Bbk drastically improved. Failing to recognize that he improved is dumb, not having criticized him originally.
He was better than Bierria and Victor his junior year. But still.
Positionally speaking, probably true. He was usually in the right position to make a tackle, but there was a reason he got nicknamed “The Jockey”. He got dragged like crazy until he bulked up before his Sr year.
Its fine to make fun of people who said BBK sucked, but feels like we should be focusing on the problem here, which is Bob Gregory. We should have a BBK level player every year at LB, we do at DB and DT.
Gregory is #1 by far on the needs to be fired list. Paopao and Bonapha might suck at recruiting, but at least they don't coach positions where that makes a huge difference.
Sorry. Poor recruiting should not be tolerated at any position. It's a basic requirement of the job. At least if you're serious about winning big games.
@whuggy get an avatar already! I’m thinking this one would work well for “whuggy”
Bbk drastically improved. Failing to recognize that he improved is dumb, not having criticized him originally.
He was better than Bierria and Victor his junior year. But still.
Positionally speaking, probably true. He was usually in the right position to make a tackle, but there was a reason he got nicknamed “The Jockey”. He got dragged like crazy until he bulked up before his Sr year.
Even tho he got dragged, being in the right position at least slowed the other person down. BBK was great at being in the right position, he was in on a large majority of the plays even if he didn't make the tackle himself. Right now the middle of the field is just wide open and even Hawaii took advantage of it.
Bbk drastically improved. Failing to recognize that he improved is dumb, not having criticized him originally.
He was better than Bierria and Victor his junior year. But still.
Positionally speaking, probably true. He was usually in the right position to make a tackle, but there was a reason he got nicknamed “The Jockey”. He got dragged like crazy until he bulked up before his Sr year.
Even tho he got dragged, being in the right position at least slowed the other person down. BBK was great at being in the right position, he was in on a large majority of the plays even if he didn't make the tackle himself. Right now the middle of the field is just wide open and even Hawaii took advantage of it.
I honestly don’t disagree. I’d love to have him as a RS Sr right now.
We do miss BBK. But in order of who we miss he's last IMO. Gaines, Rapp, Murphy, BBK. There it is.
Hell, I miss Jalen Johnson.
Safety hasn’t been a noticeable problem. (Yet)
Not having a dominate shutdown CB is so jarring. It’s been so long.
IMO in order of most missed; Murphy, BBK, Gaines, Rapp
Williams hurt us vs cal bouncing off of brown. It's a matter of time before it's exploited even more. Even Bryant who makes plays is set to be exploited vs teams with tight ends and/ or wr. We still have not played a team with a legit tailback. Safety and linebacker is an absolute mess right now.
Our d line is not great but I think it has more to do with undersized guys trying to 2 gap.
BBK was good his junior year, not great yet but pretty good. People use the Saquon Barkley drag (which he did to almost everyone in college) to project it onto his entire junior season.
Linebacker is by far the biggest concern on the defense, and it's not even close. There is no such thing as a "shutdown corner" who has to cover for eight seconds and work on an island every single play because the defensive coordinator feels he has no choice but to bring a safety and linebacker up to the LOS on every single play.
For either schematic or personnel reasons, the hook/curl zone is completely vacant on nearly every play, requiring outside-leverage corners to somehow miraculously cover both deep routes and in-breaking routes underneath. The ONE time--in three games--I saw a linebacker drop into the proper zone, Manu tipped a pass that Williams intercepted. Granted, I still haven't watched the whole game.
We've seen three straight seasons of an overall strategy of playing conservative up front--bringing three or four, with at least one of these three two-gapping and eating up space. Linebackers have been disciplined and generally filled the correct gap or been quick to recognize when to drop into zones for coverage responsibilities. The secondary, as a result, has a lot of options to mix coverages, and usually has help inside and deep and can more safely take risks and come off their man to create turnovers or make TFL on the perimeter game.
