Those complaining about the defense...

[Irish Envy]

Here is your chance to show your stuff.

For those of you that are complaining about the Notre Dame defense, please give a summary of what you'd do to improve the defense as it stands now. Please be specific and give detail. Give us some solutions to the problem.

 

[tommy]

honestly i think nd is getting teams best shot every week and are doing a stand up job are we a #1 or 2 team . on paper probably not but we know how to win and this year i think we could beat any one no one is dominate

 

[tedwick]

lol FIRE MINTER!!!

(note sarcasm)

 

[NDOM]

Here is your chance to show your stuff.

For those of you that are complaining about the Notre Dame defense, please give a summary of what you'd do to improve the defense as it stands now. Please be specific and give detail. Give us some solutions to the problem.

I really dont like that Notre Dame defense this year but also we have to take into consideration that as soon as we have more "Weis and Minter" players I think things will change (Hopefully) I have never really liked Rick Minter but he really hasnt been that bad. Too many big plays happen and too many yards yielded in games but its a bend but dont break defense and as long as the offense keeps putting up good numbers we shouldnt have any problems. I would however like to see the defense be a bit more aggressive in their blitzing packages.

 

[nayers]

Here is your chance to show your stuff.

For those of you that are complaining about the Notre Dame defense, please give a summary of what you'd do to improve the defense as it stands now. Please be specific and give detail. Give us some solutions to the problem.

Not that i am complaining, but i do wish we would use Travis Thomas and Mo Crum blitz up the middle more...I would like to see a more aggressive blitzing D in general

 

[tommy]

cant fire any one if these coachs did what they ahve done at any other school they would already have statues for them

 

[Freeman Ara]

Here is your chance to show your stuff.

For those of you that are complaining about the Notre Dame defense, please give a summary of what you'd do to improve the defense as it stands now. Please be specific and give detail. Give us some solutions to the problem.

Personally, I don't think its really a scheme problem as much as talent problem. Most of this will be solved with recruiting( I hope). There have been instances where I have doubted some play calling by the coaches (how do you not roll safeties over the top of Manningham in the Michigan game). But overall I just think its a lack of overall defensive talent. Thanks Ty!!!!!!!!!!

 

[marv81s]

I didn't get to see the game today, but my only bitch on our D, tackling. Thats it. I don't care how many yards they give up, as long as the other team doesn't score.

 

[tommy]

it was a wierd game

 

[blmarek]

In my opinion our pass defense would be better off with Herring and Mcarthy?/Bruton at the safety positions. I would then put Zibby at corner opposite Richardson. It think he may be better at corner if he knows his main responsibility is to stop the pass and cover the guy in front of him. I would then move Duke to Apache/Linebacker and rotate him in with T. Thomas. I may be crazy but I think Lambert is a serious problem at corner. When he's bad, he's terrible and gives up too many big plays. It seems his guy is always open, sometimes Lambert is not even on the screen on 3rd and 5 when the receiver runs a 7 yard route for example. And I realize alot of the big plays that are given up are due to poor safety play as well. Just my thoughts.

 

[Freeman Ara]

it was a wierd game

What made it weird? I took a nap after the Freeman touchdown. I saw that AF put up some, what I assumed, were garbage time TD's.

 

[tedwick]

Not that i am complaining, but i do wish we would use Travis Thomas and Mo Crum blitz up the middle more...I would like to see a more aggressive blitzing D in general

the problem is we've faced a bunch of teams that have very good outside speed and quick quarterbacks such as navy, af, msu, psu, gtech, etc. if you get caught blitzing and they pick it up or scramble out of it, you're toast. against a more "pro" style team, i can see more blitzing (see the game against UofM. big plays were a problem, but the defense in general was rather good, especially against the run in the second half. a lot of that was from an agressive defense.)

 

[tommy]

i dont nkow we just scored so quick on o and they had the ball alot but didnt score

 

[Freeman Ara]

the problem is we've faced a bunch of teams that have very good outside speed and quick quarterbacks such as navy, af, msu, psu, gtech, etc. if you get caught blitzing and they pick it up or scramble out of it, you're toast. against a more "pro" style team, i can see more blitzing (see the game against UofM. big plays were a problem, but the defense in general was rather good, especially against the run in the second half. a lot of that was from an agressive defense.)

