I think the bend-dont-break defense is a good strategy for us (and proven to work)

[Maroon_and_white]

First, I want to reference an article with analysis from Mike Bellotti on spread offenses in the red zone and our game vs Aub specifically

http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=Mike-Bellotti-explains-why-spread-teams-struggle-in-the-red-zone

Belloti's main point in the article "When you spread people out, when you get in the red zone, you have less time to create opportunities for wide receivers. You?re typically in man-to-man,? he said. ?Now you have your quarterback three yards off the ball (in shotgun), so it?s hard for him to generate a lot of power, and your back is going to take more lateral steps. You don?t have the power running game down there with lead blockers, where you can move the pile" he goes on to say how difficult it is to stop Dak in the red zone because of his RB-style build of power and shiftiness.

I think this is a defensive strategy that Mullen instituted before the 2014 season and we're seeing that strategy utilized again this year with Diaz even though Diaz traditionally has his defense taking more risks to force more turnovers. It's just not worth taking those extra risks and giving up big time touchdowns because there is just such a huge difference between a FG and a touchdown, especially with college kickers who are overall just shaky to begin with. Clearly, keeping offensive players in front of us (and not particularly caring about yards given up) and locking down the red zone has been successful to us both last year and so far this year. As Mullen said Diaz brings a "graduate level knowledge" to our defense which he uses for mixing up his fronts, stunting, etc which helps at the line of scrimmage and against younger inexperienced QB's. I think this Saturday, we are going to see Texas A&M pile up a bunch of yards against us, but I expect us to again control the red zone. The difficulty with A&M in the red zone (especially if Noil is a go) is how much size they have at WR.

Anyway, I see the argument where people are displeased with how many yards we are giving up and need to be stronger at mid field, but frankly to Mullen I think that he's perfectly fine giving up as many FG's as he wants because then we get the ball back in our veteran QB's hands. So for now, I'm fine with giving up 500 yards on defense because it's all about keeping the other team out of the endzone.

I probably didn't go a great job explaining my opinion but wanted to spur a convo.

[Barking 13]

like I said in a previous post... it's CDM's way of letting the other team burn clock for you....***

[Dawgface]

I like it better than the big plays we gave up last year. But wish we could tighten up a bit.

[Toro Perro]

Delete

[Toro Perro]

I like the chess match and different styles that it has become. Forces you to be deep and talented at all positions to run the table. Gotta have the secondary for the spread teams, linebackers for the power teams. D-Line is so huge you CANNOT be soft here and have a chance.

BBDB is fine, but when we are getting gashed in the run game I have concerns. Keeping everything underneath in the passing game, sure. But running the ball we need to do much better than last week on the Plains.

[mic]

T
I like the chess match and different styles that it has become. Forces you to be deep and talented at all positions to run the table. Gotta have the secondary for the spread teams, linebackers for the power teams. D-Line is so huge you CANNOT be soft here and have a chance.

BBDB is fine, but when we are getting gashed in the run game I have concerns. Keeping everything underneath in the passing game, sure. But running the ball we need to do much better than last week on the Plains.

Last week.... 50 carries for around
200 yards
I will take that all day ..

[Coursesuper]

If you look at last weeks alignment it was blatantly obvious what we were up to. We played cover 2 and cover 4 all night, almost no man. We were lined up in such a way that said run the ball if you can, and when you get closer to the end zone it all got tighter, the safeties are much more involved with the run support down there due to less ground to cover and the throwing lanes are much tighter. As the game went on we began to show more pressure is certain down and distance situations i thought we played pretty well, but we are still missing a few tackles. Got to get that cleaned up, but that aint happening over night.

[smootness]

The 'bend-but-don't-break' didn't originate last year. It originated with Diaz in 2010.

[CarolinaDawgs]

I think what you're onto here is the Touchdown Efficiency and if we keep that percentage very low against our Opponents than we will be fine (as would anybody), but its our philosophy on defense where as other teams hope for it we preach it. It speaks to the kick as many FGs as you want strategy.

