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The defense...

I'm not Nick Saban but I've coached DB's for a minute. Now I know the fact I coached and share my opinion drives some posters crazy, I'm not doing this brag, just sharing my opinion and sharing that I have a little bit of training on the subject, so if you could refrain from the snarky,sarcastic, personal remarks about me and my career that would be great.

IMO with the amount of time left in the game you want to try and prevent the opponent from completing passes and getting out of bounds to stop the clock. Running clock is the friend of the defense.

So the ND defensive backs were playing outside technique or a "trap" defense. Most teams in that situation want to run out breaking routes to stop the clock. The outside technique "traps" the defender in bounds and keeps the clock ticking. Good idea and good strategy.

As Brian Kelly stated in the post game presser you have to play tighter on the seam route. Even though you are allowing the receiver a free inside release up the seam, at some point you have to realize he is not running an out route and have to hug up on him and make a play on the ball. ND simply allowed him to run down the seam and catch the football.

So IMO the scheme was fine. The execution was poor, and when you factor in the magnitude of the game it was a disaster. Does ND not practice that situation enough? Or did the player simply make a mistake? I don't know.

A lot of mistakes which led to big plays happened on the back line this year. But the safeties in the BVG defense are asked to do a lot of things that Bob Diaco usually never asked his safeties to do. He sends them quite often on blitzes, they often play near the LOS on run downs, and they are often put in man to man pass defense situations.

Diaco just kind of left Smith and Motta on the hash, played zone and allowed them to ball hawk and knock receivers silly.

Have a good one fellas!

Nice summary. When I looked at the replay I saw Schmidt coming into the scene late and short. It seems to me the LB, if they are not going to blitz have to fall back much quicker and seal off those inside routes; at least get in the way. Where were the linebackers?
 
Isn't tackling on the defensive coordinator?! Why did a BC team full of two and three stars hit so hard and tackle so well and make our vaunted offense look so damn bad? Isn't it coaching? Guys like Tenuta and BVG are all scheme. Give me someone who is going to teach the kids to make a play while keeping it simple.

#65 in Rushing Defense -- not gonna get us to the final four. (Alabama is #1, Iowa #6, MSU #16, Ohio State #23 Clemson #24, Oklahoma #46,) And don't tell me it is recruiting -- look at MSU and Iowa's rosters...

#39 Total Defense -- Alabama #2, Clemson #7, OSU #10, Iowa #21, Michigan State # 27, Oklahoma #31) Better... but still not good enough to get us in.

#37 Scoring Defense - all the others in the top twenty

..

The rank in these stats can be misleading; Oklahoma #19 in scoring defense at 20.8 pts/game with Notre Dame allowing 22.4 pts/game ranking at #37. Not sure 1.5 pts/game is that significant; less than a field goal difference per game.

Rushing Defense - 17 yd/game difference between ND and Oklahoma

Total Defense - 12 yd/game difference between ND and Oklahoma

Ranking numbers do not reflect how similar the yards allowed are between the teams.

The difference between Alabama and ND primarily shows in the Rushing Defense; about 100 yds/game difference that is reflected in Total Defense numbers. There is only about 11 yard/game difference in Passing yards allowed between ND and Alabama despite the ND secondary being the most criticized.

Most of the criticism is from perceptions, not reality in my opinion.
 
all yards are not the same; like those last 75 in :30

when why & how
 
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Our defense is good but way too many lapses and have kept most of our opponents in striking distance. UVa should not have required last second heroics. Ga Tech ending was a debacle. Umass was a joke. Blew a big lead vs USC. Temple took the lead late in 4th qtr. Wake went up and down the field and fortunately stopped themselves. BC followed up our game with a whopping 9 yards passing vs Syracuse. Stanford problems were not just the last drive. That's not championship defense. Some great players and did some really good things but as a unit just not putting it together. That's on the coaches.
 
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