The only problem with saying the defense was good in the second half against Mishitigan was we were already down by 4 td's and they were pretty content to just go 3 and out and punt. That and Manningham got hurt so they didn't have their deep threat in the second half, they easly could have put up 60 on us that day.

 

[polishdomer]

The only problem with saying the defense was good in the second half against Mishitigan was we were already down by 4 td's and they were pretty content to just go 3 and out and punt. That and Manningham got hurt so they didn't have their deep threat in the second half, they easly could have put up 60 on us that day.

The biggest problem is the lack of a push up the middle...the corners cannot cover for that long, and I do believe the lack of true LBs is hurting us on 3rd downs...

I personally believe that Zibby would make a much better LB than DB...he was a no-show today...Nudkwe had a great game...and I agree with the previous poster that for his great plays, Lambert is very inconsistent in his coverage skills. Our weakness at LB (Crum is not a great LB at all guys) is definitely being exploited, as was evidenced by some of the option teams that we have faced so far.

I would bring in Zibby to LB, since run-stopping seems to be his best skill, and put in Bruton to replace him at Safety. Since we have inconsistency at LB, I would introduce a 5-2-4 scheme to place some pressure on the QB...

 

[Irish Envy]

The biggest problem is the lack of a push up the middle...the corners cannot cover for that long, and I do believe the lack of true LBs is hurting us on 3rd downs...

I personally believe that Zibby would make a much better LB than DB...he was a no-show today...Nudkwe had a great game...and I agree with the previous poster that for his great plays, Lambert is very inconsistent in his coverage skills. Our weakness at LB (Crum is not a great LB at all guys) is definitely being exploited, as was evidenced by some of the option teams that we have faced so far.

I would bring in Zibby to LB, since run-stopping seems to be his best skill, and put in Bruton to replace him at Safety. Since we have inconsistency at LB, I would introduce a 5-2-4 scheme to place some pressure on the QB...

Zibby was a no show? Statistically speaking maybe, but this couldn't be father from the truth. Zibby's job against option offenses is to mirror the pitchman, in this case, the Air Force's QB. He played this spot against Navy and it was no different today. Who do you think was setting up Ndukwe for all of those tackles? Zibby forced the pitch and Ndukwe was there to make the stop.

 

[Irish Envy]

In my opinion our pass defense would be better off with Herring and Mcarthy?/Bruton at the safety positions. I would then put Zibby at corner opposite Richardson. It think he may be better at corner if he knows his main responsibility is to stop the pass and cover the guy in front of him. I would then move Duke to Apache/Linebacker and rotate him in with T. Thomas. I may be crazy but I think Lambert is a serious problem at corner. When he's bad, he's terrible and gives up too many big plays. It seems his guy is always open, sometimes Lambert is not even on the screen on 3rd and 5 when the receiver runs a 7 yard route for example. And I realize alot of the big plays that are given up are due to poor safety play as well. Just my thoughts.

Sorry, you lost me at McCarthy.

 

[Freeman Ara]

In my opinion our pass defense would be better off with Herring and Mcarthy?/Bruton at the safety positions. I would then put Zibby at corner opposite Richardson. It think he may be better at corner if he knows his main responsibility is to stop the pass and cover the guy in front of him. I would then move Duke to Apache/Linebacker and rotate him in with T. Thomas. I may be crazy but I think Lambert is a serious problem at corner. When he's bad, he's terrible and gives up too many big plays. It seems his guy is always open, sometimes Lambert is not even on the screen on 3rd and 5 when the receiver runs a 7 yard route for example. And I realize alot of the big plays that are given up are due to poor safety play as well. Just my thoughts.

