I know its fun to rag on Coach Scangrello and rightfully so, but our defense has been just as big a reason for losing to SC and Vandy as our offense. Alot of lazy tackling and missed assignments yet again. The Gamecocks dominated our defense in the second half of that game and Vandy had well over 400 yards and 2 100 yard rushers. Sh!tty performance on that side of the ball as well.
Brad White/Defense
- Thread starter Kommonwealth
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Hasn't UK had a large number of injuries on that side of the ball this season? That makes a huge difference.
Definitely in a few key spots and our defense has been great overall...top 20 on the year...but in these two games they did us no favors.....against two below average offenses.
Missing Square and Jones I think really hurt us this game in particular. Brad White has proven himself, there's criticism to be had for a couple performances this year, but he's in no danger at all.
There is no question missing our two senior LB's has taken a huge toll on our defense. They were both playing at a very high level and were the heart of the defense. Wallace and Jackson have played well in spots especially at Mizzou but struggled bad last week. Wallace kept over reacting to the play fakes and getting himself out of position that led to a lot of their big runs. Weaver and Wright have not been playing at the level they are capable of either.
I have zero complaints about our D... we have had serious injuries on that side of the ball, and an Offense that has given up points and bad field position all year. Our scoring D, minus the Offenses mistake, has been awesome, and the only thing keeping us in games.
While true, none of that happened this game. They just let vandy dominate the ball including a crushing 80 yard drive at the end. Inexcusable.
Totally agree. In terms of physical ability, the two youngsters are noticably superior. However experience counts. They countered our option reads and we could never get the young guys on track with the in game adjustments. Same with safeties as stoops said the one long run was due to a safety overrunning a play.
The young guys are talented, but they just got us.
White deserves tons of criticism for not going zone vs a QB that was dying to run. Especially for going man with a quick change backup freshman cb on 4th and game
Agree re Weaver/Wright and add Oxendine to that list. He's nowhere near his preinjury level and the hand to the face call was a killer(shitty call considering Rybka had his helmet torn off with no call but what do you expect from SEC stripes?).
I watch a lot of college football, I mean A LOT, and there are Ds out there that will flat out knock your dick in the dirt. UK seems very passive, Pilsbury Dough Boy soft. They're very poor at pass rush(although to be fair Walker has to be the leader in the clubhouse for "Most Held Defensive Lineman" in college football) and very poor at forcing turnovers. Is that a reflection on White or just the make up of the players themselves? I don't know.
I had a Little League baseball coach who used the phrase 'knock your dick in the dirt' - good memories and made me laugh.
Our defensive scheme is passive so I'm not surprised out players are passive as reflected in the turnovers created. Rarely jump routes, rarely try to strip the ball carrier and generally hug people to the ground vs laying the wood.
Did Jordan Wright make a tackle Saturday? Very underwhelmed by his performance this year. Weaver got sucked into the backfield on the long TD run which is not his responsibility. Rarely gets pressure on the QB, also. I don't think thers much difference in Jackson and Jones. Wallace had a bad game and Square was missed.
Still, Vandy is not any good and we let them dictate both LOS and run the ball down our throat when we knew their QB was a run-first guy. As I've said repeatedly this year, its almost as if we didn't scout and prepare for Vandy but planned on making adjustments during the game. Seems like we come out every game in base, vanilla defense and give up a quick TD before we make adjustments and look like we've watched any film in preparation.
At the end of the 1Q Sat I asked myself: "Does UK even practice during the week?"
They looked like they had never seen Mike Wright before, there's ample film on him if anybody cares to look. Guy was a past starter, lost the job due to injury then regained it after an injury to his replacement and he got well. Seems he may have had something like 300+ yards rushing in their first 3 games. Just no excuse for letting him run the ball down your throat.
IIRC, that certain phrase became familiar to me in US Army Basic Training, FT Benning, GA circa 1967. Stuck with me over the years.
I'll add another head scratcher. The play where their RB ran about 50 yards down inside the 10 or so - K Smith whiffed on what would have been about a 3 yard gain. It's like KS sat out and they gave the uniform to someone else. I really couldn't believe what I saw versus his play in the UF game.
I think the OP is misleading a bit if your point of evidence is two bad games means the defense is an issue. Look at the entire body of work.
The defense has been carrying the offense and ST all season, and I would hope by now we all see that. To think they would be perfect and never fall back is not fair to them. They need more support. Also, still missing our two starting ILBs with lots of experience.
The defense has been carrying the offense and ST all season, and I would hope by now we all see that. To think they would be perfect and never fall back is not fair to them. They need more support. Also, still missing our two starting ILBs with lots of experience.
Agree to a certain point. But, you'd have to admit we seemingly start out behind in every single game which puts more pressure on a shaky offense. The first series vs. Missouri and Vandy, I had some fleeting thoughts that we'd actually scouted the opponent and prepared for what they like to do. Sadly (at least with Vandy), they insisted on a second series where they went straight down the field and scored a TD to put us, yep, behind again.
And, absolutely no excuse for allowing Vandy to go 80 yards for the game winner when we had them in TWO 4th and longs and gave up both (penalty and long pass to a CB who should have NEVER been on an island in man coverage). For all the 'bend, don't break' talk, that was piss poor coaching to leave a guy coming in cold in man coverage.
Yes, the defense has been consistently much better than the offense (except they rarely create a turnover). But, no way should Vandy ever run roughshod over our defense like they did Saturday. Is that preparation, in-game adjustments, what?
The Vandy game was awful and I totally agree. Yet, Kentucky is 4th in the SEC in total yards per play allowed:
Allowing 5.26 yards per play in this offensive crazy day is very good. Kentucky was allowing 5.54 yards per play in Joker's last year when some SEC offenses were still running the wishbone (kidding...mostly).
After the first quarter I posted in the game thread that it looked like the coaching staff took the week off........again.
After watching Matt House's LSU attacking defense pressuring the QB on every play, made me wish that BW had taken the LSU job and maybe we could have gotten Matt House back.
For all those posters saying we stopped getting pressure on QB was not because of BW defense can now see this IS his default defense.
Maybe his and CMS?? Stand back, watch the play unfold, and then react. Recipe for losing to teams like Vandy.
We have hit rock bottom.
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