Chris "Belt To" Ash - Defensive Coordinator

[GATTACA!]

Mills and Cross weren’t up to the level of player we need in the interior and this current group is a step down even from that. We’ve never been able to fill our defensive line with SEC caliber talent. I know it’s a meme around here but we seriously need to address that position group.

 

[Hautian Domer]

We have an undersized speed based DL. I think the field conditions hurt that a bit. He also accounted for Toney in the second half which was hurting us. Hard to prepare for a true freshman like that with no film. I didn’t think he called as poor a game as many. If the blitzes aren’t getting home he’s going to have to get creative.

That zone / playing off coverage was awful. Beck dinked it and dunked it all over with little to no pressure.

The rushing defense was pretty good.

The defense played off, wasn’t attacking,
and wasn’t aggressive.

For someone that’s a stickler for fundamentals and rugby-tackling, our “tackling” or whatever you call it was horrendous.

 

[Old Man Mike]

I'm in the middle of this debate. Our defense was generally OK --- just look at the score (especially if minus that terrible non-aggressive play by Shuler, like he went into a brain seizure instead of exploding.) But it "didn't look the same" at almost any time. There was a dynamic "lightning" and power about almost every down last year. I almost never saw any of that. Totally opponent caused? I can't believe that.

Another little chilling moment for me: Freeman is walking off at halftime, and, as usual, the sideline reporter asks him questions. To the one about Beck, he says: If we can't get pressure with rushing four, we're in trouble. ............OK. Lots of possible mental responses to this. One which I had (maybe insane) was: I don't have Golden to figure out how to effectively blitz these guys.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

That zone / playing off coverage was awful. Beck dinked it and dunked it all over with little to no pressure.

The rushing defense was pretty good.

The defense played off, wasn’t attacking,
and wasn’t aggressive.

For someone that’s a stickler for fundamentals and rugby-tackling, our “tackling” or whatever you call it was horrendous.

Thought he adjusted at the half and took out Toney who was killing us. I will agree I was annoyed with some of the soft zone concepts after what were used to after Golden. First game under wet conditions. I have a feeling it will get better.

 

[BabyIrish]

I'm in the middle of this debate. Our defense was generally OK --- just look at the score (especially if minus that terrible non-aggressive play by Shuler, like he went into a brain seizure instead of exploding.) But it "didn't look the same" at almost any time. There was a dynamic "lightning" and power about almost every down last year. I almost never saw any of that. Totally opponent caused? I can't believe that.

Another little chilling moment for me: Freeman is walking off at halftime, and, as usual, the sideline reporter asks him questions. To the one about Beck, he says: If we can't get pressure with rushing four, we're in trouble. ............OK. Lots of possible mental responses to this. One which I had (maybe insane) was: I don't have Golden to figure out how to effectively blitz these guys.

It was concerning. We looked a step slower and certainly not as punishing minus Shuler and Bowen when they could tee off. We’ll see if it’s a trend or a one off.

 

[ozzman]

I think one of the reasons we looked slower was the guys weren't ready at the time of the snap. I saw a bunch of plays where we were shifting or making hand gestures while the play went off. It looked like a lot of confusion. I'm not sure if it's a new defense thing or new green player leadership not getting people lined up right. Hopefully it gets better and things get figured out.

 

[Hautian Domer]

I’m no football expert, but does anyone know why we played the soft zone? Generally, when you have an elite secondary, you play man coverage and get after the QB. Was it the wet field? Was it because we weren’t generating any pressure on Beck? No one can play man coverage forever, meaning, they’re bound to get open at some point.

 

[IrishLax]

We blitzed, they just didn’t get pressure from it. But we blitzed.

PFF has us blitzing on 13/32 passes. Generated 2 pressures. 0 sacks.

Also did a decent amount of sim pressures.

Would y’all of wanted to blitz more knowing it wasn’t really helping?

Their OL was better, it was that simple most of the night

How was it not helping?



The entire book on Beck was that if you create havoc he will miss and make mistakes.

 

[MacIrish75]

How was it not helping?



The entire book on Beck was that if you create havoc he will miss and make mistakes.

It was the optics. Dawson literally killed us with his gameplan. Every time Beck perceived pressure, that ball was out quick. They layered routes extremely well. Their coordinators were awesome last night. Ours weren’t. Checkmate.

 

[Dale]

How was it not helping?



The entire book on Beck was that if you create havoc he will miss and make mistakes.

Both touchdowns were also against the blitz. Risk. Reward. This tweet leaves out a rather big part. I said in another thread the blitz led to more incompletions but let’s not pretend at any point blitz or not Beck looked rattled. Could he have thrown an INT sure? He also could have torched us. He threw the ball deeper when he was blitzed. The QB I saw, likely would have torched us at some point given the opportunity.

 

[sfk324]

Not sure if it has been mentioned and I don't feel like scrolling back, but there were a good number of times in the first half where the defense looked like they didn't know who was supposed to be where and who had what assignment. I didn't notice it in the second half, but that's not great coming out of the locker room in game one.

 

[IrishLax]

Both touchdowns were also against the blitz. Risk. Reward. This tweet leaves out a rather big part. I said in another thread the blitz led to more incompletions but let’s not pretend at any point blitz or not Beck looked rattled.

Right and wouldn't you say that the one "should have" been a pick and is exactly the kind of risky throw we wanted to force Beck to make?

We *know* that blitz happy man coverage works with this group, I think that's why people are wary of us blitzing 10%-20% less like we saw last night.

 

[IrishLax]

Not sure if it has been mentioned and I don't feel like scrolling back, but there were a good number of times in the first half where the defense looked like they didn't know who was supposed to be where and who had what assignment. I didn't notice it in the second half, but that's not great coming out of the locker room in game one.

