you do realize that Brezina and Orange are injured don't you? Verdon too. How does the scheme work with those guys on the field? I'm not saying you are wrong, but those 3 on the field really change things when it comes to stopping the run game. I think your points are valid for the passing game. The problem with the 3 man against a duel threat like Daniels is he can buy time and drift laterally outside the pocket. If he does get pressured, he is athletic enough to take off and pick up big yardage. I would have blitzed the hell out of him from several different positions, make him make a quick decision to ether get rid of it or try and take off. Sure we would have probably got burned a couple of times, but I'm sure he would have made some mistakes too.I thought today was by far the toughest Cyclone game I have watched in about two years (this and the Memphis bowl game most likely). Offense to me was not the primary problem. The running game was fair, and I could argue Hansen should have had more carries. Rocco's one int was bad, but he did lead drives for points.
Defense - friends of the Cyclone fanatic board, I want to have an honest discussion about our defense and the way it's currently constructed. I have had it with the 3 man front defense. I welcome your feedback too. Reasons listed below:
1) Sacks are one of the defense equivalents of "explosive plays" for that side of the ball. See below, we are ranked #109th in total defensive sacks this year. The teams ranked around/near us in the 109th in sacks you ask? Virginia, Rutgers, South Alabama. Not exactly great programs. We have had weeks this year with zero sacks, and today was one of those games.
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
Discover the current NCAA FBS Football leaders in every stats category, as well as historic leaders.www.ncaa.com
2) 3 man front Personnel Issue- I would submit if you have an Enyi Uwazurike in the middle (NFL player), and a Will McDonald (budding star NFL guy), you can absolutely do the 3 man front. It worked, because those guys were so damn good. They freed up everyone else in the linebacker level and secondary to play well too. JR Singleton is a nice player, so is Dom Orange - but we do not have the stars on the D line to play like this.
3) 3 man front Scheme Issue (rush defense) - Today we are playing Kansas. Kansas has a dual threat quarterback and NFL caliber running back. Why, oh why would we willingly give up a massive advantage to them on running plays? They got 6 yards automatically per carry b/c we had 3 down linemen and they had 5 men blocking. Our linebackers are not good enough in space with this scheme, and its kicking the crap out of guys like Dom and JR, asking them to butt heads with a guard and center on every play. (2 on 1)
4) 3 man front Scheme Issue (pass defense) - Today was a rough day for the secondary. It was rough in part b/c we got zero pressure on the quarterback. Skinner is a heck of a WR. However, when we rush 3 and we ask Myles Purchase to cover for 6 seconds, is that fair to him? I would say that we ask our corners to do too much sometimes in asking them to cover for so long. I have seen enough of 3 down lineman play patty cake with offensive tackles and the QB has enough time to make a sandwhich in the pocket.
There are some nice pieces at linebacker for us too. I like Beau Goodwin, and Cael Brezina, and Ebel. But in sticking to a 3 man front that means more pressure on the LBs. Should we be putting more pressure on the LBs with the injury situation right now?
Maybe i'm off on this one. We better have a couple of transfers incoming at Linebacker and at Defensive End. The current guys are making it hard against talented squads like Kansas. The Kennard Snyder guy is nowhere to be found, neither is Ikenna Ezeogu.
Kansas Game Thoughts (Defense specifically)
- Thread starter cyclone1209
- Start date
I'd say Verdon obviously important versus the run but out of all safeties, Beau is by far the biggest factor in the run game. Or generally.
Orange is huge, literally and figuratively of course.
And I'm sure this is going to be a hated take, but even before all the injuries... I've never been super impressed with our LB room. From a purely athletic standpoint. From a character, work ethic, etc, there's no issues there.
But from an ability to run laterally side to side and cover ground? Or be able to be a deep dropper in the pass game?
If we can force the run to be inbetween the tackle or tight end box they are fine. But almost every team that has killed us, starting with Iowa, has kind of hit most of their runs in that C to D gap or 8/9 hole and or in the seams or hook / curl area.
For the most part when teams take a deep shot or throw it outside the numbers, we've been fairly successful. But those stretch running plays and middle to hash / seam type passes even towards the beginning of the season have been areas of concern. Injuries, experience, 100% matter.
Why I think Mike Rose is still the best LB I've seen in a while at Iowa State is because he was athletic enough, not that he was a freak athlete, but he was athletic enough to be in a wrong position and still make a play.
Our current LB's would be monsters in the Big 10 west. Against straight ahead, smash mouth, A-C power gap running teams and TE's over the middle. But when you face teams that yes, are power running teams but hit more off tackle and stretch run game with the QB included... who currently move fluidly enough in open space.
