Time to stop the defensive skid

[jmar]

 As slow as things are, I thought it might be a good time to address some of our shortcomings on defense by comparing past seasons. 2004 was a championship season but '05 and '06  were very good statistically which is why I am not so bent on numbers however sometimes they provide a pattern. We have discussed the falloff in quality depth, injuries and poor recruiting practices, even poor tackling and special team nightmares among other things. I realize it isn't pretty (the chart nor the past few seasons) but I have boldfaced or underlined some numbers that stand out to me and leave some comments that might spark some conversation.                                                     


Year                                     '04            '05             '06              '07                  '08



RECORD                         13-0          9-3           11-2             9-4                5-7           8-5
 
                                   
   

Scoring PPG                 11.3             15.5          13.9              16.9             18.0                   27.5

Scoring Games-Pts        13-147         12-186       13-181         13-220         12-216              13-358

1st Dns Rush-Pass-Pen.  77-93-17     81-97-15   94-106-19   87-99-21       85-101-18           109-127-31

Rush Yds./Attempt          3.28            3.52           3.72             3.59            4.09              4.12             

Rush Atts-Yds-Tds    413-1354-4   396-1395-11  434-1614-8     452-1621-13   408-1667-7     493-2033-2

Passing Yds                    2255            2388           2186            2252           2146             2834

Total Off Yds/Play           4.6             5.0             4.9              4.5             4.9               5.2       

Punt Returns-Yards/Return  6.39         10.15          9.83            6.50              7.04                12.92

Kickoff Rets-No-Yds-Tds  33-692-0     37-777-0     13-277-0      55-1166-0     39-838-0       69-1624-1

   INT Rets-Yds-Tds          9-118-0        8-88-0        10-134-1      15-122-1        13-123-0           9-77-0

   Fumbles-No-Lost             15-9            22-7          25-15       23-10         20-7             15-8

 Penalties Against No-Yds  80-686        67-538       72-595        80-619       74-568          97-847

Red Zone Success % OP/AU  N/A           N/A        64.71/86.67    74.36/83.67  71.88/57.14      86.0/95.12

We were spoiled by John Vaughn's ability to put it in the endzone. Remember the wacky short kick-off experiment that followed?

Tray Blackmon averaged a career high of 5 tackles/game in 2007, the same season Josh Tompson and Zac Etheridge led the team in stops. Etheridge led the team in '08 as well.

Turnover margin, sacks and tackles for loss are important on a individual game basis but are misleading at the end of the season: In 2006 we had a +5 with 29 sacks for 190 yards at 2.23 yards per sack and 82 tackles for losses of 321 yards at 6.31 yards, whereas in '08 we had a -8 with 22 sacks of 174 yards at 1.69 per and 75 tackles for losses for 250 yards at 6.25/loss. that's not much of a difference considering the records for those seasons and these particular stats do not hold up in several other instances.

Pass ratings by opponents are almost a negligible number as witnessed by opponenent % of 114.99 in '09 or 110.88 in '04.
In 2006, opponents had a high of 115.49% and AU finishes with a record of a record of 11-2.

The penalty yards since 2004 have remained fairly close, usually within a hundred yards but last seasons team had 97 penalties for a whopping 847 yards, nearly doubling that of our opponents who ended up with 59 for 466 yards.

The team seems to do better when there is more balance in team tackles in a given game where an interior defensive lineman will shine with 3 stops/game.

 Bynes, Stevens, Thorpe and Bates were the leaders in '09 followed by Etheridge who missed the last four games. 

 

[Snaggletiger]

The numbers don't lie in this case.  Last year was a horrible defense by anyone's standards and there's blame to go around in all the areas you mentioned.  From a corching standpoint, I harped on the lack of schemes and refusal to change anything up until the Bama game.  The tackling last year was nothing more than trying to knock someone off their feet and it continued throughout the Spring. Those issues can and better be changed. 

Bottom line though, you have to have talent.  Teams didn't throw at McFadden very much and when they did, payment was usually due.  On the other hand, Neiko Torched was constantly picked on because he couldn't cover my 9 year old. Well, except on my boy's out pattern.  He hasn't been timing his cuts well.

And where it all begins and ends, the trenches, this team just wasn't very big...or good.  If you are going to compete for championships in this league, you simply have to have guys who can stuff the middle and get that push into the QB. This year, I'm hoping a much bigger Nick Fairley (About 315), an experienced Mike Blanc and possibly an incoming freshman or two can give Auburn the size it needs in the middle. 

