You have your stats, fine. I have whatever is readily available (Yard against, points against, rankings based on that). You argue those are inaccurate. Fine. I don;t have time to analyse and review yours.
Since you clearly enjoy analyzing and discussing college football, I'd strongly suggest you take a look at the rankings I'm referencing. The S&P is a play-by-play measure of production, and the FEI is a drive-based measure of efficiency. The F/+ combines both rankings.
I find them particularly useful because they're opponent-adjusted. Vanilla statistics that don't account for strength of schedule can obviously be very misleading, and these rankings don't have that problem.
I look at every game, rewatch those that I can and that don;t **** me off too much, and my opinion also comes from what I watch. We NEVER stopped AF, they either scored or stopped themselves.
That was by design. Diaco took away the deep ball and the easy yards up the middle, effectively daring Air Force to put together a long mistake-free drive with short gains. Most of the time, they couldn't do it. You saw drives ending in TOs and penalties and thought it was AF shooting itself in the foot, which it was to some extent. But it was also ND's gameplan.
Effective defensive schemes don't have to be super aggressive, with lots of TFLs and INTs. All three of our losses this year have come against teams using the "bend don't break" philosophy.
We did, in fact, stop SC several times. Our inability to stop their run is what killed us, and given our past success at stuffing pro-style rushing attacks (USC 2010, MSU 2011, etc.) I'm more inclined to chalk that up to key injuries on our DL than Diaco's scheme.
Our DLS are the same as last year, where we improved as the year advanced even though we lost Ian. Now we lose 1 (not two, unless you assume KLM was hurt from the start) DL starter and we stink?
EJ didn't play at all, and Cwynar didn't play well. Whether Cwynar's play was affected by Lynch, I don't know. But USC ran right at Lynch repeatedly, and unsurprisingly, Lynch didn't have the strength, endurance, or discipline to stop USC's rush. KLM limped off before USC's final drive where they ran the ball repeatedly for big gains; so yes, a large chunk of USC's rushing yardage came with both of our starting DEs out of the game. Is that Diaco's fault?
What about our vaunted Froshes, what about Cwynar, is the drop off that steep in your mind?
Cwynar's poor play against USC is a concern; I suspect Lynch's weakness against the rush affected Cwynar's effectiveness, but I don't know for sure.
Anyone who expected Tuitt and Lynch to immediately be run-stuffing monsters like EJ and KLM doesn't know much about the 3-4 and two-gap responsibility.
So yeah, based on readily available ino and my own two eyes, I base my opinion that I believe our D is too conservative/reactionary given our talent level and I state that this strategy is counterproductive, meaning I believe we have a good D IN SPITE of this strategy because of our talent level. I also believe that a defensive strategy that is too conservative can undermine the "killer instinct" that is required to truly form an "elite" defense, ie, one that challenges receivers, anticipates and closes in rapidly on the ball carrier and attacks the QB.
Which brings us back to my earlier point. You apparently feel like an aggressive 4-3 with CBs in press coverage is the only way to play "elite" defense, and you're simply wrong. That's not how a 3-4 is designed to work, yet lots of top NFL and CFB teams use it to great effect.
You accuse me of hand waving, I could accuse you of hiding behind your stats. Potato PoTAHto.
Hand-waving means (among other things) making an argument with vague generalities instead of specific examples/ evidence. I pointed to objective statistics that support my position and contradict yours. I'm not sure how you think those two things are equivalent.
My OPINION is that we should be better than this.
You share that opinion with every reactionary and delusional Luddite over at NDNation who believes that we've currently got national championship talent languishing on the roster, if only that one magical coach would come to ND and bring us back to single-wing, leather helmets, and good ole-fashioned power footbaw. This crowd has been a loud and obnoxious minority for at least 20 years.
They don't understand the depths to which ND's program has sunk during that period. Kelly's in the midst of a major rebuilding project. We won't know if he's got what it takes until 2013-2014 probably.
I never once called for a coach's head, but I do now have doubts about Diaco's strategy and ability to make adjustments during a game.
IIRC, ND's defense hasn't given up a 3rd quarter TD all season.
Man, Diaco really sucks at making adjustments. With the exception of Navy in 2010, there hasn't been a single Xs and Os loss during Kelly's tenure.
If such talk is worthy of labeling me a NDNAtion candidate and reason to drive me out, then I truly feel bad for this forum if people aren't allowed to freely express themselves and disagree.
Whether you'd be better suited at NDNation is yet to be seen. I've presented you with arguments and evidence that: (1) Kelly's staff has improved this team dramatically (especially Diaco's defense); (2) ND's defense is actually much better than you think it is; and (3) Diaco's hybrid 3-4 is a perfectly valid defensive scheme.
Now, you can continue to insist on the inadequacies of Diaco's scheme, that the players can do no wrong, and that the coaching staff is ultimately to blame whenever the team falls short of your lofty expectations, in which case you'll do much better over at NDNation.
Or you can adjust your expectations, embrace the statistical evidence, and enjoy watching this program return to glory.