Our defensive scheme has problems with run- pass threat quarterbacks. I certainly don't want to play Colorado.
Pretty good post. I agree.
Offensively when we settled for a field goal twice after they had 4 easy TD drives in a row, I knew it was over at halftime. This result is mostly on the defense, but the offense certainly doesn't get a get out of jail free card either. Too conservative in the first half. Played really well in the 2nd half (they were forced to be more aggressive).
Defensively the talent is just not there. We played so many back ups and walk ons yesterday at LB. and Safety in particular. Guys just not good enough to compete against Kansas skill players. I fear for next year having to replace guys like Freyler, Verdon, and possibly Cooper. I think the reason we don't run more than a 3- down front either is because schematically that is what they've been recruiting for the past however many seasons. They don't have the dudes to try anything else.
Unfortunately looks like we need to hit the portal hard, will need at least 1 wr, 1 cb, 1 safety and 1 edge
Great post @cyclone1209, expressed what a lot of fans are frustrated with this morning I think.
The three-man front / dime stack is great when it catches your opponent by surprise and/or when you have the personnel to excel with it. This is also true of any other defensive scheme. It worked great with a Will McDonald-type who demanded a double-team every snap and/or a TJ Tampa who shuts down half of the field. It does not appear to work great without that type of player as the spearhead.
I'm not a football mind and could be way off on all this of course. Just f*cking tired of losing to Kansas!
The three-man front / dime stack is great when it catches your opponent by surprise and/or when you have the personnel to excel with it. This is also true of any other defensive scheme. It worked great with a Will McDonald-type who demanded a double-team every snap and/or a TJ Tampa who shuts down half of the field. It does not appear to work great without that type of player as the spearhead.
I'm not a football mind and could be way off on all this of course. Just f*cking tired of losing to Kansas!
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Im starting to think it's time to scrap the 3 man front going into next year. To sit there and watch us get absolutely ZERO pressure on the qb and at the same time having wide open wrs running all over the field is beyond frustrating. If the other team has guys that wide open we may as well blitz every play. Imagine how good it must feel for the opposing qb to just stand there and look around for 5 or 6 seconds and if one of our guys does happen to finally apply a little pressure all he has to do is take off running. Something needs to change.
Defensive line just isn't that good. Which is having impact on the secondary and linebackers.
If you are getting burnt with just rushing 3, you should have sold out and blitzed the **** out of them.
If you are getting burnt with just rushing 3, you should have sold out and blitzed the **** out of them.
1/3rd of our expected starting defense is injured. And Verdon is playing with a cast.
I’m not sure there’s a lot more to it than that.
I’m not sure there’s a lot more to it than that.
Either adjust it or do away with it, during the off season we were told we would be running some 4 man fronts, I have to say, I can recall actually doing it a few times at most. Not talking about walking a LB up to the line, but actually have 4 down lineman in the game. I get is hard to recruit athletic big men to play the dline, but it seems like we have almost given up trying and are now pigeon holed into bringing in players only for a 3 man front.
It reminds me of when the league went to the spread and everyone got away from bigger linebackers to smaller ones that could run, and then those teams got hammered by the running game in out of conference games.
Colorado would put up 40 plus on the D. Giving teams six seconds to throw isn’t a viable strategy.
What actually happened in that fall camp that basically killed everyone? Was it just bad luck that everyone got hurt or mismanagement and forcing something that wasn't working?
In the KU thread during the week, I thought KU was built to beat us. They use formation and motion better than anyone in the country, they were able to keep Freyler on a string and put him wherever they wanted to make us predictable. As good as Beau is, he's very instinctive and reacts quickly when he thinks he sniffs the play out, this gets him out of position. They did similar to our young, inexperienced players too. That combo got them the defensive looks they wanted and proceeded to torch us. Leipold and his staff absolutely cooked ours.
No it wasn't, but I would rather roll the dice then get picked apart. The corner blitz was a complete disaster because the safety didn't do their job. We aren't a very fast defense which also hurts us on blitz's.
Yeah, at the end of the day...there isn't a defense in existence that covers up how many injuries we are playing through and even more keeping guys off the field. It's hard to make long term scheme decisions based on that variable.
Even more of a reason to change things up, because what we are doing is not working, with pressuring the QB. We have tried doing the same ol, same act for the past 3 games and are getting eaten alive. Injuries are a big part of it, but its not like those guys are all going to be healthy and ready to play this coming Saturday. Try something different or expect the same results.