The secondary looks bad because A.) there are a few young guys back there who just aren't tackling well, and B.) there are just fewer defenders back in coverage overall. For whatever reason, the linebackers just don't exist. It's not like they're erasing the opponents' running games off the face of the earth, making a combined 30 tackles per game, but they've also been completely MIA in coverage. I don't like what the DL has been doing, but I think that's more a reflection of what they're asking from certain personnel groupings. And that said groupings exist in the first place (one of Tuli/Taki in on every standard down to eat blockers, please), so I'm not worried about the D-line from the standpoint of "unfixable"--put the right guys in at the right time and in the right combinations, and the talent is there to run roughshod over the conference. The linebackers, though? There's just not much you can do about that at this point. If they're not fitting the proper gaps now, I don't know what you do to make them all of a sudden. If they can't recognize and drop to zones quickly enough to influence passing lanes now, I don't know how you fix that.
Not blitzing them out of the play 81% of the tim might help...
Reading this thread and thinking of all the feel good stories about *REDACTED* finally starting after never missing a practice makes me want to drink a bleach cocktail.
Reading this thread and thinking of all the feel good stories about *REDACTED* finally starting after never missing a practice makes me want to drink a bleach cocktail.
You know, I'm not even mad about that. He's leading the team in tackles, leading linebackers in tackles by a wide margin last I checked, and has the biggest hit of the season to date. Also is the only linebacker to do ONE DAMNED THING to influence the passing game, with that tip to Williams.
What I'm mad about isn't that he's playing. What I'm mad about is that he seems to be the best of the guys who are! Dafuq happened to Welly? He looked REALLY good at the end of last season!
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Hell, I miss Jalen Johnson.
Not having a dominate shutdown CB is so jarring. It’s been so long.
IMO in order of most missed; Murphy, BBK, Gaines, Rapp
Left disappointed.
Our d line is not great but I think it has more to do with undersized guys trying to 2 gap.
For either schematic or personnel reasons, the hook/curl zone is completely vacant on nearly every play, requiring outside-leverage corners to somehow miraculously cover both deep routes and in-breaking routes underneath. The ONE time--in three games--I saw a linebacker drop into the proper zone, Manu tipped a pass that Williams intercepted. Granted, I still haven't watched the whole game.
We've seen three straight seasons of an overall strategy of playing conservative up front--bringing three or four, with at least one of these three two-gapping and eating up space. Linebackers have been disciplined and generally filled the correct gap or been quick to recognize when to drop into zones for coverage responsibilities. The secondary, as a result, has a lot of options to mix coverages, and usually has help inside and deep and can more safely take risks and come off their man to create turnovers or make TFL on the perimeter game.
The secondary looks bad because A.) there are a few young guys back there who just aren't tackling well, and B.) there are just fewer defenders back in coverage overall. For whatever reason, the linebackers just don't exist. It's not like they're erasing the opponents' running games off the face of the earth, making a combined 30 tackles per game, but they've also been completely MIA in coverage. I don't like what the DL has been doing, but I think that's more a reflection of what they're asking from certain personnel groupings. And that said groupings exist in the first place (one of Tuli/Taki in on every standard down to eat blockers, please), so I'm not worried about the D-line from the standpoint of "unfixable"--put the right guys in at the right time and in the right combinations, and the talent is there to run roughshod over the conference. The linebackers, though? There's just not much you can do about that at this point. If they're not fitting the proper gaps now, I don't know what you do to make them all of a sudden. If they can't recognize and drop to zones quickly enough to influence passing lanes now, I don't know how you fix that.
Not blitzing them out of the play 81% of the tim might help...
BBK's loss was much bigger than forecast.
I think he's the biggest missing piece from last year, bigger than Murphy, bigger than MMFG, bigger than Gaines or Rapp.
And we miss all those guys.
What I'm mad about isn't that he's playing. What I'm mad about is that he seems to be the best of the guys who are! Dafuq happened to Welly? He looked REALLY good at the end of last season!