I still believe in the Manny model: "Defense wins games; offense determines by how much."
Last year our model was: "If our offense can score 40, we might win."
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I still believe in the Manny model: "Defense wins games; offense determines by how much."
Last year our model was: "If our offense can score 40, we might win."
Defense played well enough for us to win at Arkansas and USM. Both losses were on the offense and special teams.
Against UNT our defense held them to a FG in the second half.
The defense held UTEP to 7 while our offense only scored 28.
The defense also held Middle to 7 pts in the first half while our offense could only get 20. Our offense was not good in that overall game and special teams were bad as well.
My point is that our offense was certainly our strength, but our defense was good in 5 games (6 if you include Middle). Special teams putting them in a hole is rarely discussed after the fact.
A couple of complaints / counter arguments.
1. Our defense gave up 26 first downs, 425 yards, and 39 points to USM. They had the #10 pass defense in the nation, so giving up that much is not acceptable for a win.
2. UTEP moved the ball well on our defense and kept our offense off the field. We scored 4 TDs in 8 possessions, which is good. More stops by our defense would have given us more possessions to score. (They actually out-gained us 415-387 in total yards... we just kept them from scoring).
Well then, since Baker is back, what should we, as fans realistically expect.
Is the defensive talent for 2017 going to be better, worse or the same?
What improvements, from a coaching standpoint, are we looking for?
What type of statistical goals would show realistic improvements?
What exactly, will show us that Baker and the defensive coaching staff is doing a better job?
Assuming the same results, how long until the fans are justified in demanding coaching changes?
If improvements are obvious, are we adult enough to give credit where it is due?
Oh....Tech fans can accept REALITY.....as long as we get a minimum of 8 or 9 wins. And unfortunately, this is our defensive reality:
By almost any measurement, that's a bottom 10% performance. And a bottom 10% performance gets you fired anywhere but apparently where Clyde works.Here are some 2016 stats from the NCAA site:
3rd down conversion % defense - ranked 114 out of 128
Passing yards per game defense - ranked 116 out of 128
Red zone defense - ranked 112 out of 128
Scoring defense - ranked 97 out of 128
Passing efficiency defense - ranked 117 out of 128
http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/f...ent/team/40/p3
You can deflect all day long but facts are facts.
The question is, why won't Holtz do something about it? The likelihood of Baker improving our defense is very minimal. Simply put, he's just not good enough. Baker has already been our DC for 2 years, and so far has shown no propensity to "get it". He doesn't seem to understand the relationship between defensive calls (blitz's, pass rushes, nickle packages, etc..) vs the offenses' down and distance.
For example, if Tech calls a blitz on 3rd and 6, Baker still drops his DB's back 10-15 yards into a "safety" zone, preferring to keep any passes in front of his DB's. Problem is, this "cushion" gives up the short "slant pattern" --a high percentage, easy pitch and catch pass play-- which ironically, is the best way for the QB to beat the blitz. Instead of putting his DB's on or near the line of scrimmage to limit the QB's options, Baker seems to give no consideration to the fact that if the blitz team does their job, the QB shouldn't have time to throw a deep ball anyway. So in the end, Baker automatically gives away the easy first down in that situation again and again, preferring to hope that the receiver just drops the ball. It's the old "just keep it in front of you" defense. And its horrible. This is why so many teams rack up so many first downs again LA Tech, even if they lose the game. It's also how a team like LA Tech ends up with Bottom 10% statistics on defense.
This is exactly right. We play a lot of pass oriented teams and we have repeatedly allowed the opposing QB to get in a groove by giving them the underneath routes. But even when we played it safe we couldn't make the tackle or they were still able to find a wide open receiver 25 yards down the field. If they are going to get the big play anyway why not play press coverage and make the QB have to make a play instead of allowing them to play pitch and catch.
Who cares about THAT? Are you keeping score? I don't care whether Dawg80, or PD or you or anybody else ends up being "right" about Baker. Why on earth would YOU care about that? Sorry, but that's kind of demented. This isn't about holding fans accountable. We're just fans. We haven't been entrusted with the resources to put a winner on the field. We just want to see the team improve and win. If that means your predictions turn out to be better than ours 100% of the time, then so be it. If my team is winning 10 games a year, then I can live with that.
Besides, this fan base proved back in 2013-2014 that it could eat some crow, and change on a dime if it saw genuine improvement on the field from this coaching staff. And we did see it. LA Tech improved from 4-8 in 2013 to 9-5 and a bowl win over Illinois in 2014. And most everybody --myself included-- happily changed their opinion about Holtz in 1 year. The problem with Baker is, he's already had two years in the DC job, and he isn't showing any improvement.
When Trump says he is going to repeal Obamacare, he means it. When COYHCSH says he is going to retain Baker, he means it. No matter who many of you put on your squirell hats and march through the streets of Ruston, that won't change.