[starkvegasdawg]

Here's my main problem with that style. First it wears your defense out because they are on the field most of the game. Second, you say you do that style because you don't think the offenses can drive the length of the field and score. The problem is that if you do stop them then your offense is pinned back deep and forced to drive the length of the field. You are now putting your offense having to do what you say offenses are incapable of doing the majority of the time. I wouldn't mind maybe a mix of aggressive and BBDB, but playing BBDB the whole came I think is a bad idea. Yes, it worked against Auburn who is one match away from being a dumpster fire, but you play a team that is patient and willing to take what the offense gives you then almost every possession you are conceding they get deep into your territory.

[BrunswickDawg]

I don't think having the D on the field is an issue to our staff. We have been playing a ton of guys. Not counting the 1 off appearances against NWS, we have put 63 players into games (o & d). 34 different people have been credited with a tackle (includes STs - which I consider D anyway). If we were giving up points late, then I'd say it is an issue, but we are playing our best D in the 4th, which says to me our D is fresher than their O.

[TrapGame]

I really don't think Dan/Manny were that worried about AU's offense. I don't think we will let A&M's offense get too deep in our territory before Manny starts applying extra pressure. This is not the kind of offense you want to toy around with. But, as I posted before Sumlin is going to test the two deep safeties early. He wants to set the tone.

[maroonmania]

I like it better than the big plays we gave up last year. But wish we could tighten up a bit.

The problem last year was we gave up those big plays with a lot of deep single coverage but on the flip side really didn't force all that many negative plays and turnovers especially late in the year. At times I really didn't understand what we were trying to do defensively last year.

[Maroon_and_white]

I think what you're onto here is the Touchdown Efficiency and if we keep that percentage very low against our Opponents than we will be fine (as would anybody), but its our philosophy on defense where as other teams hope for it we preach it. It speaks to the kick as many FGs as you want strategy.

Well put. Our philosophy on D is not to keep the Offense from scoring any points (which yes is ideal), but very specifcally to not let the Offense score any touchdowns.

[Jack Lambert]

Well put. Our philosophy on D is not to keep the Offense from scoring any points (which yes is ideal), but very specifcally to not let the Offense score any touchdowns.

Whats our game average? 1.5 TD per game?

[ShotgunDawg]

Here's my main problem with that style. First it wears your defense out because they are on the field most of the game. Second, you say you do that style because you don't think the offenses can drive the length of the field and score. The problem is that if you do stop them then your offense is pinned back deep and forced to drive the length of the field. You are now putting your offense having to do what you say offenses are incapable of doing the majority of the time. I wouldn't mind maybe a mix of aggressive and BBDB, but playing BBDB the whole came I think is a bad idea. Yes, it worked against Auburn who is one match away from being a dumpster fire, but you play a team that is patient and willing to take what the offense gives you then almost every possession you are conceding they get deep into your territory.

We absolutely run a mix.

Analyst Cole Cubelic tweeted as such last night:

Cole Cubelic ‏@colecubelic 21h21 hours ago
Manny Diaz was just straight reckless with his run blitzes vs Auburn. Lack of counter to those calls allowed success.

Cole Cubelic ‏@colecubelic 21h21 hours ago
Diaz showed little to no regard for intermediate pass game from White. Played 2 deep & allowed them to handle coverage.

[Political Hack]

people are acting like we can't apply pressure and protect against the big play. that's exactly what Manny's defense does. He gives up the underneath routes when blitzing. "You can have the 3 yard completion, but we're keeping outside leverage on the WRs and not giving up anything over our heads" Oh, and if there's a tipped ball, or a bad throw, or a fumble, or a sack, or 1 of the other 10,000,000 things that could go wrong with the offense when pressure is coming, we're going to take advantage of it and tighten up on 3rd down to protect against the 1st down.

If people are going to take shots against Manny, they'd better do it on 3rd down or else they're not going to get it done.