[jmar]

The numbers don't lie in this case.  Last year was a horrible defense by anyone's standards and there's blame to go around in all the areas you mentioned.  From a corching standpoint, I harped on the lack of schemes and refusal to change anything up until the Bama game.  The tackling last year was nothing more than trying to knock someone off their feet and it continued throughout the Spring. Those issues can and better be changed. 

Bottom line though, you have to have talent.  Teams didn't throw at McFadden very much and when they did, payment was usually due.  On the other hand, Neiko Torched was constantly picked on because he couldn't cover my 9 year old. Well, except on my boy's out pattern.  He hasn't been timing his cuts well.

And where it all begins and ends, the trenches, this team just wasn't very big...or good.  If you are going to compete for championships in this league, you simply have to have guys who can stuff the middle and get that push into the QB. This year, I'm hoping a much bigger Nick Fairley (About 315), an experienced Mike Blanc and possibly an incoming freshman or two can give Auburn the size it needs in the middle. 

Well said. We got pushed around pretty easily inside. Blanc will be a consistent player and Fairley had a rather memorable tackle against Bama and shows some positive signs but we need help immediately and I hope we have the parts on hand. 

Thompson played full bore and SenDerick Marks could start for anyone. And we haven't been as much of a threat from the end position in the past two seasons probably due to lack of interior talent and w/o Blackmon showing blitz.That had to be imposing to other teams, certainly respected .

I know that Washington can burn as a KR specialist and provide depth in the secondary but perhaps he would do better at corner with Thorpe at free safety. Thorpe is a surer tackler. I think we need as many as a half dozen or more to be SEC ready on the defensive side and that is a lot to ask.

I don't like the experiment with Bates, a potential All-SEC SS moving to OLB, even in "packages."   

[Snaggletiger]

Agreed on Bates.  With the LB class they signed and all the starters returning, I just don't see the need to move him from a positon where he showed so much promise.  He would make the typical freshman mistakes but damn, that boy will take your head off with a running start.

[jmar]

Agreed on Bates.  With the LB class they signed and all the starters returning, I just don't see the need to move him from a positon where he showed so much promise.  He would make the typical freshman mistakes but damn, that boy will take your head off with a running start.

Aye, and if Roof wants some depth on the DL, let him experiment with the JC kid Mosley at 6-6 285. He was a DE at Coffeyville, said he wanted to play TE in college while he was being recruited and we don't have a hulking TE anymore except in short yardage. That means more quality snaps for an obviously teachable, athletic kid with two seasons of on the job training. Think Jay Ratliff!

[JR4AU]

Y'all have both hit on it.  The primary problem in our D is a lack of size at the DT position, as well as a lack of depth in the entire front 7.  The 4-3 is a "spill" defense....meaning the middle is supposed tho be clogged, and runs "spilled" to the outside and pursued.  The front 7 have gap responsiblity.  So I think scheme has little to do with the lack of success.  You can basically run an over, under, eagle front, or some slight variation.   We normally base out of an over front.  Some call it a Miami 43...Tubs had a hand in developing it at Miami.  Eagle is what we used against Bama, and it the same front UT had success with too.  You can vary the fronts a bit by individual aligment  techniques, but you stiil have the same number of defenders for the same number of gaps.  Maintaining gap control, and pursuit of the ball are what matters most.  Auburn sucked at that, and tackling last year, and thats largely a product of lack of depth of talent, and coaching of individual techniques. 

[djsimp]

While I don't see a top 5 D....yet, I do see a vast improvement from last year just based on some fresh legs alone. The starters last year played 25% more than most starters throughout the whole SEC, simply because we didnt have the guys to support. I mean, we had a walk on starting at LB last year in the IB. The guys coming in on D not only have great potential but they provide much more than just wind breaks. I agree also on Bates, I don't like the move either, I expect him to be back in the secondary before too long. One thing that we're not mentioning here is, while our offense was a million times better last year, the O was off the field way too many times in too many important situations last year. An improvement in this area will also allow for better D performance. We all know that the offensive attack from Malzahn can be quick strikes at times but I don't think that was the case in many of our 3 n outs. I certainly think that an additional year will show dividends for both the O and D in 2010.

[jmar]

I was happy for Todd considering all that he went through. He did all that too without a big arm and while being no threat as a runner. I'm hoping Cam, new as he is, can offset a little of that as well as a third or so of Tates yardage, especially if Fannin, McCalleb and eventually Dyer aren't always getting it done. That's also why I harp so much on a deep threat too because we had the short to intermediate stuff last season with a power game. We only lacked the long ball and without it, we had two elements a defense could almost discount.

I also hate the chart because we could actually talk about some of the numbers if I knew how to work this damn contraption.