Ok first who is McCarthy? Second their is no way you put Zibby out at corner, I haven't seen Zibby cover a guy well at safety much less corner. If anyone gets moved to LB it would be Zibby, thats basically what he plays now anyway. Ndukwe is a pretty good ball hawk at times and I don't think you move him to LB, we are small enough there as it is. Personally I would like to see Ambrose Wooden back as the corner and Lambert as the nickel back, Ambrose atleast has the speed and some actual cover skills to be put out on an island. As far as the big plays go, yeah the safeties look into the back field way to much and always bite on the play action plus they usually have Zibby within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage to help on run support, so he just seems to always be a step or two late on deep passes. If we could stop the run with the front sevem alone and let our safeties play deeper over the top this would help against the big plays, but we are literally very thin at LB so they have to have safety help.

 

[lattedatte]

SVO, good thread, really there isn't much they can do, especially from a personnel persopective... I would say the one thing we could do is become unconventional. I would blitz on every single down. Sure that puts our secondary on an island but what that does do is make our defense simpler and takes thinking out of the question. Just tell the guys to go out have fun and make plays. Will we give up big plays, sure, but hopefully it will cause more turnovers. With more turnovers, that means our offense will get more posessions and that is truly our asset. This puts the focus on what we do well.

 

[SuperBowlIVBaby]

By the way, NDBCS, if you're worried about the size of our linebackers, Duke is actually bigger than Zib.

 

[blmarek]

Ok first who is McCarthy? Second their is no way you put Zibby out at corner, I haven't seen Zibby cover a guy well at safety much less corner. If anyone gets moved to LB it would be Zibby, thats basically what he plays now anyway. Ndukwe is a pretty good ball hawk at times and I don't think you move him to LB, we are small enough there as it is. Personally I would like to see Ambrose Wooden back as the corner and Lambert as the nickel back, Ambrose atleast has the speed and some actual cover skills to be put out on an island. As far as the big plays go, yeah the safeties look into the back field way to much and always bite on the play action plus they usually have Zibby within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage to help on run support, so he just seems to always be a step or two late on deep passes. If we could stop the run with the front sevem alone and let our safeties play deeper over the top this would help against the big plays, but we are literally very thin at LB so they have to have safety help.

#28 Kyle McCarthy - SO Safety
Was said to have had a solid camp and is currently second string safety along with Bruton. He has looked decent in mop up duty.
Also the problem with Zibby at safety is he has too many responsibilities. He is often out of position because he is too worried about stopping the run. Maybe if he were moved to corner the coaches could beat in his head to only worry about the guy directly in front of him.

 

[Freeman Ara]

#28 Kyle McCarthy - SO Safety
Was said to have had a solid camp and is currently second string safety along with Bruton. He has looked decent in mop up duty.
Also the problem with Zibby at safety is he has too many responsibilities. He is often out of position because he is too worried about stopping the run. Maybe if he were moved to corner the coaches could beat in his head to only worry about the guy directly in front of him.

Yeah, I think we are both using the same feeling about Zibby for different sides of the argument. Bruton looked pretty good at S when he filled in for Zibby when he was hurt. I think you move Zibby to LB full time and let Ndukwe and Bruton play deeper off the ball. I think Z is bigger and would easily adapt to playing TT position which would open up more depth at running back. That way Zibby can play the short routes and help stop the run. Zibby just doesn't have cover skills to play corner.

 

[Famboo28]

I think the problem of our defense doesn't lie in the fact that we don't have enough talent or in the defensive scheme itself, but rather we have some players on our defense who are trying to do more than their jobs. Successful defenses are the ones where each man on the field does his specific job. Particularly with our two safeties, I believe that they don't trust our front 7 enough, so they feel obligated to do more than they're assigned to do. This obligation causes them to play run first instead of playing pass first, thus created a HUGE weakness in our secondary. If our defense is going to be playing better, they need to build better trust/communication amongst themselves.

 

[irish4life99]

I'm not a DC by any means. But this is my take so far this season. So far it looks like the defense is thinking too much rather than reacting to the ball. I've seen really poor tackeling and bad angles. I'm still waiting for the "Nasty" in this defense. This "bend but don't break" mentality on defense dosen't seem to be working IMO.

Sure we cannot coach speed or physical size, but we then need to create some schemes to help. We've been getting rocked in the cover 2. I would like to call a few more agressive plays. Take some chances and get some big plays. Create some attitude on this defense.

If you ever watch good defenses the guy are all hawking the ball. Does it seems our players are kind of standing around in a daze at times or is it just me?

