the field in the second half and put the defense in compromising situations with turnovers.

Playing Samford, the total yards, completions, etc. are largely irrelevant. Their entire offense is designed to do that. If Furman wanted to spread receivers out every time and complete short passes, they could too. Where Samford sometimes struggles is converting yards into points. Points are the key metric, not yards.

Coming into the game, Hodges was averaging 385 yds per game with a 71% completion percentage. Allowing him to throw for over 400 yds with a 77% completion percentage isn't exactly performing on defense. I give credit to their OL -reason why Hodges is so successful - when you have that much time to throw with his quick release, you're in trouble. Not much DL pressure on our side at all.

[apaladin]

IIRC it seemed we played much tighter on receivers last year compared to previous staff. Seems like this year we have gone away from this and played much softer. Is this correct or is my memory wrong.

[gofurman]

Before the offense imploded in the 3rd. Quarter, the most prolific passing offense in the league had 1 TD. No one is going to throw a shutout against Hodges. I thought the defense did a very good job of bending without breaking when they got in the red zone. I think we win handily with Roberts at QB

This is the correct answer. In fact, our defense looked perfectly fine.

It was the same story from the ETSU game. Defense played well early, offense couldn't stay on the field in the second half and put the defense in compromising situations with turnovers.

Playing Samford, the total yards, completions, etc. are largely irrelevant. Their entire offense is designed to do that. If Furman wanted to spread receivers out every time and complete short passes, they could too. Where Samford sometimes struggles is converting yards into points. Points are the key metric, not yards.

Right. And I agree I think we win w Roberts at QB.

However the thing w Samford is always let them have yards but they stall in the red zone as a passing team. Weren’t they just about perfect in the red zone Vs us yesterday ? I know they ran one in. Judges ran another in. They threw a fade for a td. Etc. That’s where we are supposed to stop them and they blistered us. Granted it was without a lot of help from our O at that point. I get that. I’d have to look but Samford seemed dang efficient in the red zone vs our D where they (Sammy) are supposed to struggle

[The Jackal]

I understand that they implemented the game plan of shutting down Samford for only 31 points. I just think it’s a bad plan. Furman has long done this thing of spotting you 9 yards a play and praying for you to make mistakes. I just get tired of everybody bashing an offense that at least tries to evolve when the the d has shown zero imagination for years- just what looks like a prehistoric zone.

When Samford loses, it's usually on the order of high 20s to low 20s. You aren't shutting them out. Hodges is too good and too elusive.

I just don't think that's a fair criticism. What sort of "imagination" are you envisioning? Blitz all 11 players?

The entire offense Hatcher runs is built around spreading out a defense vertically and horizontally. Hodges has an NFL arm and generally puts it in a spot only where his man can catch it. Sometimes you just recognize that we faced the FCS's all time best passer, generally kept him bottled up most of the game, and our game plan got thrown out the window late when we started to cough the ball up and be unable to stay on the field.

[furman88]

Samfords passing offense was death by a thound cuts. 52 passes in the 7 to 10 yd area, longest of the day 30 yds. Avg 10.1 yds per catch. 402 yds passing 77 yds rushing.Samford also had some top notch recievers one or two who will likely be playing on Sunday. I agree Furman played defnse fairly well and did get worn down from short pass game offense but I thought we might shrink the two deep or man to stall the short game. Easy for me to say but I thought it was obvious they would take the dinks and dunks all the way down the field and they did, all day.Samford's OL was good but was blocking 3 to 4 DL most of the game and Hodges has a really quick release.
Furman passing avg was 15.2 yds per catch for 137 yds and we rushed foe 370 yds. Bottom line Furman was in this game and driving until the big mo swung in the 3rd qtr.
Furman is not a top notch team yet but I see positives that will pay off, patience grasshopper.