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New Fish / Why the mediocre rush defense through 7 games?
YellowSnow
Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 34,983 
New fish here, and I’m not supposed to be here, but here I’m anyway. I’ve been lurking on the sidelines for about a year to get a feel for this place and love the HHB/Hardcore Husky shtick; and thought I would give posting on the boreds the old college try. Plus I once saw DFI’s Race Bannon smoke weed and talk shit in person (post Oregon Game at Autzen in 2002) so I feel like I should have a little street cred in this place.
At any rate, here is my question for the football experts of the bored: Why is our rush defense so mediocre through 6 games (6th in Pac, 45th nationally) compared with our overall defense being solid in terms of scoring and passing. I get major anxiety watching us get gashed by some of these Pac 12 bottom feeders- e.g., Arizona, OSU in the 2nds half, etc. With as much talent as we have at d-line (at least before Mathis went down), linebacker, and secondary, why are we better at stopping the run? Is all Psalm’ fault? Is it scheme- e.g., we give up yards between the 20’s but not the big pass play? Is the sample pool just lousy and a lot of the rushing yards have come in the 2nd half against our 2’s and 3’s (excluding Arizona?).
My attention span is above average and would love to hear some good, long winded analysis. I suspect it will get covered on the TSIO Pod vis-à-vis Utah and will be sure to tune in…you can count me as listener number 9.
At any rate, here is my question for the football experts of the bored: Why is our rush defense so mediocre through 6 games (6th in Pac, 45th nationally) compared with our overall defense being solid in terms of scoring and passing. I get major anxiety watching us get gashed by some of these Pac 12 bottom feeders- e.g., Arizona, OSU in the 2nds half, etc. With as much talent as we have at d-line (at least before Mathis went down), linebacker, and secondary, why are we better at stopping the run? Is all Psalm’ fault? Is it scheme- e.g., we give up yards between the 20’s but not the big pass play? Is the sample pool just lousy and a lot of the rushing yards have come in the 2nd half against our 2’s and 3’s (excluding Arizona?).
My attention span is above average and would love to hear some good, long winded analysis. I suspect it will get covered on the TSIO Pod vis-à-vis Utah and will be sure to tune in…you can count me as listener number 9.
Comments
@Tequilla we have found your soulmate
But GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE anyway!
I think you have to separate the stats for garbage time out of the picture ... it matters in getting our young players experience but that really is it
Glad to hear that you enjoy the TSIO podcast ... Pepsi will be thrilled that we have our 9th listener
I think if we get to 10 listeners we get a free meal at McDonald's or some shit.
This is a really good questions though, we'll talk about it on the pod I am sure.
Also, your screen name and avatar is actually good, really solid first effort, welcome!
The run defense has been good to great in all but two scenarios - against a running QB they were clearly unprepared for in the desert and in the second half of a game they were ahead 31-0 at halftime. No one has lined up and run it down this defense's throat when they needed to get a stop except for the first half at Arizona and a couple scrambles in the second half of the same game. That's not nearly enough of a sample for me to be concerned about the run defense.
I guarantee you Utah's not watching film of this defense saying "this run defense isn't anything special". They're wracking their brains trying to figure out how they can generate a run game against them while the game is still in doubt with a QB who isn't a threat.
No one else has figured that out yet. Perhaps Utah will be the first. I wouldn't bet on it though.
So to @Tequilla 's point about separate stats for garbage it does seem like our run defense in the 1st half of the 3 PAC blowouts has been stout. Stanford had 16 net rushing yards in the 1st half, 13 in the 2nd. Oregon ran for 73 net in the 1st half and 157 in the 2nd. OSU was 33 and 144 respectively. I guess it’s fair to say then Arizona and garbage time rushing yards given up are dragging down our numbers a bit. Ok – I feel about bit better now. I just hope we can put Utah away but halftime or early in the 3rd.