 

[Ant4NDIrish]

I didn't get to see the game today, but my only bitch on our D, tackling. Thats it. I don't care how many yards they give up, as long as the other team doesn't score.

I totally agree with you that tackling is the biggest problem. I watched the game yesterday and the tackling was much better. They really had no big plays, and big plays usually stem from poor tackling. Ndukwe had something like 21 tackles, he was all over the field. Overall I thought the defense played OK. What people fail to realize is that against these option teams they are going to get yards against about everyone because most of these kids have not gone against the triple option. You have to read your keys and play fundamentally sound and for the most part yesterday we did. Tenn Vols has great speed on defense and they left scratching their heads when they played AF.

 

[brecht]

i get tired of those who chalk every problem up to personnel. Props to Famboo28 for his comments, because good defenses are COACHED well. granted, high-end talent will make a well-coached D dominant, but with the personnel we have we should be playing better than we are. I think Lambert's done a good job. If i remember correctly from the AF game, the biggest pass plays were committed when Wooden was playing corner. As for travis thomas, HE'S NOT A LINEBACKER! I think he's played very well this year and is a welcome addition to the defense, but I'd like to Minter utilize Travis thomas like a third safety/linebacker hybrid (is that what a rover is?). use him like a linebacker on certain plays, and then let he and zibby play off each other on others, sometimes with one covering pass first and other times covering run first. To boot, you could also play two middle linebackers along with thomas to help cover the run. Crum and toryan smith playing at the same time. i've been impressed by smith's physical play so far (anyone else see that hit in the North Car. game when he flattened that 250 lb fullback up the middle?), but realize he's not mentally ready to command a defense as a MLB should.

 

[brecht]

i also want to say that I think Lambert's been picked on by the refs as of late. the last two pass interference calls on him were marginal at best (one during AF and the other during UCLA i think, but i can't remember for sure).

 

[irish4life99]

i also want to say that I think Lambert's been picked on by the refs as of late. the last two pass interference calls on him were marginal at best (one during AF and the other during UCLA i think, but i can't remember for sure).

That last pass interference call on Lambert is because he didn't turn his head to make a play on the ball. Had he turned, then made contact with the reciever the ref would have never called it. It's a rookie mistake that he makes over, and over, and over again.

 

[irish4life99]

i get tired of those who chalk every problem up to personnel. Props to Famboo28 for his comments, because good defenses are COACHED well. granted, high-end talent will make a well-coached D dominant, but with the personnel we have we should be playing better than we are. I think Lambert's done a good job. If i remember correctly from the AF game, the biggest pass plays were committed when Wooden was playing corner. As for travis thomas, HE'S NOT A LINEBACKER! I think he's played very well this year and is a welcome addition to the defense, but I'd like to Minter utilize Travis thomas like a third safety/linebacker hybrid (is that what a rover is?). use him like a linebacker on certain plays, and then let he and zibby play off each other on others, sometimes with one covering pass first and other times covering run first. To boot, you could also play two middle linebackers along with thomas to help cover the run. Crum and toryan smith playing at the same time. i've been impressed by smith's physical play so far (anyone else see that hit in the North Car. game when he flattened that 250 lb fullback up the middle?), but realize he's not mentally ready to command a defense as a MLB should.

Let's just ask this question. Vanderbelt and Conneticut are both ranked higher in total D above ND. Do you think there talent level is better than ND's on defense? Sure the talent level may be lacking but it's better than what were playing at. That only leaves one reason and it would be the coaching schemes. After two years of this I'm getting a bit tired. When do we stop blaming Ty and start putting it on the current coaches?

 

[blmarek]

It's not just that Lambert is giving up big plays weekly but as I mentioned on another thread, its seems several plays he just stands there and lets the WR catch the ball for a first down and then does a piss poor job of trying to tackle him. There were a number of times during yesterdays game where AF would be in a 3rd and 5 situation and Lambert's guy would run an 8 yard route and Lambert was nowhere on the screen until the pass was caught. The only time these situations weren't converted is when the QB fired the ball 4ft. over the receivers head. I have said time and time again he is going to cost us against USC with a decent QB.