Let's talk about the Elephant in the room....

[CadaverDawg]

Our OL proved they are legit last night, as did every other position on the field....except for one...

The secondary. Is our secondary issues due to scheme and opponent, or do we need to be really really worried about A&M's passing game? Not only are our DB's leaving guys wide open, they are also getting clearly out muscled and out worked for jump balls.

I am so pumped about the win, and now I ask, "what do we do to tighten up the secondary before the huge matchup with A&M"? I really think Collins will put together an awesome game plan in 2 weeks of prep. And I think we will have to be patient because we will probably play a lot of bend but don't break defense. I've seen A&M struggle against bad teams once they get in the red zone...most of their scores are 20+ yards out.

Does anybody else think that last years gameplan we had against Manziel would be even more effective this year bc Hill doesn't beat teams with his legs as much? I do.

I know it's early, and we're still in celebration mode...but if anybody wants to discuss, chime in.

[thedawg]

The life of a dB is tough... One misstep and 100,000 people see u give up a td... We also have no idea when the safeties are suppossed to be over the top and they arent... I think it's a concern but not one I'm ready to panic over.. Calhoun, Love, and Redmond have too much talent... I do think Nickoe was a lot better than he got credit for until he forced those turnovers late last season.. He seems to have vacated a big hole back there... We will see but I think we can make Texas AM one dimensional and be fine.. I do think they are the best offense in the Sec so it's gonna be a challenge no matter what

[cheewgumm]

Redmond is our best DB, IMO. He needs to start.


We need to go into the A&M game with out offense planning on scoring 70 points. Seriously, we need to score every time and wear them down with the run, like we did LSU, but worse.

And NEVER let up....score 100 if you can. They are going to try to do it to us. Never let up.

[thedawg]

Redmond played really well last night but he was toast against UAB.. He also plays a little undisciplined at times.. He does have loads of talent... I have no problem with our three man rotation at corner with a sprinkling of Cleveland...

[CadaverDawg]

The life of a dB is tough... One misstep and 100,000 people see u give up a td... We also have no idea when the safeties are suppossed to be over the top and they arent... I think it's a concern but not one I'm ready to panic over.. Calhoun, Love, and Redmond have too much talent... I do think Nickoe was a lot better than he got credit for until he forced those turnovers late last season.. He seems to have vacated a big hole back there... We will see but I think we can make Texas AM one dimensional and be fine.. I do think they are the best offense in the Sec so it's gonna be a challenge no matter what

Good post, I tend to agree with you. I'm not ready to panic, especially with 2 weeks to prepare...but it is a concern. My big hope is that we have just been so focused on shutting down the run to prep for LSU, that we haven't had hardly any safety help in the passing game. We are going to really need Hughes and especially Cox to step up if we're going to beat A&M.

I'm excited to see the plan Collins puts together. I thought he put together an excellent plan against Manziel last year. If it hadn't been for Special Teams mistakes, we probably win at A&M last season.

[Behrdawg]

The UAB game had some miscues on signal calling. That was the biggest issue with those big plays. I think we will be putting so much pressure on Hill that he won't have the opportunity to throw so many long balls. Our front 7 is flat out nasty. I put our front 7 up there in the top 3 in the country.

[gravedigger]

The secondary issues that are perceived as problems are similar to the ones we had on the OL.

They are the byproduct of the defensive calls. Our OL issues were the byproduct of our over zealous passing on 1st and second down.
Our secondary issues in the lsu game was due to the no pressure prevent defense.

This is not a personnel or talent issue. It's a situational play calling one.

[WinningIsRelentless]

Love gave up one TD that he wasn't in position on and we have people flipping there shit about our dbs. The sign that everyone is missing is that DT and Collins are comfortable putting our guys in man coverage and let them go at it.

[Dawgheadcheese]

The secondary issues that are perceived as problems are similar to the ones we had on the OL.

They are the byproduct of the defensive calls. Our OL issues were the byproduct of our over zealous passing on 1st and second down.
Our secondary issues in the lsu game was due to the no pressure prevent defense.

This is not a personnel or talent issue. It's a situational play calling one.

Gravedigger just hit it on the head. After the TAM game, we will be talking about the DBs just like we are the OL this week.