Wouldn't be surprising. No Kiser, no Watts, new defense.

 

[FWIrish4]

Right and wouldn't you say that the one "should have" been a pick and is exactly the kind of risky throw we wanted to force Beck to make?

We *know* that blitz happy man coverage works with this group, I think that's why people are wary of us blitzing 10%-20% less like we saw last night.

I’ll go a step further that both touchdown throws should have been picks. Hobbs was a half step late on the first one because he had his eyes in the backfield instead of being in phase.

Beck threw that ball fading left and somewhat off his back foot. It was underthrown and the receiver made a great adjustment, but that type of ball should have at least being knocked down by the D.

 

[Dale]

Right and wouldn't you say that the one "should have" been a pick and is exactly the kind of risky throw we wanted to force Beck to make?

We *know* that blitz happy man coverage works with this group, I think that's why people are wary of us blitzing 10%-20% less like we saw last night.

Could have! Could have also doubled that TD total. Eyeball test to me showed a QB fully comfortable attacking us no matter the look.

I thinks it’s also not fair to compare it to the season results when we faced like 5 bottom 25 offenses. We blitzed 9 times versus OSU. 13 versus PSU.

People are comparing Chris Ash decisions against Miami versus 3 whole years of Golden and not versus comparable situations.

 

[Rocketman84]

Mills and Cross weren’t up to the level of player we need in the interior and this current group is a step down even from that. We’ve never been able to fill our defensive line with SEC caliber talent. I know it’s a meme around here but we seriously need to address that position group.

If we had Mills and Cross last night we win the game period!

 

[Rocketman84]

How was it not helping?



The entire book on Beck was that if you create havoc he will miss and make mistakes.

14 points off two "up for grab" passes that could've easily went the other way.

 

[GATTACA!]

If we had Mills and Cross last night we win the game period!

Sure, maybe. My point stands though. Mills was a 5th round pick and Cross was an UDFA. When is the last time we produced a premier DL prospect? Georgia has 4 drafted per season. As does Bama. OSU and others aren’t far behind.

 

[NDFAN2008]

Golden faced one two teams with as good of an offense as Ash did last night and that was Ohio State last year and Maybe UL in 2023 that killed us. We won’t play a team the rest of the way as good offensively as Miami. Miami might be the second best offensive team in the nation this year.

 

[NDFAN2008]

At the end of the day we need to get bigger on the interior DL. Washington needs to earn his keep and start developing the DTs. Maybe burgess moves inside next year he’s 6’4 275 now. Sevalino 6’2 340, Dixon 6’2 324, mukam 6’3 305, Vernon 6’6 305, 2 out of these 4 need to provide some depth this year and be big time contributors next year

 

[NorthDakota]

Sure, maybe. My point stands though. Mills was a 5th round pick and Cross was an UDFA. When is the last time we produced a premier DL prospect? Georgia has 4 drafted per season. As does Bama. OSU and others aren’t far behind.

It's been ages since we've had a great defensive lineman

 

[irishff1014]

If we had Mills and Cross last night we win the game period!

If we had Golden we win.

 

[Grahambo]

Could have! Could have also doubled that TD total. Eyeball test to me showed a QB fully comfortable attacking us no matter the look.

I thinks it’s also not fair to compare it to the season results when we faced like 5 bottom 25 offenses. We blitzed 9 times versus OSU. 13 versus PSU.

People are comparing Chris Ash decisions against Miami versus 3 whole years of Golden and not versus comparable situations.

Beck was at Georgia for 4-5 years with 2 years as a starter so it’s not surprising he was comfortable regardless the look. I don’t think Ash had a bad gameplan, to be honest. I would assume he wasn’t accounting for his guys to be on the field an extra 7 minutes and even then, held Miami to 5 straight 3 & outs while only allowing 3 points off two turnovers?

And the two touchdowns were against an inexperienced Hobbs and a terrific one handed catch. (I also don’t think Hobbs did too terribly on the play. I think the WR made a great decision to cut his route off and come back to the ball.)

I really think last night came down to a few coin flips not landing our way. It happens.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

At the end of the day we need to get bigger on the interior DL. Washington needs to earn his keep and start developing the DTs. Maybe burgess moves inside next year he’s 6’4 275 now. Sevalino 6’2 340, Dixon 6’2 324, mukam 6’3 305, Vernon 6’6 305, 2 out of these 4 need to provide some depth this year and be big time contributors next year

For once, you are absolutely correct. We need bigger and stronger bodies in the interior.

 

[Rocketman84]

If we had Golden we win.

Kid is still in HS, he won't be a starter for us for at least 2 years minimum.

Unless you mean Al? 🤔

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Kid is still in HS, he won't be a starter for us for at least 2 years minimum.

Unless you mean Al? 🤔

He is referring to Al, not Dallas.

 

[NDFAN2008]

For once, you are absolutely correct. We need bigger and stronger bodies in the interior.

The only guy with any experience we return inside next year is Hinish who should be the 5th option on a championship level defense. We knew it was a concern coming into this season and they went out and got Dawson who’s gonna be good against the majority of teams we face and Hughes who I doubt plays much this year. This is a scary concern. LSU went and got Bernard Goodwin whose their starting NT he’s under sized and their defense made Clemson look bad. So he can’t be a size thing. Idk what the issue is but something needs to change

 

[irishff1014]

Kid is still in HS, he won't be a starter for us for at least 2 years minimum.

Unless you mean Al? 🤔

Yes Al

 

[jprue24]

Does anyone know what zone(s) we went into (I'm not talking the prevent)... ?

 

[Terry Jillery]

I’m very concerned this thread title will read “Chris Ass - Defensive Coordinator”, before the season ends.