[sleepy dawg]

Are we really a bend don't break defense right now? I mean, if we're making tackles consistently, we are a shutdown, dominant D.

[Johnson85]

Well put. Our philosophy on D is not to keep the Offense from scoring any points (which yes is ideal), but very specifcally to not let the Offense score any touchdowns.

I wouldn't say that's exactly it. I would say the philosophy is the more plays it takes them to get down the field, the more chances that the offense will make a mistake, or that a Defensive player will make a play, to put them behind the chains, which gives the D a chance to be aggressive. For Offenses that are efficient enough/good enough to march down the field without a big play, it will be harder for them to score a touchdown than it was for them to march down the field.

Somewhat splitting hairs but while it's true that teams that can consistently hit intermediate passes and/or run the ball without negative plays will get FG attempts on us, but it's not like we're just giving teams FG attempts. They still have to work for them.

[LC Dawg]

I really don't think Dan/Manny were that worried about AU's offense. I don't think we will let A&M's offense get too deep in our territory before Manny starts applying extra pressure. This is not the kind of offense you want to toy around with. But, as I posted before Sumlin is going to test the two deep safeties early. He wants to set the tone.

I think you are right about the Auburn game. When we wanted to get pressure we got pressure and when we wanted to confuse White we confused him. I think we just didn't throw a lot of things at them because the coaches didn't feel like we needed to. No need to give A&M more stuff to watch on film if we didn't need to. I think we will be more aggressive Saturday but it will still be selective. I feel good about our defense right now.

[Homedawg]

I think you are right about the Auburn game. When we wanted to get pressure we got pressure and when we wanted to confuse White we confused him. I think we just didn't throw a lot of things at them because the coaches didn't feel like we needed to. No need to give A&M more stuff to watch on film if we didn't need to. I think we will be more aggressive Saturday but it will still be selective. I feel good about our defense right now.

I don't know if we can be more aggressive than we were on sat- esp in the second half. We sent some sort of pressure way more than not....this is under the assumption that aggressive in your post meant some sort of blitz.

[SheltonChoked]

You are now putting your offense having to do what you say offenses are incapable of doing the majority of the time.


That's only true is the other team is also playing Bend Don't Break Defense. If not, you are counting on the big play to flip the field.

[Really Clark?]

Are we really a bend don't break defense right now? I mean, if we're making tackles consistently, we are a shutdown, dominant D.

Well that doesn't really have anything to do with the bend don't break philosphy. The Seahawks are a bend don't break but still are very stout.

[Todd4State]

people are acting like we can't apply pressure and protect against the big play. that's exactly what Manny's defense does. He gives up the underneath routes when blitzing. "You can have the 3 yard completion, but we're keeping outside leverage on the WRs and not giving up anything over our heads" Oh, and if there's a tipped ball, or a bad throw, or a fumble, or a sack, or 1 of the other 10,000,000 things that could go wrong with the offense when pressure is coming, we're going to take advantage of it and tighten up on 3rd down to protect against the 1st down.

If people are going to take shots against Manny, they'd better do it on 3rd down or else they're not going to get it done.

Nailed it. The only reason we "bent" at all was because we missed tackles in the running game. And part of the strategy was a QB that we had little film of, knowing that they were probably going to run it a ton. When they got into a situation where they had to pass at the end- Manny brought the heat and we shut them down.

[Really Clark?]

Nailed it. The only reason we "bent" at all was because we missed tackles in the running game. And part of the strategy was a QB that we had little film of, knowing that they were probably going to run it a ton. When they got into a situation where they had to pass at the end- Manny brought the heat and we shut them down.

This is the main cog of the bend don't break. You have to stop the run game up front and LB's and drop them for a short gain. You have to tackle well against the run or you get gashed. That is probably the biggest key for this defense to take the next step in really squeezing offensive outputs. All those yards people are worried about us giving up and extended drives, make the tackle at initial contact and most of that concern goes away.