[defiantdog]

db's played phenomenal last night. They DIDN'T give up a TD until the 4th quarter. And that was against a top 10 team on the road. And the last 2 td's were against a PREVENT defense, which prevents you from winning.

[TUSK]

damn, I thought this thread was about me.

[State82]

damn, I thought this thread was about me.

I laughed.

[Political Hack]

damn, I thought this thread was about me.

I was about to the post the same thing...

[Political Hack]

Redmond was making up for other people's coverage at UAB. He got beat on two long balls. One was perfectly thrown and the other got ripped from him when he was in position (he had a cast on and couldn't fight for the ball with his back hand). He's always in position in man. Always. that's rare.

Calhoun isn't a cover corner that you an stick on an island but he's going to make plays.

love is a cover corner but he waits too late to show his burst at times, especially on deep balls.

[shoeless joe]

Like some have said, the concerns that would've affected us this game were shown to not be an issue...O line. Hopefully the same goes for the DBs against A&M. If we get pressure we may be ok. I'm on record saying we will give up quite a bit against them thru the air but after last nite I'm confident we can score with them. I expect a shoot out that hopefully the home field will carry us to victory.

[CadaverDawg]

Like some have said, the concerns that would've affected us this game were shown to not be an issue...O line. Hopefully the same goes for the DBs against A&M. If we get pressure we may be ok. I'm on record saying we will give up quite a bit against them thru the air but after last nite I'm confident we can score with them. I expect a shoot out that hopefully the home field will carry us to victory.

Yea I agree. The atmosphere is going to be off the chain in two weeks. Home field could very well be the deciding factor in that game.

[Dawgcentral]

I agree. We need relentless pressure by the front 4 so we can drop at least 2 LBs into short coverage. We don't have the sub the entire d-line, but just enough to keep the big guys fresh. Don't want to see many 3-man fronts. Has anyone A&M played gotten good pressure on the QB? Seems like the only team they played with any rep would have been SC, and Spurrier honestly said in so many words that they suck.

The stadium needs to be loud. First SEC game there since the expansion. Really want to see how intimidating that place can be. I think our players fed off of the energy at Death Valley last night. That stadium got the loudest during both our goal line stand and on the 3rd and 9 when Dak changed the play and did the turn around screen that blew the corn dog collective mind.

A&M will get some yards, but we need to create some chaos in their backfield, thereby forcing turnovers.

[GreenheadDawg]

damn, I thought this thread was about me.

Haha, nice

[DudyDawg]

Love looked disinterested or something. I mean on that deep ball to about the ten (lead to the first score) it looked like he was jogging. Maybe he had something wrong w him, but he got beat a few times and didn't seem to be trying. Redmond was good and is getting better. I was impressed. They didn't even try to go at taveze. If love gets it together and we get some better plays from the safeties, who I haven't seen make a big play in the pass game yet, we are fine. With TAMu, I don't think they run it against us. And as long as we don't give up any deep balls we are fine. Hard to nickel and dime it down the field consistently without big plays as a passing team. It'll be hard for them to score in the red zone as well where the lack of space makes up for their speed advantage

[EdDawg]

Here's my take in it. The deep balls we gave up last night were when we played man with no safety help or in prevent.

First, man with no safety help. This was the right strategy against LSU. We were focused in stopping the run and we did. Les wants to be physical rather than finesse and that was pretty apparent. Also this was the right strategy, because Jennings couldn't hit OPEN receivers, not even 10 yards down field. We were not worried about him beating us, and he didn't come close to doing that. The backup seemed to throw the ball pretty well which we were a little unprepared for.

Secondly, the prevent defense. Again the backup did better throwing the ball instead of Jennings, but he was never hit like Jennings was. We smacked Jenny around all night and he was feeling it. When the backup came in we went to prevent and only rushed three and couldn't generate any pressure allowing the QB the time and coolness needed to find an open receiver.

On to ATM, we won't use either of these strategies. We will be relying on our front to stop the run game and our secondary will only be focused on the pass. Collins will send more than three to pressure Hill in order to throw off their timing which allows Sumlins system to flow smoothly and look effortless. We will have a different game plan guys, don't worry.

Lastly, how big was Coman's TD saving tackle in the trick play early in the game. That was huge to not give up and finally bring the receiver down which lead to the goal line stand.